CONFESS!!!!!! What is your favorite Classical Music piece?

[LynneSin]

Although I'm a major fan of Bach and Beethoven, I would have to pick Mozart's Clarinet Concerto K 622 (one of the last pieces he wrote before the Requiem and his death).

I can listen to that piece and it puts me in the most wonderful mood. The Adagio is so freaking beautiful it can bring tears to your eyes.

So what's your favorite classical music piece???

[pmbryant]

1. Beethoven's 7th Symphony

Or should I say Beethoven's 9th Symphony? Hard to pick between those two.

I'll have to check out that Mozart piece you mention. I am not familiar with it, and am always looking for "new" stuff to listen to.

:D

--Peter

[Emboldened Chimp]

27. The Kleiber version is amazing

Especially the second movement. So sublte and beautiful.

[maggrwaggr]

55. wow! Me, too! Esp. the 2nd movement

just gives me goosebumps to even think of it.

Saw it live once, Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, Kurt Masur conducting. I was front row balcony. A peak experience of my life.

[WillyT]

64. Me Three !!! --- The Second Movement, Totally Kicks Butt !!!

:bounce::kick::bounce:

[JVS]

2. Could you post a link to a midi file of it?

That way we can all listen to the different songs.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Toss-up between...

Beethoven's 9th (Ode to Joy) and Dvorak's New World Symphony.

[pmbryant]

5. My other top choice

The New World Symphony.

You obviously have good taste! ;-)

--Peter

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. As do you!

:)

[regnaD kciN]

58. A third vote for the "New World"...

I also love Dvorak's 'Cello Concerto and Slavonic Dances, particularly the Opus 46 set.

[JVS]

4. I don't have a favorite. There are too many to choose from and too many..

differeces between the styles over the centuries.

[fortyfeetunder]

70. Me too, too many to choose from

The only way I could narrow them down are for those I got goosebumps both as a performer and as a listener. If I am radio surfing and I hear even one measure of any of these works, I quit surfing until the work is over....

Gershwin - An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue
Dukas - The Sorceror's Apprentice
Mahler - Symphonies 1, 4 and 5
Janacek- Symphonietta
Bach - Sheep may Safely Graze
Copland - Rodeo suite, El salon Mexico
Beethoven - Symphonies 4 and 7
Bruch - Violin Concerto #1
Saint Saens - Organ Symphony, Cello Concerto
Resphigi, Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome

Currently practicing the Dukas for a concert later this month, Oh Boy!!!

[wtmusic]

6. Bartok Concerto for Orchestra

turn the lights down...glass of good wine....mmm :-)

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. Nabucco Overture

[FlaGranny]

68. "Le Chante Avec Toi Liberti" from Nabucco

is exquisite. I have it by Nana Mouskouri.

[Whitacre D_WI]

8. The Ring Cycle.

Was Wagner an insufferable lout? Yes.
Arrogant? Yes.
A disgusting, morally reprehensible anti-Semite? Yes.


But, damn, I gotta admire his sense of SCOPE.

[greatauntoftriplets]

11. And I get goose bumps when I hear the Liebestod.

Even if Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer. Hell, I have relatives named Wagner.

[VelmaD]

9. Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto...

1st movement. Very intense and passionate.

I also like Saint-Saenz "Danse Macabre".

[moz4prez]

13. Step on it, Velma

:hi:

seized the words right out of my malodorous mouth!

what about Profokiev's 3rd Piano Concerto. 3rd movement!

[LynneSin]

12. Anyone a fan of Bach's Fugues?

I love his Fugues, probably why I love the movie Gold Rush by Charlie Chaplin. It's one of his last silent movies and the music for it are all Bach Fugues!!!

[VelmaD]

14. pick me

I love the Preludes and Fugues. I played a bunch of them back when I was a serious pianist.

For me they are the purest expression of music as mathmatics. They have this crystal perfect order but at the same time they touch the spirit.

[Karenina]

30. Hey LynneSinn

Get Glen Gould's "Goldberg Variations" and get back to me.

[Snow]

53. Love 'em! And the Well-tempered Clavier -

I once knew a guy who actually built two clavichords...
Anyway, my favorite performer for this stuff would be the Crazy Canadian, but he always bloody hummed during his recordings. I thought I heard a recording on the radio recently, & couldn't hear the humming - so I called the station and said "WTF?" - they said, yeah, huh, we don't understand it either.

[librechik]

15. Debussy's Nocturnes

but I also can't live without Vivaldi 4 Seasons, and am in awe of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" Who could choose only one?

[boneygrey]

16. No question

Canon in D by Pachelbel.

[Karenina]

17. What kind question is THAT?

What's your favorite, vine-ripened Italian tomatoes or French vanilla ice cream? OK, let me stay in the moment... WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY RIGHT NOW is Telemann ( Darmstäter Ouverturen TWV 55 D15- Harlequinade. Damn that Stefan Schilli got some tongue!) Let this play out then we'll go for Zoltan Kodaly "Dances of Galanta." Thanx LynneSinn! I been a bit depressed since I put my baby on a plane back to L.A. Your post made me go look for stuff that makes me feel good!

[Bertha Venation]

18. a lot of works by Barber -- too many to number

also very fond of Copeland, again too many to number

[wtmusic]

19. Oh yeah--the Barber Cello Concerto

rocks my world! :-)

[Bertha Venation]

38. mmm-hmmmm.

Wonderful stuff Mr Barber wrote for us.

[stopbush]

20. How can anyone have "a" fav?

The more ya hear, the more difficult it becomes to narrow it down to a specific piece. One seems to need a list of favs. My list probably wouldn't have anything by Mozart on it, but it would most certainly include some Haydn, a bunch of Handel, Bruckner's Symphonies, Dvorak's 6th, Sibelius' Symphonies, The Intermezzo from the opera Notre Dame by Franz Schmidt, the third act scene between Massenet's Werther and Charlotte, the Beethoven 4th Symphony and 4th Piano Concerto, about half of Verdi's ouevre, Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, Figure humaine by Poulenc...and a couple hundred Strauss waltzes...oh, and the Intermezzo from L'Amico Fritz...

[Obamarama]

21. Chopin Piano Concerto #1 in E Minor.......

I think this is one of the most beautiful pieces of classical music in the world.

You can sample it here:
http://www.iclassics.com/iclassics/album.jsp?selectionId=7593

[Bundbuster]

37. Bingo! I'm a piano concerto freak

Chopin PC #1 - Version by Evgeny Kissin at age 12 is superb
Mozart odd-numbered PC's 15-27
Beethoven PC #4
Brahms PC #2
Tchaikovsky PC #2

[frylock]

22. holst's 'the planets'

[Fovea]

23. I got pissed off trying to narrow it to 10...

Ok, I will try just 10, but in no particular order.

1. Concierto Aranjuez -- J. Rodrigo
Imagine it is the Spanish Civil War.
Imagine you are on the run from Franco's
forces, who want to shoot you. Imagine that while
being moved from farmhouse to farmhouse with just your guitar,you
write arguably the best concierto of the 20th Century.
Now imagine you did that, and have been blind from the age of 3.

My former teacher, Doug Niedt, does it proud.


2. Bela Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste.
Wow... In my mind, there is music before this piece, and afterwards.

3. Fantasia que contrahaze los harp del Ludovico -- Alonzo de Muddarra 1541 C.E. Just about the most intense piece of instrumental music of the Spanish Renaissance. If you don't understand why modal music is different from Major Minor tonality, this peice alone will drag your ears into the era of 'micrologos'. At one point there is a harmonic interval of a minor 7th on an accented beat, and it sounds right.

4. Sinfonetta #3 - Leos Janacek.
What Southern Slavic music sounds like when the wind is coming from the east.

5. Carmina Burana -- Carl Orf. Finding a common point between Very Old Poems and Very New Music.

6. Guardemez las Vacas, Luis Narvaez, ~1531. Like moorish architecture, only for Spanish Lute (Vihuela de Mano).
Perhaps my favorite peice of music period, perhaps.

7. Praemii Delatio -- 11th C. Organum.
Like having your ears dropped in a blender set on frappe.
Organum is not only modal, but uses a type of poliphony that the 20th C. Ear is not really set up to handle.

8. Lux Aeternum - Legeti -- The vocal storm from 2001, some might not consider this actually music, but hey, I like it.

9. Little Fugue in g moll - JS Bach. Sometimes you actually find something perfect.

10. Concerto for Viola -- Paul Hindemith
Very rarely performed... I have gotten to see it all the way through once, and one movement of it adapted by Jerry Goodman.
Like Rodrigo, it defines virtousity for its instrument.

[regnaD kciN]

60. Where did you get that story about the Aranjuez?

1. Concierto Aranjuez -- J. Rodrigo
Imagine it is the Spanish Civil War.
Imagine you are on the run from Franco's
forces, who want to shoot you. Imagine that while
being moved from farmhouse to farmhouse with just your guitar,you
write arguably the best concierto of the 20th Century.
Now imagine you did that, and have been blind from the age of 3.

From what I remember, Rodrigo was living outside Spain when the Civil War broke out, and chose to remain away from his homeland for its duration, only returning once the war was over and Franco had won. The fact that he returned so quickly, and immediately took up a major role in the musical establishment under Franco's rule, would suggest that, in fact, Rodrigo was a supporter of the Generalissimo, but it is more likely that, as a blind-from-childhood classical composer, he was probably rather apolitical, staying away from Spain merely because of the chaos there and returning when order was restored (i.e. when one of the two sides won).

In any event, the fantastical story about Rodrigo "being moved from farmhouse to farmhouse with just your guitar" is certainly not true, because, as ironic as it might seem with his reputation being mainly based on works for classical guitar, Rodrigo never played that instrument! It is known that he composed all his works at the piano, and that they were subsequently transcribed into guitar (or whatever) notation by copyists. It is considered somewhat amazing among guitarists that Rodrigo could have had such an idiomatic understanding of their instrument without having played one himself.

By the way:

6. Guardemez las Vacas, Luis Narvaez, ~1531. Like moorish architecture, only for Spanish Lute (Vihuela de Mano).
Perhaps my favorite peice of music period, perhaps.

I won't argue with that. I only wish that I could play it better than I do.

[DemoTex]

24. Bach's "Actus Tragicus" Cantata

BWV 106

[Snow]

54. Check out, ummm, #31, Der Himmel Lacht,

der Erde Jubilieret. It really is a joyful piece, and the oboe-soprano duet is something Bach does really well.

[Gingersnap]

25. currently the soundtrack to my life is Schubert

I'm just in love with the string quartet pieces, which I think were his last compositions before he died of veneral disease at a very young age.

I'm also a big fan of Debussy, Orf's Carmina Burana, Stravinsky's rites of spring, all pretty standard picks, huh?

I'm trying to branch out in my listening so I will bookmark this thread.

[caledesi]

26. Handel - Water Music, Beethoven - Emperor Concerto and

Mozart Piano Concerto #21

[lpbk2713]

28. Almost any work by Wagner

If I had to choose ......... The Tannhauser Suite.

[Cheswick2.0]

29. well it changes often depending on mood

I love Beethoven's "Pathetique". But this week it is Ot yunosti moyeya by Gretchaninov. It is a choral work with a baritone soloist.

[Snow]

44. Not _just_ a baritone soloist -

a very nice contrabass (oktavist) line.....

[Turbineguy]

31. Hey! Terrific Thread!

That Clarinet Concerto is tough to beat, but then so are all the other picks. Gorecki, Symphony #3. Respighi, Pines of Rome (Sergio Commissiona). Shostokovich #1 violin Concerto (Vengarov).

For me the list will never end!

[Emboldened Chimp]

32. Too many to list!

Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade
Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto
Schubert's 8th Symphony (The Unfinished)
Brahm's 4th Symphony (the one conducted by Kleiber)
Mahler's 9th Symphony

I could go on, but that will suffice...

[Le Taz Hot]

33. Today?

The Allegre, author unknown but transcribed by Mozart after hearing it only once. It was a piece originally written for and performed only at the Vatican -- until Mozart "borrowed" it.

Tomorrow? Who knows.

[Snow]

45. You mean this piece?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/clipserve/B00000J9GR001001/0/002-7280739-1425664

the Miserere by Gregorio Allegri? Beautiful, beautiful piece. Mozart would be in big trouble with RICAA for illegal downloads....". There is a famous story of Mozart going to the Sistine Chapel to hear the Allegri Miserere when he was fourteen years old. After having heard it, he asked to see the score and was denied permission. He when to a second performance, and sat "as if in a trance" and returned to write out the piece from memory...making only two mistakes, which in fact turned out to be mistakes that the singers had made in the performance."

[Le Taz Hot]

66. Well, holy bat,

shitman. See what happens when I rely on this paramenapausl memory? I could have gotten up and looked at the CD case but NOOOOO . . . I had to be lazy.

Thanks for the correction. :hi:

[neebob]

34. Beethoven's 7th, 2nd movement

Mozart's first Salzburg, 4th movement
Albinoni & Giazotto's Adagio in G Minor

Then ya got yer Moonlight Sonata, yer Für Elise, and yer Pachelbel's Canon - who doesn't love those.

[cliss]

35. My favorite is and always will be Handel.

Anything by him is awesome. I also love Bach because his stuff often was in minor keys and wasn't as "fluffy" as the classical era.

Baroque, baby!!

[Cassandra]

36. A selection...

Bach's Double Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor; I have a great recording by Stern and Perlman. It has a wonderful attack.

Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. I particularly like the November "Troika" and Ruth Laredo is my favorite recording. I also love the Natha-Valse on that disc.

I have a disc with several Baroque pieces I love; Bandinerie & Gigue by Corelli, Wachet auf by Bach, as well as Air on a G String.

Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3 in G Major; the Theme and Variations at the end is just thrilling.

[Nazgul35]

39. Beethoven's 9th...

listening to this piece after 9-11, when the corus kicks in, was the first time I really cried...

How could such beauty, such celebration of hope for human possibilities exists in the same world as such an evil evil act? Who wouldn't weep....

[kodi]

43. what you said........

art at its finest.

i still recall the very first time i saw it live as a kid, gracious me, the hand of god touches you during the last movement.

[ktranz]

40. Mozart

Rondo Alla Turca

[Mrs. Venation]

41. Messe Solennelle by Hector Berlioz

This is a magnificent piece of music. Apparently Berlioz was unhappy with this piece; the original score was hidden away for over 100 years until rediscovered during the 1990.

Second on my list would be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Every time I listen to the fourth movement it puts a smile on my face.

[Zomby Woof]

42. Outrage At Valdez

by Frank Zappa.

Also:

Shostakovich's 4th Symphony
Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Mozart's Requiem
Debussy's Rhapsody for Clarinet

[Capn Sunshine]

46. Aaron Copeland, Rodeo

or Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite

I dunno, I am into America these days :)

[Darth_Ole]

47. Benedictus from Mozart's Requiem.

Also, The Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss.

[Snow]

48. The Allegri Misere has already been mentioned,

and next fall I get to sing oktavist in a performance of Rachmaninoff's Vespers, an a capella choral piece, Rachmaninoff I believe was living in Beverly Hills when he wrote this tribute to Russian liturgy, from vespers to matines. He actually thought his best piece was "Bells" - I don't think so, but you might disagree; "Bells" is a litle hard to find but worth the listen.

For those of you who mentioned Rimsky-Korsakoff, find a copy of "Russian Easter Overture" - it's one of his very best.

And for best piece written for a solo violin with orchestra, the winner has got (the envelope please!)
"The Lark Ascending"
Ralph Vaughan Williams

And speaking of Vaughan Williams, here's what you do for a satisfying evenings' listening...

Get a copy of "Third Tune For Archbishop Parker's Psalter ('Why Fum'th In Sight')" by Thomas Tallis - this album has it:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000007EZ/qid=1073105096/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/002-7280739-1425664?v=glance&s=classical
and I have that album; it's very good.

Listen to that, then get a good recording of Vaughan William's "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" and listen to that.

Can't top that for thrilling music. Tallis thunders, and Vaughan Williams does too, but so differently.

[ScreamingMeemie]

49. Mozart's Requiem...the story behind it and the music ahhhhh...

I also love Beethoven's Ode to Joy...9th, right?

[ornotna]

50. At this moment, it's

Gershwin - "Rhapsody In Blue"

[kskiska]

52. Rhapsody in Blue

is my absolute favorite.

Chopin's Nocturne in E-Flat is awfully nice, too.

[kayleybeth]

51. Moonlight Sonata

by Beethoven.

[maggrwaggr]

56. I'm bookmarking this thread. This is GREAT

A lot of suggestions here that I'm dying to check out.

Not at 12:30 at night however. gotta hit the sack.

Thanks everybody

[qwertyMike]

57. Mahler's

9th

[OneBlueSky]

59. probably Handel's "Water Music" . . .

"Musick for the Royal Fireworks" ain't bad, either . . . :)

[mac56]

82. Second on the Royal Fireworks Music

I love the Menuet and Trio.

[101 Proof]

61. Beethoven's "Fur Elise"

[regnaD kciN]

62. If you like the Mozart K.622...

...I would strongly recommend a new recording of it on Bis (SACD-1263) with Martin Fröst and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Oundjian.

I got it as a Christmas gift, and was moved to put it on after reading your post. It's a lovely, warm yet small-scale performance. So often, Mozart gets played very much "on the surface" without much emotional depth (as if, since he's a composer of the "classical" era, there must be nothing reminiscent of the later "romantic" era about the way his music is played). That isn't the case here -- although there's nothing that would make this work sound like it came from the 19th rather than the 18th century, it is anything other than a superficial reading.

Plus, this disc is a hybrid CD/SACD release, meaning that it will play on regular CD players as well as on the new SACD hi-res surround format. For those lucky enough to have a SACD player hooked up to a multichannel audio system, this disc is an audiophile's dream -- a truly uncanny experience of sitting in the front row of a small auditorium, with live musicians right in front of you. Highly recommended on all counts (and I haven't even heard the companion Clarinet Quintet K.581 that takes up the remainder of the disc).

[Bridget Burke]

63. IMPOSSIBLE!!! But, my favorite performance is:

Moussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (solo piano) played by Sviatoslav Richter.

Recorded in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1958 on a piece of *&^$# recorder, which manages to pick up every cough in the audience & a few missed notes. The performance is a titanic struggle which, in the end, Richter wins.

[tainted_chimp]

65. It IS difficult!

But I'd have to say
Erik Satie : the Gnossiennes AND the Gymnopedies (all of em)

so haunting and sooo beautiful.

love this THREAD! :cry:

thanks!
~Lisa

[Snow]

67. Geez, have you ever tried playing those suckers?

there's no time signature, not even any bar markings? Off you go; total freedom or something like that......but done right, whatever that is, they're lovely.

[stopbush]

69. Actually, the Gymnopedies are all in 3/4 time.

I've played them plenty of times.

[Snow]

73. Hat's off to you, mate.....

those are respectable.....

[mobuto]

74. Before the Sofia Tuberculosis Society!

I love that recording - was just listening to it earlier today. It has spectacularly bad sound quality but Richter is unbelievable. His piano captures a wider range of emotions than Ravel could get with an entire orchestra.

I'm not going to say that recording changed my life, but it certainly changed my idea of what music is and can be.

[AlFrankenFan]

71. Bach's Goldberg Variations

I'm actually listening to them right now. I especially love the Aria, which has been played in Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, two of my favorite movies. It's just a really nice piano piece.

[mobuto]

76. And how about the Well Tempered Clavier?

Its not bad I should say. Listening to Sviatoslav Richter play Book I right now.

[AlFrankenFan]

77. I agree

The Well Tempered Clavier is very good :D

[mikebl]

72. Debussy's

Claire de Lune

[mobuto]

75. The Emperor

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5.

The one adjective that comes to mind is "noble" - its profound optimism and dignity reflect a kind of nobility that words cannot do just to.

I love Michelangeli's (w/Celibidache), the Gieseking recording (made in Berlin in 1944 and you can actually hear bombs crashing all around--which I suppose adds to the drama), Kempff's, and I guess Fischer and Bohm's.

But if you've never heard it, please do. You won't easily forget it.

[Cleita]

78. I hate to admit it but I love the whole Ring cycle operas

by Wagner. Yes, they drag a lot, particularly when your German lags, but when the music rises to the lush heights it does, it's worth it.

[shanti]

79. rachmaninoff

"Rhapsody" On a Theme from Paganini Opera 43. i love it! also, all of tchaikovsky's swan lake.

[zauberflote]

80. My name might be a hint

By Mozart, of course.

But also Mahler symphonies 2, 3 and 9, Sibelius 5th symphony, tons of Beethoven, Schubert, Bach, other Mozart, Strauss's Four Last Songs, Wagner: Parsifal, The Ring, Tristan; Shostakovitch string quartets when I'm feeling gloomy.
OK, too many. But the list keeps going on and on.

[Loonman]

81. Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn: ``Hebrides'' Overture

[skypilot]

83. "Le Gibet" by Maurice Ravel

A very haunting piano piece. It is a musical interpretation of a poem by a poet whose name escapes me right now. "Le gibet" means the gallow.

[MotorCityMan]

84. Didn't see this one listed

My all-time favorite classical piece would be Poet and Peasant by Suppe(?).

I also have always liked Bizet's Carmen.

[beawr]

85. Uhhhhhh, here's some

Hi,

I am a trumpet player and tenor, I would say that I am either a very good amateur or barely competant professional at both. Some have to do with performance, some with listening.


Beethoven - Symp. 6,7 & 9 (I sang in the 9th at St. John's in NYC for Holocaust Rememberance Day, I would dearly love to go back in time to tell Ludwig that he wrote the music that the world wants to hear when it really tries to be good)

Bach - Mass in B minor (Proof of God's existence)

Bach - Brandenberg #2 - you can dance to the first movement. I cannot play this trumpet part with any authority.

Mozart - Piano Concerto #17 (a delight)

Gabrielli - Canzon Duodecimi Toni (played trumpet for this at St. Elizabeth Seaton's Canonization celebration in Emmitsburg, MD)

Bruch - Scottish Fantasy (syrupy violin doing celtic themes, tears me up)

Vivaldi - Concerto for 2 mandolins (deedle deedle doodle deedle)

Beethoven - ANY string quartet (The first cubist music)

Brahms - German Requiem (I went to a concert not long after 9/11 with this at Carnegie Hall and that was the most profound group experience of my life. I have also sung it and played in an Orchestra for it)

Mussgorsky/Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition (I even like Emerson. Lake and Palmer's version)