DG: The History Of Classical Music On 100 CDs (or 1 Playlist) - From Gregorian Chant To Górecki

Introduction from Presto Classical:

OVERVIEW

• It starts with Gregorian Chant and Machaut chansons and ends with Gorecki and the Minimalists.

• The greatest composers have as many as five CDs devoted to them (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven).

• 20th-century music is well represented with no fewer than 20 CDs.

• Operas and major choral works are represented by highlights, but otherwise the edition presents, as far as possible, only complete works throughout.

• Altogether, there are more than 80 composers in the set, with over 400 works for a total of around 120 hours of music.

REPERTOIRE

As the box is intended for the non-expert, the repertoire is centrally based around the Classical and Romantic composers.

Here's the rundown:

CD 1 – 20 take us from Gregorian Chant to the sons of Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, with the great names of the Baroque – Monteverdi, Purcell, Charpentier, Rameau, JS Bach, Handel and Vivaldi all featured.

CD 21 – 33 are devoted to the Viennese Classics: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

CD 34 – 49 cover the early Romantic composers, from Schubert, Paganini, Berlioz, Chopin to Liszt and Schumann.

CD 50 – 69 comprise the later Romantics – Brahms, Bruckner, Dvořák, Grieg and Tchaikovsky, plus Verdi and Wagner highlights.

CD 70 – 78 bring together turn-of-the-century composers, including Mahler, Debussy, Richard Strauss and Puccini.

CD 79 – 100 includes 20th-century masterworks from Stravinsky to Messiaen, Boulez and Gorecki, taking in Holst, Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Ives, Janacek, Ravel and many others on the way.

HIGHLIGHTS

It reads like a cornucopia of the great, good and glorious. Look out for:

• the Orlando Consort’s forays into Gregorian Chant and Machaut;

• John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach;
• Minkowski’s Charpentier and Rameau;
• Trevor Pinnock’s Handel and Vivaldi;
• Karajan’s Creation;
• Anda’s Mozart Piano Concertos;
• Beethoven at the hands of Bernstein and Karajan;
• Rossini with Abbado;
• Chopin and Liszt Concertos with Argerich;
• Fischer-Dieskau’s Schubert and Schumann;
• Barenboim’s Chopin Nocturnes;
• Gilels’ Brahms Second Piano Concerto;
• Kubelik’s Dvořák;
• Mravinsky’s Tchaikovsky “Pathétique”;
• Karajan’s Mahler Five;
• Kleiber’s La Traviata highlights;
• Abbado’s Ravel, Prokofiev and Stravinsky;
• Boulez’s Schoenberg and Webern
• the Messiaen Turangalila Symphony and Gorecki’s Symphony no. 3!

—————————————

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: DG - The History Of Classical Music - From Gregorian Chant To Górecki (1388 tracks, 115 hours). More info on the official site. A few tracks are missing due to transcoding issues; they should be fixed soon.

My previous playlist 1200 Years of Women Composers: From Hildegard To Higdon is a good companion since no female composer was included in this DG set.

To navigate huge playlists more easily: 1. select the playlist, 2. press Ctrl (CMD) + F, or scroll up in iOS, to bring out the filter bar, 3. type in composer/performer/composition, e.g. Bizet or Abbado or Carmen.

Bach on Classical Guitar

Just 30 hours of mind-blowing - or mind-soothing, depending on your level of focus on the music - J.S. Bach played by some of the best classical guitarists: Andres Segovia, Göran Söllscher, Julian Bream, John Williams, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, Xuefei Yang, Paul Galbraith, Narciso Yepes, Prague Guitar Quartet and more.

(Picture take from cover of this book)

Works in this playlist include guitar transcriptions of the lute suites; sonatas and partitas for solo violin; cello suites; Goldberg Variations; orchestral suites and Brandenburg Concertos etc, played on 6, 8, 11 or 12-string classical guitars or by guitar ensembles.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Bach on Classical Guitar (456 tracks, total time: 30 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. As with Bach's many other works, this music is suitable for almost every occasion: it never ceases to amaze after repeated listening, and it is also perfect background music for reading or relaxing.

Bach transcriptions on jazz guitar, electric guitar, banjo, ukelele, marimba and everything else will be another playlist someday.

Easy Listening Classical For Study, Work, Relaxing, Chillout, Anything But Serious Listening, On Spotify

If you never went to the opera house but don't mind a bit of refreshing Vivaldi after a hard day's work, this is the classical music that you may love the most. And albums in this playlist are the best of its kind.

Nice try. Now give me back Marvin Gaye.

If you just saw Amadeus and were surprised that some classical music were less boring than those you heard before. This playlist is for you.

If you haven't decided if you really want to hurl yourself into a bunch of dead white Europeans or ask you grandpa about how to pronounce Furtwängler, but still want a taste of classical music. Look no further.

If you normally get your annual dose of classical music by picking up albums with delightfully subtle and tasteful names (like Make Out To Mozart) in Spotify's search results for "classical music". Thank whoever leads you to this place.

If you are a true hipster that collects all kinds of aural wallpapers but so far hasn't found a classical one (or you have a compilation like The Most Relaxing Classical In The Universe but your freckle-faced cousin already liked it on Facebook), today is your lucky day.

Phew. I never thought that I could talk like Lang Lang's PR.

Seriously, this playlist offers some of the best easy to access classical compilations, including: Deutsche Grammophon's four Yellow Lounge releases (classical mix albums for real, all the peaceful movements transition smoothly between one and the next) and Classical Choice series (15 albums featuring famous composers and their works as well as different topics e.g. Meditation, Good Morning or Love´s Dream.); Decca's Set Your Life To Music series (Bach at Bedtime, Debussy For Daydreaming etc.) and Bluebird - Music Of Contemplation; Serene Journeys Through Classical Music and Horizons - A Musical Journey from Delos; Mystic Classics - Visionary Choral and Orchestral Masterpieces from Naxos; the Atmosphere series from Analekta (Night, Morning, Winter and Fall); and Berceuses: Evening Music for the Whole Family from Aeon.

I only included albums that 1, offer excerpts (i.e. the big tunes) and single movements from multiple-movement works; 2, organized upon moods and pragmatic themes; 3, performed by top-notch artists. There's many other fine albums for classical newbies, like Naxos's recent "My First Mozart/Bach/etc. Album" series, but I intended to make this playlist as barbarian-friendly as possible. This playlist is just meant to help you to get used to the sound of classical warhorses, not to get you into Bach or any composer. I am really not sure if you want to know Bach and get your "first Bach album", but I suppose you go to bed every day and Bach At Bedtime may come handy when Red House Painters can't get you to sleep anymore. These compilations present classical works as well constructed, lushly orchestrated and out-of-this-worldly catchy pop music, for newbies, there's nothing wrong with this approach. It's as nature as introducing people to Elton John with Tiny Dancer. Hand on heart, how did you feel when you first heard the 11-minute opening track in Yellow Brick Road, when you were eight?

Here's the Spotify playlist: Easy Listening Classical For Study, Work, Relaxing, Chillout, Anything But Serious Listening (523 tracks, total time: 41 hours) It works better in Album view. I will add more fitting albums when I stumble upon them; suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Hope you enjoy the music. After a while, maybe you will find yourself just can't get a certain tune off your head and decide to dig more about that composer, use Google or the library, and come back here to get the dude's complete works in one playlist. Most likely you will find him in the composer list here. I look forward to see you around.

Deutsche Grammophon Panorama Series on Spotify

"What really are the most important works by this or that composer? What are the recordings that assure one of a definitive interpretation? Panorama, a 2-CD series, is designed to help one make a start, using as its material the treasure-house of music, performances and artists that is the DG catalogue.

Panorama steers a tour of the great composers and their very best music: works by Bach and Handel, by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, by Verdi and Wagner, by Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev. Not only that, Panorama traverses the important epochs of musical history: the mysteries of Gregorian chant, the fascinating sound-world of the Renaissance, the splendours of the Baroque era." From DG's official page.

Here's the Spotify playlist: DG: Panorama Series (842 tracks, total time: 2 days) This playlist works better in Album view. My first Liszt album is the Panorama set, a great introduction indeed.

EMI Great Recordings of the Century on Spotify

"EMI's Great Recordings Of The Century series is true to its title -- 200 of the greatest recordings of the twentieth century. It is an astonishing array of artists, capturing many of the definitive versions of the greatest orchestral, opera, chamber music and vocal works, recorded in what many believe was the golden age of classical recording which brought distinguished artists together with EMI's renowned classical recording producers to create music history." - ArkivMusic

Here's the Spotify playlist: EMI: Great Recordings of the Century (201 albums, 4838 tracks) Albums are arranged alphabetically by composer names, except for the Caruso 1902-04 recording which is at the beginning, because it's by various composers, and also the oldest recording in this series. This playlist works better in Album view. Also check out EMI's official page and Amazon for discography and reviews, some of the opera librettos with English translations can be found at EMI's mini site for their Historical series.

Note: Playlists at this size are meant to be references, use the filter bar (Ctrl+F) to find an excellent recording of a composition, or works of a particular composer. Don't try play it from end to end, that would take more than one week of non-stop listening.

EMI Great Artists of the Century on Spotify

"The mid-price series Great Artists of the Century celebrates the art and artistry of a roster of the most distinguished musicians of the 20th century and of the first decade of the 21st century.  Each release in Great Artists of the Century focuses on one eminent musician.

The CD offers a programme of important EMI recordings chosen to demonstrate the qualities and achievements of the featured artist, and major works in notable performances taken from EMI's vast and unique catalogue of great recordings.

The lavish packaging of Great Artists of the Century includes a striking cover photograph plus a facsimile of the artist's signature and new accounts of the artists' lives and assessments of their achievements by leading writers. The superb recordings have been transferred and, where appropriate, newly remastered from the original source materials (78s and tapes) by EMI's renowned team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios." - from EMI's mini site for this series.

Here's the Spotify playlist: EMI: Great Artists of the Century (603 tracks, total time: 2 days). Albums are arranged alphabetically by composer names. This playlist works better in Album view. Also check out this Amazon page for discography and reviews.

Album View Officially Supported + 138 Decca Originals

Eight months after the Album View model was discovered, it finally went official in Spotify's latest version (download here if you haven't auto-updated). Now you can see the View as Album List option in the View menu. More importantly, Spotify now saves your settings, including album view for every playlist. Now you can set a playlist in album view, adjust columns into suitable lengths (most of the time I don't need to see the Added  and User columns), and it will remain so even after restarting Spotify.

Here's a playlist to showcase this new feature: Decca: The Originals (3011 tracks, 138 albums, total time: 1 week). It collects all 138 recordings from the Decca Originals series (to quote the Decca site, they are ...Legendary Recordings from the DECCA Catalogue, critically acclaimed performances of Decca artists past and present.) in one place, arranged by (re-)release dates. Check out Decca's official page for full discography.

Penguin Guide Rosette Winners In One Spotify Playlist

"The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, now in its thirtieth edition, remains the cornerstone guide for the discriminating record collector.


The Penguin Guide 3 star rating is given to CDs which demonstrate outstanding performance and recording. A proportion of these are awarded Rosettes to indicate that they are of extra special quality.


With over 400 recordings cited this is an excellent starting place to help find something that will bring a little magic or extra special illumination to some of the great works of music history."

Here's the Spotify playlist: Penguin Guide Rosette Winners (4812 tracks, total time: 2 weeks) Albums are sorted alphabetically by composer names. Use the filter bar to search in this playlist. Press Ctrl (CMD on Macs) + G to browse in album view.

This playlist provides a library of topnotch recordings covering the core repertoire. If a newbie wants to check out Prokofiev, who would be 120-year-old today, it's easier to find a good representative disk of him by pressing Ctrl(CMD)+F in this playlist and typing his name, than having to wade through the rather random search results when you simply search by a composer's name in Spotify. Check out the Presto Classical page for full list of recordings.

Musically Speaking

Quote from the Musically Speaking official site: "Out mission: To present classical music of the highest quality performed by internationally recognized symphony orchestras and to produce educational products that encourage more people to appreciate and enjoy the art form." "The original series of CD packages, each covering a different classical composer, was developed in the early 1990's by Maestro Schwarz and musicologist, Paul Schiavo".

Here's the Spotify playlist: Musically Speaking (101 tracks, total time: 14 hours) To keep the playlist neat I only included the Listener's Guide, for full length recordings of the works in discussion, click the album title. Also check out my previous post for Leonard Bernstein music lectures playlist and an excellent video lecture on Mozart's Symphony No.40.

Sony Masterworks Classic Library on Spotify

Another wonderful collection for classical newbies: 71 of 80 titles from Sony BMG Masterworks' Classic Library, formerly RCA's Classic Library Series, are available on Spotify. For seasoned listeners this is also a must have treasure chest, numerous classic recordings are collected here, Horowitz's Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 with Ormandy, Heifitz's Brahms Violin Concerto with Reiner, to name just a few. It also offers a broader range of repertoire than DG's entrée Series. Check out this Amazon page for detailed information for every album.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Sony: Classic Library Series (959 tracks, total time: 3 days). Albums are arranged by composers' names. Press Ctrl (Command on Macs) + G to browse in album view.

Complete Karajan Gold On Spotify

Intro from DG's official site: "The compact disc, as a medium for sound, was still on the horizon when Herbert von Karajan urged his record company to utilize the new digital technology for his recordings. Consequently Karajan's Magic Flute, recorded in 1980, became the first release of a Deutsche Grammophon digital production and was first released on LP.

By the time the maestro died in 1989, the CD had replaced the LP as the primary medium for sound, yet he was realistic enough to know that the pioneering early stages of the digital era would be followed by further technical development. This is reflected in Karajan Gold.

In this series, refinements of the digital process occurring after Karajan's death were applied to enhance the Maestro's own recordings. Thirty releases from the early digital era were remastered for this series using DG's special Original-Image Bit-Processing technology. They were originally issued between 1993-1995."

It's all too easy, and it was quite fashionable to bash Karajan's conducting, but this man was really good at what he's doing. His late romantic recordings are usually safe first choices, and his 4th Beethoven cycle included here has a beauty of its own. Indeed the first cycle from the 60's is still preferred, but why not try them all when you've got Spotify?;) Click here for the full list of albums and details in this series.

Here's the Spotify playlist: DG: Karajan Gold (272 tracks, total time: 1 day) I put his last recording, a deeply spiritual Bruckner 7th with VPO at the end. Press Ctrl(Command on Macs) + G in Spotify for album view to browse this wonderful collection.

Classical Music Used In Stanley Kubrick Films

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later. - Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick's obsessive and perfectionist nature is wholly reflected in his choice of music for his films. Without the eerie Bartok and violent Penderecki music, Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance would only be a jumpy lunatic, but never a convincing and truly frightening psycho as we see in The Shining. The Handel theme perfectly indicate the implacable working of impersonal fate in Barry Lyndon. And, besides the famous use of Strauss and Ligeti in 2001, even the lesser known Gayane's Adagio from Khachaturian beautifully conveyed a lonely and mournful quality into the sections that introduce the spacemen aboard the Discovery One.

I compiled a playlist for the classical music used in five Kubrick films: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. And subgrouped the music by films in chronological order, by inserting Wilco's 23 Seconds Of Silence. Here's the Spotify playlist: Classical Music Used In Stanley Kubrick Films (38 tracks, total time: 3 hours) And here's an interesting Q&A, including "Why did Kubrick use classical music for his films?"

Update: Great bargain on Amazon, 9 Kubrick films, 10 blue-ray disks for $63.

See the full list of classical music used in Stanley Kubrick films below:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Khachaturyan: Gayaneh Ballet Suite
Ligeti: Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna, Requiem (The Kyrie section), Aventures
Richard Strauss: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (The Einleitung section)
Johann Strauss: An der schönen, blauen Donau, op. 314 (The Blue Danube)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Purcell: March from Funeral Music for Queen Mary
Rossini: The Thieving Magpie Overture, William Tell Overture
Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 & 4
Beethoven: Symphony No.9 (2nd and 4th movements)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Schubert: Piano Trio in E-flat, Op.100 (second movement), 4 Impromptus, Op.90, D.899 - No.1 in C minor, German Dance No.1 in C major
Vivaldi: Cello Concerto in E minor (3rd. movement)
J.S.Bach: Concerto for 2 harpsichords and orchestra in C minor, BWV 1060 (adagio)
Giovanni Paisiello: The Barber of Seville (cavatina)
Mozart: Idomeneo (march)
Frederick The Great: Hohenfriedberger March
Händel: Sarabande from the Suite for Harpsichord No. 4 in D minor, HWV 437

The Shining (1980)

Ligeti: Lontano
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (3rd movement)
Penderecki: Utrenja (the Ewangelia and Kanon Paschy movements),Als Jakob Erwacht (The Awakening of Jacob), De Natura Sonoris No. 1 and 2, Kanon For Orchestra and Tape, Polymorphia.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Shostakovich: "Waltz 2" from Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra (often misidentified as the composer's Jazz Suite 2)
Ligeti: Musica Ricercata (2nd movement)
Liszt: Nuages Gris (Grey Clouds)
Mozart: Requiem (Rex Tremendae)
In the ritual, the incantations in the background are part of a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy recorded in a church in Baia Mare, played backwards.

Classical Music For The Weekends

To quote the introduction from Deutsche Grammophon's official site:

"Weekend Classics lets you discover the world and power of classical music while offering its services as a companion to your weekend and leisure activities.  Whether you are looking to go active, relaxing, romantic or adventurous during your time off, your weekend starts here! These beautifully packaged mood-boosters will be hard to resist."

I guess this "Weekend Classics" series must have been bashed by purists, but these recordings are much more sincere than most other "chill out classical" stuff, which were mainly made up of fragments of earcandies. In fact this series could be a great introduction to classical music, especially for the faint-hearted ones. Just remember, classical music could do much more than just relax your mind, and you could go further after you regroup your forces with the help of these "relaxing" pieces.

Here's the Spotify playlist: DG: A Classical Weekend (458 tracks, total time: 1day)

ABC Classic FM's Classic 100 Symphony

During 2009, the Australian ABC Classic FM radio station conducted a survey of listeners' favourite symphonies. Participants were permitted to vote for their three preferred symphonies. The result is a very decent list of great symphonies. All of Sibelius's symphonies are in the list, so do all of Rachmaninov's, plus his choral symphony The Bells. Eight out of Mahler's nine numbered and finished symphonies, as well as Das Lied von der Erde made the list.

Check out the official site and wiki for the full list and other info.

I compiled a playlist according to this ABC list. Only three symphonies by Australian contemporary composers are missing on Spotify. For every symphony I tried to use my favourite recording. For Mahler, I chose Kubelik for No.1, Abbado and Lucerne Festival Orchestra for No.2, Bernstein and NYPO for No.3, Boulez for No.4 (because the Szell recording is not on Spotify for now), Barbirolli for No.5, Mitropoulos for No.6, Solti for No.8, Klemperer for The Song of the Earth, and Haitink for No.9. It would be great if you can share your oponions on the best performances of these symphonies.

Here's the Spotify playlist: ABC Classic FM's Classic 100 Symphony (451 tracks, total time: 2 days) Arranged from from No. 100 to No.1.

Classical Music For Absolute Beginners: DG's entrée Series

Below is extracted from the introduction on DG's official entrée site, I like the Chinese restaurant parable, and I hope Spotify starts to offer ad-supported free food service soon:)

"Think of eating at a Chinese restaurant. You can't read Chinese, but the menu is in Chinese only - and there are 150 different dishes from which to choose. You need help from someone so you can decide what to eat. The food arrives. Do you like it? Do you like it a lot? Maybe next time you'll have something similar? Or experiment further by trying a completely different dish? Perhaps you ordered the wrong thing - we've all done it! Chances are you'll find something that appeals next time.

entrée offers you more than 40 world-famous dishes on a plate, building a classical library that anyone would be proud to own. And the covers - striking black and white photographs - are really classy.

Like anyone starting to paint or fish, or learning a foreign language, the first steps are a daunting prospect. Once you've taken the plunge, though, you quickly realize the rewards. Bit by bit, you find out more and more. A little knowledge enhances your enjoyment and appreciation. It's just the same with classical music, and the booklets with the new entrée series provide the perfect introduction to each composer and the music on the CD. Nothing academic. No technical language. Just engaging, informative, and friendly."

Here's the Spotify playlist: DG: Entrée Series (453 tracks, total time: 1 day). If you are not familiar with most of the works here, congratulations, enjoy your first adventure into a lifelong journey. And if you do, it is still a wonderful collection of execllent performences of the core repertoire.

Bernstein's Music Lectures: On Bach, Jazz and Symphonies

Here's the Spotify playlist: Bernstein's Music Lectures (146tracks, 13.6 hours). And here are the Amazon links to the two albums listed above, 1, 2. Other recordings featured in this playlist are Bernstern's lectures on Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Beethoven, Ives, and Bach's Saint Matthew Passion. My favourite part is Bernstein's analysis on Schumann's Symphony No.2 and his defense on Schumann's orchestration. Lenny's Schumann cycle with NYPO using Schumann's original orchestrations are fantastic, especially the 2nd.

Pop Songs Based On Classical Works: An Open Spotify Playlist

This playlist consists of pop songs and the classical works they borrowed from.

To me some of the best examples are Paul Simon's American Tune, one of my favourite songs, which borrowed a tune from Bach's St Matthew Passion(OK Bach got this hymn from someone else and used it multiple times but this is probably the most famous one), The Orb's dance classic Little Fluffy Clouds, which sampled Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, Elvis' Can't Help Falling Love, which is based on Martaini's aria Plaisir d'amour, and Ella Fitzgerald's My Reverie, which took the tune from Debussy's Rêverie. I have collected 23 pop songs, so 46 tracks in total. For more information you can check out this wikipedia page.

Here is the Spotify playlist: Pop Songs Based On Classical Works. It's an open playlist so you can add tracks to it yourself. If you're going to add songs which sampled classical music, please only include songs in which the classical samplers is an important element, as Kelis' Like You in this playlist which sampled Mozart's famous Queen of the Night aria through out the whole song, on the other hand, Beatles' Revolution 9 won't qualified because of its one second sampler of Sibelius Symphony No.7. And please follow the format that I use: Put the pop songs before the classical tracks. Two more simple rules:

1, Mika's Grace Kelly is not allowed:)

2, No Pachelbel's Canon In D either. Reason? Watch the video below:

See full playlist below, or just click the link above to load it into your Spotify and browse from there. Happy weekend and happy listening.

Paul Simon – American Tune
Bach, JS : St Matthew Passion BWV244 : "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden"
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds
Ensemble Modern – Electric Counterpoint - Fast
Tony Bennett – Stranger In Paradise
Paavo Jarvi – Prince Igor, Polovtsian Dances: Dance II
Elvis Presley – Can't Help Falling In Love
London Symphony Orchestra – Martini: Plaisir d'amour
Kelis – Like You
Mozart : Die Zauberflöte : Act 2 "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen"
Barry Manilow – Could It Be Magic
Evgeny Kissin – Prelude No. 20 in C Minora
Mario Lanza – And This Is My Beloved - From Kismet
Borodin Quartet – String Quartet No.2 In D Major: Notturno: Andante
Tony Martin – Here
Kurt Eichhorn & Lucia Popp – Rigoletto: "Caro Nome" (Verdi)
Della Reese – Don't You Know?
Rolando Panerai – La Bohème: Quando me'n vo soletta
The Toys – A Lover's Concerto
Gustav Leonhardt – Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 116
Van Cliburn – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: Adagio sostenuto
Jem – They
Glenn Gould – Prelude & Fugue No. 12 in F minor, BWV 881: Praeludium
Eric Carmen – All By Myself - Digitally Remastered 1997
Annie Lennox – A Whiter Shade Of Pale
BWV 140 - Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stimme: Choral: Zion Hört Die Wächter Singen
Frank Sinatra – I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
Yundi Li – Chopin: Impromptu No.4 in C sharp minor, Op.66 "Fantaisie-Impromptu"
Eric Carmen – Never Gonna Fall In Love Again
St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra – Symphony No. 2 in E minor Op. 27: III. Adagio
Monty Python – Oliver Cromwell (Monty Python Sings)
Martha Argerich – Polonaise No. 6 in A flat 'Heroic' Op. 53
Ella Fitzgerald – My Reverie
Zoltán Kocsis – Debussy: Rêverie
The Crew Nuts – Mostly Martha
Orchestra – Martha (1997 Digital Remaster): M'appari tutt'amor
Perry Como – Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)
The Philadelphia Orchestra – España
Jo Stafford – No Other Love
Murray Perahia – 12 Études, Op. 10: Étude No. 3 in E Major
Patti Page – All My Love
Daniel Barenboim & Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Ravel : Bolero
Xzibit featuring Dr. Dre – Symphony In X Major - Explicit Version
Ton Koopman – Bach, JS : Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G major BWV1048 : I Allegro
Janet Jackson – Someone To Call My Lover (Single Edit)
Francine Kay – Gymnopedie No 1 (Satie)

NPR Classical 50 on Spotify

Here's the Spotify playlist: NPR Classical 50

Please check out NPR's wonderful site for introduction to each recording.



For the recordings that are not currently avaialbe on Spotify, I have substituted them with the best different recordings of the same composition I can find.

Off every recording I chose the same track that NPR sampled on their site to add to the playlist, like most playlists on this blog, it should just function as an index, you are advised to click the album title in the playlist and listen to the full composition.

Kudos to NPR, and enjoy the music:)

Here's the playlist NPR Classical 50.

Alex Ross' 20th Century Limited

Alex Ross' bestseller The Rest Is Noise is a great read for music lovers of any genre who are interested in finding out what music is about and what "contemporary music" also means beyond "now that's what I can music!". He's blog, therestisnoise.com is one of the very first classical music blogs that inspired numerous readers and other bloggers. It seems that nowadays he mainly updates his New Yorker blog Unquiet Thoughts.

He posted a twentieth-century playlist here, originally for the iTunes store. I made a Spotify playlist after that, most of the tracks are available in Spotify, for the few ones that the very recording version he chose was not available, I substituted with the best recordings I can find.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Alex Ross' 20th Century Limited Kudos to Mr. Ross, and enjoy the music.

Best Place To Get Started: Naxos Educational

"Naxos sees it as its mission to promote the appreciation and understanding of classical music and has produced a wide range of educational texts and recordings.
There are the lives and works of the great composers; analyses of the most important works of classical music; introductions to all the most popular operas; A-Z of Classical Music and A-Z of Opera; an introduction to the instruments of the orchestra; and many others." - Naxos.com

The Naxos Educational series offers a very informative and enjoyable listening experience for both the new comers to classical music and veteran concert goers.


Here's the playlist: Naxos Educational: An Index (81 tracks from 81 albums). One track off every album, so that the list won't get too long. You can click the album title in the list to access any of the full album. In the A To Z of  Pianists, You can hear the pianist who had heard Chopin himself play and played with Liszt, the French master Francis Planté who was born in 1839, playing piano, not on a roll! The Classic Explained and Life And Works series by Jeremy Siepmann(official site, his Spotify catalog) are surprisingly charming, you got to hear him sing the opening of the Pastoral Symphony.

Happy listening.