Oh yeah, and Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony (no 2) – Bruno Walter dir. preferably. Also, Messiaen’s “Des Canyons aux etoiles” and “Meditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité” (for organ) and Berg’s “Wozzeck.” Sorry for the 2x post – these just seemed really crucially boisterous pieces which I forgot initially.
Although there are no hard drum hits or cannons, Telarc’s Presto from Summer of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is pretty bad ass. it also serves as a great test for your speaker system as it is difficult to reproduce those stringed instruments ‘accurately’ via a voice coil.
Another vote for Beethoven’s 9th symphony. The Ode to Joy is absolutely beautiful, wild, and ecstatic. Can you imagine how radical it must have sounded to the listeners of the time? It still amazes me.
I love the 1951 Furtwangler recording, which was a highly emotional event for the conductor, the singers, the orchestra, and the audience. It marked the re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival after the disgrace of Germany due to WW II. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s singing is glorious.
Furtwangler’s conducting is gutsy, passionate, and more.
I meant to type fourth and seventh. But take no. 8 as well if you want
Indeed, I’ve never heard the final few pages of that symphony taken as fast as Furtwängler took them on that recording - I feel like if the performance had not been on that singular occasion, it wouldn’t have worked.
Truly a landmark, essential recording, for anyone familiar with that symphony.
Good luck finding that one. You have to buy Stockhausen recordings directly from Stockhausen - he won’t let them be distributed.
Modeste Moussorgski’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Zounds!
So will the opening of his Fourth.
Seconded.
It’s too bad Ludwig himself didn’t get to hear it.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Holst’s The Planets sounds intriguing. Now the fun part: which recording?
If I wasn’t afraid of getting beaten, I’d say “Isao Tomita’s”, but since it’s all done with programmed machines and you asked about “classical” recordings, I won’t. <insert smilie here>
Having been re-routed to this thread by some MPSIMS thread, I’m going to offer the following advice.
The Planets really doesn’t seem to me like a piece that any sort of director could ruin. I have three versions, by Simon Rattle, John Eliot Gardiner, and Andrew Davis, and they are all pretty much the same. I’d prefer Gardiner, but it’s really a matter of trying them, I guess.
If, by ‘heavy hitting’ the OP means very emotional, then how about the Death March from Handel’s Samson?
It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to it (years, actually) but since I like it and almost all the classical music I like is of the big impressive bombastic variety, I’ll recommend the ‘Russian Easter Overture’ by Rimsky-Korsakov.
Hmm…must go back and listen to that.
Wow, nostalgia trip! I have this on vinyl somewhere, after being introduced to it in a high-school music appreciation class back in the Dark Ages. I should go dig that out and listen to it too…
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
That’s about the third suggestion for this piece of trivial nonsense…anyone who thinks it’s “heavy hitting” needs to get out more 
Prokofiev’s Montagues and the Capulets
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade. At some points it’s very soft and flowing, then it’s almost like the music is leaping. I can’t describe it, but I love it.
Parts of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky can be very stirring-especially the ending.
What about the Rose Adagio from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty? It’s dramatic, sure, but I don’t know about “heavy hitting.” But I’d just throw it out there.
(In case you couldn’t tell, I LOVE the Russian composers. Very stirring, dramatic, emotional pieces).
I got out some more, and found out that Prokofiev’s fifth piano concerto is pretty hard-hitting, while the Third is weak, soft like a woman. I also discovered by speaking with other pianists that a man may only play the Eighth piano sonata if he has, erm, what is known in the trade as a “puss ass.” So avoid that one, definitely.
Really? Who else in the thread suggested it? I can’t seem to find it.
Thanks for the comment though. Perhaps next time you can leave the insults out of it? Or maybe you could just play and record it for us, since it’s so trivial.
Oh, and :p, whatever that is supposed to mean.