Best/Favorite Piece Of Classical Music?

[malakos]

Rachmaninov's piano concerto no.2, particularly the 2nd movement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAK2J05Vmhc

 

[Uncutsouthernboy]

A very dear friend of mine got me into Richard Adinsell's "Warsaw Concerto". It is for Piano and Orchestra. She wanted me to learn to play her favorite piece. I found it in a solo piano version. I learned it and surprised her with it at a party she was giving. Boy was she elated. When she passed away I played it for her funeral. I did not play it for a long time after. I have recently resurrected it. Not only do I enjoy listening to it I enjoy playing it. It is a fairly difficult piece and I think of her every time I play it.

 

[kennethmarkzamora]

Who the f doesn;t love one of the greatests "Liebestraum"?

 

[thirteenbyseven]

Resurrecting an old thread I thought I'd add a couple mainstream favorites on most orchestra schedules.

The first is unquestionably my favorite finale in symphonic literature from Respighi's The Pines of Rome. As I small child I was taken, dragging and protesting, to a performance of The Cleveland Orchestra because my uncle was in French Horn section. As one of the Big 5 U.S. orchestras, Cleveland had an arts budget sufficient to marshall supernumerary forces from their triple-A farm clubs like the Akron Symphony and the Canton Bulldogs to lift the roof off of Severance Hall. My childhood reaction to the last 5 minutes of the piece was "holy shit!!"

A sentimental passage that brings women including my wife to tears from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 2. Somehow it always sounds better on a concert Steinway with a virtuoso pianist like Helene Grimaud than with me on our little Yamaha upright in the living room.

Cut to 25:23 for the entrance followed by the strings and haunting piano solo.

 

[malakos]

A sentimental passage that brings women including my wife to tears from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 2. Somehow it always sounds better on a concert Steinway with a virtuoso pianist like Helene Grimaud than with me on our little Yamaha upright in the living room.

Cut to 25:23 for the entrance followed by the strings and haunting piano solo.

This is the piece I referenced at the top of the page. It's hard for me to imagine a composition that I would rather listen to if I could just have one. I suppose there must be something in me similar to the women you know, because getting teary eyed is my norm for listening to this. Part of it, I believe, is that it serves as a reminder that there must be something very right about the world if something this beautiful exists.

 

[Nexolaris]

From the operas I heard so far my favorite is "L'Artaserse" by Leonardo Vinci, one of the greatest opera composers of his time. There's an amazing recording by Concerto Köln with male singers only. Two great arias to give you an impression:

"Vo solcando un mar crudel"

"Tu vuoi ch'io viva o cara":

 

[bigmanfan]

Ralph Vaughen Williams The Lark Ascending, Allegri's Miserere

 

[deleted1124309]

Just one?
That's simply impossible for me

 

[bigmanfan]

Just one?
That's simply impossible for me

I know, which one today maybe, or which one for which mood.

 

[eurotop40]

A mixture:

at 8:09 particularly touching

at 23:57 beautiful cello solo

could be sung at Abercrombie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jDCE2_RAAE
more formal...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0ro1kUzCjY
one of our newest national heroes...

 

[chicagosam]

Three concerti for violin.

 

[Fritz]

 

[chicagosam]

Norman Dello Joio—Variations, Chaconne, and Finale

Norman Dello Joio—The Triumph Of Saint Joan Symphony

 

[sizehungry]

Depends on my mood . If i'm feeling a bit dark , Wagner is my " go to " , whereas , Bizet & Chopin are my favorites when i'm feeling ok .