Dvorak - New World Symphony would certainly be one of my desert island discs.
A few favorites off the top of my head:
Beethoven: 7th Symphony
Dvorak: 7th Symphony
Shostakovich: Leningrad Symphony (that’s right, his 7th)
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Schoenberg: Moses und Aron
Bach: The Goldberg Variations
I second TTT on Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet–especially the March of the Capulets and the Montagues.
I also can’t listen to the Puccini aria “O mio babbino caro” without having to stand still and just breathe till it’s over.
I’ve always had a very large soft spot for Vivaldi. Basically anything, but of course (stereotypically) Spring from The Four Seasons.
I also love Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A, though I have to admit I have a love-hate relationship with it after trying to play it myself.
Also, if it counts, I’m an opera sucker. Acquired taste I know, but give me some Marriage of Figaro any day.
All I can add to these illustrious picks is-
Erik Satie.
Brilliant, moody and playful piano music from the turn of the 20th century. The Gnossiennes give me goose bumps every time.
Required listening for those of you dubious as the contributions by the French to culture.
The London recoriding with Pascal Roge playing is grand stuff and easy to find.
(multi-posts deleted by request – Uke)
gorillacus, if you weren’t a newbie I might’ve concluded that your were making a reference to Philip Glass.
I’ll second Satie though. One of the more interesting and perhaps underrated composers of all time, and certainly one of the best senses of humour.
I’ll actually second your endorsement of turn-of-the-century French music in general. Debussy, Ravel (he was French, right?), Berlioz (OK, he was much earlier), Milhaud, some others I’m forgetting, are all up there among my favs.
Stuff I’ve listened to in the last week (no particular order)
Hindemith - Mathis der Maler
Brahms - Nanie
Brahms - Ein Deutches Requiem
Bernstein - Overture to Candide
Bernstein - Chichester Psalms
Donizetti - Don Pasquale
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending
Orff - Carmina Burana***
Glass - Songs from Liquid Days
*** - except when used in most tv commercials (the one for Disney’s Tower of Terror 4 is actually kind of amusing)
I love classical music of the loud, dramatic, “ass-kicking” variety.
Some favorites include:
-Beethoven’s 9th (quite possibly the greatest single achievement of human culture)
-Stravinksy’s Firebird
-Mahler’s 1st and 2nd (plus lots of his other stuff)
-Mozart’s, Verdi’s, and Brahms’s Requiems
-Shostakovitch’s 5th
-Hindemith’s Mathis Der Maler
and so forth.
I also highly recommend Fantasia 2000, which is generally overlooked, but which I thought was wonderful.
Hey Moe,
Try as I might, I really don’t dig Philip Glass.
Satie (and listed contemporaries) have more…soul.
What I really want is a CD of all the colllected suggestions on this thread.
The ‘Straight Dope Classical Collection’.
A worthy project I should think.
Not sure if it came across, but I was really just making a joke about your triple post (though now that it has been corrected it sorta loses the effect).
So many of you have listed many of my favorites already! I just thought I’d pop in and give a quite plug to a favorite, Jean Sibelius. I love his 4th Symphony, his 2nd, his 5th…wait—is there any symphony of his that I don’ like? Nope. But his 6th was a bit odd. I love it anyway.
“quite plug to a favorite”? What? Forgive my typos. Sibelius is a favorite, there is no “quite” about it.
Schubert’s Mass in G.
Mostly because I’m singing it in concert on Tuesday though.
Also, some free music (including Schubert’s Mass in G) can be found here. They explain the legality of it on the page, something about composers being dead for 100 years and such.
It’s the harpsichord solo that makes that piece really wonderful for me too. It’s simply amazing to listen to.
Also, in general, I think it’s the use of that instrument that attracts me to music of that era–the harpsichord has such a precision and delicacy of sound.
Hey **yosemitebabe **, there was I time when I tried to push Sibelius as my favorite as well, but I guess he’s been overtaken by his better-known contemporary (at least with me). Still I do enjoy in particular the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th Symphonies. However, the 4th one I still don’t ‘get’. Once in a while I listen to it and think: ‘Interesting…’ Would you care to elaborate what you love so much about it?
So many people here like big symphonic music. I prefer intimate chamber music from solos to quartets. I absolutely love lute and art songs too. But to choose one from there would do a disservice. I am quite partial to Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin. There are too many classical guitar pieces to even bother naming.
Some favorites that no one has mentioned yet:
Haydn’s “Lark” string quartet (if I had to single out just one of his works)
Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio (and a number of his piano sonatas)
Dvorak’s “American” string quartet
Mahler’s 5th symphony
Prokofiev’s 3rd piano concerto
Classical songs I have been hooked on:
-Bach Brandenburg No. 5 (Mvt 1)
-Mozart Divertimento No. 1 in D
-Mozart Requiem
-Beethoven Symphony No. 5 (Mvt 2)
-Brahms Symphonies No. 1 + No. 4
-Tchaikovsky Symphonies No. 4-6 (especially 5.II)
-Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
-Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (you can’t not like it)
-Wagner: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde
-Sibelius: Finlandia
I don’t really know how to explain Sibelius’s 4th—I should explain that I grew up in a Classical lovin’ household, and my dad’s favorite, (and I mean FAVORITE) composer was Sibelius. He especially loved the 4th. He said it was Sibelius’s “Best”. So I listened to it a lot. It grew on me. I always liked to say that I loved it because it was “depressing”, but my dad took exception to that. But that was a big reason why I loved it! Some types of “depressing” (or more accurately, “moody”) music is my favorite.
A few favorites:
Rachmaninov - 2nd Piano Concerto
Brahms - 4th Symphony
Beethoven - 9th Symphony
Chopin - various Nocturnes, especially Op 48 No 1 (c minor) – I played this one in my Senior piano recital in college.
Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade
Albinoni – Adagio (Baroque)
Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings
Favourite composers in more or less random order (apart from the first 3) and their best work (tough choices)
Bach JS - Overtures
Mahler - Kindertotenlieder
Brahms - Clarinet quintet
Schubert - Unfinished symphony
Shostakovich - Symphony 14
Dvorak - Ninth symphony
Mozart - Clarinet concerto
Debussy - Prelude d’après-midi d’un faune
Bruckner - Symphony 9
Mendelssohn - Violin concerto
Respighi - Fontane di Roma
Beethoven - Pastoral symphony
Ravel - La valse
Wagner - Ring
Puccini - Tosca
Fauré - Requiem
Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky
Barber - Knoxville
Strauss R - Vier letzte Lieder
Gubaidulina - Jetzt immer Schnee
Pärt - Tabula Rasa
Britten - War requiem
Vaughan Williams - Symphony 5
Bax - Tintagel
Moeran - Cello concerto
Grieg - Peer Gynt
Takemitsu - Requiem
Gershwin - Rhapsody in blue
Sibelius - Symphony 5
Schumann - Pianoconcerto
Liszt - Liebestraum
Chopin - Nocturnes
Rachmaninov - Piano concerto 2
Strawinsky - Sacre du printemps
Haydn - Late stringquartets
Copland - Appalachian spring
Sallinen - Sixth symphony
Tsjaikovsky - Violin concerto
Composers I do not like in general, but with at least one outstanding composition:
Gorecki - Third symphony
Saint-Saens - Organ symphony
Verdi - Requiem
Rimsky-Korsakov - Sheherazade
Smetana - Vltava (Moldau)
Grofe - Grand Canyon suite
Messiaen - Turangalila symphony
Hovhaness - Mount St Helen symphony
Bruch - Violin concerto