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June 30, 2009 6:43 PM

What classical music on YouTube passes the oh-my-god-i-can't-believe-this-is-available-on-youtube test?

Several of my posts have been 20th century composers on YouTube (Reich, John Adams). And I am very fond of this piece by Lygeti. So, of course, I am especially interested in 20th century music. But, I am really interested in people posting the classical YouTube videos that amazed you most when you found them. All periods welcome.

posted by wittgenstein to media & arts (16 comments total)

Glenn Gould playing Gibbons and Byrd.
posted by neroli at 7:11 PM on June 30

Violin-centered answer: my all-time-favorite solo violin piece, Song by Pancho Vladigerov, one of Bulgaria's most prominent composers, as well as several other compositions (Zlatev-Cherkin's Sevdana, for instance) that I didn't think anyone outside of Bulgaria would be familiar with. And fun pieces like Kroll's Banjo and Fiddle!
posted by halogen at 7:12 PM on June 30

I've enjoyed listening to Nikolai Lugansky: he plays a lot of Rachmaninov and some other composers.

Perhaps you have seen the clip of Bernstein playing/conducting Ravel's Concerto in G (frantic and fun).
posted by pengale at 7:14 PM on June 30

Well, if it's Ligeti that you like, you could check this out, I was pretty amazed that this was on youtube. As you mention Reich and Adams you might like this film of the world premiere of a very recent piece by Louis Andriessen.
posted by ob at 7:44 PM on June 30

Steve Reich - Clapping Music or any of his other stuff.
posted by furtive at 8:06 PM on June 30

doh, just noticed you mentioned him.
posted by furtive at 8:07 PM on June 30

John Cage's 4'33"
posted by cmchap at 8:15 PM on June 30

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings Der Erlkönig
Messiaen on Birds
Messiaen Organ Improvisation

posted by aquafortis at 10:10 PM on June 30

Threnody to The Victims of Hiroshima by Krzysztof Penderecki
posted by schyler523 at 10:24 PM on June 30

I've always liked this clip of Glenn Gould playing Bach at home in his pajamas. Especially the part where he gets up in the middle of the piece and looks out the window for a moment before resuming.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 12:01 AM on July 1

There was a great MeFi post a few years ago on extremely difficult piano pieces: Showoffs and Knucklebusters. Many of the videos remain available, including the set that really tuned my baby grand: Perlemuter playing Gaspard de la Nuit. (That's part one, Ondine. Here's Le Gibet and Scarbo.)
posted by carsonb at 12:46 AM on July 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

Two surprising clips from a '60s game show called I've Got a Secret: John Cage performing Water Walk, and a young John Cale performing part of Satie's Vexations (the actual performance starts at 7'30" in the latter clip).
posted by misteraitch at 1:40 AM on July 1

This is the link to the Glenn Gould piece posted by mandymanwasregistered
posted by mathiu at 3:53 AM on July 1

After I saw There Will Be Blood, I went searching for one of the pieces in the film and was pretty amazed when I found it right away: Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major Op.77:3. Vivace Non Troppo
posted by aheckler at 4:35 AM on July 1

Jacqueline du Pre playing Elgar's concerto. It just doesn't get any better than that.
posted by Autarky at 6:53 AM on July 1

Ravel's Jeux d'Eau as played by Sviatoslav Richter.
posted by invitapriore at 4:31 PM on July 4