Sexy Classical Music
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Eva_Yojimbo — 10 years ago(August 09, 2015 10:44 AM)
I'm talking (mostly) about classical musicians you think are sexy, but feel free to post any actual classical music you think is sexy as well.
It would be an interesting experiment to try to time a love making session to the steadily building climax of Bolero.
aaahmemories
: Trolls are just fascists with keyboards. -
Jill-McBain — 10 years ago(October 07, 2015 06:49 AM)
No offense, please. I apologize in advance. And this is not meant as any judgement on you in any way. I just really really really dislike Wagner.
I am sorry, it's Wagner and it's impossible for me to associate this with sex. Or at least good sex. If anything, it's sex that goes bad. Either the woman is still lying there and waiting for him to be done. Imagine going through this, both as a woman and a man, like in 'A Fish Called Wanda', where Jamie Lee Curtis breaks into John Cleese's house and pretends she was hot for him, whereas in reality she wants to find out what her victim's next move will be, since Cleese is the lawyer of her victim. And there she lies, barely enduring it.
Or the man is not fully functional although he tries and tries and tries so hard. Imagine having to endure this, too. That's what Wagner sounds like to me.
The dancers were good, though. -
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Jill-McBain — 10 years ago(October 07, 2015 07:42 AM)
Rachmaninov.
Pure sensuality. I posted already the third piano concerto with Martha Argerich to the board. I also love Lang Lang's interpretation, but Argerich is more intense.
I just don't know yet which interpretation of the second piano concerto I should post to here.
Sexy?
(1)
Some of Tchaikowski and Schumann. Especially his piano concerto.
Beethoven, certainly. And some of Mozart. I haven't yet decided what to post to here.
Liszt also comes to mind and Chopin.
There are soooo many.
(1)
ETA: '
Sexy
' encloses both sexual and sensual for me in this context. [/ETA] -
fud-slush — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 06:26 AM)
Rachmaninov? Mmm, sex perhaps, but via a Hallmark greetings card. I love the 2nd concerto too, but for me the big tune in the 3rd movement is more a monument to the joys or pains of being in love, or romance, rather than simple humping. I think I'd feel a bit self-conscious with that in the background& given that it's all over in half an hour it doesn't leave that much time for pre-pump exploration. Wagner gives you 4 nights worth per opera!
Another Schumann PC lover - I just don't get it. I listened to it again the other night - some nice bars for sure, but many tedious or embarrassing ones, & to me it could never be
sexy
, just representative of a rather prim & prudish form of romantic attachmentif that.
Thinking about it, I'm not sure I find any classical music 'sexy'& for me, sensual & sexual should always be given their respective independence; I'd reserve 'sexy' for funk or maybe some upbeat jazz -
fontinau — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 07:37 AM)
Jazz if often sexy, but I'm pretty sure funk is always merely sexual.
Mozart is the sexiest music ever (when he wants it to be). I mean, there's a reason why his is the definitive version of the Don Juan story, surpassing even Moliere's magnificent play and even (slightly) Byron's poem.
Chopin is the second sexiest music ever (when he wants it to be). Oh boy, fud is going to
love
that one. -
Eva_Yojimbo — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 10:53 AM)
Mozart is the sexiest music ever (when he wants it to be). I mean, there's a reason why his is the definitive version of the Don Juan story
Would his be the definitive version without the entirely un-sexy Commendatore finale, though?
aaahmemories
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Eva_Yojimbo — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 12:11 PM)
Personally, I've always thought the ending is what took Don G. from being a musical masterpiece to being an artistic masterpiece (ie, a work I have no problem putting in the pantheon of all the arts). It's the one intentionally designed "sublime/transcendental" moment in all of Mozart, though he has plenty on a smaller, more human scale.
As for an alternate ending: Don G. being killed in a duel with a jealous husband?
aaahmemories
: Trolls are just fascists with keyboards. -
fontinau — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 12:21 PM)
It's the one intentionally designed "sublime/transcendental" moment in all of Mozart
Assuming we're limiting ourselves to the operas, I'd say the trial scene in
The Magic Flute
unquestionably counts - and arguably so does something like the forgiving at the end of
The Marriage of Figaro
(arguable only because that's a sublimification of the apparently mundane).
I suspect the climax of
DG
may actually be the least great in Mozart's four mature operas (which is of course no shame) - it's certainly the most spectacular, but maybe also has the least going on under the surface.
As for an alternate ending: Don G. being killed in a duel with a jealous husband?
Kind of an anti-climax, no? Wait, maybe I've got it: Let's take anti-climax to the level of travesty and end it with G. being arrested by the cops that Don O. goes to call after "Il mio tesoro" and who accompany our heroes into his house at the end. -
Eva_Yojimbo — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 12:40 PM)
Ultimately this would come down to semantics, but I typically think of the sublime/transcendental as the otherworldly intruding on the worldly. Figaro takes place wholly in the worldly, Flute in the otherworldly; so those moments, as great as they are, have a very different vibe than the DG finale.
As for the quality of the finale, we had a similar disagreement over NGE. For me, when you've built up a work with plenty of substance and subtlety, it's fine to go for the spectacular in the finale. The finale of DG may be a bit superficial compared to the other operas, but I think it has a much greater visceral impact.
Let's take anti-climax to the level of travesty and end it with G. being arrested by the cops that Don O. goes to call after "Il mio tesoro" and who accompany our heroes into his house at the end.
Ha!
aaahmemories
: Trolls are just fascists with keyboards. -
fontinau — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 12:54 PM)
Far be it from me to ever say anything against going for spectacle - I'd just rather have depth under the spectacle too.
re DG, I think there may also be less going on under the surface through the rest of the opera, compared to the other big three.
re Eva - I do think there's a falling off starting in episode 21 at the latest - including the movies - but as it happens, I think Big Momma Rei may be both the most spectacular moment in the movies and the deepest they ever get. -
Eva_Yojimbo — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 03:10 PM)
I'm not entirely sure there isn't depth there as well. At the very least, it's provoked more philosophical thought than any opera by anyone not named Wagner. As for the rest having less going on, I'd strongly disagree as you rarely have a moment of that opera where there aren't multiple moods/perspectives being played out simultaneously in the music, and that's not an easy thing. In Figaro, Cosi, and Flute I find that the character, thematic, and tonal conflicts are usually kept clearly separate and delineated (except in the finales). Not that DG's method is inherently better, but I do think it makes for a much more layered work as there's more to turn your attention to at any given moment. I also think that makes the Commendatore finale stick out even more as you have this monotone, transcendental being stepping into one of the work's most chaotically silly moments.
I think you know my opinion that the film and series' ending is as profound as the work gets; the film certainly is on a cinematic/symbolic level as it has to coherently bring together every motif/theme the series has developed, and it does so in a way that every image is crammed with meaning; something I've never seen done in any other film/series, actually (those that do use symbolism tend to keep it on a much simpler level).
aaahmemories
: Trolls are just fascists with keyboards. -
fontinau — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 05:28 PM)
As for the rest having less going on, I'd strongly disagree as you rarely have a moment of that opera where there aren't multiple moods/perspectives being played out simultaneously in the music, and that's not an easy thing. In Figaro, Cosi, and Flute I find that the character, thematic, and tonal conflicts are usually kept clearly separate and delineated (except in the finales).
I'd say DG is inferior to the others in exactly that respect, and not just in the finales but in ensembles such as "Soll ich dich Teurer," "Fra gli amplessi," and well, Christ, it's hard to think of a number involving more than one singer in
Figaro
that
isn't
a psychological panoply - "Cosa sento," "Crudel! perché fin'ora," "Riconosci in questo amplesso."
Inferior partly because, for whatever reason, nobody in DG actually develops - they're either worn down by the action (DA, DE) or not (everybody else; even Leporello emerges only shaken, not essentially damaged), and that's it - and nobody except Don G. is really individuated - Susanna is a person, Zerlina is merely a force of nature; Basilio is a debased man, Leporello is merely a hollow man. -
fontinau — 10 years ago(October 08, 2015 08:03 PM)
Man, maybe I
don't
think Mozart's DG is better than Byron's DJ.
Figaro
and
Flute
are greater than Byron's masterpiece, though, that's for sure - no disrespect intended to the man who came closer than any other to rescuing the English language from Shakespeare. -
Eva_Yojimbo — 10 years ago(October 09, 2015 09:20 AM)
rescuing the English language from Shakespeare.
Firstly: exaggerate much? Byron's "language" is probably the least interesting thing about him (his wonderful humor and narrative form the best).
Second: "Rescuing?" If anything, the English language needs rescuing from Shakespeare's followers who debased the language through their comparative ineptitude (Milton excepted).
aaahmemories
: Trolls are just fascists with keyboards. -
fontinau — 10 years ago(October 09, 2015 09:56 AM)
Where's the exaggeration? Except for possibly Milton, Byron's probably the single least eccentric choice you could make for the designation of the greatest English language poet since Shakespeare.
If Shakespeare didn't use the English language better than everybody else, it wouldn't need saving from him, it would either need saving from somebody else or not need saving at all.