Classical MusicMusic 

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I love most of the music and authors mentioned before, but there are three special pieces that make my hair straighten whenever I listen to them:





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Like Rui stated,I was also much more into pop-rock through out my Youth,but lately after my girl friend and some movies influence(Out of Africa,Les Uns et les Otres,Apocalypse Now,amongst others spring to mind),I've grown to be much more fonded of the great classics...I'm glad that even video game Industry is resorting those to their OST(like in SCC:) )!:)
 
Most classical music lovers recognize the name Leos Janacek, but only the name. Me included, until a few months ago. Listen to some of his work, your mind will be blown!
 
I haven't really had any real interest into music until I watched How To Train Your Dragon. So I'm not too sure if this counts as classical, but it's the best soundtrack for a movie I've heard in a long time. The music is great on it's own, but to get a true feel for it you kind of need to hear it within the context of the movie. Heres my 4 favorite.
Forbidden Freindship:

New Tail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8xTbvblFk&feature=related
Test Drive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IBlQj2U5kU&feature=related
Romantic Flight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY07_dX3F88&feature=related

So does anyone know if this would actually count as classical music, or should I find somewhere else to put this?
 
Short version: I gravedig and do a link dump of my favorite pieces. Click through as many or as few as you wish (which is probably none, but you never know :dunce:).

Long version:

I'm quite surprised that this thread has been dormant for over a year. I think it's well worth keeping at least semi-active, since there are clearly a few classical music aficionados on the site.

I'm lucky enough that my university holds a lot of very good classical concerts with very cheap student tickets. I've become quite fond of some of the pieces that have been played. I'm significantly more familiar with the full breadth of classical music from different eras than I was before, when my favorite pieces were all ones that I had played in the school orchestra. (Granted, most of these remain among my favorites, but since I've already gone through them on the previous page of the thread, I won't list them again.)

Like seemingly half of the posters in this thread, I found Beethoven's seventh extraordinarily captivating. It's far from his most profound work, but I find it just impossible not to be swept up by the tremendous energy it contains. I feel very similarly about his violin concerto. I also like his "Eyeglass" viola and cello duet, which is criminally under-performed because of the unusual instrumentation. Mozart's 29th symphony is light but very pleasant, and his 40th is very powerful.

I don't have as many favorite compositions from the romantic era, for whatever reason. But Faure's Pavane is quite interesting and his Elegy is very moving. Dvorak's string quartet No. 12 and Silent Woods are neat, and the overtures from the Barber of Seville (Rossini) and Carmen (Bizet) are very good pieces of music, despite the former's irreversible association in most people's minds with the famous Bugs Bunny cartoon. :dopey: And Strauss' Blue Danube is a true classic.

But Baroque music is really my favorite by a wide margin. As Coxis said, the joy expressed in these pieces is quite irresistible. All of Vivaldi's Four Seasons are excellent, and Gloria is magnificent. Corelli and Telemann have a few good pieces, and even the obscure Leopold Mozart has a lovely, serene trumpet concerto. But I consider Bach to be the pinnacle. All six of his Brandenburg Concertos are masterpieces of the highest order, especially since they were so innovative in their instrumentation and complex in the interplay between the individual parts. And he wrote a huge number of other amazing pieces, like his violin concerto in A minor, double violin concerto in D minor, and oboe and violin concerto in C minor. His work is so distinctive in the way it sounds, and as far as I'm concerned, his mastery remains unmatched by any later composer.

Now, even though I don't care for modern music and listen exclusively to classical, my taste is clearly not actually very sophisticated - the pieces that I like most are almost exclusively very well-known works by very well-known composers. I also don't seem to like any of the more "challenging" or darker music that started to appear in the romantic and especially the modern (1900-present) eras of classical music. But I think it comes down to this: popular pieces are popular for a reason! They're just plain enjoyable to listen to. And I'm fine with music mostly just being for fun.
 
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I'm not a buff on music, I know sod all about how music actually works, but I do like listening to classical music.

Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart and Bach being some of my favourite composers overall.

Generally, apart from those listed above, I've got one or two tracks from many different composers. Favourite compositions? In no particular order:

Grieg, Edvard - Morning Mood
Holst, Gustav - Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity
Tchaikowsky, Pytor - Waltz Of The Flowers
Prokofiev, Sergey - Dance Of The Knights
Liszt, Ferenc - Hungarian Rhapsodies #2 & #11
Beethoven, Ludwig - Ode An Die Freude

Like I said, I am not someone who knows anything about compositions, instruments, keys and so on. But I get pleasure out of listening to these fantastic orchestral pieces. They're so powerful and moving.
 
Beethoven's fourth symphony is often forgotten, but I enjoy it a great deal:



Also, Bach wrote some really interesting harpsichord concerti:

 
I really enjoy classical music. It's hard to say what my favorite pieces are, but I most enjoy Classical and Romantic symphonies. There's just such an epic sense of story, drama and presence about Beethoven, Brahms or Tchaikovsky symphonies, amongst many others from those two eras; it's absolutely fantastic.

Though symphonies tend to be my favorite, I also really like violin concertos. Also, I don't want to discount the numerous other fantastic pieces and composers from the spectrum of classical music eras. I have and I do listen to a little bit of at least some of the well known composers, from Mozart and Mendelssohn to Dvorak and Schubert to Prokofiev and Shostakovich or Gershwin.
 
My taste in music is as diverse as it is eccentric... I simply appreciate beautifully composed music across most genres (with a couple of exceptions) and classical music is the bedrock upon which most of it is founded. From the sublime to the dramatic, there is barely a mood that I can feel which cannot be encompassed in a classical theme.

Some of my favourites include:

Beethoven, Symphony 3 in Eb, Op.55 "Eroica"
Beethoven, Symphony 6 in F, Op.68 "Pastoral"
Beethoven, "Moonlight" Sonata, Op.27 Mov1,2
Dvorak, Symphony No.9 "From the new world"
Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture
Mozart, Symphony 40 in Gmin
Mozart, Serenade in Gmaj "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries
Handel, Zadok the Priest, coronation anthem No.1
Bach J.S., Toccata & Fugue in Dmin
Bach J.S., Prelude from Partita No.3 in E
Brahms, Symphony No.4 in Emin
Strauss J, The Blue Danube Waltz
Purcell, Chaconne in Gmin
Liszt, Liebestraum
Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet Suite No.2, Op.64b, "Montagues and Capulets"

Just some of my absolute favourites there... though I do love work by modern classical composers, particularly John Williams and his use of the leitmotif.

If you haven't already, I urge you to enjoy a classical orchestra (or even a string quartet) in the flesh. The tonal quality is beyond comparison and you will even understand why anyone ever bothers with having the bassoon in an orchestra ;)
 
Not that big on classical music myself, but I love many of the classical songs that Andrea "Vadrum" Vadrucci has covered with drums which I suppose would count more as neo-classical:

Gioacchino Rossini - Barber of Seville


Offenbach - Infernal Galop

William Tell Overture

Mozart - Rondo alla Turca
 
I won't name pieces since there'll be too many to fit onto one page, so favourite composers along with a few select favourite pieces for me:

Bach (the Keyboard Partita No.1 is just sublime)
Beethoven (Eroica Symphony, Symphony No.5, Pastoral Symphony, Pathetique Sonata, Moonlight Sonata, Waldstein Sonata)
Chopin (Etudes, Waltzes, Variation Brilliantes Op.12)
Liszt (Hungarian Rhapsodies, Paganini Etudes)
Rachmaninoff (Piano Concerto No.2, 32 Preludes)
Shostakovich (Piano Concerto No.2)

I'm biased towards piano repetoire though, being a pianist, but the up side to that is I can play most of my favourite pieces :D
 
The London Metropolitan Orchestra's interpretation of a 12 year old electro jazz track, which I love:



The results are... wow.

I do like some classical stuff though, but it does tend to be fused with electronica half the time.
 
hello,
me also such, I also love the Holberg Suite by Grieg (particularly the Gavotte and the Air), Dvorak's Serenade for Strings, and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. It probably shouldn't be surprising that I've played each of those pieces in my high school orchestra class, but my favorite is Beethoven.
 
Well... My favorite classical songs has got to be “St. John's Night on a Bald Mountain”, along with “Pomp and Circumstance”. Sadly I forgot who made the first, but the second one, if I remember right is, Sir Elgar's work.
 
The first is "Mars - the bringer of war" from "The planets" by Gustav Holst.
The second is "Étude No. 3 (G sharp minor) (La Campanella)" by Franz Liszt, performed by Yundi Li.
 
Vegard
The first is "Mars - the bringer of war" from "The planets" by Gustav Holst.
The second is "Étude No. 3 (G sharp minor) (La Campanella)" by Franz Liszt, performed by Yundi Li.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I couldn't remember what they were called. Thanks alot.
 
If you ever played Antartica Adventure on the NES, this will sound familiar:




If you recall a certain ringtone, this is where it came from:

 


One of the most triumphant pieces on record. I love how it starts in minor in defeat and ends in such triumph in major. Plus the brass is gorgeous.

In general I find something very humane and deeply satisfying about music that starts in minor and ends in major. When they asked Beethoven why he finished his 5th Symphony in major, instead of the minor it was throughout, he responded, "Many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. Nego! ...Joy follows sorrow, sunshine—rain."
 
Oh boy, no posts for over 3 years - you uncultured lot (Joking ;))

Anyway with my new audio setup I'm currently enjoying Shostakovich's Cello concertos 1 & 2 and I'm thoroughly enjoying them.





These are not the versions I'm listening to, but they sound OK
 

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