I’ve started getting more into classical music, but I can’t find my niche. I like songs that are deeper, majestic, and dramatic like {Carmina Burana, Scenic Cantata For Soloists, Choruses & Orchestra: Fortune, E},piano Sonata No. 14 In C Sharp Minor (“Moonlight”), Op. 27/2: I. Adagio Sosten, and Swan Lake. I don’t like songs that are lighter or have the instrument that sounds or is a mandolin. I have had a lot of luck in the symphonic category, but there is still a lot I don’t like. Is there a more specific name for what I’m looking for or do I just have to deal with it?
You just have to “deal with it”, I guess, until you become more familiar with the names of different composers and types of works you enjoy listening to. Some pieces, you may find, take a few hearings to really get into, but in my experience these are often the works which stay with you forever. Here are a few suggestions for some music you may enjoy:
Rachmaninov – Rhapsody on theme of Paganini
Khachaturian – Symphony No 2
Mussorgsky – Night on a bare mountain
Vaughan Williams – Symphony No 7
Prokofiev – Romeo & Juliet (suites)
Barber – Adagio
Walton – Belshazzar’s Feast
It is worth remembering, too, that classical music is much better heard through a decent hifi system, than through little computer speakers. Have fun exploring!
When I hear the words, deeper and Majestic, I’m thinking you’d like works from the romantic era.
Late Beethoven symphonies and of course his string quartets – IMHO he’s the king of the string quartet
Richard Strauss – don’t confuse him with Johann Strauss (the king of the waltz.
Rachmaninoff – anything
Schubert – primarily wrote piano music – Erlkonig (elf king) is a great tune for voice and piano
Paganini – freakishly awesome violinist that was considered born from the devil just by his violin prowess.
Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
Mendelssohn
Robert Schumann
Chopin – any of his etudes, nocturnes, or impromptus – largely a composer for piano
Brahms
MacDowell – american composer of romantic era salon style songs
Bizet – Carmen
Mussorgsky
Tchaikovski
Grieg – Hall of the Mountain King
Vaughn Williams
Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Mahler
You might also dig some from the impressionistic period
Debussy
Milhaud
Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – as made famous by Disney’s Fantasia
Do yourself a favor and listen to Oilvier Messianen
Then for some crazy 20th century music – listen to Bartok, Stravinski, Webern, Berg, Schoenberg and Piston.
Happy Listening
Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances
Wagner’s operas (try Tristan and Isolde)
and, of course, everything by Liszt
What Surfabilly suggests is great, but he left out Sibelius (as great a symphonist as there ever was IMHO the equal of Beethoven)
Also the Berg/Webern/Schoenberg Bartok pieces are s far from crazy. About as far from crazy as Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge was in the 1890’s
I have to disagree with the person who said that Schubert wrote primarily piano music. If you like dramatic, try his 8th symphony.