[JoeDoe]

Mahler 2 or 5. Whew.
 
Also, Rachmaninoff Piano concertos will absolutely bury you.

 

[complin]

Mahler's 2nd is truly uplifting and inspiring, touches the soul (if you have a soul that is) 

Quote:

Mahler 2 or 5. Whew.
 
Also, Rachmaninoff Piano concertos will absolutely bury you.

 

[ElmersEAR]

Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, Death and the Maiden
 
Biber, Carl Heinrich the baroque composer, not Justin 
 
Anything  Mahler
 
Carl Orff, Carmina Burana
 
Anything by Bela Bartok
 
Sit back. Stop obsessing about equipment, and enjoy. When you forget about what headphones you are using, the shortcomings of your equipment, etc.,and get totally immersed in the music, there are few better pleasures in this world.

 

[uchihaitachi]

What do you mean by intense? Emotionally volatile, profound, passionate or musically complex? 
I am surprised nobody has mentioned a piece that is considered by classical musicians as one of the greatest achievement by mankind. Bach's Partita for Violin No. 2 the magnificent Chaconne. 

 

[JoeDoe]

What do you mean by intense? Emotionally volatile, profound, passionate or musically complex? 
I am surprised nobody has mentioned a piece that is considered by classical musicians as one of the greatest achievement by mankind. Bach's Partita for Violin No. 2 the magnificent Chaconne. 

+1

And in addition, if you haven't heard it, Paul Galbraith plays a wonderful Chaccone on his cello-esque classical guitar

 

[uchihaitachi]

+1

And in addition, if you haven't heard it, Paul Galbraith plays a wonderful Chaccone on his cello-esque classical guitar

Also check out the Busoni transcribed Chaconne played by Rubinstein.

Speaking of Mahler 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 are all exquisite

 

[nihilill]

I love how dark and intense Dark Sanctuary(darkwave neoclassical) can be, sometimes I walk around my garden totally immersed in the atmosphere, sometimes provokes strong emotional reactions too. Mortiis's era one particularly crypt of the wizard is good too. The songs create what feels like another world, still quite dark and atmospheric but there is a feeling of a lot more going on.

 

[uchihaitachi]

How did I forget! The piece that made a riot break out lol.
 
Edited: just realised the Rite of Spring was already mentioned!

 

[julian67]

I agree with previous posters about Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos. The Decca recordings with Ashkenazy, Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw are just incredible performances and recordings. Similar themes are also explored in his symphonies. For really intense orchestral pieces you could get Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead and Symphonic Dances on the Naxos CD with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Enrique Batiz. Don't put it on at high volume unless you know what to expect. You could call it dynamic, or you could call an ambulance and hope they bring a defibrillator. It's a fantastic performance and a brilliant recording, one that illustrated Naxos' ambition to move away from making cheap but mediocre recordings and be accepted as a serious, credible label. Definitely a success.

 

[uchihaitachi]

Quote:

I agree with previous posters about Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos. The Decca recordings with Ashkenazy, Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw are just incredible performances and recordings. Similar themes are also explored in his symphonies. For really intense orchestral pieces you could get Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead and Symphonic Dances on the Naxos CD with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Enrique Batiz. Don't put it on at high volume unless you know what to expect. You could call it dynamic, or you could call an ambulance and hope they bring a defibrillator. It's a fantastic performance and a brilliant recording, one that illustrated Naxos' ambition to move away from making cheap but mediocre recordings and be accepted as a serious, credible label. Definitely a success.

Rachmaninoff symphony no.2 third movement. About as romantic as it can get.
 
Rachmaninoff 3 and 2 (1 also but not very frequently performed) are also romanticism on steroids. I had a few lessons from Ashkenazy lol. But for 3 it is worth listening to other pianists. Leif Ove Andsnes comes to mind. Ashkenazy is a fantastic pianist, but he struggles a bit with Rachmaninoff's music has his hands are rather small so his 3rd lacks fluidity.

 

[julian67]

....his hands are rather small

It's not size that counts (I've said this to no avail many times to disbelieving and disappointed women), it's flexibility and span (of course talent, practice, study, determination, discipline etc.) Famously Alicia de Larrocha had very small hands (as expected of a woman less than 5' tall) but brilliantly played pieces that supposedly require hands like a pterodactyl's wing.

Ashkenazy struggles at the piano in the same way that Newton struggled with his long division.

Anyway I agree that all Rachmaninov's symphonies are worth exploring in different versions. Sometimes he seems to be reworking the same melodic ideas in a different form but if you have ideas of that calibre you probably ought to explore them in every way possible.

For people looking for drama and dynamics it would be a crime to neglect Spanish music. How about de Falla's El Amor Brujo with The New Philarmonia Orchestra & Frühbeck de Burgos? Anyone who looks like this is not going to let you doze off

 

[uchihaitachi]

Quote:

It's not size that counts (I've said this to no avail many times to disbelieving and disappointed women), it's flexibility and span (of course talent, practice, study, determination, discipline etc.) Famously Alicia de Larrocha had very small hands (as expected of a woman less than 5' tall) but brilliantly played pieces that supposedly require hands like a pterodactyl's wing.

Ashkenazy struggles at the piano in the same way that Newton struggled with his long division.

Anyway I agree that all Rachmaninov's symphonies are worth exploring in different versions. Sometimes he seems to be reworking the same melodic ideas in a different form but if you have ideas of that calibre you probably ought to explore them in every way possible.

For people looking for drama and dynamics it would be a crime to neglect Spanish music. How about de Falla's El Amor Brujo with The New Philarmonia Orchestra & Frühbeck de Burgos? Anyone who looks like this is not going to let you doze off

He has said it himself. And he often lacks fluidity in many difficult passages especially the third movement opening section and cadenza of the first. I know as I had a masterclass on the Rach 3 with him.... And his recording is by no means the pinnacle neither musically nor technically.  By size I meant span of course. Regarding small hands, yes you can compromise pieces with large leaps by rapid substitution but there is nothing one can do with pieces where the chord reach is simply too large for a person's hand span even to spread to chord. That is why Josef Hofman never played rach pieces.

 

[ninewalker]

I don't know if it has been mentioned before but Elgar's Cello Concerto is very, very powerful stuff, a stirring lament with outbursts of hope, frustration and despair, the ending especially; it is so abrupt that it seems like despair finally triumphs. Jacqueline DuPre's 1965 Recording with Sir John Barbirolli is pretty much acknowledged as the benchmark for this work.

 

[uchihaitachi]

Quote:

I don't know if it has been mentioned before but Elgar's Cello Concerto is very, very powerful stuff, a stirring lament with outbursts of hope, frustration and despair, the ending especially; it is so abrupt that it seems like despair finally triumphs. Jacqueline DuPre's 1965 Recording with Sir John Barbirolli is pretty much acknowledged as the benchmark for this work.

When the main theme is instated for the first time in the first movement, it is so powerful! E F(#) E G A G F(#) D C D B A G A G B C B A F(#) .....

 

[chrisjackson]

Also a mention for this 1967 live (and up close and personal) du Pre/BBC SO/Barbirolli recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LULTpqHNU8
 
And here's a generally highly regarded recording of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I62I0xloUXw