[HD-5000]

I have one favorite piece: Sibelius's Violin Concerto in D Minor. It's what I call music with passion.

 

[insanefred]

For me, nothing beats singing Palestrina with a chamber choir, or Holst's Planets with a 120-strong symphony orchestra, or Verdi's Requiem with the orchestra and a full choir! Listening just isn't the same after that...
Andrew

 

[Nacher]

Tchaikovsky - 1812 overture. It really could make a great avantgarde-metal or extreme metal track, but it's great just as it is.

 

[john_jcb]

The Ring Cycle Opreas by Wagner -- Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung

 

[redshifter]

handel: royal fireworks / aam, hogwood
beethoven: all the symphonies / aam, hogwood or bohm or karajan; late quartets; archduke trio
bach: golbergs (gould), brandenburgs (aam, hogwood)
vivaldi: concerto for 4 violins in d minor (?) (aam, hogwood)
mozart: mass in C, various symphonies, the magic flute
wagner: the ring cycle

 

[DanG]

Mozart string quintet in G-minor
Bartok string quartets played by Emerson quartet
Mahler's symphonies
Prokofiev piano concertos
Chopin's piano music played by Arthur Rubinstein
Beethoven's spring sonata, some of the string quartets

There's just too much! Once you discover classical music and really dig in, there's so much great music that there'll always be something great that you haven't heard.

Quote:

Originally posted by Nacher:Tchaikovsky - 1812 overture. It really could make a great avantgarde-metal or extreme metal track, but it's great just as it is.

??? Metal??? Maybe you've discovered why classical is superior to this kind of music. It's like the difference between a bass guitar being played on Sony V700DJ headphones and Yo-yo Ma playing cello being heard through the Sony R10.

 

[ninoe99]

My favorite so far. Best choir recording I've heard. In one word - Heavenly!

Artist: Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Recording: Rachmaninoff: Vespers (a cappella)
Telarc Digital

During the second annual Robert Shaw Institute of Music Festival held in July 1989 in south-central France, Telarc recorded the Vespers setting by Rachmaninoff. Vespers is a musical setting for a night-long service celebrated in Russian monasteries and Russian orthodox churches. Written at the height of Rachmaninoff's compositional powers, the Vespers setting is considered to be the finest of his sacred works. This lush and beautiful composition for unaccompanied voices, in an eloquent performance by Robert Shaw and his talented festival chorus, is captured dramatically by Telarc in the spacious acoustic of the Church of St. Pierre, Gramat, France. This recording won a Grammy award in 1990.

http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title...05AFURQW49FPEB

 

[Born2bwire]

Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 and Orff's Carmina Burana are on the top of my list.

 

[johanneswolfgang]

As he said in his Don Giovanni:
"Those who have tasted the food of heaven
do not eat mortal viands.
Other, weightier concerns,
another aim has brought me hither!"

Thus spoke Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his greatest (well be the greatest written) opera with his music; -Oh and what music, music that only those in heaven can help to make, sounds that will not be heard by the unclean or ignorant. Sounds that can only be reproduced accurately with the care and skill, by one with a conscious integrity, that can reach to a decent proximity the miracle, the music. And a warning- don't expect today's or any recent generation's work to be worth anything but garbage. For proper Mozart (or far closer than today's trash) look for recordings by conductors of the first half of the century or near the half. In that generation, you will find conductors that were true to their calling, as well with uncommon talent. And you will definitely not see any of the plastic, insubstantial, worthless and shameless garbage produced these days by pompous, ignorant asses that call themselves conductors or modern artists that are so impertinent as to attempt to play music written by people with a conscious integrity.
This is what you should know about recordings these days - for I too was once listening to only that artificial trash.

Some of those old artists: Bruno Walter, Josef Krips, Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer, Ferenc Fricsay, Josef Hofmann, Clara Haskil, Dinu Lipatti, Jascha Heifitz, David Oistrach, and quite a few others that have long been dead.

 

[aos]

Many Slavic musicologists and music lovers think that Rachmaninov' Vespers are underrated by Westerners. And it is not easy to find more than just a few recordings unlike his 2nd or 3rd piano concertos which exist in tens (I have over 10 recordings of just the 3rd concerto myself).

I will say though, the most important pieces in my life are:

Tchaikovsky's Pathetique (6th symphony) - when there was a thread what single CD to take on the deserted isle, this was my vote. I am listening to it for over 15 years, sometimes several times a day and no, I don't get bored of it.

Beethoven's 5th - I started seriously listening and collecting classical with this piece when I was on summer vacataion between grades 6 and 7. It still has a huge emotional impact on me (as does Mozart's 40th). Some argue that 9th is better but I still consider this one of those rarest works which is brilliant from beginning to the end, and is a cohesive. I don't think 9th is.

 

[Nacher]

DanG maybe you have no idea what metal can be? In a way I consider them almost equal, though the complexity of classical music can't be surpassed. However, metal and classical can be seamlessly integrated. And no, I'm not talking about nu-metal, because it's just hiphop with some electric guitars. Maybe you should read that "my darkest desires soon to be fullfilled" thread through, heh.

I would like to know what kind of metal you have heard. That would reveal how valid your argument was.

 

[frankclone]

Bach, Bach, Bach (J.S., of course)

 

[acidtripwow]

Shostakovich - "Chamber Symphony" - BT Scottish Ensemble

http://www.linnrecords.com/cd_inform...ecordingID=141

 

[gaineso]

Just about all of the standards. I don't like opera, but I occasionally get in the mood for som heavy Wagner.

My all time favorite though, is by an American not noted for his symphonic works:
Richard Rogers, "Victory at Sea", Robert Russell Bennett and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra.

Some really powerful music and images of the war at sea during WWII. And the series was on TV when I was a kid and the music was sort of an introduction to symphonic works. It's just been high on my list since.

My other favorite would have to be "The Rite of Spring". I like Russian Music.

 

[fiddler]

Ah yes great Sibelius... one of the greatest violin concertos of all (and the only concerto he ever wrote, by the way) ,up there with Beethoven and Brahms. Hard as a bitch to play, though. Especially that demonic finale...

Anyway, it'd be impossible to choose a favourite piece of composer, but today I'm in a Bach mood. I listened to Bach's double violin concerto played by Stern and Zukerman. I was nearly in tears in the slow movement. One of the most gorgeous stuff you'll ever hear. I think I'll listen to it again tonight..

I also love Shostakovich. His E minor Piano Trio... Masterpiece. Brahms is one of my favourites for sure. That first symphony... wow. Just the way he thrusts you right into such heartpounding passion from the very beginning... Thrilling. I never really fancied Schubert that much until recently. His B-flat piano trio is AMAZING. And his lieds, of course. He always was a song-writer at heart.

Ok, I'll have to stop here for now, because I could literally be here for days.