Favourite pieces

il gatto

I'm sorry to see this forum so underused. I've just stumbled across the classical forum just now. I don't know a whole pile about the field and I wouldn't even pass myself off as an enthusiast but I do love some particular pieces. My current favourites are:
Nessun Dorma from Puccinis Turandot
Sheep May Safely Graze from Bachs Cantata No.2 (The Hunting Cantata)
Synphony of Sorrowful Songs Goreckis Synphony No.3
Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss
Overture to the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart (My current ringtone for my girlfriend, saddly:D )

bluto63

I do enjoy classical every now and then. I was hoping to get some recommendations, but doesn't look like there'll be many in this forum...

Anyways:
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata in C sharp Minor
and
Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

My two favorite pieces at the moment

Doshea3

Hi bluto63, since you mentioned recommendations, I thought I'd give you a few that you can take or leave as you wish.

If you like Tchaikovsky, then I suggest you hear his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, the opening of which you have undoubtedly heard somewhere before. Out of all the versions I've heard, Sviatoslav Richter's version is the one I'd probably recommend the most. Vladimir Horowitz's version conducted by Arturo Toscanini is really impressive also, but as it's an old recording the quality is quite poor even when remastered, and Horowitz's tempo is really wild compared to Richter.

Anyway, off that bit of a tangent...

Some other nice Romantic music you might like is Rachmaninoff. Try his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, or maybe the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.

Since you like the Beethoven "Moonlight" sonata (have you heard all three movements or just the first one? the third Allegro agitato movement is brilliant), you might like the "Pathétique" sonata in C minor, Op. 13, and possibly the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, the "Emperor". After some Beethoven, you should try some of Mozart's piano music (Sonata No. 11 in A major is a good one) or Bach's keyboard music (Bach is one of my favourites, and Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of the "Goldberg" Variations BWV 988 is excellent beyond words).

If you need any more recommendations, I'd be glad to give you some. Hope those were of use.

Míshásta

The Shepherds' Song from Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

paul mccarthy

Hey might as well add my current fav`s;
pretty mush anything from Tchaikovsky`s Nut cracker suite.
The Arrival of Queen Sheeba by Handel.
Fantasie Impromptu by Chopin.
Liebestraum by Liszt.
Mozart`s symphony 40 ( all of it not just the 1st movement.
there`s loads more but they should get you hooked.

funky penguin

At the moment, Rachmaninoff's prelude in g minor, beethovens waldstein sonata, dvoraks symphony No. 8 and so gregorian chants all have my attention, as does anything baroque.

I'm also heavily into film scores at the moment (I know its not classical, but they're so cool). Hans Zimmer's Pirates 2, John Williams Schindlers List, Alan Silvestri's Back to the Future - there are too many on my mind to mention.

tSubh Dearg

I'm having a bit of a Mahler moment at the moment. Mainly because the choir I'm in has been doing the choral bits in his Symphonies.

They're really dramatic pieces of music but I don't recommend going to see No.3 live as it's about 1 and a half to 2 hours long to sit though without a break. I know my ass was numb by the end!

Tar.Aldarion

Most things that include piano catch my interest.

The Agogo

i guess it would be:

Kreuzer by Beethoven
Turkish March paraphrased by arcadi volodos
Golliwogs Cakewalk (and the children's corner suite) by Debussy
Rhapsodie No,15 13 and 2 by franz Liszt

Kevster

Ummmm...

• Georges Bizet - March Of The Toreadors
  
• Léo Delibes - Flower Duet
  
• Edward Elgar - Pomp & Circumstance March #1 (Land Of Hope & Glory)
  
• Julius Fucik - Entry Of The Gladiators
  
• George Frederic Handel - Hallelujah I]From The Messiah[/I
  
• Gustav Holst - Jupiter I]From The Planets[/I
  
• Aram Khachaturian - Sabre Dance
  
• Felix Mendelssohn - Wedding March
  
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Horn Concerto #4
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Overture I]From The Marriage Of Figaro[/I
  
• Giacomo Puccini - O Mio Babbino Caro
  
• Sergei Rachmaninov - Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini
  
• Gioacchino Rossini - Overture I]From William Tell[/I
  
• Johann Strauss II - Blue Danube Waltz
• Johann Strauss II - Tritsch Tratsch Polka
  
• Piotr Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
• Piotr Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto #1
• Piotr Tchaikovsky - Russian Dance I]From The Nutcracker suite[/I
  
• Ludwig Van Beethoven - 9th Symphony, 2nd Movement
  
• Giuseppe Verdi - Vedi! Le Fosche Notturne (Anvil Chorus) I]From Il Trovatore[/I
• Giuseppe Verdi - Brindisi I]From La Traviata[/I

If you want any of these I can arrage to send them to you.
Kevin.

Tar.Aldarion

Arrange away(if they have piano).

Kevster

The piano also gains my attention whenever I hear it. Are you a Michael Nyman fan?

Tar.Aldarion

I know of him but I don't know!
I rarely pay attention to names when listening to classical music, I just hear a track, get it and it is nameless.

funky penguin

He's the chap who composed the musak for "The Piano".

funky penguin

Postcount etc.

Tar.Aldarion

Oh, it's Funky!

funky penguin

Hello my love.

tSubh Dearg

Boys, please, a little on topic decorum please?

funky penguin

Don't know what came over me tSubh.... I'm not used to the real forums....

cornbb

Back on topic...

Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
Debussy - Prelude a l'Apres Midi d'Une Faune
Beethoven - Symphony No 9 (Moog/Clockwork Orange rendition)
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians (I know, its not exactly classical, but whatever)
Shostakovich - String Quartet no 12
Mozart - Requiem
Strauss - Just Spake something something...

Kevster

Mmmm... ...they're good. I recently unearthed another beautiful piece too:

Stanley Myers - Cavatina


It was used in the intro to The Deer Hunter apparently.

Kevin.

Doshea3

cornbb: Do you mean Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" ("Thus Spake Zarathustra")?

Anyone else here a fan of Olivier Messiaen? I discovered his music recently and it's great, very colourful and unusual, especially the organ music (I'd recommend Jennifer Bate's recordings).

cornbb

Doshea3 wrote:

cornbb: Do you mean Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" ("Thus Spake Zarathustra")?

Anyone else here a fan of Olivier Messiaen? I discovered his music recently and it's great, very colourful and unusual, especially the organ music (I'd recommend Jennifer Bate's recordings).

Thats the one! I couldn't be bothered looking the name up.

I've heard a little of Messiaen's stuff, he seemed to have a strange obsession with birdsong. He also went a bit off the rails with that whole serialism/12 tone malarkey...

funky penguin

Ah serialism........ *daydream*

Quite scary yet pleasing at the same time.

Doshea3

Yeah, serialism has its merits but I wouldn't consider myself a devotee. I like Boulez to a certain extent, but when you get into really large serialist works, you tend to get lost amongst all the notes and patterns.

I haven't heard much of Messiaen's serialist stuff—thankfully, serialism didn't occupy him too long, and he was able to produce the later stuff like the organ cycles. I suppose certain movements of the "Quartet for the End of Time" are serialistic, but it works in that sort of music.

"he seemed to have a strange obsession with birdsong"

LOL! Yeah, did all right. But I have to say that hearing birdsong played on the organ is an enlightening experience. I like Messiaen because of the abundance of ideas and symbolism in the music: every little thing means something, even if we don't understand it (I'm thinking of Messiaen's synaesthetic use of colour in music). That reminds me of something Thomas Trotter said about Messiaen, that you always feel he's communicating something to you in his music, even if you have no idea what it is.

Odysseus

Wagner Ride of the Valkyries.

nesf

Schubert's Deathe and the Maiden would be my favourite

Aard

Berg: Violin Concerto
Webern: Passacaglia
Adams: Harmonielehre
Glass: Violin Concerto
Górecki: Genesis II
Pärt: Da pacem Dominae
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Kyle Gann: Cinderella's Bad Magic
Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Henry Lim: Piano Sonata No. 1
John Buckley: Sonata for Solo Horn
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht

FIN

~nop~

tSubh Dearg wrote:

I'm having a bit of a Mahler moment at the moment. Mainly because the choir I'm in has been doing the choral bits in his Symphonies. QUOTE]

Oh im totally with you on the mahler thing!! Symphony no.1 4th movement is absolutly legendary.

Im also liking Chopins preludes (esp the one in Csharp minor, have forgotten number)
Shostakovitch - Jazz Suite
Saint-Saens - The Swan - I heard the nicest version of it ever the other day and i just can't get it out of my head!
Beethovans 5th and 9th
Oh and the piece The Snowman - does that count?

Rustar

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Man.....

Rimsky-Korsakov. My favorites are the 'Antar' Symphony (this could have been used as the soundtrack to LOTR) and 'Scheherazade'.

Haydn's 6,7, and 8 symphonies - 'Morning', 'Noon', and 'Evening', from the man who nearly singlehandedly invented the classical format.

Schubert's 'Unfinished' - sounds pretty complete to me. And 'Ave Maria'

Debussy's 'Prelude a l'Apres Midi d'Une Faune' (Afternoon of a faun), 'Clair de lune', and 'La Mer'

Any minor Valse by Chopin (and some of the major ones too!)

Holst's 'Jupiter' from 'The Planets' (good call, Kevster)

Handel's 'Water Music'

~nop~

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

tSubh Dearg

~nop~ wrote:

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

The clarinet solo at the beginning of that piece is one of my favourite bits ever! I only wish I could play that myself, but my playing is too far below par.

giddyup

Great call by il gatto on Gorecki's 3rd.

Would also be a fan of:
Prokofiev - Montagues & Capulets??
Eric Satie - Three Gymnopedies???

Rustar

The Gymnopedies rock. I can just see ancient Greeks dancing in an amphitheater, holding masks in front of their faces in the primaeval dawn.

Doshea3

I really love Satie. Gymnopédie No. 3 is probably my favourite of the three, but my very favourite Satie piece has to be Sarabande No. 1. Maybe it's just the memories I associate it with, but I still think it's incredibly simple yet beautiful. (Though it's a pain to try sight-reading—curse Satie's overuse of double-flats! It's not very difficult once you practise it a few times though.)

Kevster

Rustar wrote:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Man.....
..........

Holst's 'Jupiter' from 'The Planets' (good call, Kevster)
..........

What do you mean by The Man? 'Jupiter' is my favourite piece right now. It's just awesome throughout. I'm only getting to know the rest of The Planets now though.

---

giddyup wrote:

Great call by il gatto on Gorecki's 3rd.

Would also be a fan of:
Prokofiev - Montagues & Capulets??
Eric Satie - Three Gymnopedies???

Yeh, Montagues & Capulets was definately by Sergei Prokofiev.

Kevster

il gatto wrote:

I'm sorry to see this forum so underused. I've just stumbled across the classical forum just now. I don't know a whole pile about the field and I wouldn't even pass myself off as an enthusiast but I do love some particular pieces. My current favourites are:
Nessun Dorma from Puccinis Turandot
Sheep May Safely Graze from Bachs Cantata No.2 (The Hunting Cantata)
Synphony of Sorrowful Songs Goreckis Synphony No.3
Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss
Overture to the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart (My current ringtone for my girlfriend, saddly:D )

Good choices: Nessun Dorma (From the Turandot opera) by Giacomo Puccini is excellent and would be familiar to many that heard it. It isn't well-known by it's title though.

Kevster

Tar.Aldarion, you might like this particular piano piece by Michael Nyman:

It's from his The Piano collection and is called 'The Heart Asks Pleasure First'

Kevster.

---

Oh here's another thing too: It was written originally by Patrick Gilmore and is called 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home'. It will be familiar to ye all.

Schlemm

Listening to a lot of John Field at the mo, especially the nocturnes. Ya gotta love em.

Also a big fan of Mozart's k331 (I think that's the number of it...the one in A).

I also love Debussy's Clare de Lune...it never gets old (even when I see it all the time on those Chanel ads!).

Chopin's Grand Valse in A minor.

Paganini.

And also Penderecki.....:eek:

Tar.Aldarion

Thanks Kevster, I'll try to find them.

Calina

Tar,

you'll find The Piano under film soundtracks. You'll probably recognise the piece when you hear it though.

I'd still recommend some of the stuff from Marinelli's score for Pride & Prejudice over it though.

Rustar

Kevster wrote:

What do you mean by The Man?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov

Amazingly, the article doesn't even mention the Antar Symphony, which I consider to be the greatest example of Russian Romantic Period music.
I used to have an old version by Zubin Mehta & the L.A. Philharmonic, it was awesome.

Doshea3

Schlemm—Good call on the piano music. I love Field: almost all the nocturnes are great...concertos 2 and 3 are also worth a look.

K331 (you got it ) is a great sonata, though it's a pity there are so many awful interpretations floating around. You'll find a very unusual version in Glenn Gould's recording, particularly in the first movement in which he ignores Mozart's tempo markings (taking one adagio—such a special indication for Mozart—as an allegretto, with interesting results). A recording I acquired more recently is that of Vladimir Horowitz: what little Mozart he recorded was really very good. His third movement (the "alla turca") is not really as virtuosic as you might expect from Vlad, but his rather "classical" style of Mozart-playing is sure to appeal.

I can't really recommend any Debussy except for the Preludes Book I as played by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. It's Debussy (as one critic memorably put it) "bathed in a harsh Mediterranean light".

As regards Paganini, I haven't listened to much more of his stuff than the 24 Caprices, which are all fabulous, especially when played by the master, Itzhak Perlman.

Civilian_Target

When it comes to short pieces, I think a firm favourite has to be Vaughan-Williams's "Fantasia on a theme from Thomas Talis," it's amazingly lyrical and not overcomplicated...

InFront

Chopin, Nocturnes

Listening to op. 9 no 2 atm, depressingly beautiful.

sdep

Time to disinter an old thread. I'm never going to make Desert Island Discs, so this is the next best thing.

Bach -
Cello suites, No 6 especially
Violin Partita No 2 - mainly for the phenomenal last movement chaconne

Beethoven -
Last 3 piano sonatas (30-32)
Symphonies 3,5,7

Bruckner -
Symphony 9

Hermy

One of my all time favourites in any genre - I've loved it since childhood - J.S. Bachs Tocata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565. - the ultimate organ work.

My interest in classical music centres on concertos and I would have to say that there is none better to my ears than Shostakovich 1st Violin Concerto in A Minor. My recording is a Chandos one with Neeme Jarvi conducting the Scottish National Orchestra and Lydia Mordkovitch in the lead role. Absolutely stunning!

Calina

Civilian_Target wrote: »

When it comes to short pieces, I think a firm favourite has to be Vaughan-Williams's "Fantasia on a theme from Thomas Talis," it's amazingly lyrical and not overcomplicated...

Agreed. His Lark Ascending, on the other hand, wrecks my head a bit.

sdep

Hermy wrote: »

My interest in classical music centres on concertos and I would have to say that there is none better to my ears than Shostakovich 1st Violin Concerto in A Minor. My recording is a Chandos one with Neeme Jarvi conducting the Scottish National Orchestra and Lydia Mordkovitch in the lead role. Absolutely stunning!

His first cello conc is pretty good too

Hermy

Thanks sdep,
The cello isn't always to my liking but I think I may have heard some of that work on Lyric and I liked it very much.
Last thing I bought was Bartok's piano concertos on Duetsche Grammaphon with Géza Anda and Ferenc Fricsay - a lot to listen to in that one.
Next up might be Gershwin's piano concerto.

thusspakeblixa

My favourites are Mars and Jupiter from Holst's planet suite, Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, and.... again not really ''classical'' but Stockhausens' Kontakte