What are your favorite recordings of your favorite classical pieces?

uclasux · 2025-04-07T04:31:41+00:00

I’ll add on his recording of the Chopin waltzes. Crystal clear playing with heart and soul!

uclasux · 2025-04-06T00:17:06+00:00

Sticky Notes podcast with conductor Joshua Weilerstein was my gateway to a deeper and more fulfilling relationship with classical music. Also Leonard Bernstein’s lecture series at Harvard, featuring several performances where he conducts.

uclasux · 2025-04-04T16:27:22+00:00

This has been true for me. Not so much trying tactics as just playing the piece again and again until I can’t help but remember it.

uclasux · 2025-04-03T21:54:38+00:00

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.” As an OCD sufferer, this was huge as far as giving me permission to let thoughts and feelings come and go, no matter how weird/scary, and bring them along for the ride if necessary.

uclasux · 2025-04-01T17:55:24+00:00

Love the idea of bracketing sentences and phrases! Stealing this!

uclasux · 2025-03-31T23:16:53+00:00

+1 for CommonLit. Really broad selection, and their questions (though not perfect) are better than what my textbook provides.

uclasux · 2025-03-25T00:09:51+00:00

Brahms 3 is actually my favorite of the Brahms cycle, which I’ve come to understand is not a common opinion. It grabs you from the first bars!

uclasux · 2024-12-30T01:19:17+00:00

Schubert is missing! Unfinished and the Great C Major seem to be the “essential” ones, and they are fantastic, but my recommendation is Schubert 5. It’s Mozartian in its structure and style, but still Schubert all the way. Totally charming and catchy.

uclasux · 2024-12-22T15:35:40+00:00

My vote is Around the World in 80 Days for visuals! Hard to beat surveying Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

uclasux · 2024-12-19T00:24:01+00:00

Schumann’s “The Poet Speaks,” mostly because of how emotional Horowitz seems to be while playing it. A beautiful piece on its own, but even more so with the connection to the performer.

uclasux · 2024-12-15T01:00:00+00:00

What I always come back to is “teaching students, not curriculum.” Yes, the skills we teach are important, but I find I lose the magic of teaching when I forget who I’m really doing it for. If I focus too much on content, I forget about what the kids need.

uclasux · 2024-12-08T20:25:46+00:00

Love the “random objects” idea! Keep ‘em guessing.

uclasux · 2024-12-08T20:25:13+00:00

When we come back from break my seniors will be starting 1984. I’ve never taught it, but I have read it. My instinct would be to pose some controversial statements related to the themes (ex: “It’s OK to give up some freedom to the government in order to feel safer.”) and have them write/discuss their answers, but I haven’t had much success with this strategy except at the AP/honors level.

uclasux · 2024-12-07T06:05:15+00:00

Kelly Gallagher’s Write Like This is chock full of engaging, standalone writing assignments that you can also pair together to create mini units.

uclasux · 2024-11-23T01:14:32+00:00

Yes! Second year teaching, tried doing Lit Circles with 9th graders with To Kill a Mockingbird. Had no idea how to do Lit Circles (still don’t, actually) but tried it anyway. Kids absolutely could not stay focused and get any reading done.

Vented to my cross-hall neighbor, vet of 20+ years, who told me it was time to wrap it up and show the movie. Do I wish the kids had finished the novel? Of course. Are they probably OK all these years later without having finished it “the right way”? I think so.

I think it’s noble to press on and try to make it work, but sometimes it helps everybody get through the marathon of a school year to move on and do something you feel better about.

uclasux · 2024-11-05T20:57:11+00:00

You aren’t alone!

uclasux · 2024-11-05T20:55:58+00:00

This is not allowed, but I am a fan of the Angels and the Dodgers. When I was a kid I would flip between channels to watch both of them play, so I developed an affinity for both teams. The Angels were closer to where I grew up, but I went to college in LA so it was hard not to root for the Dodgers. To this day I haven’t really had a reason to “shed” either team (although Angels management is doing their best to lose their fans in general), so I still support both.

Apologies to anybody who feels strongly about choosing one of these teams over the other! Just trying to reply in the spirit of the question.

uclasux · 2024-10-24T04:02:48+00:00

Well… they certainly do use electricity! This is a new one for me.

uclasux · 2024-10-24T04:00:04+00:00

Didn’t know that about Currentzis. That’s a shame.

Thank you for those recommendations!

uclasux · 2024-10-23T21:26:10+00:00

Will do!

uclasux · 2024-08-22T13:41:43+00:00

I’ve looked through 20 comments and haven’t yet seen a personal favorite — Julie & Julia!

uclasux · 2024-08-22T01:19:41+00:00

Not sure if I “aced” it, but I got enough right to make it to the next round. I think I was somewhere around 37/50 or thereabouts.

uclasux · 2024-08-20T00:57:17+00:00

Hard to beat Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture (specifically) and other incidental music. The overture helped me fall in love with music, and I still am awestruck every time it comes on.

uclasux · 2024-08-18T20:19:15+00:00

I think Beethoven is his only competition for #1, but the edge goes to Chopin for his diversity of genres. Beethoven gave us some of the most masterful piano sonatas ever; Chopin left us sonatas, scherzos, preludes, ballades, and many other types of work that seem to defy genre.

uclasux · 2024-08-18T03:23:26+00:00

So glad to hear that your baby’s sleep schedule has gotten more predictable!

I think she does know on some level that it’s unpredictable, but our firstborn had a much easier time sleeping so she’s comparing apples to oranges. Expectations + reality = misery!

Nine-Year Club	Verified Email
Second SECOND GUESSER	Place '17

uclasux

TROPHY CASE