what is your favourite classical music work?

[giovannimusica]

One of the toughest questions I've come across...

I must use two composers to more adequately convey an otherwise personal view:

Bach: B minor Mass
Rachmaninoff: 3rd Piano Concerto

The Bach B minor Mass is in my mind the most superbly and divinely crafted works ever to be etched on a piece of paper - I can listen to it day in and day out and it always sounds fresh as the morning dew dripping off the Cherry Blossoms on an early mid to late Spring morning in the countryside.

The Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto is the work that separates the men from the boys - The Long Cadenza in the first movement gives me, pardon my french, a volcanic orgasm. Hearing Vladimir Ashkenazy thunder-out those massive fortissimo chords for the first time when I was an impressionable boy at the tender age of 12 made me after the concert scream to my parents that the *Rach* 3rd was the object that I wanted to pounce on and devour whole - much to the chagrin of my piano prof. I learnt it but now I only use it to illustrate what a master Rachmaninoff really was. He really was the last Russian composer who spoke to the whole Soul of the Russian People. A Titan such as he is not on the horizon for most of the foreseeable future.

Ciao,

Giovanni

 

[rojo]

Well, now I`m really frustrated. The sound on my computer is still not working. Argh! With two such high recommendations, I can hardly wait to hear the Bach B Minor Mass.

As for Rachmaninov, in general, I think his music continues to speak to many, due to the powerful emotions it provokes in the listener. And to me, that`s what music is all about...

 

[Marek Michalak]

That's hard

It's not possible for me to choose one sinle work which is my favorite.

I will join Thomas as I too find the Bach's Mass in b-minor a wonderful work and consider it to be one of my most favorite pieces of classical music.
But I also love the Goldberg Variations and Kunst der Fuge/Art of the Fugue....and probably half of Bach's solo keyboard work and the rest I am mostly not yet familiar enough with to make a judgement

Thomas, do you know the recording of the B-minor Mass by the Deutsche Bachakademie under the direction on Helmut Rilling? That is so far my favorite recording of the work.

Regards,
Marek

 

[Thomas Dressler]

Hi Marek,

No, I don't know that recording. I did some scouting for clips on Amazon and found another recording conducted by Rilling. I generally tend to like historically oriented performances, but I'll say that these clips had a very nice sense of emotional drama and also nice clarity. I tend to like faster tempos, but not too fast. There are no recordings I'm aware of that I feel are really ideal, but for various reasons I have enjoyed the Leonhardt recording that came out around 1990. There are things I really disagree with in his performance, but there are also things I like about it. My love for this music is so intense that I like a number of recordings of it, even if I don't agree with everything about them.

I'm with you on liking many different works of Bach. I also love the Goldberg variations--probably my favorite of his keyboard works; and I would say my second favorite is the French Overture. I'm a big fan of the St. John's Passion (yes, I'm one of the strange ones who likes the St. John more than the St. Matthew.) Of course, being an organist, I like much of his organ music, particularly the St. Anne Prelude and Fugue, the Piece d'Orgue (Fantasia in G). . .hmmmm, does it seem I especially like his French inspired keyboard works??

While there are many other composers I like, Brahms especially as well as so many others, I always come back to Bach. At 43 years old, there is still much of his music I don't know. . .as I listen to the cantatas I am completely astonished at how unbelievable his creativity was.

It's hard to narrow it down to a single piece, but while there are so many I like, if I had to choose one, it would be the B minor Mass.

Tom

 

[PipeOrganBuilder]

I think, if I had to choose, I would listen to Mozart's Requiem for the rest of my days. I say this, having nixed a lot of other pieces in the running: Pictures at an Exhibition, Rachmoninov's 3rd Piano Concerto, Bach's Toccatas and Fugues, Vaughn-Williams' Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis...I could go on. In my case, asking about my favorite piece of music is like asking a parent which is their favorite child.

 

[Gareth]

The composer that I like best that does orchesteral music, would probably have to be Dvorak, but the song that I like is Done by beethoven his 9th symphony, as of all the difficulties he had to endure to get sound to reach his ears and although it might have been absolute junk when he conducted it, i still think he did really well in it, and also adding an unusual choral part to a symphony.

 

[acciaccatura]

Could not choose between Beethoven's Bagatelles op. 126 and Bruckner's 8th Symphony...

 

[mike777]

my favorite would be mozarts rondo alla turca....its pretty hard though it took me 3 days....the hardest part is the octaves...actually i find the middle part(with all the 16th notes) to be easier than the octaves....lol

 

[rojo]

It`s pretty hard, you say, yet it took you only 3 days? Do you mean to learn the whole thing? Maybe your definition of 'hard' is not the same as mine...were you playing it nonstop for three days or what?

 

[mike777]

oh yeah non stop hours and hours, but i mean it took me three days to get the notes and everything, now im perfecting it...and i dont think im being challenged that much because the longest ive ever worked on a piece was 2 weeks on mozarts sonata in C and that was a year ago

 

[rojo]

Sounds like you may be in need of more challenging material then- try harder stuff...

 

[Gareth]

The piece that took me 4 months to complete was The Entertainer, as you can probably see by that, I am not a professional just as yet, I slacked off for a while, so it would have been 2 months or so.

 

[AnnaBanana]

Oh my teacher's insistant that she will get me to play some ragtime and I do like it but I can't get the left hand. oh well, it's all practice... ...

 

[rojo]

it's all practice...

Absolutely!

And patience...

 

[acc]

My favourite is the Symphonie Romane, an organ work by Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937). I haven't grown tired of it in over 20 years since I first discovered it.

"There goes the organ-freak again", you might say.

OK, so let me peek outside the organ world: then my choice would be Tapiola by Sibelius.

 

[giovannimusica]

For organ - I must confess that the Passacaglia in c -minor of Bach and Sept-Paroles pour Jesus Christ by Tournemire are my all time favorites.

Some might say: There blows the Organ Loon Giovanni - Ok.

At least I can *pipe* up when a tough question comes along.

Now I'll *pipe* down...

Giovanni

 

[ajw27]

Mozart's Requiem was my first love. Mahler's 2nd Symphony (Resurrection) and Shostakovich's 5th are close 2nds. Also anything by Bach! This was a hard question to answer! Each piece has its own merits!

 

[rojo]

hi ajw27,

I really like the sense of urgency present in Mozart`s Requiem, that forward drive...super. Not that familiar with the Mahler, but I really like Shostakovich`s 5th- very deep and moving, many varied emotions evoked; sometimes sweet and poignant, other times dreadfully heavy and overwhelming...a great work.

 

[Gareth]

I do like the sound of light Cavalry Overture by Von Suppe. I recently got this CD which had it on, it is a really nice song.

Cheers
Gareth.

 

[Izabella]

Well....that's a tough one...

So i'll name a few of my favorites:Chopins Preludes(especially Raindrops-in d flat),aria from Puccinis Turandot-Nessun dorma(performed by Pavarotti),Rachmaninofs prelude in C#-minor

and I could go on and on...