What is your favorite Classical Music piece?

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I used to sing in a classical choir, and boy do I miss some of the gems we sang! My all-time favourites were Handel’s Messiah (the whole thing, not just the highlights) and Mozart’s Requiem. Ironically, Mozart died in the middle of composing it, and it was finished by his protoge (was it his nephew, maybe?) after his death.

We always used to sing the Messiah at Christmas (although Easter would have been more appropriate, really) and I have great memories of looking over at my father in the tenor section and smiling at each other in the best parts. “Worthy is the Lamb” always reminded me of a Christmas list… “receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing!” And we always grinned at each other as we sang “All we like sheep” (we’re farmers, you know).
MH84 said:
LOL

Seriously though, I dont know much about classical music, but I like Handel’s Messiah very much. Ive listened to the highlights cd so many times. I especially like Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and the final Amen.

Btw does anyone know what are the individual “songs” called in classical music? Is it a movement? I am quite sure the overall piece is called an oratorio.
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Each “song” is named by who sings it - there are choruses (like Worthy is the Lamb and Amen) and there are Arias and a bunch of other stuff. Boy, I’ve been away from home too long - I need a classical concert hit!
 
Just_wondering said:
Mozart’s Requiem. Ironically, Mozart died in the middle of composing it, and it was finished by his protoge (was it his nephew, maybe?) after his death.
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It was completed by one of his students, Franz X. Sussmayr. Mozart’s wife, Constanze, after taking it to other colleagues of Mozart to complete the work who eventually turned it down because of the pressure of the work and didn’t want to compromise their talents and Mozart’s talents, went to Sussmayr and asked him. Her first choice was Joseph Eybler, who Mozart considered a more superb musician to Sussmayr. Only the first few movement are completely Mozart’s. He had sketches of the rest of the movements so that Sussmayr was able or was supposed to have followed them, as there are some sections which would not have been how Mozart had written it.
 
i like hayden’s piano sonatas and those by domenico scarlatti. also, handel’s violin sonatas are wonderful.

i think i prefer shorter pieces played by just one or two instruments to those written for a full orchestra. also, i prefer baroque and renaissance music to classical, romantic and modern music (by modern i really mean 20th century formal music - i also like various kinds of pop and folk musics but i consider that a whole different kettle of fish).
 
I never heard the Handel’s “Messiah” in its whole but I love the “Allelluia” of that oratory. I also love the “Ave Maria” by Schubert and the Albinoni’s “Adagio”.
 
A lot of references here to Handel’s “Messiah” but not many to “Judas Maccabeus.” Hey, I thought this was a “Catholic” forum :). Honestly, I prefer Judas Maccabeus myself…even when I was a protestant.
 
So hard!
I absolutely love Flower Duet by Leo Delibes from Lakme (its like heaven)
I loved Fur Elise by Beethoven before I heard Flower Duet
also like Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven
and Schubert’s Ave Maria
oh wait i also love gregorian chant! (too hard to pick one though)
 
I was going to start a new thread on favorite classical music, but now I don’t need to!

The Lark Ascending & Dives and Lazarus,
Ralph Vaughn Williams

Ancient Airs & Dances, Ottorino Respighi

Scheherazade, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsikov

Appalacian Spring, Aaron Copland

Just about anything by Phillip Glass (since they pretty much all have the same 4-note progression…) but especially soundtrack to Koyaanisquatsi.

The Pastorale from Handel’s Messiah
 
Oh, my… so many.

Orchestral: J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, especially #5; Schubert’s “Trout Quintet.”

Choral: Handel’s Messiah; Beethoven’s 9th; Eine Deutches Requiem and the Liebeslieder Waltzes by Brahms. Also his motet based on Psalm 51, which our concert choir performed in college, but I have never been able to find a recording of it.

Opera: Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss; La Fianculla Del West, La Boheme, and Tosca, all by Puccini; The Magic Flute by Mozart.

Favorite Singer: Sherrill Milnes.

Ruthie
 
Um… this topic is from February… but yeah, Shostakovich’s second piano concerto, I guess. (or does that technically not count as “classical”?)
 
Yep, it’s from February, but it’s been brought back to life.

Opera: The Pearlfishers
 
Oh, another one - this isn’t exactly classical, either, but has always been played on classical stations - John Rutter’s Requiem
 
I don’t know if the folks on this forum would include Claude Bolling but lately I have been listening to him often.

Try his **Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano **(Jean Pierre Rampal on Flute) and **Picnic Suite for Guitar, Flute and Jazz Piano Trio **.

If you want to sample his work, Try The Best of Claude Bolling with Pinchas Zukerman, Rampal, Yo Yo Ma, Maurice Andre, Alexandre Lagoya and Hubert Laws.
 
Wow----what a difficult choice.

Rachmaninoff, “Rhapsody on a Theme from Paganini.” Any of his works for solo piano. His 2nd piano concerto.

Grieg’s A minor Piano Concerto.

Bach, the St. Matthew mass. Also the B minor mass.

Mozart, the “Great” Mass in C minor.

Contemporary: Gorecki’s Symphony # 3 (hypnotic and powerful).

And I confess that I am a sucker for Liszt’s solo piano work. Even though they’ve been done to death, the Hungarian Rhapsodies are still amazing.

Can I also slip in “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen?
 
In that case, I retract it. I just thought, with so many “rhapsodies” floating around. . . . 😊
 
Oh, what the heck. Leave it in. Where else would Scaramouche fit?
 
Oh, yes, the Pearl Fishers! How could I leave that out?

I taped a show a zillion years ago, from WEVO (New Hampshire Public Radio). It was fundraising time, and the host of the Opera show did this every fundraising time. He played, back to back, 6 sets of tenors and baritones doing the duet from Pearl Fishers… wonderful!

Ruthie
 
Ruthie,
My favorite in the Pearlfishers is the duet between the two guys who are in love with the priestess. It’s just so beautiful. I heard it for the first time on 10/2/79, immediately after I left the title office where my soon-to-be ex and I had signed the papers to sell our house. It was a sad day. I’d just turned the radio on and it began. It was like one of those Ahhhhhhhhhhhh moments when you’re overcome by beauty and everything else recedes.
Nowadays I’d call that a blessed moment…
 
Pretty much anything by Rossini, particularly “An Italian in Algiers”. Well, Figaro, of course.

Hunyadi Laslo. Hard to find. Mine got ruined. I particularly like the lovers’ duet that begins with something that sounds like “Nisi podedesem, la, la, manisce bubon.” All in Hungarian, of course, so I can’t so much as understand a word without the libretto.
I need to find it on a disc somewhere, with the libretto.
 
Oh, my—I left out Holst’s *The Planets *and Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony 2.
 
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