Favourite Piece Of Classical Music?

Pross

With so many cultured people on here what is your favourite piece of classical music (choose your own definition of classical!!)? Mine has to be Baber's Adagio for Strings (watched Platoon last night which is what gave me the idea for this thread). I've also always liked Orff's 'O Fortuna' but it has been tainted recently by the X Factor having survived years of being known as the Old Spice advert

afx237vi

Probably a cheesy choice for proper classical music aficionados, but I like Erik Satie's Gymnopédie No.1 -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU

downfader

Pross wrote:

With so many cultured people on here what is your favourite piece of classical music (choose your own definition of classical!!)? Mine has to be Baber's Adagio for Strings (watched Platoon last night which is what gave me the idea for this thread). I've also always liked Orff's 'O Fortuna' but it has been tainted recently by the X Factor having survived years of being known as the Old Spice advert

No no no no no.,....!

Adagio is deeply inferior to the violin concerto he whacked out, or even the school for scandal!! If you havent heard those you must (I mean people in general obviously)



I like all kinds of classical.. I suppose Glass' Viloin Concerto is pretty sweet. Hard to choose a fave really. Karl Jenkins has been on top form in recent years too.Listen to Kyrie or Sanctus by Jenkins they're amazing reworkings. :shock:

Cheshire_Cat

If we're playing fast & loose with the term "classical" I'll plump for Philip Glass, especially the soundtrack to "Mishima"

plankton

ooh, this could become an interesting thread.

I've also always liked Orff's 'O Fortuna' but it has been tainted recently by the X Factor having survived years of being known as the Old Spice advert

Me too though I think being played as old spice or even xfactor may be better than his connection with the Nazi party Great live though and thrilling piece of music.

I don't have a favourite piece or even composer but I have been listening to pieces I listened to when I was a kid. So 1812 or Beehoven, 9th symphony or a lot of Vaugn Williams at the moment, either Thomas Tallis or The Lark Ascending are favourites.
I do like Franz Liszt piano works, though they can get a little heavy or Brahms or Bach.
Oh, Debussy is good, especially The Children's Corner Suite, but some of his string arrangements are good too.

I think that should be enough for now as I clearly can't answer your question.


P.S. I didn't even get to Wagner, Mozart, Puccini ........

Pross

Always thought it was Wagner who was Adolf and co.'s choice of artist? Beethove's 9th was responsible for a few tramp beatings in the 70's following Clockwork Orange wasn't it?

notsoblue

I'm quite the philistine when it comes to classical. Most of the pieces I like are from movies. Two that spring to mind...

Aphex Twin - Avril 14th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeTjHQhFdsc

Eric Satie - Gnossienne No.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFVGwGQcB0

downfader

Wagner was an aquantence of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche ended up hating the man.

notsoblue

Ah yes, I love Elgar.

Cello Concerto 1st Movement - Jacqueline Dupre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH0jUQTCCQI

I got put on to Elgar after playing the following track to my (far more cultured) friend:

Venetian Snares - Szamár Madár
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PBeKzVhWHY

I like them both

plankton

Wagner was included with the Nazis but not during his lifetime, a bit like Nietzsche. Wagner and Nietzsche were friends for a while but fell out. I'm sure I read that Nietzsche said Wagner was mental because he ...ahem..knocked one out too much.... or what ever terminology they used in those days.
I think Orff was either the official or was asked to be the official composer for the Nazi party at some point. Though I could be wrong about that too

I thought the clockwork orange beatings were to do with "singing in the rain" though Alex was a Beethoven fan.
There is a great version on uTube with Bernstein conducting, just after the Berlin wall was knocked down. I think The Orchestra was made up of either west and east Germans or Germans and other nationalities involved during the war.

If anyone does get any facts to my ramblings I would like to know if they were true or just in my head.

carbonfiend

This is easy. Gorecki Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Stunning. I also discovered Faure - In Paradisum recently,

carbonfiend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4

Pross

I thought the clockwork orange beatings were to do with "singing in the rain" though Alex was a Beethoven fan

I think that's right in the film but not in the book (or does the film morph from one to the other - who'd have thought the two could be interchangeable?!)

trekhead

this stunning piece of guitar music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzKsNIR ... re=related

Tom BB

Hard for me to pick a fave (I'm a musicology postgrad :roll: )

Barber adagio is nice
2nd movement from Beethoven 7 is right up there
Electric Counterpoint-Steve Reich
Debussy Piano Preludes Book 1
Rite of Spring-Stravinsky
Piano Sonata Op. 1-Berg


On the subject of Wagner.....if you read any of his rammblings, it becomes very clear how the Nazi party came into fruition a few years later. Interestingly, Wagner hated vegetarians and Hitler himself was a vegetarian!..... However, Wagner talks of moving across Europe and 'liberating' the music of other countries :shock:

Orff was also a Nazi.....although debatable as to what extent etc

Pross

There was a string quartet / quintet playing in Covent Garden on Sunday and they played Ravel's Bolero which I guess has also been destroyed by cheesy Torville & Dean moments but it really was superb with that little group playing.

downfader

carbonfiend wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4

Is that who wrote that peice..! :shock: 8) I'll have to get that later when I have some money (payday next week)

disquieting_museeuws

This impromptu rendering of Durufle's Ubi Caritas is worth a look if you like choral music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNTDUIRrV-o

This pre-classical piece has a cycling connection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ3zRwrH99E

Pross

trekhead wrote:

this stunning piece of guitar music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzKsNIR ... re=related

For guitar music I've always loved the Adagio from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.

Tom BB

Check out Waltons 5 bagatelles for great solo guitar music
Villa Lobos also does some great solo stuff for guita, his concerto isn't great though...
Castelnuovo-Tedesco did a fantastic guitar concerto.

Also on my list I would have put Elgars Cello concerto-brilliant

Weejie54

and Hitler himself was a vegetarian!.....

Apparently not.....


http://www.naturalnews.com/025163_Hitle ... anism.html

Cleat Eastwood

Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23

POlonaise in A flat major op.53

Polonaise in A, Op.40 No.1

Nocturne Op.9 No.2

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

Schoenbergs Verklarte Nacht

Capriccio Italien - mr tchai Kovsky

Lutoslawski's chain 2

Mozart Piano Concerto No.20 in D Minor

Its hard to believe this came from the heart and soul of man

Violin Concerto No. 3, Adagio

et enfin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYmrU2Pt ... re=related

with a hint of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgOxqwVd ... re=related

carbonfiend

Steve Reich anybody? Music for 18 musicians.

andy162

PhilIp Glass' " Koyaanisqatsi:Pruit Igoe" or Prokofiev's " Montagues & Capulets", which features in the idiots parade that is The Apprentice.

downfader

andy162 wrote:

PhilIp Glass' " Koyaanisqatsi:Pruit Igoe" or Prokofiev's " Montagues & Capulets", which features in the idiots parade that is The Apprentice.

And Dance of the Knights being Lord Alan's theme.

andy162

downfader wrote:

andy162 wrote:

PhilIp Glass' " Koyaanisqatsi:Pruit Igoe" or Prokofiev's " Montagues & Capulets", which features in the idiots parade that is The Apprentice.

And Dance of the Knights being Lord Alan's theme.

....same toon I think?? Could be wrong tho'...often am.

PBo

"danse macabre"by Saint-saens gives me goosebumps...

downfader

andy162 wrote:

downfader wrote:

andy162 wrote:

PhilIp Glass' " Koyaanisqatsi:Pruit Igoe" or Prokofiev's " Montagues & Capulets", which features in the idiots parade that is The Apprentice.

And Dance of the Knights being Lord Alan's theme.

....same toon I think?? Could be wrong tho'...often am.

Its all from Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet (a ballet, technically I think). It might be the same motif in the same way Mussogsky uses them in Pictuire at anExhibition.

desweller

Wow! Tricky question!

Grieg's Piano concerto in A Minor is up there.

Beethoven's piano sonata 21 in C major is near the top of the list. I love that piece of music.

Chip \'oyler

Faure 'Pavane'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpgyTl8yqbw

And Albinoni's 'Adagio in G Minor'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMbvcp480Y4

Tom BB

andy162 wrote:

downfader wrote:

andy162 wrote:

PhilIp Glass' " Koyaanisqatsi:Pruit Igoe" or Prokofiev's " Montagues & Capulets", which features in the idiots parade that is The Apprentice.

And Dance of the Knights being Lord Alan's theme.

....same toon I think?? Could be wrong tho'...often am.

Yup. Same tune Tis a good un!