lesser known

A few of my friends have been asking me to recommend classical music for them to listen to. They're not familiar with classical music and they want to be. So, since I am a classical musician and I listen almost exclusively to classical music, I suppose I'm a good source for suggestions.

Only I really don't like all the common compositions you hear from composers. To me, these just aren't a true representative of their talent. So this list is a recommendation for all of you who either want to start listening to classical music and don't know where to start or for those of you who currently listen to classical music and want to dig a little deeper. You're welcome.

Peter Tchaikovsky

What you know: "The Nutcracker" or "1812 Overture"

What you should be listening to: Symphony No. 6 in b minor "Pathetique"

Oddly enough, given Tchaikovsky's penchant for depression, "pathetique" here does not refer to pathetic, but rather passionate and emotional. And it is. This symphony — if you listen to it in its entirety — is a festival of deep emotions. Rollicking and fun one minute to slit-your-wrists depressing the next. See, that's kind of how Tchaikovsky is. His violin concerto is a similar festival of bi-polar issues. But he was a purportedly gay man living in pre-Soviet Russia, married to a woman but having affairs with soldiers. You can't tell me he didn't have some emotional issues and all of them show up in his music.

Ludwig van Beethoven

What you know: Fifth Symphony or "Ode to Joy"

What you should be listening to: Symphony No. 7 in A major

Speaking of bi-polar, this symphony is chock full of it. Yes, we all know about the "Ode to Joy." It's a very small part of the monstrous Symphony No. 9 that's been bastardized for hymns and simplified for all beginning piano students to learn and then say they can play Beethoven. And the Symphony No. 5 in c minor — just try to get that opening motif out of your head. But the second movement of the seventh symphony — a marche funebre for those of you keeping score at home — uses fewer notes and is even more powerful. It starts out softly in the low strings — the cellos and the violas (HOLLA!) introduce the theme — a tragically slow dirge of prolonged quarter notes in the relative minor key. Eventually the upper strings join the mournful strains, followed by the winds and brass. But then! Just when you least expect it, a jaunty little tune enters in, almost giving you aural whiplash. It's like you're at home, calmly tying a noose to hang yourself with, when the urge to dance a jig comes over you. The whole symphony is kind of like this. Just when you think you know where Beethoven is going, he switches direction completely. Also, this symphony was used extensively in "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown," so if you need a pop culture reference, there you go.

Edward Elgar

What you know: Pomp and Circumstance

What you should be listening to: Cello Concerto in e minor

I think all of us marched to our high school graduation to the strains of our high school band or orchestra bumping along the Pomp and Circumstance. But Elgar is so much more than this. Elgar's music is reminiscent of the Romantic composers with an overlay of 20th century simplicity. Elgar is subtle and his cello concerto is a perfect example. The first movement is a wonderful ballet between the solo cello and the orchestra. My favorite part is a quiet timpani roll leading to the pinnacle of an upward scale run on the solo cello that introduces a tutti section for the orchestra. When the cellist hits that last note, up in the stratosphere of the instrument's range, it's a moment and the rumbling of the timpani is the anchor. If you can, find the Jacqueline Du Pre recording with the London Symphony. Amazing.

Samuel Barber

What you know: Adagio for Strings

What you should be listening to: First Essay for Orchestra

Yes, we've all seen "Platoon." We've heard the Adagio heralding death and that is a good example of Barber's work — achingly simple, slightly atonal but still melodic. The First Essay has all that and more. The piece is set up like an essay — you start with an idea, you expand on it, you introduce different ideas and a counter argument, but you eventually come back to that original idea to conclude the piece. It worked in your high school English class and it works here. The Essay starts off like the Adagio — the violas (HOLLA!) introduce the melody before it moves through the orchestra. Then the counter melody is introduced, but that original melody keeps showing up where you least expect it. It goes on like this for a few minutes, the sections exchanging arguments and themes, until the trumpets herald the end and the strings fade into nothing. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

What you know: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade for Strings in G major)

What you should be listening to: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola

If you didn't know, Mozart played viola (HOLLA!). It was his preferred instrument in string quartets. The original score calls for the viola to be tuned in scordatura, so it's tuned a half-step sharp, which lends the instrument a brighter tone. Modern violists, however, eschew this practice and play the piece in E-flat, leaving that dark, velvety tone to come through and contrast to the bright sound of the violin. It's a wonderful example of Mozart's hallmark scale runs and bouncy eighth notes, but there's something darker here, too, especially when the soloists come in with a haunting melody after the orchestra has been gaily dancing around. It's like the viola is there to show the deeper side of Mozart, a contrast to the happy hyper Mozart we've come to know and love.  My favorite version of this is with Pinchas Zuckerman on viola because that man is way too large to play the violin.

Antonio Vivaldi

What you know: The Four Seasons

What you should be listening to: Gloria RV 589

Vivaldi was known as the Red Priest because of his red hair and religious past. Legend has it he studied to be a priest, failed to take the last step and became a virtuoso violinist and composer instead, but he still wrote a lot for the church. In fact, the Gloria is a section of a Mass. It's in Latin, but that just makes it better. Hearing the contralto soloist in the Agnus Dei repeating "miserere" over and over, you get a sense of just how miserable you're supposed to be. And the two sopranos singing in thirds in the Laudamus Te is sublime. And those big choruses are so lushly scored, they seem to belong in a Romantic Italian opera instead of an early Baroque Mass. Vivaldi supposedly wrote this for a choir of orphans, the bastards of Italian nobility. But this is the score that inspired just about every other mass in the Baroque period. Seriously. I dare you to listen to this and not hear themes Handel stole for Messiah. But if you're going to steal, steal from the best, right? 

Johannes Brahms

What you know: Lullaby

What you should be listening to: Any of his four symphonies

Johannes Brahms was very reluctant to publish a symphony because he was afraid he would be compared to Beethoven. And he was. His first symphony was lauded as "Beethoven's 10th." But Brahms deserves more. These works stand on their own. If you listen to them back to back, you can hear the evolution of his musical prowess. The first symphony is almost Mozartian in its classicality (what? I have an English degree. I can make up words) and utilizes the minuet and trio in the third movement rather than Beethoven's scherzo. But the horn solo at the onset of the fourth movement? It's like he's announcing his release from Beethoven's legacy. That solo sounds like freedom, rising above a mire of muddy string passages. The fourth symphony is the one you really want to listen to, though. Brahms hits his Romantic stride here. It is lush, emotional and deep. And, yes, if you listen closely to the fourth symphony, the lullaby is in there. Hiding. 

Jean Sibelius
What you know: Finlandia
What you should be listening to: The Swan of Tuonela
Yes, Finlandia is spectacular and bombastic, but The Swan is dark, brooding, mysterious and haunting. The inaccurately named English horn — because it's neither British in origin nor a horn — has the lead in this tone poem, which tells the story of a dying swan. You can feel the water in the muted roiling string passages, the smooth passage of the swan over the lake in the legato solo line, the crisp arctic air, the moment of death.

Camille Saint-Saens
What you know: Carnival of the Animals
What you should be listening to: Danse Macabre
Yes, we've all heard the children's masterpiece with musical representations of the animal kingdom, but it's the musical representation of the dead that is really fun. This is another example of a solo instrument scordatura, this time in the violin. The E-string is tuned down a half step to E-flat, which makes the solo line seem just a little... off. There's something truly creepy about an out of tune violin and Saint-Saens makes good use of that. Saint-Saens takes advantage of instrumental stereotyping in this piece — the xylophone sounds like bones rattling together, the harp brings light, Satan's playing the fiddle — but it's all in good fun. After all, what kind of party doesn't have dancing corpses?

So that's my list. What are you listening to?