NationStates Jolt Archive

Given the threads about the best metal and punk songs of all time, I only thought it appropriate that I start a thread for the best classical music piece of all time, since I'm a big fan of classical music. I am really undecided on what I would call the all-time best, to be honest. There are a lot of pieces I love, but I just can't decide. I'd say that some of Beethoven's sonatas are among my favorites, though.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

On one hand, I want to completely ignore this as it's very much like trying to pick a greatest year of history or greatest letter of the alphabet. On the other hand, I'll just say "Ring of the Nibelung" and bugger off.

On one hand, I want to completely ignore this as it's very much like trying to pick a greatest year of history or greatest letter of the alphabet. On the other hand, I'll just say "Ring of the Nibelung" and bugger off.


S and AD 1066

Fucking difficult question.

My faves are

Jean Sibelius The Oceanides
Maurice Ravel Daphnis et Chloe
Hector Berlioz Un Bal
Arvo Part Fratres
Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings

Beethoven's ''Ode To Joy''. When I saw it in'' Beloved'', i cried. Gary Oldman was perfect as the tortured genius. I still listen to it when i feel down.

Moonlight Sonata

I'd say Carmina Burana but anything by Beethoven is excellent too.

Impossible to pick just one, but a rough list done today -restricted to longer pieces only- might include:

D. Shostakovich: 8th Symphony
D. Shostakovich: 10th Symphony
A. Piazzolla: Maria de Buenos Aires (Tango Operita)
S. Taneyev: Piano Quintet
J.S. Bach: B Minor Mass
J.S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion
S. Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
M. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
J. Suk: Asrael Symphony
A. Dvorak: 9th Symphony "From the New World"

So, I suppose, a mixed bag of mostly slavic (Russian and Czech) 19th and 20th century composers with a throwback to J.S. Bach and the slight oddity of Argentina's master of Nuevo Tango thrown in for good luck.

D. Shostakovich: 8th Symphony


Yes!!!!!!

I like his 4th and 5th a lot as well. Mahler's 1st is great, too.

i dont like classical music

S and AD 1066
Fool, X is obviously the greatest letter, and without AD 1065, you would never have gotten to your precious "AD 1066.":p

And, musically, Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is muy wunderbar, such that it is able to randomly mix linguas.

A thread about classical music is what it took to draw me out of the woodworks...

If we're talking straight up Classical, I'd have to say Mozart's Requiem Mass (K626)

If by classical, you're referring to "western art music" performed by a vaguely orchestral group (including Romantic and Baroque) the list is nearly endless. As a few, I like:

Pictures at an Exhibition- Mussogorsky
Beethoven's 5th and 9th Symphonies
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis -Ralph Vaughn Williams
The Planets (Jupiter and Mars specifically) -Holst
Most of Gabrielli's Canzonae
Bolero- Ravel/Debussy

Among many others

We have to pick just one? :(

Erg. Well anyway, my favorites:

J. S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, The Musical Offering, St. Matthew Passion, French & English Suites, and just about everything else.

L. V. Beethoven: The 'Razoumovsky' string quartets (Op. 59), the sonata for 'cello and piano in A Op. 67, all of the piano sonatas after Op. 101 except the Hammerklavier, and most of the rest of the chamber music.

F. Schubert: The "Great" and "Unfinished" symphonies; piano sonatas

Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, piano concerti, violin concerto, chamber music etc.

S. Prokofieff: Scythian Suite, Piano Concerto #2, Classical Symphony

I. Stravinsky: L'Histoire de Soldat

Very little written after 1945, which becomes impossible to understand, perform, remember, sing, etc.

None of that sappy, excessively emotional, and inexplicably popular Late Romantic stuff, of course. :D Well, ok, it's easy to understand why people like it. I don't particularly.

Overall, I'd say my favorites are among the following:

Beethoven's 3rd and 9th symphonies

Pathetique and Moonlight sonatas

Pictures at the Exhibition (which I'm told is actually crap, but I like it)

A
Pictures at an Exhibition- Mussogorsky


The original piano version or the Ravel orchestration?

The original piano version or the Ravel orchestration?

Both are good, I do like the Stokowski transcription as well.

Introduction Et Rondo Capriciosso Camille Saint-Saens.

I don't like most classical music, but this peice is good enough to peirce my Beethoven-hating skull (I play classical, and that could be why I dispise most of it)

Really impossible to just pick 1 best piece, but someof my favourites include

Schubert: The Wanderer Fantasy followed by pretty much everything else he wrote.
Bach: The Goldberg variations followed by pretty much everything else he ever wrote.
Shostakovitch: Symphony no 7 (The seige of Leningrad) followed by...

yeah you guessed.

Plus lots lots more :)

I don't really like classical music. It has a tendency to put me to sleep.
And I have an everlasting grudge agaisnt the person who wrote that classical piece which is now a ringtone on my sister's cell. Which wakes me up obnoxiously when I should be sleeping for another hour.

I actually got to play an arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition before. It was pretty simple, and was for 8th grade band. I was a bass clarinetist, and i remember it was a fun piece to play, especially the part about Baba Yaga.

But I'd have to say that my favorite classical music pieces are anything by Tchaikovsky, and In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg.
I'm a fan of anything that brings attention to lower reeds, because I rock the Eb contra-bass clarinet (aka THE BEAST) in my schools concert band.:cool:

It's impossible to choose only one I think, when there are so many excellent pieces of classical music. But I'll choose Fauré's Requiem, simply because of its beauty, and the significance it's had in my life.

1812 Ovature :)

Beethovan's 9th symphony(of course)

Tschovisky's 1812 Overture

Beethoven's 7th or the 5th piano concerto. Either one.

But it's really an impossible question.

<snip>The Planets (Jupiter and Mars specifically) -Holst
<snip>
Same here. My actual favorite, if it counts, would actually be Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. Maybe too jazzy, though.

Halvorsen - Entry March of the Boyars
Grieg - Hall of the Mountain King
St. Saens - Danse Macabre
Beethoven - Ninth Symphony

Top 5 in no particular order:

Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique" – Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky
Rite Of Spring – Igor Stravinsky
Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" – Ludwig Van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 "From The New World" – Antonin Dvorak
Aida – Giuseppe Verdi

Top 5 in no particular order:

Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique" – Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky
Rite Of Spring – Igor Stravinsky
Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" – Ludwig Van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 "From The New World" – Antonin Dvorak
Aida – Giuseppe Verdi


I forgot Dvorak! Damn! And the Triumphal March from Aida! As to Rite of Spring, I much prefer the Firebird.

Yes, I've found that Beethoven really is my favorite composer over all.

I like these the best:

Mozart: Piano Concerto in A (K488)

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A

Vivaldi: Four Seasons

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

Schubert: Unfinished Symphony

Handel: Water Music

Bach: Air

Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata

Chopin: Prelude in Em



of those... my favorite is Mozart's Piano Concerto in A. He was the best, imo.

Franz Liszt: Les Preludes
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9
St. Saens: Danse Macabre
Rimsky Korsakov: Scheherezade, Op. 35
Tchaikovsky: Marche Slave, Op. 31, and the 1812 Overture, Op. 49.
Sæverud: the Ballad of Revolt.
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven: Symphony no. 9

And more... Just some of my favourites...

Hector Berlioz, L'Enfance du Christ and Symphonie Fantastique.

Runners-up:

Alberto Ginastera, The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Benjamin Britten, Hymn to St. Cecelia
Richard Strauss, Der Abend
Carl Orff, Carmina Burana
Igor Stravinsky, The Rites of Spring
Gustav Holst, The Planets
Ottorino Respighi, The Pines of Rome

These, and many, many more.

CPE Bach.. Solfeggietto. Nice and easy to play.Sounds good too.

Dvorak - brave new world

Winter

A thread about classical music is what it took to draw me out of the woodworks...

If we're talking straight up Classical, I'd have to say Mozart's Requiem Mass (K626)

If by classical, you're referring to "western art music" performed by a vaguely orchestral group (including Romantic and Baroque) the list is nearly endless. As a few, I like:

Pictures at an Exhibition- Mussogorsky
Beethoven's 5th and 9th Symphonies
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis -Ralph Vaughn Williams
The Planets (Jupiter and Mars specifically) -Holst
Most of Gabrielli's Canzonae
Bolero- Ravel/Debussy

Among many others


Darn! ya beat me to one of my favorite nit-picks. :D

As for my favorite, I refuse to choose.

The Great Richard Wagner:

Lohengrin(the prelude to act III) from "The Twilight of the Gods"

Hmm. Tricky, but I think my current favourites would have to be:

Debussy's Clair de Lune
Beethoven's Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata

(If I got the composers wrong then please don't kill me - I know the first one's right, but the other two are somewhat hazy).

If I had to choose I'd go for Clair de Lune though probably.

Out of interest has William Orbit actually done anything of note other than Adagio for Strings?

The Great Richard Wagner:

Lohengrin(the prelude to act III) from "The Twilight of the Gods"

I thought Lohengrin was the name of another opera entirely.

Hector Berlioz Un Bal

Excellent choice. Berlioz is often overlooked. His Requiem was a stunning piece as well. It included four antiphonal brass choirs.

My other favorites:

Mozart's Requiem
The Four Seasons by Vivaldi

Excellent choice. Berlioz is often overlooked. His Requiem was a stunning piece as well. It included four antiphonal brass choirs.

Well, I heard somewhere he was no good, but I actually haven't heard him directly.