Slow, quiet and sad. Classical recommendations

Cafe Society
1

I don’t know much about classical music, but I know what I like when I hear it. Slow, quiet, sad and without words is what I want to listen to. I don’t want to be inspired in any way, or be reminded of some movie. I just want to feel melancholy and reflective. My aim is to have a library of about 3 hours of this type of music so I can just sink down into it and let it envelope me completely from time to time.

If there are classical music scholars and/or enthusiastic fans in these parts and you know of pieces of classical music that can make a grown man cry then please chime in with your suggestions.

I’m also of an age where locating, collecting and installing all on a flash drive for playback in my car is kinda over my head. So any help with this aspect would be appreciated.

I hope you can help. Thanks

2

Romance No. 2 in F Major is a Classical Romantic piece by Beethoven. This is what I performed yesterday in my recital by the way.

I would recommend listening to a recording of Oistrakh playing the piece. He is really good.

3

Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for strings” is one of the all-time great downer pieces.

4

More Beethoven. Richard Wagner, when reflecting on Op. 131’s first movement, said that it “reveals the most melancholy sentiment expressed in music.”

5

More Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, 2nd mvt.

Also, the 2nd mvt. of Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins. I don’t know if this is objectively melancholy or it only feels that way to me because we played it at my grandfather’s funeral, but there it is.

6

Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”) should do the trick.

7

Pavane, Opus 50 by Fauré.

Sicilienne, Opus 78, also by Fauré.

8

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata #14: First Movement (“Moonlight” Sonata).

Rachmaninoff: Étude Tableau, Op.39 - No.2 In A Minor.

Debussy: Suite Bergamasque #3: Clair de Lune.

Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals: The Swan

9

The slow movement of Mozart’s clarinet concerto

10

Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess

11

Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor.

12

Already said by** Panache45**:

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No 14

Debussy Clair de Lune
Adding:
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 Pathetique

Georges Bizet L Arlesienne Suite No 1,3 Adagietto

Chopin Nocturne In E Flat Major Op9 No2

13

25th variation of the Goldberg Variations, particularly as played by Glenn Gould in his second recording of them.

The Prologue to Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, as performed by Werner Klemperer. Everyone else does it fast. He does it slow. Achingly slow.

14

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

15

The simplest way would probably be to find one or two compilation albums, like this one: The 99 Most Essential Adagios, download it to your computer, and copy the tracks you like to a flash drive.

Another approach is to find performances of pieces you like on YouTube (such as the ones other posters have linked to in this thread), download the audio portions, and copy them to the flash drive. If you want to go this route, hopefully someone can explain how.

16

Just touching base to say thank you and I’ll check all the links out tonight. Some of these are definitely familiar and others are new to me. Thanks again. Don’t stop.

17

Chopin’s first piano concerto, first movement.

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Shostakovitch 5th Symphony, third movement.

19

Another extra-slow Bach is the Stokowski version of Air on a G String.

20

It’s in a major key, but is slow, quiet, and can make me cry, so I hope it fits your bill: Chopin’s Prelude in F# Major

And here are two pieces of music whose first halves are very slow and beautiful, but then they pick up tempo (at which point, you can just switch to something else :)):

2nd movement of Ravel’s Concerto in G
Copeland’s Concerto for Clarinet and Strings

If there’s a heaven and I make it there, I’d like to be greeted with one of those two pieces playing in the background, thx in advance.