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

(171 Posts)
Cossy Thu 14-May-26 20:02:28

I have to admit two of my favourite go to’s to relax and ease my ever mounting stress are Pachelbel’s Canon and the opera Madame Butterfly, both in entirely different ways recharge me!

I also love anything by Chopin to totally relax me.

watertyger Mon 18-May-26 11:55:24

Elgar's Cello Concerto, particularly the second movement.
Mozart's Requiem Mass
Bach's Cello Concerto

To play - anything by Mozart or Bach, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise

Grandma70s Mon 18-May-26 11:24:06

I should have added that I love much ballet music, especially Tchaikovsky of course. I was a ballet mad child and teenager. The first piece of music I remember loving was the oboe solo from Act 2 of Swan Lake.

MT62 Mon 18-May-26 11:17:49

Chopin’s Nocturne no 20 in C. Play it in my car if I am stuck in traffic as it makes me feel calm.

Grandma70s Mon 18-May-26 11:06:07

I was brought up on classical music, and have been lucky enough to sing in really good choirs. I couldn’t pick a favourite piece. I love Bach and Mozart.

My favourite composer is Benjamin Britten. His subjects really speak to me, and his settings of English poetry are unsurpassed. I saw him once, at a performance of his War Requiem, and I have met his partner Peter Pears.

Wyllow3 Mon 18-May-26 10:51:18

Oh my, you were so fortunate. My Dad worshipped him, so we heard loads and loads.

I think you've hit "nail on head" lizzypopbottle.

Some of us like the slow, "deep feeling" even sorrowful music, although its not just to do with tempo, it can be whether its in a major or minor key...

Some like both,

And some love the upbeat "Get up and go" of the pieces you have mentioned.

Its hard to resist Handel's Water Music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuw8YjSbKd4

but of course Handel wrote slow lyrical pieces too

Horses for courses!

Sueinkent Mon 18-May-26 10:27:17

In the tv show Secret Service, Rav puts on Brahms Intermezzo. Lovely.

lizzypopbottle Sun 17-May-26 23:28:08

I really like anything jolly. Our dad introduced us to classical music, when we were kids, with his two favourites Tchaikovskiy's 1812 Overture and Rossini's William Tell Overture. That's probably why I like up tempo stuff. I specially enjoy Aaron Copeland's Hoedown. I'm not a fan of slow stuff. I was driving to my karate class last Saturday, listening to Classic FM. They played Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. It droned on for about 13 minutes! That's half my journey with one piece! I like something lively to get me in the mood for a fight.

Romola Sun 17-May-26 18:02:04

Wyllow I absolutely agree about the Menuhin/Oistrakh recording.
As a teenager, I was in a youth orchestra and we were taken to the Bath festival where we heard Menuhin and ?? play that concerto. Unforgettable.

BlueSapphire Sun 17-May-26 17:34:48

Schumann Piano Concerto in A - studied it for A level music and loved it instantly.

Brahms German Requiem - joined a choir when we lived in Australia and sang in this.

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana - have sung this twice, not just the bit everybody knows. but the whole work!

And lastly Debussy's La Fille au Cheveux du Lin - one of my piano exam pieces.

Wyllow3 Sun 17-May-26 17:15:09

Ktsmum

Humming chorus from Madame Butterfly gets me everytime, Butterfly keeping vigil for Pinkerton when we know that he's coming back as a married man😪

Oh that gets to me too.

Wyllow3 Sun 17-May-26 17:04:21

(If you just like the adagio it begins at 4.30)

Wyllow3 Sun 17-May-26 17:03:11

(as its a duet it amuses me that Oistrakh sort of goes on with his eyes more or less closed and its Menuhin who turns in his direction as in "working with", but not a surprise)

Wyllow3 Sun 17-May-26 17:00:39

..Yes! and here, Romola

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJh6i-t_I1Q&list=RDDJh6i-t_I1Q&start_radio=1

is the bestest ever rendition I have loved for ever!

(Yehudi Menuhin And David Oistrakh)

Romola Sun 17-May-26 16:55:50

J S Bach's concierto for 2 violins in D minor. It's our love affair. The children used to call it the Dark Bubble.

grannybuy Sun 17-May-26 16:20:13

Shostakovich Waltz no 2. I think it would make a great triumphant end to a funeral. I too like Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake score. When the adult Billy Elliot arrived on stage to dance in Swan Lake, it moved me to tears.

Ktsmum Sun 17-May-26 15:46:58

Humming chorus from Madame Butterfly gets me everytime, Butterfly keeping vigil for Pinkerton when we know that he's coming back as a married man😪

Daffonanna Sun 17-May-26 15:39:01

I think I need to work through this thread and create a new playlist . I love Dvorak Nocturne in B major , Faure Requiem . John Rutter Mass of the Children .

pamdixon Sun 17-May-26 15:25:46

lovely reading other people's favourite music! I'm a huge fan of Shostakovich - a lot of it is very listenable to and not scary I promise! But my first choice would always be Chamber Music - just love the late Beethoven string quartets. He was way ahead of his time! Schumann's Rhenish Symphony is not played often enough - one of my favourites too. Steve Reich's music (a train I think) which is often played when there is a programme about Auschwitz. Such a moving piece of music.
Chopin can do no wrong in my book , nor Mozart, Liszt....I could go on forever!! Not to forget Elgar's Cello Concerto .......

GrannaKaye Sun 17-May-26 15:16:44

Many on here I know and love and many I am making note of. My favourite these days is Einaudi, a young (born 1955) composer but find his music so soothing and transporting. This is the one that first introduced me to his work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR7a-yZRKCc

lilydily9 Sun 17-May-26 14:55:50

Johann Strauss II for me. I was in a dance formation team and we danced the Viennese waltz to Strauss.

jenpax Sun 17-May-26 14:25:52

I am a fan of early music anything from Gregorian chants to Baroque but especially love Italian Baroque viz Corelli, Vivaldi et all any of this is soothing to my soul or cheers me up in dark moments. I do not generally enjoy 19th Century music, and only a few select 20th Century composers such as Holst or Vaughan Williams

grandMattie Sun 17-May-26 14:21:44

I too was brought up on only classical music, pop was for much later, when the wireless was traded for a transistor! I love the exquisite emotions, the complicated entwined tunes, the cascade of voices. I absolutely love church music of the baroque period, the the romantic period.

So, in no particular orders: -
Just about anything by JS Bach
Spem in Alium; Dido’s lament - Thomas Tallis
Rachmaninov - vespers; piano concerto no. 2
Eternal light of Love Divine - GF Handel
Piano concerto no. 2 - Stravinsky
Piano concerto no. 1 - Maurice Ravel

That’s for starters…

bookwormbabe Sun 17-May-26 14:19:49

I have loved the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams ever since I first discovered it while still at school. It's just so quintessentially English. My particular favourite is Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.

Nanny27 Sun 17-May-26 14:09:43

I love Rachmaninov's cello concerto.
Also John Rutter's The Blessing preferably sung by The Cambridge Singers. We had it played for my mum's funeral and it was sublime.

Helene Sun 17-May-26 14:08:01

Just asked Alexa to play this- very relaxing😎