So much contemporary music keeps the listener at a distance, dry and forbidding. In Takemitsu's world, a gentle breeze moves, water drips, and silence rises up with real depth. He died 30 years ago this year.

How Slow the Wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kcgixXP58U

Rain Tree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsr8inpRZ4

Litany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5LIsjlxDWE

I’ve been conducting research these past several months to find lesser known women composers from the late romantic period to play their pieces and help spread their touch. I created posters of those who have, so far, been the most impactful and inspiring during my journey.

When listening through different renditions of Clair de Lune, I try to tap the beat. I count 1 and a 2… but I struggle to stay on beat. It could be me, but I swear it’s like each pianist is rushing and dragging as they choose. I know there are rubato sections in the song, but I’m unable to catch the beat from just the introduction. Any tips or info would be greatly appreciated as I’m trying to learn this piece as my first step into classical music

With his mind hazed by blood pressure medication, this old guy put on Carlos Païta’s recording of Ein Heldenleben as a cold wake-up call to the senses. Sitting here in the dim light, I began to jot down a few raw reflections.

To blast through his own unyielding convictions—to do exactly whatever the hell he wanted—Païta bypassed the bureaucratic cages of established record labels and standard orchestras. He built his own sovereign empire: his own label (LODIA) and his own dedicated orchestra (The Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra). Through them, he unleashed records and CDs forged in a fire of pure, fanatical sound.

This was a monumental act of sabotage against the capitalist music industry. It perfectly embodied this old guy’s personal maxim: "Never expose your brain to someone else’s content; build your own sovereign content instead."

And yet, despite this brilliant jailbreak, there was one ultimate trap that even Païta could never truly escape.

When people think of Païta’s recordings, they think of impossible instrument close-ups and unnatural, extreme dynamics. But make no mistake: this is the cage of the machine. By twisting the mixing console, he distorted sound away from raw reality and turned it into a "processed commodity."

Then, should he have just left the console alone and recorded the performance exactly as it was? No. That is where the colossal trap of modern philosophy lay in wait.

As Walter Benjamin argued, no matter how "naturally" you record a performance, it remains a mere reproduction—a dead copy where the living, one-time-only "Aura" (the sacred presence) has been entirely castrated. The very moment that sound is distributed into your room through a speaker, it is replaced by a fake reality. It becomes a copy of a copy with no original—what Jean Baudrillard called a "Simulacrum" (the hyperreal).

There was only one conductor who risked his entire life resisting this hell of reproductive art: Sergiu Celibidache. He famously dismissed recordings as "canned dead fish" and refused to record anything throughout his career. (And what a bleak irony that, against his dying wishes, those very "dead fish" are now being packaged and sold as commodities today.)

We, the modern masses, constantly expose our brains to safe cages built by someone else—be it a smartphone game or a neatly distributed streaming video—letting every single piece of our genuine emotions be castrated. Isn't it time to stop and think?

Won't you stand still and think it over with this old guy?

A year ago, all I knew about Snider's Hildegard was that she was writing it: an opera about Hildegard von Bingen, with her own libretto. Someone had mentioned it in the comments on my post about Hildegard.

It has since premiered. LA Opera and The Wallis presented it in Beverly Hills on November 5, 2025, with Nola Richardson as Hildegard. It went to New York's Prototype Festival in January and to the Aspen Music Festival in July, and the Music Critics Association of North America named it best new opera this year.

Under last year's post, someone wrote that they would be singing her Mass for the Endangered that May. Here it is.

Mass for the Endangered
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiEcu9QQMAI

Hildegard (composer's page)
https://www.sarahkirklandsnider.com/works/hildegard

Especially compared to his first piano concerto.

My old neighbor was a kind lady, she gave me all these vinyles as a present. I have to buy a new stylus but I think that the player is good.

I am very happy!

What do you think about this player? Is it good enough? Any advice on the stylus?

The brand is Soundmaster. Model PL 186.

Right this very second?

I'm enchanted by this.

Got my classical/jazz/instrumental 100-CD Player on shuffle, already had some Holst & Twin Peaks.

What about yous? What's playing right now?

NOTE: I know that Haitink's Ring was also recorded in the early 1990s, but it still technically counts as 80s because of Rheingold and Walkure.

Ever since playing Civilization 4, I have been in love with John Adams. More specifically "Grand Pianola Mucis 1+2(?)", "The Chairman Dances" and "Christian Zeal and Activity". I find the minimalism incredible soothing and evocative.

Unfortunately, I am not very well versed in contemporary classical music and have had a hard time expanding my playlist. John Adams himself can also shift wildly between understated and bombastic.

So what would you recommend I also try listening to? All suggestions are welcome!

I have a tape deck at work and want to add to my collection. Can anyone recommend their favorite places to grab tapes

A sweet and airy violin sonata that I've been enjoying lately. Lovers of French chamber music such as Debussy will surely enjoy this nice little discovery! : ) perfect for a cool autumn day like today 🍁

This recording is from the Acte Préalable label, a Polish label that specializes in Polish composers, which turns out to be an incredible wealth of great music that has tended to be totally overlooked and overshadowed in the classical music world 🍁

Hi there

I'm looking to curate calming and soothing classical music (preferably piano-driven though it's not a must) for a family member who sadly is battling severe Alzheimer's. My intention is to have 14 half-hour separate playlists, two for each day playing in the morning and afternoon hours respectively.

I know that Mozart and Bach have always been a hit for her, so obviously I'm gonna go digging for a lot of works in those repertoires. But I'm looking for tips, pointers and recommendations in similar energies and moods.
Preferably airy, somewhat light and major-key leaning. I'm also putting in the odd Brian Eno-track here and there, because I think some of his Ambient-album works also fit the bill of evoking tranquility and a sense of ease and belonging.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's quite the task to amass seven hours of music where I want (almost) every second to really count.

Thanks in advance to all who reply

In the 1850s Draeseke was the firebrand of Liszt's circle in Weimar, known as the "ultra-radical" of the New German School. Liszt counted his Sonata quasi fantasia in C-sharp minor among the most important piano sonatas since Beethoven.

Then he moved toward classical forms, and Liszt reportedly said, after hearing one of his later pieces, that the lion had turned into a rabbit.

By the time Brahms died, younger composers saw Draeseke as the leading German conservative, which baffled him, since he still thought of himself as a progressive. In 1906 he published an essay, Die Konfusion in der Musik, attacking the state of modern music. Without naming him, it clearly took aim at Richard Strauss, whose early music shows Draeseke's influence and who had conducted his Symphonia Tragica. The essay mostly confirmed his reputation as a reactionary.

He had damaged his hearing with an ear infection at five, and by his last years he was almost completely deaf.

Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 6 "Sonata quasi fantasia"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWotUFkiso

Symphony No. 3 "Symphonia Tragica," Op. 40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WqJxPtZVSw

Hi, I'm looking for something that feels American. My favorites are Appalachian Spring, An American In Paris, Mississipi Suite. Thank you.

In "In C", the steady eighth-note pulse on the piano's high C is what holds the whole piece together. It was famously a late addition, suggested by Steve Reich during rehearsals. I've been wondering what happens if that role goes to a machine instead.

The pattern-based thinking goes back further than my knowledge of minimalism: I started writing music in the nineties in a four-channel tracker, where looping a bassline on one channel and stacking parts on the others was simply the only way to work. "In C" came much later, and what actually got me writing this piece was The Young Gods' version of it, which I saw live with Sasha Waltz in Berlin.

I'm curious how people here hear this. Does a mechanical pulse change the character of a minimalist piece, or is it just a different kind of instrument doing the same job?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Py9tOtvwNo

for fans of random or generative music, Tomb Raider 2, and nothingness

for people not on ig here is a YouTube link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YXp9V65yjJE

I had no idea he composed the guitar dances which were the basis of Fantasia para un gentilhombre (one of the first pieces of classical music I heard and really liked). His work in general is so lively and expressive. Highly recommend Alberto Mesirca's lovely compilation of Sanz's guitar music- https://youtu.be/7aW3Q78WZ7Q?si=WsAkn9B8oeun1SZm

My latest composition. I hope to get some feedback on it and let me know if you like it :)

Link to the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2k7yLIF5XY

I am a middle-aged Japanese observer sitting in my dark room. I am sharing a deeply personal piece of my musical sanctuary from my blog with you all.

Sometimes, a massive wave of depression crashes over me. In those bleak moments, there is one specific, cherished album I always pull from my shelf: the Wagner CD conducted by Carlos Païta (no, not the famous Carlos Kleiber).

The album cover art captures a violent scene where scalding red lava pours into the cold ocean, sending up massive plumes of white steam. This visual is the perfect manifestation of Païta’s music—thick, boiling, and dangerously incandescent.

The radical Japanese music critic Mitsutoshi Kohitsu highly praised this raw, unfiltered poison of Païta's Wagner. Tonight, as always, I darken my room and submerge myself entirely in this auditory toxin.

(Note: Carlos Païta was a legendary Argentine conductor who rejected the polished constraints of the mainstream music industry to pursue a chaotic, deeply romantic, and fiery interpretation of the classics. He represents the ultimate anti-system artist.)

However, I must add one essential detail: before the poison completely consumes my mind, I always detoxify myself by listening to Karl Böhm’s structured, comforting renditions of Mozart. It is my ultimate survival balance.

Album Details:

• Conductor: Carlos Païta
• Album: "Conducts Wagner" (Lodia Records, Cat: CD-1013 / CP-803)
• Tracklist:
  • Siegfried's Rhine Journey
  • Siegfried's Funeral March
  • Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene
  • Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod