By special request, let’s discuss our favourite Classic Music and why?

Johann Strauss II for me. I was in a dance formation team and we danced the Viennese waltz to Strauss.

Many on here I know and love and many I am making note of. My favourite these days is Einaudi, a young (born 1955) composer but find his music so soothing and transporting. This is the one that first introduced me to his work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR7a-yZRKCc

lovely reading other people's favourite music! I'm a huge fan of Shostakovich - a lot of it is very listenable to and not scary I promise! But my first choice would always be Chamber Music - just love the late Beethoven string quartets. He was way ahead of his time! Schumann's Rhenish Symphony is not played often enough - one of my favourites too. Steve Reich's music (a train I think) which is often played when there is a programme about Auschwitz. Such a moving piece of music.
Chopin can do no wrong in my book , nor Mozart, Liszt....I could go on forever!! Not to forget Elgar's Cello Concerto .......

I think I need to work through this thread and create a new playlist . I love Dvorak Nocturne in B major , Faure Requiem . John Rutter Mass of the Children .

Humming chorus from Madame Butterfly gets me everytime, Butterfly keeping vigil for Pinkerton when we know that he's coming back as a married man😪

Shostakovich Waltz no 2. I think it would make a great triumphant end to a funeral. I too like Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake score. When the adult Billy Elliot arrived on stage to dance in Swan Lake, it moved me to tears.

J S Bach's concierto for 2 violins in D minor. It's our love affair. The children used to call it the Dark Bubble.

..Yes! and here, Romola

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJh6i-t_I1Q&list=RDDJh6i-t_I1Q&start_radio=1

is the bestest ever rendition I have loved for ever!

(Yehudi Menuhin And David Oistrakh)

(as its a duet it amuses me that Oistrakh sort of goes on with his eyes more or less closed and its Menuhin who turns in his direction as in "working with", but not a surprise)

(If you just like the adagio it begins at 4.30)

Ktsmum

Humming chorus from Madame Butterfly gets me everytime, Butterfly keeping vigil for Pinkerton when we know that he's coming back as a married man😪

Oh that gets to me too.

Schumann Piano Concerto in A - studied it for A level music and loved it instantly.

Brahms German Requiem - joined a choir when we lived in Australia and sang in this.

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana - have sung this twice, not just the bit everybody knows. but the whole work!

And lastly Debussy's La Fille au Cheveux du Lin - one of my piano exam pieces.

Wyllow I absolutely agree about the Menuhin/Oistrakh recording.
As a teenager, I was in a youth orchestra and we were taken to the Bath festival where we heard Menuhin and ?? play that concerto. Unforgettable.

I really like anything jolly. Our dad introduced us to classical music, when we were kids, with his two favourites Tchaikovskiy's 1812 Overture and Rossini's William Tell Overture. That's probably why I like up tempo stuff. I specially enjoy Aaron Copeland's Hoedown. I'm not a fan of slow stuff. I was driving to my karate class last Saturday, listening to Classic FM. They played Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. It droned on for about 13 minutes! That's half my journey with one piece! I like something lively to get me in the mood for a fight.

In the tv show Secret Service, Rav puts on Brahms Intermezzo. Lovely.

Oh my, you were so fortunate. My Dad worshipped him, so we heard loads and loads.

I think you've hit "nail on head" lizzypopbottle.

Some of us like the slow, "deep feeling" even sorrowful music, although its not just to do with tempo, it can be whether its in a major or minor key...

Some like both,

And some love the upbeat "Get up and go" of the pieces you have mentioned.

Its hard to resist Handel's Water Music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuw8YjSbKd4

but of course Handel wrote slow lyrical pieces too

Horses for courses!

I was brought up on classical music, and have been lucky enough to sing in really good choirs. I couldn’t pick a favourite piece. I love Bach and Mozart.

My favourite composer is Benjamin Britten. His subjects really speak to me, and his settings of English poetry are unsurpassed. I saw him once, at a performance of his War Requiem, and I have met his partner Peter Pears.

Chopin’s Nocturne no 20 in C. Play it in my car if I am stuck in traffic as it makes me feel calm.

I should have added that I love much ballet music, especially Tchaikovsky of course. I was a ballet mad child and teenager. The first piece of music I remember loving was the oboe solo from Act 2 of Swan Lake.

Elgar's Cello Concerto, particularly the second movement.
Mozart's Requiem Mass
Bach's Cello Concerto

To play - anything by Mozart or Bach, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise

The Brahms German Requiem is wonderful, it is new to me. It needs a good listening - must have been wonderful to sing to.

So far I've just listened to a sample this whole and other bits
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1G8PgDfCI&list=RD-K1G8PgDfCI&start_radio=1

there is a lot of calming and lovely chorale and other classical music on R3 Unwind but you have to tune in at the right time which is from 2pm to 5pm

A big yes to the Elgar Cello concerto and Mozarts Requiem Mass too.

Cossy

I have to admit two of my favourite go to’s to relax and ease my ever mounting stress are Pachelbel’s Canon and the opera Madame Butterfly, both in entirely different ways recharge me!

I also love anything by Chopin to totally relax me.

I love Pachelbel's Canon too. There are others, mostly Bach and Mozart plus a duet but I can't remember the name. It takes me back to my childhood.

Would the duet possibly be this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI&list=RD5PYt2HlBuyI&start_radio=1
(Pearl Fishers duet)

or this one from the Marriage of Figaro as featured big time on the film "the Shawshank Redemption"unforgettable.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjqmg_7J53s

Shostakovich (probably spelled wrongly!) waltz no 2 is used in the dramatic waltz scene in the film Anna Karenina . It is so atmospheric and adds to the tense relationships between the prime characters. It brings tears to my eyes every time - again on you tube.