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

I am just listening to Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Absolutely beautiful. Whisks me straight back to the Alhambra. I like pretty much all classical composers except Phillip Glass, but my first love is Bach. I like to listen to Radio 3 because they often play contemporary pieces and I like to open my mind to something new now and then. And yes, Chopin is sublime.

I also love your chosen piece of music. Rodriguez Concerto de Aranjuez says something to my soul. My husband was so upset by his youngest brother in law dying he just couldn't think of what music to play at his funeral. I chose that piece for the coffin to come into the crematorium and my husband said it was so moving. If it is on the radio I just have to sit down and stop whatever I am doing and just listen.

Virtually anything by Bach.
Rachmaninov’s Vespers.
Henry Purcell’s opera Dido & Aeneas.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons for me.

I don't care how many times it's used as phone hold music the freshness of Spring, the delicacy of Summer sliding into an inebriated Autumn, the astonishing power of Winter...it's just sublime.

Many years ago we saw Nigel Kennedy's live performance - electrifying.

I like choral music and I think one of the pieces that has moved me most in recent times has been the rendition of Hubert Parry’s “I Was Glad” sung by a choir of over 400 amateur young and adult choral singers from all over the country, put together by Paul McCreesh and his Gabrielli Consort. They rehearsed it in Ely Cathedral and there is a video of it that is truly jaw dropping. Every time I hear it, it brings tears to my eyes.

Nannee49, I was about to say the same. Vivaldi was a genius, wasn’t he?
I also love the overture to The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart.

It depends on my mood and what I am looking for in my music, since I play music a great deal everyday.

Peace? A challenge? Passion? The loved and familiar? Sung, instrumental, a certain version?

Currently I am enjoying quite a large range of Baroque musicians: there is a big movement going on atm to play less known pieces on original instruments.

5 general favourites coming up (ie likely to be played often)

Thomas Tallis
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT-ZAAi4UQQ&list=RDiT-ZAAi4UQQ&start_radio=1
Spem in Alium

A bit of Baroque - if you like it, follow the players, they do a lot.
Handel
As Steals the Morn (from poem by Milton)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVCtCxnJyKY&list=RDPVCtCxnJyKY&start_radio=1

Rachmaninov
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto no.2 Its long, but the drama of the beginning and its lyricism cant be forgotten.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGOihjqO9w&list=RDrEGOihjqO9w&start_radio=1&t=689s

I can't miss a piece played by the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin
Mendelsson Violin Concerto E Minor
Its long, but try the Adagio at 12.08.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpCfYynt9cM&list=RDYpCfYynt9cM&start_radio=1&t=6s

Sad to miss the Adagio from Mozarts 23rd piano concerto (it was on Morse)

But cant miss out Vaughan Williams - the Lark Ascending - imagine a warm day on the top of a hill or moor, and a lark flying high in a perfect sky..

Ralph Vaughan Williams
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWN5fQnzGk&list=RDIOWN5fQnzGk&start_radio=1

I love Allegri’s choral piece ‘Miserere’
It calms my mind completely.
And Carmen by Bizet, not at all calming but so bold and brash it takes my breath away.
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker suite and the 1812 overture are also favourites.

Oo, one to go....has to be Ombra mai fù by Händel

"The Persian King Xerxes sings a heartfelt, solemn tribute to the shade of a beloved plane tree. It is a lyrical ode to nature, appreciating the tree's beauty and serenity"

Its either sung by a counter tenor or contralto, here its a counter tenor.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5v1PuhZ2zY&list=RDq5v1PuhZ2zY&start_radio=1

There are so many , but the ones that resonate with me time and time again are
3rd movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - passionate and questioning.
and
Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto -its
2nd movement is so gently , yearning, and the 3rd is just magnificent.

Listening to Garth’s cello concerto no 4 at the moment - it never fails to uplift. Biber for quiet times. Geminiani’s Follia to get moving. Vivaldi’s mandolin and lute. And just about anything by Bach.
DH and I used to love going to concerts. Miss him so much

Yes to Dido & Aeneas and - well, all the others really. I havent been to a lot of live operas but whats not to love about “The Marriage of Figaro”.

The one above I didn’t know was the Harry Parry I’d would have liked to be there for the Ely choir - I looked hard for the video but couldnt find it on U tube but played another.

I did play Allegri’s choral piece ‘Miserere - I love that genre of music - you would like the Tallis Fallingstar

Another vote from a Tchaikovsky ballet, this time Swan Lake.

More up to date would be a Ukrainian Prayer by John Rutter.

Greyduster the choir sang Parry's "I was glad" at our wedding. DH is a cathedral chorister and I nearly had to stop him leaving my side and going to join in!

Liking all new to me Lovemylife. It will be tomorrow unless I do a late shift!

Wyllow3 I hope you enjoy those pieces.
Also love Miserere. Hearing it in a cathedral where the singers are spread out was incredible.

Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror) is one of the best known and most performed pieces by Arvo Pärt
Written in 1978 it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Himself was so poorly last year for 10 months we hardly left the apartment but would sit together and listen to Classic FM. This was his favourite piece of music.

It breaks my heart every time I hear it. I have to stop whatever I’m doing to absorb the sound and the emotions it will always provoke.

My bereavement counsellor said last week if you want to cry, listen to music. If you don’t, don’t.

Music just touches the soul.

MartavTaurus

Another vote from a Tchaikovsky ballet, this time Swan Lake.

More up to date would be a Ukrainian Prayer by John Rutter.

Greyduster the choir sang Parry's "I was glad" at our wedding. DH is a cathedral chorister and I nearly had to stop him leaving my side and going to join in!

I agree Swan Lake is one of my favourites, I recently listened to it in the car and had to pull over, even though I heard it so many times before it was like I was hearing it for the first time.

Where would we be on the Earth without music to speak to us of Heaven?

Wyllow3

Yes to Dido & Aeneas and - well, all the others really. I havent been to a lot of live operas but whats not to love about “The Marriage of Figaro”.

The one above I didn’t know was the Harry Parry I’d would have liked to be there for the Ely choir - I looked hard for the video but couldnt find it on U tube but played another.

I did play Allegri’s choral piece ‘Miserere - I love that genre of music - you would like the Tallis Fallingstar

Thanks have looked up The Tallis Scholars. I will indeed enjoy listening to this.

We have Vivaldi's Four Seasons on a pen drive in the car along with Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo (from Godfather III). I also like some of Debussy's music.

Michael Nyman did the score for both 'The Piano' and Peter Greenaway's 'The Draughtman's Contract' around 1982 and about 1994?

'The Piano' will always bring me back to the day we moved and I had to part company with our grand piano (which I never learned to play but everyone else did). It just wouldn't fit into the bungalow.

As for 'The Draughtman's Contract' the music echoes the sinister allegory running all through film. Who murdered - or arranged for the murder of - Mr Herbert?

Madam Butterfly and La Boheme were amongst the opera albums my dad played LOUD on Saturday mornings.He flung open all the windows (that got us out of bed) and played mainly opera while he did the one household chore he did
He vacuumed the house on all three levels and the music had to be loud so he could hear it from top to bottom.
Only time he varied his play list was when he was learning the lyrics to some aria for a charity concert .
He didn’t speak Italian so he learned them phonetically ,we ,his four daughters used to write the lyrics down for him to practice as he hoovered.
Music was and still is a huge part of my life.

My absolute go to is Vaughan Williams’s ‘Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis’. I even love the title.

The Parry video is on U tube. I can’t do links but if you type in An English Coronation - promotional video, you should get it. It is the absolute full Monty. Seven minutes of sheer heaven.

I love Bach and Mozart to listen to and Tallis too. I used to sing when younger and Handel was a favourite then. My favourite piece of music depends on my mood. Entrance of the Queen of Sheba is a favourite.