Favorite Classical Piece?
 

A comment in another thread I started got me curious: do you have a favorite piece of classical music?

And no, I don't mean "classic rock" etc.. Actual classical works, please.

I've always loved pieces featuring strings, especially violins. "Four seasons" rates up there too. But my absolute favorite piece is Tchaikovsky's
"Capriccio Italien" [and I hope I have that all spelled correctly!].

I could sit and listen to that over and over again. In fact, I have before. Great piece.

Come to think of it, where in the world did I put that tape...?

Brahms lullaby
Mostly,because when I was a baby I had
a little plush lamb with a music box inside.
I kept it untill I was 12 or 13
Decided I was to big for stuffed animals
:lol: wish I still had it now.

Just in case you are not familiar with the piece mentioned above give it a listen here. It appears to be only in RM format. Too bad I can't get it to play in Winamp! Blessings.

Antonin Dvorac, Symphony no. 9 in E minor, "From the New World" (1893)

"Sheep May Safely Graze" - J.S. Bach ... especially when transcribed for piano. Specifically, Andrew Rangell's interpretation.

Ah, yeah. Beautiful.

On any given day, my choices would change...

Rhapsody in Blue, while not traditionally classical, I think is absolute genius and beautiful

or Claire De La Lune which is soft and gentle and also exquisite..

tomorrow, or even this afternoon -- my choices will be different

"real" classical music?
what is that?

here's some stuff that i like alot:

performers:
steffan schleiermacher is a beautiful pianist who also benefits from working with great recording engineers. for the past few months, he has been my favorite pianist. the only recording of his that i have heard that i did not like is his terry riley keyboard studies.
mauirizio pollini. can't help myself.
garth knox--used to play viola with the arditti quartet. his solo recordings are out of this world.
elaine radigue---astonishing tape/synth music. dunno where you'd classify her.
pierre henry--musique concrete....la ville is just great.

pieces:
j.s. bach: goldberg variations (a particular weakness for glenn gould), sonatas and partitas for cello
john cage: sonatas for prepared piano (armejian and schleiermacher performances), for marcel duchamp...
morton subotnik: silver apples of the moon
stockhausen: klavierstucke i-xi

Naturally I tend to gravitate towards piano music:

Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues, op.87

Ravel - Sonatine
- Concerto in G
- Tombeau de Couperin

Prokofieff - Piano Concerto no.3

Several good ones mentioned above: Bach Goldberg, Prok Pno Cto 3 and Capriccio Italien (one of my first favorites)

Always hard to whittle down to favorites, but I'll try:

Beethoven Piano Sonata 28 in A, op. 101 (Richard Goode)
Brahms Symphony 4 in e (Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Phil)
Puccini La Boheme (von Karajan/Pavarotti/Freni)
Dvorak Symphony 7 in d (Dohnanyi/Cleveland)
Prokofiev Symphony 5 in F (Karajan/Berlin)

Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47 (1903/1905)
I particularly like the beggining of the third movement.

I can play the Largo from it, I got it almost perfect :thumbsup:


but anyways... favorite piece (true classical) : Tocatta and fugue in D Minor

but, if we are just talking about classical-style, then it would have to be one of the Midnight Syndicate songs... :D

I'm very fond of anything on the piano. My favorite is Beethoven's Fur Elise.

Ratbastid took Dvorak's New world symphony, so I'll go with either Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, or Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. Yay Spring!

Beethoven's 9th,
Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,
Handel, Hallelujah Chorus.

mine as well. :thumbsup:

I've always liked Copland's "Appalachian Spring."

And for the deliberately obscure: Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint"

Finally, always love Bach. I find that techies and engineers tend to like Bach b/c of the almost mathematical precision of his pieces.

Although I love Bach, my two most favorite single pieces are by Beethoven.

Violin Sonata No. 9 (Kreutzer) and Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. Incredible.

Tchaikovksy's Violin Concerto in D. THere's no good online depiction of it because those wacky kids at amazon think any snippet is good enough for classical.

gistav holst :the planets.

Mars, The Bringer Of War
2. Venus, The Bringer Of Peace
3. Mercury, The Winged Messenger
4. Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity
5. Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age
6. Uranus, The Magician
7. Neptune, The Mystic


theres no pluto because pluto wasnt discovered at the time the piece was composed.

Theres no earth because Earth makes her own music.

I only really appreciate the classical pieces that I have performed, so that I've studied them.

"Requiem" by Durufle.
"Slava" by Leonard Bernstein.
"1812 Overture", by Stravinsky (especially the 'cathedrial bells' section just before the final cannons).

Speaking of Bach...

BBC Radio 3 is celebrating Christmas by broadcasting the COMPLETE works of Bach: all 214 hours worth. They started on December 16th, but the broadcast is broken up into streaming blocks online.

Linky: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/

Phillip Glass Ahknaten

I couldn't possibly pick a favorite piece out of what is popularly referred to as "classical" music. Redlemon is right though, I tend to appreciate the pieces I have performed more than others. Durufle's Requiem is one of those for me as well as Dvorak's 9th symphony.

It is difficult for me to speak in preferences though, first because there are so many different styles within the broad understanding of "classical" and second because so many of them are exceptionally good. One thing I CAN say though, is that I don't like Handel and Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart don't tend to make me tingle as much as many other composers such as Dvorak or Tchaikovsky. That's not to mention the choral works I like, such as those by Durufle or Tavener...but the list goes on and on.

I must admit, I think roachboy makes a good point, what do you mean by 'real' classical music?

Mozart 40 is one of my favs

Brahms clarinet/piano sonatas are great.

Favrite Classical Piece?
Sophia Loren. (baDUM-Chissssh)

Actually and for reallio and trulio, and fully aware that it is totally trite to like this one: Fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Probably Saturn from Gustav Holtz' "Planets"

Vivaldi's Concerto in G for Two Mandolins. Heard it on the radio last year and fell in love.

Other's that I enjoy people have mentioned like Dvorak's Ninth and Holtz's Planets. Favorite movement from that is Jupiter prolly because I used to listen to Carl Hass with my Dad and he used a piece of that as the bridge into his program for the longest time.

Marty Stouffer also used part of Jupiter as his theme for his nature show. And the slow, melodic portion of it is taken from the hymn, "Thaxted" which was sung at Princess Diana's wedding and funeral.

It's a versatile piece.

Nobody has mentioned Mahler yet... Another obvious one would be Shubert lieder (songs).

Bruckner vocal motets blow my mind - they are nothing like the symphonies (which are great in their own way).

WillyPete and I like John Adams. Check out Grand Pianola Music.

Drumming by Steve Reich is quite good live. I'm not sure it would work out as well on a recording though...

I didn't know that - pretty interesting. I've always thought that was one of the most beautiful, yet quitessentially English melodies I've ever heard. I'll have to check the hymn out.

'Nessun Dorma', (by Puccini) particularly where Pavarotti bursts into his most famous rendition and it's obviously phenomenal finale. 3 tenors link

'Adagio Of Spartacus And Phrygia' by Aram Khachaturian for the romantic at heart. link

'Gymnopedie No.1' by Erik Satie. Very relaxing. Like staring at clouds as a kid. link

'Flower Duet From Lakme' by leo Delibes. You'll recognise it from the British Airways advert.
link

'Moonlight Sonata' - Beethoven. Brooding, deep music. Remeber that it's the Adagio Sustenuto
link

'Adagio Sostenuto (Piano Concerto No.2)' - Rachmaninov. (See if you can get a full recording and tell which modern achey-breaky-tearjerker song uses it's melody.)
link


And for some more modern stuff:
My current favourite is Thomas Newman, famous for that piece from 'American Beauty' -"Any other name" and from 'Meet Joe Black': "Whisper of a thrill" (Where Brad Pitt makes it with that fine looking lady.)

Thanks for your other suggestions. Now I have more ammo for a www.allofmp3.com account. I can't believe how cheap they are.

uber: check out the deutsche grammophon recording of drumming (a double cd)--performance of the entire piece with reich's ensemble from the early 1970s (the ensemble includes cornelius cardew i think)---the recording quality is great--turn it up and you'll see. if you cant find it, pm me and i'll get a copy to you.

roach, thanks for the recommendation. I'll see if I can track it down. My first exposure to the whole piece was actually at Juilliard where an 80 minute long dance was choreographed to it. The performance featured 55 dancers sliding down a massive ramp while a percussion ensemble played. From talking to the performers, reconciling the way dancers think (by counting beats) to the way percussionists think (setting up the phase and waiting for it to come back around) was the biggest challenge. Whatever the case, it was really amazing. Because of the resources required, I highly doubt it will ever be performed again, which is a real shame.

Choreography was by Elliot Feld and the piece was called "Sir Isaac's Apples".

I'll check that CD out, and let you know if I can't find it anywhere. Thanks again.

*edit - added a picture of the ramp so no one would think I exaggerated about the size. Notice the two workers walking along the top.

http://www.juilliard.edu/res/0509_Feld_Ramp.jpg