Suara Parahiangan Group - Degung Sabilulungan - Sundanese Music of West Java; Vol 2 [1995]

So first post today is a Gamelan post.For all of you who don't know Gamelan is the classical music of Indonesia which has no relation with the western classical we all hear. This genre has a very different rhythm form and musical scale among many others, instruments used are mostly percussion instruments hand drums, cymbals and countless chromatic percussion instruments (mostly stuff that resembles xylophones, marimbas, etc...), sometimes vocals are also used, like classical music many styles exist (mostly based on region not era though).I have very few information about this release in particular, only know this is a recording of a group lead by Ujang Suryana who is a famous suling player, being the suling a kind of flute/oboe thing.
This lack of information is due to Gamelan being sacred and almost propriety of the Indonesian government so all recording of true Gamelan have to be licensed and most performances are closed to the general public. Anyways this is one more weird release I show you, but this time it is truly weird trust me, this is nothing you ever heard before (unless you know the genre already).

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Jean Sibelius - Symphonic Poem 'Finlandia', Op. 26

So the view count for the Dusek symphony suggests that my audience have either forgotten about Court In The Act or don't give a shit about classical. TOO FUCKING BAD. This is another beautiful piece of classical music, in a somewhat more stylistically simple manner than most classical. Particularly towards the latter half of the piece, there is a repeated gallant motif which sounds quite appropriate for a 'symphonic poem' - certainly major key, it counteracts the relatively moody beginning of the piece rather well. Again, this piece is rather bombastic, but this is typical of the later Romantic period that Sibelius played a rather key part in. Indeed, Sibelius' music is so beautiful that they named a compositional program after him. This is one of the pieces of classical music that simply must be heard in one's life.

217 kbps VBR

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František Xaver Dušek - Symphony In G Major, Altner G2

N.B. This post is tagged with the year of his death as I cannot find any information about when exactly the symphony was written. František Xaver Dušek was a Czech composer, who despite writing his music mainly in the Baroque era, mainly wrote in a Classical style, something which is clear to see (well, hear) here. That's not to say that he didn't take influence from the bourgeoning canon of his contemporaries; one can also clearly hear the kind of jangly stringed instruments that wouldn't be a surprise in a Vivaldi composition. However, the main influence was a Classical one, and this led to the work here, which is surprisingly bombastic for a pre-Romantic work. It's also rather short - at only 20-something minutes long it should be rather appealing to those who can't stomach 40+ minutes of classical at once (and I know you're not alone if you fit this description). An underrated and excellent composer.

192 kbps

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Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Concerto Alla Rustica [1725]

The opening melody to this, one of the most highly praised, and indeed best, pieces of classical of music of all time, is one of the sounds of my childhood - whenever the TV adverts came on, it seemed that Messrs. Dolmio were using it to wax lyrical about their tomato sauce. Now, I'm sure Dolmio's sauce is very nice, but I'm sure it does not match up to the beauty here.

320 kbps

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Gabriel Fauré - Requiem [1890]

This is the one piece of choral music that I have found to my liking. And it is superb - it builds atmosphere in a way that is almost untrue, such is Fauré's mastery of tonality and dynamicism. I'll add here that the artwork is not correct - I have no idea who is on this sound recording (I believe that this makes this a legal download, as it is not possible to find the copyright owner).

160 kbps

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Gustav Mahler - Symphony #1 In D ('Titan') [1888]

In direct contrast to the noisegrind I just posted, Mahler's first symphony is one of my favourite pieces of classical music - his use of dynamics is astounding. This is an excellent recording (once again, I'm not sure who by), and it's recommended to anyone.

320 kbps

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Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus - Piano Concerto #24 [1786]

I didn't mention in my last post, aside from in the labels, that Mozart (the child prodigy, not his less successful father or sister) was a major player (obviously) in the classical era of what is now known as classical music (before that, it was essentially just 'music' in the western world).

320 kbps

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Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus - Piano Concerto #23 [1786]

Despite enjoying classical music a fair bit, I'm not at all knowledgeable about it. I have lost the name of the performer, and indeed date of performance, for this one, but it's a flawless rendition as far as I can tell.

320 kbps

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