this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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I recently started listening to classical and boy does it require a completely different listening approach! I'm listening almost exclusively to Mahler's No.5 since my attention fades away after the first movement and I need lots of listening to know what's actually going on
Mahlers 5th is good, but I think his 4th is better.
But my personal favorite is Beethoven's 5th. I used to HATE that symphony when I was a kid, my grandmother loved it and it bored me to tears.
Turns out the version she had on CD that she always listened to was the worst recording you can find of it. It was WAY too slow, it made the whole thing drag on. That symphony works best when it's damn near rushing. When I got back into classical a few months back I found the Berliner Philharmoniker playing it directed by Simon Rattle, and the sprint through that symphony, and it works SO MUCH BETTER. It was very clearly intended to be played fast, so many of the parts feel way more interesting and there's sections where each part of the orchestra feels like it's tripping over the others to be heard.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Since you look much more knowledgeable than me, could you help me understand how to navigate the overwhelming amount of different versions for every piece of music? For now I'm completely ignoring who's playing and conducting and sometimes I timidly try to listen to another version, usually just to come back to the comfort of the first version I listened
Usually I try to listen to a few different versions until I land on one that really clicks with me. It takes a little bit to really understand what that means. To me the orchestra is less important than the director. The music is always the same, but the director decides which parts will pop out the most, how fast the tempo is, and how he wants the orchestra to play parts.
I'll use the beethoven example again.
Here is the version that I don't like. That was the "familiar" version I knew, and I didn't like it so I never listened to this piece.
When I got into my current classical kick, I went to Spotify and stumbled on this version: https://open.spotify.com/track/4mw5oRBKNBfNV0dXAOIcne
I literally picked it because I thought the album cover was interesting because it had some color. A lot of classical albums are committed to black and white for some reason.
Googling a piece can help, especially if you search for like "beethoven 5th best recordings." You'll find a lot of opinions out there, and it can help you get a starting point for a given piece to go from.
If you find yourself wanting to go to a more "comfortable" version, it means something in the recording you're listening to isn't clicking with you. That's OK! Try to identify what it is that makes you not like that recording, and what the one you prefer does differently that makes you prefer it. It helps to write it down; if you make posts here or on Mastodon that may help a lot with articulating what you do or don't like (and boost engagement).
Seemingly "simple" things like "i think this section is too fast" or "the version I like has the horn section louder here, but this version focussed on the windpipes" really influence how you hear the music and make a big difference, and are completely valid reasons to prefer one recording over another.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/eQaGpzWpchw
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.