fav. classic piece ?

[dystonia_ek]

Most of what Penderecki composed between 1959 and 1966, especially the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima and two De Natura Sonoris pieces, and the St. Luke Passion - this is my favourite orchestral music ever; Gyorgy Ligeti's choral works; some of Lutoslawski's string orchestra stuff. Some of what Gorecki and Arvo Part have done (Miserere for the former and Te Deum for the latter in particular). And, related but not strictly classical in the traditional sense, Dockstader, Young, Xenakis. Also the Canadian composer Paul Dolden (who did some amazing stuff by recording orchestras and then layering them up to 600 times)... I like John Cage in theory but not in practice, likewise Stockhausen (though 'Hymnen' was good). I find Schaeffer a bit sterile, and never cared much for Steve Reich or Terry Riley. Going back further I prefer the outsider soundworks of the Futurists, Dadaists and Surrealists more than the dominant music of the times, which didn't go far enough.

[SQ4]

Debussy has been mentioned a few times :
I wonder how "La mer" would have sounded when he had the equipment we have now....

[TristezaOrange]

Claire de Lune - am I unsophisticated?

[Meffy]

Impossible for me to pick one favorite from classical, baroque, romantic, modern orchestral... so I'll just mention a few works from those periods that have electronic versions that really grab me. Warning: I like garish, spectacular music, sometimes not in the best of taste. :-D

Brandenburg Concerti, J.S. Bach -- W. Carlos, of course. Heard S.O.B. when it was brand new, and was hooked instantly. The more conventional interpretations are brilliant, but the bizarre (and since repudiated) improvised middle movement in the original Switched-On Bach version of #3 really got my attention, and I knew I had to learn to make sounds like those!

Pictures at an Exhibition, Modest Mussorgsky -- Isao Tomita's incredibly flashy rendition dropped my jaw when a friend at college heard that I liked Moogs and played it. To me, the "Great Gate of Kiev" as Tomita plays it sounds more like a science-fiction hyperspatial gateway than an architectural rendering of a propsed monumental arch. :-) Still a favorite performance of a favorite work. But I discovered this piece via Emerson Lake & Palmer. Only later did I hear standard symphonic performances.

1812 Overture, P.I. Tchaikovsky -- When the local mall was not yet dying a slow death, it had a small record store. Passing by it one day I heard a glittering, noisy, ARP-synthesized version of 1812 blasting out. Went in. (Surprise!) It was Kraft and Alexander, of whom I'd never heard at the time... and nothing of which I've heard since. Backed with Nutcracker Suite.

Grand Canyon Suite, Ferdinand Grofe -- Oy veh, again with the Tomita? Well, he's one of my faves. Grofe's widow disapproved of Tomita's version, but I don't. It's got spectacle, contrast, drama, the same stuff that makes me enjoy the two items I mentioned previously. Lurvly stuff.

Non-electronic:

The Pines of Rome, Ottorino Respighi -- Beautiful, evocative tone poems from 1920s Italy. My favorite part is the ending, depicting the approach and return of a triumphant army to Rome along the Appian Way. I haven't heard an electronic version of this, but have been writing a piece strongly reminiscent of it. Respighi's other popular works, The Fountains of Rome and The Birds, are worth a listen too.

Gayne, Aram Kachaturian -- Spectacle aplenty, very Hollywood-ish sounding and mid-20th century to my ears. I'd really like to hear this adapted for synths but it might be a bit of work. :-D First part I heard was the Adagio, used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Memory check: anyone remember where in the movie it played? I'm thinking it was during exterior, then interior shots of Discovery in transit to Jupiter.

If I'd a few more hours I'd post more, but there's other stuff to do today, and bandwidth isn't infinite. :-D

Meffy

[herodotus]

Order subject to change.

Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste.

Schoenberg: Serenade opus 24.

Bach: A Musical Offering. (esp. the three part 'Ricercare', or Fugue).

Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin.

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring.

Bach: Goldberg Variations.

Debussy: Violin Sonata (1917).

Debussy: 3 Nocturnes.

Bartok: String Qt. #5 (The birth of heavy metal, I don't care what anyone says).

Bartok: Mikrokosmos volumes 5 & 6.

Stravinsky: Symphony in C.

Penderecki: St. Luke Passion.

Webern: 5 Movements for String Quartet (opus 5).

Bartok: Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion.

Oh well I'll stop for now.

[Meffy]

Okay, two more for the non-electronic category, then I'm back to work.

Carmina Burana, Carl Orff -- songs of drunken, wandering monks of the middle ages. Not the most religious music you'll ever hear. ;-) Grand, lusty singing and simple, hard-driving melodies.

Scheherazade, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov -- orchestral interpretation of the Arabian classic "Thousand Nights and a Night," in which Scheherazade avoids execution by telling cliff-hangers night after night. Lots of Sinbad audio scenery. (No, not that Sinbad.)

There. Don't y'all say I never do anything nice for you. ;-)

[Warmonger]

The Brahms and Mendelssohn violin concertos are my very favorite pieces.

I also like Capriccio Italien by Tchaikovsky, although that's for a little more of a sentimental reason (cute stand partner + 4th chair when I was expecting something more like 10th)

[Pantsdown666]

Order subject to change.

Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste.

Schoenberg: Serenade opus 24.

Bach: A Musical Offering. (esp. the three part 'Ricercare', or Fugue).

Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin.

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring.

Bach: Goldberg Variations.

Debussy: Violin Sonata (1917).

Debussy: 3 Nocturnes.

Bartok: String Qt. #5 (The birth of heavy metal, I don't care what anyone says).

Bartok: Mikrokosmos volumes 5 & 6.

Stravinsky: Symphony in C.

Penderecki: St. Luke Passion.

Webern: 5 Movements for String Quartet (opus 5).

Bartok: Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion.

Oh well I'll stop for now.

with you on most of this!
BUT I gotta go for Bartok's 4th String Quartet ... which is actually my fave classical piece - especially done by the Takacs Quartet

[shamann]

By classic, I assume we're going for music store section, rather than classical period.

Several composers stand out for me rather than individual pieces, but I'll do my best:

Edgard Varèse - prety much all of his works. There aren't that many, Ionization maybe stands out for me

Morton Feldman - Again pretty much everything. His piano works are fantastic, Why Patterns? and Rothko Chapel maybe stand out individually more than others

J.S. Bach - Goldberg Variations. Bit obvious maybe, so I can fit in with the bluehairs I guess, but I can listen to Glenn Gould do these over and over

Leoš Janáček - Love Jenufa, but also his string quartets

Antonin Dvorak - Especially Symphony 5, good fun

Gabriel Fauré - Especially his Choral works

Harry Partch - Everything and anything

[Hewitt Huntwork]

Adagio for Strings by Barber (I don't think this qualifies as classic since it's fairly new?)

Goreckis 3rd gets a thumbs up from me too, another tearjerker.



.g

Those would be my top two (in reverse order) followed by Michael Nyman's Fish Beach. Funny how my 3 favorite pieces of music in the world are all neo-classical. Not what I usually listen to, and certainly not what I write.

[aMUSEd]

Most of what Penderecki composed between 1959 and 1966, especially the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima and two De Natura Sonoris pieces, and the St. Luke Passion - this is my favourite orchestral music ever; Gyorgy Ligeti's choral works; some of Lutoslawski's string orchestra stuff.

Yes - I would have picked all those too. The threnody is one of the most powerful "modern" works.

As for Cage, I mostly agree but I do love his early piece "String quartet in 4 parts" - have you heard it? - a beautifully poised and elegent piece that fuses western and eastern influences.

I'm a big fan of Charles Ives - his vocal works are often underrated but they are amongst my favorites (I have a lovely album with the exceptional Roberta Alexander singing his songs).

Ravel can be too sweet at times but his "Chansons Madecasse" is amazing and very moving - I also love the playfulness and beauty of "L'enfant at les sortilages".

Anything by Bartok but in particular "Music for strings, percussion and celesta" and most of his stuff from that period. Revolutionary music!

The Barber songs I mentioned ("Hermit songs") are rather special - he's not my favourite composer but at his best he's capable of great subtlety.

Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire".

Janacek - "Mladi" (oh yeah, and the quartets - esp Intimate letters)

Orff's "Trionfi D'aphrodite" I rate over Carmina Burana (though I like that and anything by Orff - another favourite is his breathtaking reworking of Monteverdi's "Lament of Ariadne")

Strauss's "4 last songs" and Mahler's "Songs on the death of children" - both do me in everytime I listen to them (I like most Mahler - his "Das lied von der erde" is also a fave).

also from that period; Zemlinsky's "Lyric Symphony"

(and Berg and Webern - how could I forget them)

Messiaen's "Quartet for the end of time" (also Hawawi")

TIppet's "A child of our time"

both powerful pieces resonant with many of the horrors of our times.

as is Shostakovich's 13th Symphony (which is probably in my top 5)

as you can see I particularly like vocal works

I do like Riley but not in my top 10, Reich I've not really formed an opinion of.

I also like Copland occasionally - esp his "Short Symphony", "3rd Symphony" and "12 sngs to Emily Dickinson" - he's often underrated imho.

I'll probably think of more.....

[713 TSB]

John Cage's 4'33".

[Rune]

Dificult to pick just one...

Some of my absolute favourites at least:

-Debussy: Arabesque. Probably the first classical piece I could hum by ear. Played by my father when I was very young.

-Beethoven: symphonies and sonatas. I like his increased rebellion within limits on the current balanced classical era.

-Liszt: the Hungarian Rhapsodies, the Mephisto Waltzes. Virtuosity with soul and eclectism... Currently working on the Hungarian Rhapsody 2 myself. Not done in a weekend if you know what I mean Another probably a bit more rare Liszt favourite is his organ work Fantasia & Fugue on the choral 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam'

-Tsjaikovskij: Symphonies 4, 5, 6. The art of orchestration at perfection level! When I'm listening to Hifi-systems I usually use Symphony 4 as reference because of it's dynamic extremalities.

-Mahler: Symphony 8. Very exciting music when you are really listening and focusing. Perhaps not suitable for background music.

[xoxos]

smoke on the water

[chagzuki]

Mostly obvious choices:

Brahms - all the orchestral stuff
Beethoven piano sonatas (109 is a favourite)
Mozart's last two symphonies and Requiem
Bach
Schubert's late works - fantasy in F minor

Quite like some Percy Grainger too.