"Ambient" Classical Music

September 19, 2006 5:53 AM

Help me find more "classical" music that I will like. There is...

I want to get further into the music I really seem to be into lately, which is generally string-driven, slow-tempo, slightly "ambient" string work. I checked this AskMeFi thread, and didn't find much new that bowled me over.

What I like:

• Arvo Part.
• Erik Satie, at least 6 Gnossiennes.
• DeBussy, in small doses.
• Philip Glass.
• Brian Eno.
• Paul Honey's soundtrack work.
• Mahler. Oh, yes, Mahler.
• Lots and lots of cello.

What I actively dislike:

• John Adams.
• Most Aaron Copland.

What I'm rather tired of already, But thank you:

• Beethoven.
• Mozart.
• Brahms.
• Schubert.

posted by beaucoupkevin to media & arts (33 comments total)

Oooh, unclosed blockquote! Arrgh.

Anyway, I forgot to mention: if it's on EMusic, that'd be divine.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 5:54 AM on September 19, 2006

Truls Mørk is a very passionate cellist. I'd look into his work.
posted by sohcahtoa at 5:59 AM on September 19, 2006

Would you be opposed to Mr Rachmaninoff or Mr Gorecki? You say you like the strings, but are you wanting incredibly sad strings? If so, then Mr Gorecki's Already It Is Dusk (String Quartet No. 1, Op. 62) might do the trick
posted by grabbingsand at 6:14 AM on September 19, 2006

Ah, I should have mentioned Gorecki in the "Very much like" category. I've not tried Rachmaninoff, so thank you!
posted by beaucoupkevin at 6:23 AM on September 19, 2006

Off the top of my head there's


- Steve Reich
- Michael Gordon (particularly 'Industry' for the cello) and the rest of the bang-on-a-can allstars
- Morton Feldman
- Terry Riley
posted by TwoWordReview at 6:30 AM on September 19, 2006

Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titantic/Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
Kronos Quartet - Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass
Gyorgy Ligeti - The Ligeti Project I-IV

of more recent stuff, you might like Yasushi Yoshida's debut "Secret Figure" from this year
posted by aiko at 6:34 AM on September 19, 2006

There's a longish piece for strings you might enjoy by the Russian composer Vladimir Martynov called Come In!, in which, as one blurb has it The melodies and harmonies are Brahms in his stillest and most touching moments. Yet the form is quite different. Trance-Loop instead of Sonata. There are two recordings of it that I know of (I prefer the latter).
posted by misteraitch at 6:36 AM on September 19, 2006

Definitely second Jesus' Blood. Beautiful piece!
posted by TwoWordReview at 6:38 AM on September 19, 2006

Perhaps obvious, but have you listened to Barber's Adagio for Strings?
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:49 AM on September 19, 2006

In a slightly different vein, I heartily recommend Final Fantasy.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:59 AM on September 19, 2006

Oh, I have listened to Adagio for Strings and it was, in many ways, a trigger thanks to William Orbit's version back in 1999. I should get a "real" version of that, though.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:06 AM on September 19, 2006

Olivier Messiaen.

His Quartet for the End of Time is one of the most sublime pieces of music written in the last century, I think.

And the Pierre-Laurent Aimard recording of Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus is also very nice.
posted by felix betachat at 7:10 AM on September 19, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh, and if you like the latter, you'll probably also enjoy Janácek's piano pieces and his string quartets.
posted by felix betachat at 7:13 AM on September 19, 2006

Also, a more general tip: I've found Alex Ross's blog, The Rest is Noise to be a consistantly solid resource for new music recommendations.

ok, I'll stop now
posted by felix betachat at 7:20 AM on September 19, 2006

Keep it coming, Felix! I've got a couple of Messiaen pieces from this album. and really quite liked them. More investigation must happen!
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:27 AM on September 19, 2006

Ok, if you insist!

Have you listened to Mahler's orchestration of Schubert's Der Tod und das Mädchen? Nothing can compare to the savage beauty of the string quartet, obviously. But you may find that hearing what Mahler has done with the piece will bring you back to the original with new ears.
posted by felix betachat at 7:34 AM on September 19, 2006

Charles Ives
posted by horsemuth at 8:09 AM on September 19, 2006

or if Ives is too "classical" perhaps you would like The Rachels. Especially the "music for Egon Schiele" album
posted by horsemuth at 8:23 AM on September 19, 2006

Give Stars if the Lid a try, especially The Tired Sounds Of....

Also, you might like some of Grieg's Slatter
posted by mds35 at 9:07 AM on September 19, 2006

I bet you'd like Ralph Vaughn Williams's Concerto Grosso for Strings.

Have you tried Sibelius? His symphonies all seem like they're full of flowing strings that kind of meld together serenely. I don't know his work all that well, but after clicking around randomly in my collection I suggest trying Symphony No. 4.
posted by agropyron at 10:03 AM on September 19, 2006

I second Rachels. Also, you may like Dirty Three - I'd start with Ocean Songs or Whatever You Love You Are.
posted by rsanheim at 10:04 AM on September 19, 2006

You would totally dig the Bach Cello Suites - I love listening to different recordings of them, and hearing how each artist interprets them differently. My favorites are Pablo Casals and Yo Yo Ma, but Matt Haimovitz, a young Israeli player, has a fantastic album of them that is completely different.
posted by rossination at 10:05 AM on September 19, 2006

If you like Debussy in small doses, you may like Delius in small doses too.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:19 AM on September 19, 2006

Yeah, the Casals version of the Bach Cello Suites is absolutely my favorite.
posted by librarina at 10:29 AM on September 19, 2006

Henryck Górecki's 3rd Symphony ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs") is gorgeously sad music for strings and soprano, with a strong minimalist influence. Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis is more gorgeous string music, not quite in the same vein, but I think you're likely to enjoy it.

Also, if you like Pärt you'll almost certainly enjoy Danny Elfman's score to Dolores Claiborne, which uses a similar style.
posted by musicinmybrain at 10:42 AM on September 19, 2006

I was searching for basically the same kind of music you're referring to, and I already own a lot of what other posters have recommended.

And then I heard Symphony No. 5 by Jean Sibelius. Such lovely music. I won't even bother to put it in words. It just feels "right" to my brain -- it takes me out of my self, engages me, relaxes me, and amazes me all at once. And it never feels like work. It's luminous.

I've since acquired as much of his music as I can. The symphonies are all quite lovely, as are the Tone Poems. Hie thee to your nearest public library and check out all you can.
posted by the matching mole at 10:42 AM on September 19, 2006

Pierre Fournier's recording of Bach's Six Suites for solo cello.
posted by Dr.Pill at 11:52 AM on September 19, 2006

on a slightly different tack, you might enjoy Biosphere - Shenzhou.
posted by advil at 1:07 PM on September 19, 2006

I do really, really love that Biosphere record, Advil. It's what got me into Debussy through reverse engineering.

Some great suggestions so far. Thanks so much, guys and not-guys-but-girls.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 1:42 PM on September 19, 2006

If you like Mahler, you might like his teacher, Anton Bruckner [wiki]; the symphonies 4, 9 and "0" (no, that's not a typo) are good places to start.

For a current composer, you might also check out Michael Torke [wiki]. My introduction to him was "Ash," available on the CD called Color Music.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:05 PM on September 19, 2006

Lou Harrison, perhaps? This disc was originally released on CRI and reissued recently by New World Records.

You might want to give Dmitri Shostakovich's Quartet for Strings No. 8 a try. (I'm trying to school myself in Shostakovich's quartets as well. His symphonies haven't quite grabbed me.)

Gabriel Faure and Maurice Durufle also both wrote their own Requiems.

Some Arvo Part works show up on Ninna Nanna by singer Montserrat Figueras. The album consists entirely of lullabies, which may not sound appealing in print but the execution is impressive.
posted by NemesisVex at 2:10 PM on September 19, 2006

Problem is, I always stretch the question to fit my own enthusiasms.

Bartok's String Quartets (and Mikrokosmos for piano stuff)

The Kronos Quartet do the original (?) quartet version of Adagio for Strings (from Winter Was Hard, which also includes Fratres). Also their very fine Early Music album.

Michael Nyman (particularly The Draughtsman's Contract and Drowning By Numbers) and Howard Skempton (although my favourite stuff by him is for the accordian)

My aversion to lieder was turned around by hearing Ian Bostridge's version of Schumann's Dichterliebe, which is quite sublime.

Benjamin Britten's String Quartets, especially #2 (and especially the first movement), also Simple Symphony, Four Sea Interludes and (if you like choral music) Ceremony of Carols and Rejoice in the Lamb.

Vaughn Williams (The Lark Ascending, Greensleeves and Tallis Fantasias), Walton, Elgar (Enigma Variations, Cello Concerto, Serenade for Strings), Delius, Holst (The Planets, yes a cliché, but actually pretty amazing),

Gurdjieff and de Hartmann's piano music for Gurdjieff's movements. Idiosyncratic and perhaps repetitive but some of it - in particular a piece called The Circles - is world class stuff. The best version I've heard is Wim van Dullemann's.

John Cage's In a Landscape played on a real piano. A pox on William Orbit.

Anne Dudley (from Art of Noise) did a cross-over album called Ancient and Modern that I was listening to a few days ago - very nice, but obviously throwing odd sources together (Bach + Fauré, for example) and it does rather sound like a film soundtrack.

Richard Strauss - Four Last Songs - this is the music used over the opening credits of Wild at Heart.

Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium. Actually this is nothing like what you asked for - 40 part a capella religious music from the 16th century. It is, however, astoundingly incredible, and I would recommend it anyway. If you like it, there's also William Byrd and Henry Purcell and, well, loads of this stuff.

Schoenberg - Verklarte Nacht.

Prokoviev - Romeo and Juliet, Lieutenant Kije, Classical Symphony
posted by Grangousier at 3:00 PM on September 19, 2006

FD: My label is releasing the record.

You might enjoy Danny Elfman's new record, Serenada Schizophrana, when it comes out next week.

Additionally, Danny did an iTunes celebrity playlist for us detailing the classical works that have influenced him over the years. It features a lot of artists listed here and also tons of Prokofiev.
posted by softlord at 6:19 AM on September 25, 2006