Feelgood classical works

[Serial_Apologist]

Agreed. I tend to think that piece has a kind of Romantic yearning ('Sehnsucht').

The movement in question quotes heavily from Wagner's "Siegfrieds Idyll" - and though Mahler was unequalled for conveying irony, up to that point in musical history, I don't think he would have been that subtle as to wish to "invert" the spirit of generosity imbued in the latter. And one could afford such generosity if one had a staircase large enough to accommodate a small orchestra, of course!

[kernelbogey]

Too much analysis on this thread!....

Aaah, so, Herr Cloughie: maybe, I am wondering, did your parents dislike analysis...?

[kernelbogey]

The movement in question quotes heavily from Wagner's "Siegfrieds Idyll" - and though Mahler was unequalled for conveying irony, up to that point in musical history, I don't think he would have been that subtle as to wish to "invert" the spirit of generosity imbued in the latter. And one could afford such generosity if one had a staircase large enough to accommodate a small orchestra, of course!

Actually I wouldn't listen to the Mahler or the Brahms movement in those circumstances: I was (clumsily) referring to a way in which music is now sometimes viewed - cf Terjerker et al).

[cloughie]

Aaah, so, Herr Cloughie: maybe, I am wondering, did your parents dislike analysis...?

On the contrary, but I rebelled!

[jayne lee wilson]

The movement in question quotes heavily from Wagner's "Siegfrieds Idyll" - and though Mahler was unequalled for conveying irony, up to that point in musical history, I don't think he would have been that subtle as to wish to "invert" the spirit of generosity imbued in the latter. And one could afford such generosity if one had a staircase large enough to accommodate a small orchestra, of course!

I must say I never noticed the Wagner references in the Mahler adagietto, as to me the most obvious similarity is to the great song Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, suggesting (like the lyric there) an inner-world retreat from the mortal, quotidian and pastoral activity of the 5th's first three movements.
Surely (as Mengelberg revealed) it then becomes an impassioned love song for Alma, reaching out from one inner world to another. The same theme occurs in varied form (famously, or infamously - for Otto Klemperer at least...) as the 2nd subject of the 6th Symphony's first movement - explicitly the "Alma" theme there.

In the 5th of course, the main adagietto theme returns as the finale's 2nd subject. In both the 5th and 6th, this theme plays a leading role in the build-up to the final triumphant climaxes (5(v) and 6 (i)).....

So, as is written on the score of the 10th....
"To live for you, to die for you, Almschi!"

[bluestateprommer]

When I read other people's suggestions, I realise I don't really like feelgood music

Are you sure about that? I ask because of works like these that I would classify as "feelgood" classical selections, which I'm surprised no one seems to have mentioned:

1. Schubert: "Trout" Quintet (IMVHO, the ultimate expression of good/'feelgood' spirits in chamber music)
2. Ravel: String Quartet in F
3. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23
4. Gershwin: An American in Paris

On the more offbeat path:
5. Prokofiev: A Summer Day Suite
6. Josef Suk: Serenade for Strings (if only for its very beginning)

[Serial_Apologist]

Are you sure about that? I ask because of works like these that I would classify as "feelgood" classical selections, which I'm surprised no one seems to have mentioned:

1. Schubert: "Trout" Quintet (IMVHO, the ultimate expression of good/'feelgood' spirits in chamber music)
2. Ravel: String Quartet in F
3. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23
4. Gershwin: An American in Paris

On the more offbeat path:
5. Prokofiev: A Summer Day Suite
6. Josef Suk: Serenade for Strings (if only for its very beginning)

What is "feelgood" music must be very subjective, because I find listening to quite a lot of "difficult" modernist music makes me feel good for having managed to "suss" it, and "get" what it is saying to us.

[LMcD]

Just about anything non-operatic by Mozart makes me feel good (I have all sorts of problems with the conventions of opera, but luckily Wolfgang Amadeus composed plenty of other works to keep me happy and inspire me - symphonies, concertos, sonatas, duos, trios, quartets and quintets - there's so much to enjoy!)

[oddoneout]

I don't think I "do" feelgood music as such. If I am choosing a CD to listen to the choice might be influenced by how I am feeling at that time, but not in a "this'll make me feel happier/better" kind of way. However there are very very many pieces of music, complete or parts thereof, which make the world seem a better place. They are not all on the "happy" spectrum by any means - the closing of St Matthew Passion, heard last night on the EBU music for Holy Week is one such.
Even before Covid my live music participation opportunities were limited, but again the feelgood factor was as much to do with mastering something and feeling a good job had been done as the music itself.

[Padraig]

The final movement of Bach's English Suite No 4, Gigue, always gave me a lift. It is intrinsically bright in its opening bars and maintains the pace throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUl5cpYtUA0

I also mention it because Mozart has a piano sonata with a final movement of a similar beginning, and one of my admired jazz pieces kicks off with that same motif. (I refer to Bourbon Street Parade). So, joy all around.

[Serial_Apologist]

These days I'm listening to all my Bax recordings, and surprised at how much enjoyment I'm deriving from them. Bax is one of those composers whom one thinks of as having his own immediately distinctive voice, but who, when examined or listened to more closely, magpied to build his nest from whatever sources proved compatible. By the end of the First Symphony (1922) I've been hearing Wagner, Vaughan Williams, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Elgar, even Mahler. More intriguing is how after that final definitive E flat major chord I was compelled to dash to the piano, and carry on improvising, using the E flat as launching pad, pretty much in the same vein. If the truth be known, there is a lot of "Bax harmony" in jazz - which is the same as saying Bax loved to wreathe a stretched out ballad-type tune in lush harmonies derived from Delius in particular. Such harmonies quickly became no-no's to the generation of modernists in reaction against Impressionism in the post WW1 period. Whether not not Bax liked jazz tends not to be explicit in any of his own music; however, there are passages, such as the one in alternating major and minor versions of the same key in the slow movement, which follows a short passage of martial kettle drum beats, and which unavoidably evoke blues music. At another point he seems to anticipate Gershwin - except, of course, there is a lot of Delius - as well as the pumped-up Debussy one had heard, effectively showcased, in The Garden of Fand, which surely has to be Bax's homage to La mer. Knowing Bax's weakness for self-dramatisation, and those over-sweet melodies that can turn his more reflective works into a musical overdose of sherry trifle, like Delius's, can provide a useful check on one's own tendencies in this direction!

[Roslynmuse]

These days I'm listening to all my Bax recordings, and surprised at how much enjoyment I'm deriving from them. Bax is one of those composers whom one thinks of as having his own immediately distinctive voice, but who, when examined or listened to more closely, magpied to build his nest from whatever sources proved compatible. By the end of the First Symphony (1922) I've been hearing Wagner, Vaughan Williams, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Elgar, even Mahler. More intriguing is how after that final definitive E flat major chord I was compelled to dash to the piano, and carry on improvising, using the E flat as launching pad, pretty much in the same vein. If the truth be known, there is a lot of "Bax harmony" in jazz - which is the same as saying Bax loved to wreathe a stretched out ballad-type tune in lush harmonies derived from Delius in particular. Such harmonies quickly became no-no's to the generation of modernists in reaction against Impressionism in the post WW1 period. Whether not not Bax liked jazz tends not to be explicit in any of his own music; however, there are passages, such as the one in alternating major and minor versions of the same key in the slow movement, which follows a short passage of martial kettle drum beats, and which unavoidably evoke blues music. At another point he seems to anticipate Gershwin - except, of course, there is a lot of Delius - as well as the pumped-up Debussy one had heard, effectively showcased, in The Garden of Fand, which surely has to be Bax's homage to La mer. Knowing Bax's weakness for self-dramatisation, and those over-sweet melodies that can turn his more reflective works into a musical overdose of sherry trifle, like Delius's, can provide a useful check on one's own tendencies in this direction!

If you don't know it already, have a listen to the last minute or so of the Bax Clarinet Sonata where there is an uncanny premonition of Bess, You Is My Woman Now! (I think the sonata predates Porgy by three or four years.)

[cloughie]

These days I'm listening to all my Bax recordings, and surprised at how much enjoyment I'm deriving from them. Bax is one of those composers whom one thinks of as having his own immediately distinctive voice, but who, when examined or listened to more closely, magpied to build his nest from whatever sources proved compatible. By the end of the First Symphony (1922) I've been hearing Wagner, Vaughan Williams, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Elgar, even Mahler. More intriguing is how after that final definitive E flat major chord I was compelled to dash to the piano, and carry on improvising, using the E flat as launching pad, pretty much in the same vein. If the truth be known, there is a lot of "Bax harmony" in jazz - which is the same as saying Bax loved to wreathe a stretched out ballad-type tune in lush harmonies derived from Delius in particular. Such harmonies quickly became no-no's to the generation of modernists in reaction against Impressionism in the post WW1 period. Whether not not Bax liked jazz tends not to be explicit in any of his own music; however, there are passages, such as the one in alternating major and minor versions of the same key in the slow movement, which follows a short passage of martial kettle drum beats, and which unavoidably evoke blues music. At another point he seems to anticipate Gershwin - except, of course, there is a lot of Delius - as well as the pumped-up Debussy one had heard, effectively showcased, in The Garden of Fand, which surely has to be Bax's homage to La mer. Knowing Bax's weakness for self-dramatisation, and those over-sweet melodies that can turn his more reflective works into a musical overdose of sherry trifle, like Delius's, can provide a useful check on one's own tendencies in this direction!

The strange thing about Bax is that overall there is little to dislike and I can listen to it with no difficulty but Tintagel always remains my ‘go to’ piece. There will no doubt those hereabouts that find it over exposed (then that bit of N Cornwall is) but for me it is still 60 or so years after I first heard the Decca LPO Boult recording, a masterpiece.

[gradus]

Ravel in orchestral garb; Rhapsodie Espagnole, Mother Goose, Le Tombeau de Couperin all buck me up.

[cloughie]

Ravel in orchestral garb; Rhapsodie Espagnole, Mother Goose, Le Tombeau de Couperin all buck me up.

...add the Gallic charm of the PCO Cluytens recordings and preface the Tombeau with Pavane pour... and Menuet Antique. Yeah!