Thread: Favourite pieces of Classical music?

I was listening to my iPod on shuffle over the weekend and a few great pieces of classical music came on.

There were a couple of Rachmaninov piano concertos that I used to play back in the days before I went guitar mad; The Prelude in G major and the C# Minor prelude. I cant play any of them now, mainly due to a lack of practice and a lack of a piano, but I do love all those crazy piano pieces...!

The other one was Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt.

I cant actually decide which one I like best of the three, but I love 'em all!

So what are your favourite pieces of classical music?

John Cage's 4'33" and Luigi Russolo's Macchina Tipografica are two pieces that come to mind.

I'm not big on classical music but adore noise and its history.

Beethoven and Tchaikovsky symphonies. Particularly Beethoven's 7th, 9th and Tchaik's 4th. Chopin's études and Bach's solo cello suites. Many more but those stand out.

How funny. I am sitting here listening to the Brandenburg Concertos being performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and conducted by Sir Nevell Marriner. Just beautiful.

I also really like Holst's The Planets, Mars being my favorite. Any Beethoven.

This list is pretty long.

DAvid

I have an old vinyl disc of the Chopin's Piano Concertos 1 and 2 played by Alexander Brailovsky. I've listened to new performances of these and to my ear no one can compare to his interpretation.

I have to choose?

'Mendelssohn' concerto in E Minor OP.64

'Bruch' concerto Nr 1 in G Minor OP.26

'Wagner' Tristan und Isolde - Tannhäuser - Die meistersinger von Nürnberg

I dont have a large library of Classical but if I had to choose one it would easily be Arvo Pärt's Alina.

Originally Posted by Stubear

There were a couple of Rachmaninov piano concertos that I used to play back in the days before I went guitar mad; The Prelude in G major and the C# Minor prelude.

Is the C# Minor the one that Eric Carmen took and wrote All By Myself (in his post-Raspberries phase)?

If so, a beautiful tune. He reportedly heard it on the radio and felt more people should enjoy it and wrote a pretty successful pop song to do just that.

Just one problem, I can't help sing the words when I hear the piano concerto now so, well, maybe it has ruined the original a little?

Damn that Bridget Jones film.

P.S. I love khachaturian, especially his score for Spartacus Rising.

The list is very long. Right now, in teh past few days, I have been listening to the following (In no particular order):

1. Leo Delibes: Lakme (Flower Duet)
2. Aram Khachaturian: Spartacus and Gayane
3. Frederick Chopin: Paiano Sonata #2 in B-flat minor (Op. 35)
4. Gustav Holtz: The planets
5. Antonio Vivaldi
6. Giacomo Puccini

the list goes on on on...of course, one cannot ingnore the masterpieces: Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, etc...

-Robert