Classical music

Long before I ever heard of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish and their amazing writer Tuomas Holopainen, my favourite Finnish composer was Jean Sibelius. Finlandia is probably his best known piece.

Some wonderful music has come from Scandinavia. From Finland's neighbour, Norway, came Edward Grieg.

One of my favourite pieces is from the Peer Gynt Suite No.1 Op46. Morning's Mood

Marcela Bovio is mostly known for her work in metal bands like Stream of Passion, Ayreon, and Mayan. However, she is a classically trained singer and uses that to great effect in her solo work (e.g. her album Through Your Eyes has her backed by a classical trio). And, occasionally, she does make forays into classical repertoire, like this performance of an aria by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell.

Into which category does a classical piece, played in a Rock style, by an orchestra fall?

Toccata and Fugue played by Vanessa Mae with the Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Vanessa was almost in a class by herself when she started. Now we've got plenty of violinists and other instrumentalists combining classical training and pop/rock backgrounds. Some don't even do much classical (e.g. Mia Asano).

Chinese-American cellist Tina Guo has spent a lot of her recent career working with film composer Hans Zimmer, playing on some of his soundtracks and also appearing live with his touring orchestra. She also does everything from metal to classical. Here she gives a nice performance of Elgar's "Salut d'Amour".

And a piece she co-wrote with Zimmer for the DC movies, Wonder Woman's theme. Since Tina is a bit of a wonder woman herself, it fits nicely.

In another thread, mention was made of Greg Lake as part of King Crimson. Well, here is Keith Emerson when a member of The Nice, with Sibelius' Karelia Suite.

Does orchestral music written by a rock musician for a rock album count as classical?

(Final track from All The Works of Nature Which Adorn the World, disc 2 of Nightwish album Human |: Nature)

Quote by Mendalla

Does orchestral music written by a rock musician for a rock album count as classical?

I was considering that very track myself. The Video for it is fantastic. Such high quality that it is almost 3D! However, although such t music will become classic in the future, I would say that it isn't in that category in the present.

On the other hand, The Golliwogs's Cakewalk by Claude Debussy is definitely Classical music. The stereo effect on this version is superb, so I recommend listening with headphones!

Quote by AnnaMayZing
However, although such t music will become classic in the future, I would say that it isn't in that category in the present.

LOL. Tell that to the streaming services. If it is orchestral or even vaguely operatic vocals (think Sarah Brightman or Three Tenors), it often gets socked into classical nowadays. Lines are very blurry. Legendary classical label Deutsche Grammophon released a live album of John Williams' film music (conducted by Williams himself) and that gets tagged classical due to who released it. If "All the Works..." had been released as a separate disc titled "Holopainen : Orchestral Suite No. 1 : All The Works..." rather than being part of Human : || : Nature, I can almost guarantee that someone would tag it "classical".

Voces8 is a vocal octet from England who have been putting out some fantastic work for a couple decades now. Founded by brothers Paul (formerly a bass-baritone but no longer sings, focussing on management of the group and its educational programs instead) and Barnaby (counter-tenor and music director) Smith, they sing repertoire from the Renaissance to the present, with the present including settings of popular music as well as contemporary choral works by composers like Eric Whitacre and Christopher Tin.

But since this is the classical thread, here's a couple of their performances of older works.

Some Bach

And a double motet by 16th century English composer William Byrd

The blonde soprano in these is Eleanor Cockerham who is an amazing singer in her own right. She left Voces8 a couple years ago but comes back from time to time, esp. when they gather with their associated groups and students to form larger choirs.

Quote by Mendalla

LOL. Tell that to the streaming services. If it is orchestral or even vaguely operatic vocals (think Sarah Brightman or Three Tenors), it often gets socked into classical nowadays. Lines are very blurry. Legendary classical label Deutsche Grammophon released a live album of John Williams' film music (conducted by Williams himself) and that gets tagged classical due to who released it. If "All the Works..." had been released as a separate disc titled "Holopainen : Orchestral Suite No. 1 : All The Works..." rather than being part of Human : || : Nature, I can almost guarantee that someone would tag it "classical".

I am more than happy to go with that. We have a national radio station called Classic FM. They too include many film scores and other pieces that can't really be classed as strictly Classical. Maybe they should be called Orchestral FM? But then I suppose not all Classical music is necessarily orchestral...

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I am more than happy to go with that. We have a national radio station called Classic FM. They too include many film scores and other pieces that can't really be classed as strictly Classical. Maybe they should be called Orchestral FM? But then I suppose not all Classical music is necessarily orchestral...

Of course, if you're going to get really strict, Classical is just the music between Baroque and Romantic, so Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven, Salieri, etc. 😉

Learned today that Sir Andrew Davis, a brilliant conductor who led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975-88, has died after 2 year struggle with leukemia. I saw him conduct the orchestra on two occasions. They used the Centre in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario, my birthplace and home from 1965-1989, to record some of their albums and usually also did a public concert of whatever they were recording. One was Holst's The Planets. Forget what the other was. Besides Toronto, his position included chief conductor of the BBC Symphony, music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, music director of the Glyndebourne Festival (where he met his wife, the late soprano Gianna Rolandi), and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony in Australia. His son Edward Davis is a composer. I mean, with a conductor for a father and a singer for a mother, it was almost impossible for him to not be musical.

Here Davis conducts the lovely Meditation from the opera Thais. This album with the Toronto Symphony won a Juno award (Canada's counterpart to the US Grammy).

One piece I particularly enjoy is Barber's Adagio for strings. Here it is played by the probably lesser-known William Orbit. An Electro version.

Big anniversary in classical music yesterday. It was the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven.

This is a full performance done and livestreamed yesterday for the anniversary. I note that the tenor is Michael Schade with whom I am quite familiar. While born in Switzerland, he was educated here in Canada and is married to a Canadian. Currently based in Vienna, though.

Beethoven is, and always has been, my favourite, Such a range of music. From gentle and relaxing to powerful and rousing.

6th Symphony - Pastoral

Yeah, the 9th and the 6th are probably my favourite Beethoven symphonies. The famous 5th, too. Even lesser known ones like the 7th and 8th have their moments.

Quote by Mendalla

Yeah, the 9th and the 6th are probably my favourite Beethoven symphonies. The famous 5th, too. Even lesser known ones like the 7th and 8th have their moments.

I love them all. Here is the 7th.