I would have suggested his Fourth, as one that starts out loud and forceful, in a Beethoven’s Fifth kind of way.
A little Bruckner cranked up to 11 is always a good way to wake the dead and bother the neighbors.
:dubious:
Baldwin beat me to it - Scheherazade and Mars for sure! John Williams basically pirated Mars for Darth Vader’s theme.
It’s not always an orchestral piece (can be done on a pipe organ), but HAS been orchestrated - Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D.
Who orchestrated it? Ravel?
There are several orchestrations, but none I know of by anyone famous. The one I’m most familiar with is the used in Fantasia.
That’s exactly what I was thinking - Fantasia.
West Side Story has some great stuff, too. Plus Officer Krupke to crack you up!
The music from the Nightcrawler attack scene in X2, Mozart’s ‘Dies Irae’ from his Requiem, is pretty awesome. Give Beethoven’s “Rage Over the Lost Penny” (Rondo a capriccio in G major, Op. 129) a shot as well, if you can find a decent recording of it.
I haven’t heard anything by Beethoven that’s blood-pumping other than this, but the Egmont Overture by him qualifies, if a bit straightforward.
Dissing my powers of observation, eh? Well…hey…where did I put my keys…?
Officer Krupke is, IMO, a very weak point in the show.
The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story is a good route to go if it’s pure orchestral music you’re after.
Stokowski made that arrangement. This provides that and more of the same.
You can get free, decent-quality mp3s of several of the pieces mentioned as well as other good pieces at these sites:
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/584
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/743
Wagner: Tannhäuser overture. Rienzi overture.
Dvorak: Carnival Overture.
Smetana: the Moldau. IMO the rest of Ma Vlast is inferior to it.
Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe suites 1 and 2. The first suite ends with “danse guerrière” (“warlike dance” according to AltaVista translations) and the second with a bacchanal.
Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole, last movement.
Debussy: La Mer, especially the last movement; second nocturne for orchestra, Fêtes (festivals).
Liszt:Totentanz (dance of death).
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor.
Beethoven: Coriolan overture. Egmont overture (seconded).
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. Symphony #2.
This is a decent collection for the price: http://www.amazon.com/Symphonic-Spectacular-Georges-Bizet/dp/B000003CUY/ref=sr_1_7/103-5286797-2981441?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1179952429&sr=1-7
All the selections are good. I like the Shostakovich and the Halvorsen pieces best.
In what way? True, it’s basically comic relief and doesn’t continue the arc of the drama, but WSS is a musical, not an opera.
I used to have a collection called Classical Thunder that was right up this alley, but I’m having a hard time remembering anything on it other than what’s already been mentioned…
Oh, yeah, toss in Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. It’s very short, though, and most of Strauss’ other work isn’t nearly the same style.
A recording of The Internationale with orchestral accompaniment can be damned impressive stuff. There are a bunch of good ones here, all free: http://www.hymn.ru/internationale/index-en.html
I like the Russian ones from the Soviet era, but the French is arguably more “authentic” - the song was originally written in French.
I like Howard Shore’s music for any of the Lord of the Rings movies, but I think my favorite piece is the heart-thumping dwarvish-sounding crescendo during the race for the bridge in Moria, and during the fall of Gandalf and the Balrog at the beginning of the second movie. Great stuff!
It just seems to just be shoved in as unnecessary padding. And for me, the humour grates.
Half an hour counts as very short, does it? 
(The bit from 2001 that’s included on compilations is only the opening, ‘Sunrise’.)
I jumped in here to recommend that piece specifically. Mars is probably one of the most…emotionally blood-pumping orchestral pieces ever penned. Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity is also emotional, but in a happy kind of way. Mars is scary.
Hell, just buy the whole Planets symphony. It’s all great.
[unnecessary nitpick]Suite, not symphony[/unnecessary nitpick]
I agree, though, it’s certainly a piece worth hearing in full.
Put on the 5th symphony, 3rd movement. Crank up your speakers at the end where it gets very quiet (just pizzicatto strings, then tympany, going bum-ba-ba-bum; ba bum; ba bum…). Keep the volume up as it transitions seamlessly into the 4th movement. It’ll make your hair stand on end.
I remember another Doper commented that Mars makes him want to stand on a balcony and laugh while his armored divisions roll past on the street below. It’s absolutely true.
Louis Gottschalks wrote and performed music that was ment to bring the audience to its feet. Consider giving him a try.
While he wrote for and performed on the piano, go for the complete blood-pumping experience. Avoid any CD labeled piano music and get the fully orchestrated stuff.