![]() ![]() The weather captured in music, with dazzling solos for the violin. Recording: Gens, Les Arts Florissants Christie. Archiv.Ī miniature operatic epic in song and dance, ending with the most famous lamentation in music. Suggested recording: Gabrieli Consort and Players McCreesh. Most, if not all, are also available for digital downloading.Īn energetic compendium of late Renaissance and early Baroque styles, performed in stereophonic formations. They go in and out of print quickly these days I have tried to choose those currently in print. But should a listener undertake to listen to it all, he or she would have a pretty good grasp of the sweep of Western music from the Renaissance on, a sense of who the important composers are and a strong sampling of the landmark works.Ī note on the suggested recordings. ![]() Undoubtedly, it is an imperfect list, as all such lists are. Also with an ear toward what is typical or emblematic of a particular composer’s style, to get to the nub. Also with an eye on a piece’s fame and presence in pop culture. But also in an attempt to span musical history from 1600 to 2000 in one fell swoop. So, how was the list chosen? By instinct, mostly. Just as there are books that, until recently at least, we can all assume are part of our common culture (“Huckleberry Finn,” “The Catcher in the Rye”) just as there are movies we think that every movie lover should have seen (“Casablanca,” “The Matrix”) so too are there musical pieces that we all would be better off having heard and experienced at least once in our lives. No, “50 classical pieces to hear before you die” is more of a list of pieces that it would be useful for all of us to know as a community, as a culture, as music lovers (of all stripes). The list that follows is not the same thing as the 50 greatest classical pieces ever, like a set of recordings available only in a TV offer, though every piece listed is indubitably great in some way. ![]()
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