Really? I think they're pretty boring and I have trouble seeing what makes them so special. And this may be a stupid question but what does ambient music mean? music you put in the background to create a certain atmosphere but that you don't really listen to closely?

Stuff I've been listening to recently
_Dutilleux, Sonatina for flute and piano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUo2lcpeFrQ
Awesome stuff. I can't believe he rejected that work. I'm beginning to like Dutilleux more and more, probably my favourite classical composer of the second half of the 20th century. What I particularly like is that he incorporates his experiments (this piece isn't particularly experimental) into more accomplished works, doesn't just throw you some horribly hermetic work and lets you deal with it.
_Elgar, Cello Concerto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFz6C8dtx4k (1st movement, sound quality isn't very good, and it's not Maisky's version).
I don't why, but the fact that it's English makes it even better.
_Rimsky Korsakov, Scheherazade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR36PRgB ... re=related
Accessible and evocative
_Brahms, Cello Sonata no.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-6B8_Jj-o

Came across Maxwell Davies' Eight songs for a mad king : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV35uha6rrQ (don't know what to say really)

I also went to two concerts, Ashkenazy directing Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony and 3rd Piano Concerto (with Lugansky on piano, perhaps a little too detached from what he is playing, but technically astounding) ; and Bartok's 3rd Piano COncerto and Brahms' 4th Symphony (mixed surprisingly well together, can't remember who was playing and conducting, had never listened to Bartok before at all).

i find most performances of the gymnopedies boring, too, unfortunately, but they're great pieces... i really grew to appreciate them by playing them... and i think they require a very special touch and most artists that i've heard, even world-famous virtuosos, have failed in their interpretations imo.

gnossiennes >>> gymnopedies

3 Morceaux en forme de poire > whatever else

If the 2nd is more technically difficult than the 3rd, I would agree.

Yup, I already obtained the 2nd and love it. I've been loving Liszt and Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos. Brahms too lately.

I'm also not a huge fan of symphonies. I love some of them, but to me they're more inconsistent compared to Concertos and Chamber Works, which are normally always pretty entertaining.

I'm wanting to check out more French composers (Ravel, Gounod, Faure, Massenet, Bizet etc) and some more Italian opera guys (I've mainly only checked out Verdi). I'll come around to it soon.

Ravel and Faure are both great. Gounod's Romeo and Juliet Opera is the only work of his I've heard and I wasn't a big fan. I'm not as familiar with the last two.

speaking of ravel, i've been listening to "daphnis et chloe" recently and loving it... even makes me want to see the ballet

I just listened to this like five times in a row. It is absolutely beautiful! I shall check out more of this composer, any recs would be nice though I'll definitely search for this recording first.

Beethoven's 3rd (Eroica) symphony.. it's overtaken the fifth as my favorite of his

Anna-Sophia Mutter's latest recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. This time around she performs with the world famous Trondheim Soloists. A much different interpretation than you're used to.

Much much different than her famous version she did with the great Herbert Von Karajan which was in much more traditional but that typical Karajan teutonic heavyness. This one is refreshing and modern. She rejuvenates a work that has been wworn out in the chamber repertories.

Check it out


PS: I still think prodigy Julia Fisher's dvd version recorded with the impeccable Academy of St. Martin in the Fields about 10 years ago is top shelf for now.

I'm more or less discovering him at the moment too. Check out his first piano sonata.

Loving Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos and Haydn's String Quartets as of late. Also Massenet's operas.

haveta do a project on indeterminate music so i listened to john cage's sonatas and interludes. cant say after listening to MDTF the last couple days that i was too thrilled about listing to this but some of the music here was pretty interesting. If i had to pinpoint favorites, I would say Sonata X or second interlude.

I think I love Puccini.