Today's Classics: Recommended classical music and great performances to listen to today
If you’re reading this article, you probably love classical music.
You likely know a fair number of composers and performers already—and to be honest, you might be a bit tired of some of them—so perhaps you’re also on the lookout for pieces and composers you don’t yet know.
In this article, for everyone enjoying a wonderful classical-music life, we introduce daily reviews of recommended composers and performers, as well as timeless masterpieces and great performances from across the ages.
Alongside symphonies, you’ll sometimes find concertos, sometimes solo piano or violin, and perhaps even contemporary works or pieces for wind band!
You’re sure to discover classical music that will brighten your day.
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[Today’s Classics] Recommended classical music and masterful performances to listen to today (11–20)
Atom Hearts Club Suite No. 1Yoshimatsu Takashi
Here is a work for string quartet composed in 1997.
Created by Takashi Yoshimatsu, it is an innovative piece in four movements inspired by progressive rock.
With a style that nods to The Beatles and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the music is energetic and richly varied; in 2000 it was arranged for string orchestra, attaining an even more monumental sonority.
Fusing classical tradition with the dynamism of rock, this piece is recommended for those seeking music that transcends genre boundaries.
If you’re looking for a fresh musical experience, be sure to give it a listen.
“Winter” from The Four Seasons, a violin concertoAntonio Lucio Vivaldi
“The Four Seasons” is the collective name for the first through fourth concertos of Vivaldi’s “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention,” titled Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
In the first movement of “Winter,” a scene of bitterly cold, fruit-freezing snow is depicted.
By contrast, the second movement portrays time flowing gently and peacefully inside a warm room with a fireplace.
The melody of the second movement has Japanese lyrics under the title “Shiroi Michi” (The White Road).
This song has also been broadcast on NHK’s “Minna no Uta” and is widely loved by people of all ages.
No. 153 from Mikrokosmos: Six Dances in Bulgarian RhythmBartók Béla
An upbeat and cool piece for solo piano, packing a 3+3+2 rhythmic structure and an unforgettable melody into just over a minute and a half—simple yet filled with a mysterious sense of exhilaration.
It’s the very last piece in the etude collection called “Mikrokosmos.”
Gymnopédie No. 1Erik Satie
Gymnopédies takes its name from Gymnopaedia, an ancient Greek festival honoring the gods.
It is said that the festival was so raucous with drink and excitement that many people even died in the frenzy.
Satie, however, drew his musical inspiration from a serene ancient vase depicting the festival, which is why the piece flows slowly and quietly throughout.
Marked “Lent et douloureux” (“slow and dolorous”), the work embodies Satie’s characteristic sensibility—part humor, part irony—making it a uniquely captivating piece.
CanonJohann Pachelbel
The original title is “Canon and Gigue in D major for three violins and basso continuo.” The Canon is the first movement.
It is arguably Pachelbel’s most well-known piece.
Since it plays during the interlude of Tatsuro Yamashita’s ‘Christmas Eve,’ it’s a piece you’re sure to hear at Christmastime.
Unaccompanied Partita “Chaconne”J.S.Bach
The “Chaconne,” the fifth piece of the Sonata and Partita No.
2 for Solo Violin.
A “chaconne” is the name of a dance-form piece in which a brief, set melodic and harmonic pattern appears at the outset and is then repeated persistently while developing in various ways.
In this piece as well, the theme is presented in the opening eight measures, and over the course of 30 repetitions of that structure, music of a grandeur scarcely believable for an unaccompanied violin unfolds.
[Today’s Classics] Recommended classical music to listen to today and a collection of great performances (21–30)
Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight”Ludwig van Beethoven
Among Beethoven’s piano sonatas, this work is widely beloved for its popular melody.
The nickname “Moonlight” comes from a comment by the poet Rellstab.
The first movement carries a solemnity that evokes the night, while the third movement, in contrast, is intensely dramatic, calling to mind storms and lightning.
It’s a piece that lets you enjoy Beethoven’s many facets.