I will try that one out. I just happened upon that Elgar so unfortunately I don’t have much more in the way of suggestions. I’m trying to listen to as much variety as I can right now just to explore the genre. It’s so massive it’ll take a while. I’m glad you found something you like.
I’m sure you have some kind of streaming service? E.g.: YT Music, Amazon, Spotify, etc?
I suggest you go for their suggested playlists and find something like: “Classical for Sleep”. If you like what you hear, probably the AI will do the rest. 
If you eventually find “Classical for Sleep” too mellow, try something like “Classical for Workouts”. Then, once again AI will pick that up moving forward.
Hope that helps.
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A lot of my listening falls under classical, although most of that also is very contemporary/living composers often young composers and generally quartets or small ensembles, duo, solo … Streaming Q2 radio aka “New Sounds” was a great introduction to a lot of this, although living in NYC over the years and writing about culture, it was part of my evenings as much as the jazz and indie scenes. If you haven’t listened to Roomful of Teeth on some top headphones, particularly Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer winning “Partita for 8 Voices,” you’re missing out on an ecstatic experience. Anyway, that was a turning point for me, as regards headphones in general … I had to get some Focals after that audition. It just took a few years!
Have to give credit to Kronos Quartet as a gateway, along with Bang on a Can All-Stars, going back more than 20 years … and labels like Nonesuch and ECM … Minimalism has been the biggest influence on my listening in this area, especially Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
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I highly recommend Jacqueline Du Pré’s performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. It’s an expressive, beautiful interpretation. See, in particular, her recording with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli (EMI), which catapulted her to fame. The sound quality may not be the best. Her performance arguably is, though.
She was a celebrated musician whose career was all too brief. Here’s a piece about her and about the recording I mentioned above, which is well worth reading.
Elgar’s probably best known, at least in Britain, for his Enigma Variations, the most recognizable piece of which is “Nimrod” (Adrian Boult with the London Philharmonic is fine; a brisker, more rousing interpretation can be found in Pierre Monteux’s with the LSO). Perhaps Elgar’s most celebrated work is The Dream of Gerontius (see the Adrian Boult version with Helen Watts, Nicolai Gedda, and Robert Lloyd). I’m a fan of Elgar’s The Music Makers, especially Dame Janet Baker’s wonderful interpretation (Gerontius and this latter piece are available on a 2-CD set).
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Sorry for double-posting but I wanted to avoid an overly-long single post while also keeping a few suggestions about cello works separate that @PaisleyUnderground (and, I hope, others) might like.
If you enjoy the Elgar’s Cello Concerto you might enjoy Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A Minor. An excellent version is Mstislav Rostropovich’s with Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France. While I think of it, a great way to discover cello pieces is to go through Rostropovich’s catalogue. (Jacqueline du Pré was one of his students). Another recommended piece: Dvorák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor, with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Beyond concertos, I highly recommend Shostakovich’s String Quartets for lovely music with a cello. His Quartet #8 in C Minor is my favorite. You’d be hard pressed to do better than the Fitzwilliam Quartet’s version. They recorded all of Shostakovich’s quartets, and they’re available on a 6-CD set. That’ll keep you all out of the bars, at least for ca. 6 hours (when the bars reopen, that is).
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Just reread your post, other cello pieces I could suggest are the Bach cello suites (everyone has heard a bit of it in some fashion) and maybe the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A Minor. Try those out and see if you like them.
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That’s a good one too. There’s a Janos Starker album that has both the Schumann and the Saint-Saens. Makes it a nice one to just to put on and listen to.
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You were a lot smarter than me. I first listened to that Mozart piano concerto in the late 80s and not knowing anything about classical music, I made a stupid assumption that composers after Mozart would be more complex and innovative and therefore there was no point in listening to composers before him. I didn’t try Bach until this year and could kick myself about all the great music that I ignored.
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That’s a great suggestion. I’ve been trying out all kinds of music on my Focal Stellia that arrived today, and I’m listening to Partita for 8 Voices right now as I’m typing. I discovered that piece when I was watching “Dark” (very complicated show on Netflix about time travel and the end of the world - LOL there must be a better description of “Dark” than that) and one of the episodes was dominated by this very compelling vocal piece. I had to pause the episode and look up the music.
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Thanks @Tchoupitoulas and @perogie for the suggestions. Along with my stupid decision not to listen to Bach for several decades, I also decided that the cello must not be as musically interesting as the violin. But you showed me the light.
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I remember reading a quote about her playing: “I’m not sure where she was going but I’m pretty sure she got there.”
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Thanks I’ll search away, I think I would be more interested in piano, never been a fan of the pure opera… So should be interesting.
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My wife suggested Hayden’s “Surprise” Symphony, and The William Tell Overture, both of which you may recognize from classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. (And perhaps Quaker Oats, “The cereal that is shot from guns - apparently to classical music)
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How dare you suggest that Quaker Oats be recognized for anything other than Wilford Brimley!! https://youtu.be/aVIewv1K3CA
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@PaisleyUnderground That piece is showing up a lot on soundtracks. Not as commonly as “On the Nature of Daylight” (Max Richter) which one day may claim “Solisbury Hill”-level ubiquity (but melancholy, rather than ebullient).
I like what I’ve seen of “Dark.” It’s like “Stranger Things” without the '80s nostalgia cues every 30 seconds.
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Couldn’t be any worse than the use of the opening to Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” back in the day to sell / advertise everything from butter to laxatives.
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I can’t decide which is worse, that “O Fortuna” from Orff’s Carmina Burana was used to advertise something designed to mask unpleasant body odor (but that produced a different, unpleasant odor instead), that this music has been ruined from overplaying, or that some eejit uploaded the commercial to YouTube and called it the “Old Spice Theme Song.”
Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing
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Thank you for the scores, I will give a listen. I know its not considered Classical, but I do enjoy movie scores, Interstellar, Anything by Ennio Morricone, Howard Shore, Western Movie scores.
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If scores interest you I have about 200 on CD, most have maybe just a few really outstanding segments but other I find pretty solid as music, start to finish;
Some scores off the top of my head. I have the music CD’s of all but was easier to search my video data base to come up with images. “King Arthur”, “Beowulf”,” Conan”, and “Troy” are heavy on the heroic motifs. “Solaris” (the American one with Clooney not the original Russian) and “Let the Right One In” (the original Swedish not the American version) are kind of hypnotic, relax your mind, and sip that bourbon, kinda music. Narnia is a mix of types but all cut from the same fantasy story telling vibe. The Sinfonia Antarctica is a CD. In 1948 Rafe Vaugh-Williams was asked to write a score for the movie “Scott of Antarctica” about his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. He later reworked and expanded the music into a 5 movement Symphony that is really exceptional from start to finish. The middle movement has an organ accompaniment that is demo material and will test your amps and sub/woofers.
Oh, and just about any score by James Newton-Howard or James Horner.
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This is a very unsettling piece. I know that Shostakovich was very much troubled by his relationship with his homeland and the politics of the day so I looked in to the history of the composition. There is a somewhat controversial assertion that he may have been suicidal when he wrote this. Goodness me.
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