Most beautiful pieces in classical music ?
Posted by: pz on 12 February 2012
Dear Mates,
What do you like most ?
"libera me" from Faure's requiem
"dido's lament" from Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)
Ravel's string quartet (all movements!)
I could go on until tomorrow. Hard question! :-)
Bach - Italian Concerto - Andante - played by Angela Hewitt.
Alban Berg's violin concerto,
Sister xx
Luigi Dallapiccola Complete Works for Violin and piano, and for Piano. Naxos 8.557676
Oliver Messiaen Quatuor pour la fin du Temps. DG (Chung,Shaham,Wang and Meyer)
Witold Lutoslawsky Chain 3, Naxos Antony Witt
Alfred Schnittke and S.Prokofiev Sonata for Cello and Piano. Dyachkov and Saulnier. Disques Pelléas CD-0109
.................... and more!
Arvo Part: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Although I like classical music, I do not consider myself to be anything other than a lightweight. The music that has touched me is based on the fact that my mother was an accomplished pianist and when I was very young, I used to lie in bed and listen to her play the piano. She used to play a lot of Chopin and Debussy, as well as others that do not spring to mind (sorry), these were happy times and I felt all was right with the world. The thing is, I still love the music my mother used to play, and play it semi regularly but only when I feel emotional, as well as Rimsky Korsakov, Prokofiev, Vivaldi Saint saens, mussorgski.
Donald
The In Paradisum from Durufle's Requiem.
Beethoven 7 mvmt 2.
Haydn's 92nd.
Peter Warlock's Bethlehem Down and Capriol Suite.
Debussy's Trois Nocturnes.
Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.
um um um
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.3
J. Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
Ravel's Le Gibet
recently downloaded the video of Ravel's Bolero ad played it back through the qute - missus was in tears.
in fact i am off to play it again - beautiful
Agree about the Ravel in HD video. I'm playing it to anybody who'll watch - including my better half's flute pupils. Best advertisement for orchestral music I have seen in years.
....however to answer the question my vote is for Debussy, Clare de Lune or Rimsky-Korsakoff, Scheherezade
2nd movement Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, just as good as it gets
G.F.Händel: Messias
Mozart: Piano Con. 20&21
Chopin: Etudes, Nocturnes
Bach: Cembalo concerts
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.
Mozart Mass in C minor - Kyrie (sung sublimely by Arleen Auger)
Must agree with Member Martin C.Scheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakoff is a truly wonderful piece of music.
Ravel Piano Concerto in G major - 2nd movement
Butterworth, Banks of the Green Willow
Mozart's Mass in C minor
Dvorack's Serenade for Strings
Elgar's Serenade for Strings
Canteloube's songs
Handel's 'I know that my Redeemer liveth'
Beethoven's 6th
amongst many others, and as with all music, depending on my mood. But these work everytime. And new ones include Finzi's Clarinet Concerto which I have just discovered
Fantasia on Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams. This whole disc, really....
and this one...
Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto, second movement. Gets me most times.....
Beauty is somewhat in the eye, or in this instance ear, of the beholder - I agree with Winky's VW recommendation as it captures what is beautiful about VW and Tallis, together with being quintessentially English (said as a Welshman).
I would add "He was despised...a man of sorrows," from Händel's Messiah as sung by Kathleen Ferrier; anything sung by Jussi Björling - up to and including the Swedish telephone book; Chopin's variations on Mozart's aria "Là ci darem la mano," from Don Giovanni and the solo violin passages from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
I am not sure whether it qualifies as beautiful in the classical sense, but I do find beauty in the solo cello work of JS Bach (especially when played by Pau Casals), Kodály (Janos Starker) and Benjamin Britten (Rostropovich).
I would end with Purcell's "Rejoice in the Lord alway," or as it is also known "the Bell Anthem," which is regularly used to validate an adjustment to the set up of my hi fi or to test a new addition.
Allegri's Miserere
anything sung by Jussi Björling x1