Most astounding symphony or opera ever

oh my, that looks like a fabulous resource. i have to register to listen, but i'm considering forking over those twenty five bucks for full membership - did you subscribe there? is it worth it? can you download works in their entirety?

in the meantime i found, on that cd conducted by Herbert von Karajan, a piece I was searching for since I was about 10. It's the Solveig's Song by Peer Gynt. My beloved grade school teacher, Mrs. Tomikova, often stayed after classes were done, with a bunch of us, and we had a musical education of sorts. She always always played this song on her record player and we would imagine what we see when we hear it - I always thought of a woman looking over an ocean, feeling some loss, departure of a sort. It's a composition that makes MY hair stand on end, absolutely love it. Maybe I'll find the complete piece on that website? Hmmm. A new world! A whole new world of music ahead of me! Hurrah!

I subscribe to the site. However I am busy listening CD's at my hand for the moment.
I believe MIDI files are much more of value when you have softwares with more options, e.g. displaying scores from MIDI's.

There, I just subscribed. The membership is apparently good for the whole family - my dad will be mightily pleased to have access to that.

midi files? hmmm, dunno nuthin about that.

Softwares to utilize MIDI files fully are often somewhat expensive.

I am not recommending the following, but I'll add a link for your information..
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/home/home.pl
(Sibelius software)

it says on the classicalarchives that the midi files are for synthesized music - not actual live performances....that means it's done on computers????

Ahhh, I learn something new every day:

A MIDI file is not an actual sound file; rather, it is the score of a performance. It needs to be processed by a synthesizer (see Your Hardware below) and the sound produced depends entirely on the quality of the sound samples on the synth's database. (Some synthesizers are purely in software. These and some of their hardware counterparts make use of sound files called "sound fonts.") In addition, the making (called "sequencing") of an outstanding MIDI file is not a trivial endeavor and only a limited number of people have truly mastered this art. Since sequencing software allows almost anyone to make a MIDI file fairly easily, there is a large number of MIDI files out there that are less than ideally produced.

MIDI, as a medium, is usually not the first choice of classical music listeners: too many MIDI files sound "tinny" and make for rather poor performances (to be charitable) as compared with that of audio files containing live recordings of gifted musicians on real instruments. MIDI however, when used by a true sequencing master, can and does offer a wonderful listening experience. In addition, MIDI has two notable redeeming features: the files are very small compared to those of audio recordings (even after compression) and they can, in many cases, be used to generate a useful score while using the appropriate software The quality of a MIDI rendition also depends a lot on the synthesizer you use. And both audio and MIDI renditions are best played through a good audio amplifier and speakers

Mostly MIDI files there are, but you can find MP3 files also.

e.g., you can find some "Live Rec" ones here..

http://www.classicalarchives.com/schubert_hl.html

OH! They (the classical archives website) have a musical appreciation guide for beginners like myself. I'm gonna do exactly what they say to do - begin with older works they suggest and try to listen for differences in sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, form between pieces from different eras. splendid! just what i needed!

hmmm....i tried downloading overture and one aria from the Magic Flute and it only saved 2 seconds of each... why? grrrrr

If you choose [Live Rec], it is a file for Windows Media Player. In that case you may be check out the setting of WMP.
Otherwise, I do not think downloading MIDI files has a problem (at least in my case).

it worked with free play.... it seems those two hi-fi mp3 files were corrupted, the next file i downloaded (Robert Muczynski) is downloading ok.

Just listening to Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death and hey! it's in russian! hurrah, finally an opera i actually understand!

(FYI: Songs and Dances of Death is not an opera.)

uhmmm, that's quite ok by me. i don't claim to know a thing. it can be a trash metal for all i care, i still like it. :-)

Probably my favorite Russian opera is Rimsky-Korsakov's The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya. It's sort of what you get when you put Weber's Der Freischutz in Russia.

The opera is quite beautiful if it is produced well. The story is a fantasy based (loosely) on the life of a real German writher (E.T.W. Hoffman). The libretto is laced with a few semi-hidden Yiddish jokes by Offenbach. A color film of the Opera was made about 45 years ago by the then Sadler Welles Ballet of London, which you may still be able to find in stores. (The same company also made the well-known film "The Red Shoes".)

There are several very good complete recordings readily available. Beautiful music, with many wonderful themes in addition to the Barcarolle.

You are certainly correct that E.T.A. Hoffmann was origianally named Ernst Theodor Wilhelm and onyl later changed his prenames to Ernst Theodor Amadeus to show his love for Mozart - but he's generally known as ETA Hoffmann and really THE writer of the (German) romantic period :wink:

You most surely know, George, that Luther's tavern in Nuremberg (E.T.A. Hoffmann's favourite haunt) ...



.... actually in reality is Lutter & Wegner, located Berlin

Thanks Walter. The first scene Offenbach's the opera is set in this tavern, (The photo shows a modern upscale restaurant - the stage version is understandably different) I read Hoffman's stories as a young man while at the Naval Academy. I am certain (as much as memory can be certain) that the volumes referred to him as E.T.W. Hoffman. Interesting anecdote.

opera
i don't have any particular kind of music that is an absolute must for me, but mrs h and i have a performer who for us was the outstanding singer of operas, operettas and lieder :
...FRITZ WUNDERLICH...

he passed away much too early !
we feel lucky to have some of his lp's and cd's (re-mastered). no matter what he sings , it's always an experience to hear his soft yet full voice.
we have a three cd-set that we particularly enjoy; it was issued by EMI and is simply called :
'der grosse deutsche tenor...fritz wunderlich...the great german tenor'
the repertoire starts with : don giovanni , goes on to martha, the merry wives of windsor, eugen onegin, pique dame and ends with 'dark eyes' .

no matter what time of day, summer or winter, his voice always instills a certain 'lebenslust ' - a love for life. hbg

...more about 'fritz wunderlich'...