Favorite Instrumental tunes, classical genre....

[Snow]

because I wasn't allowed onto the other "Favorite Instrumental tunes" thread.
For violin, you gotta go with Ralph Vaughn Williams' "Lark Ascending"
For organ, Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor (I know, it's a warhorse, but for a reason)
For cello, Max Bruch's "Kol Nidra"
For piano, Rachmaninoff's Preludes, esp opus 32 #8, (24 #10 is very nice too)
and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, which is really a piano concerto with chorus included for decoration. I got to sing in that, and the pianist plays a number of duets through the piece with the principal of each section - the violin, the oboe, the flute, the clarinet....and it was wonderful watching his visual dialogue with each person as he did each duet. We in the choir could see it, the audience couldn't of course, their loss.
Ummmm, let's see
For oboe, gotta go with Vaughan Williams again - his oboe concerto
For English horn, the solo in Dvorak's New World Symphony.
Hmmmm, flute - dunno - any flautists out there?
For bassoon, Carl Maria von Weber's Bassoon Concerto
Okay, go to it!

[OneBlueSky]

1. call me pedestrian, but I've always loved . . .

Ravel's Bolero . . .

also fond of Handel's Water Music, and most anything by Mozart . . . Bach Cantatas are nice now and then, too . . .

[Pepperbelly]

2. a Little Night Music ...

who could want more from an instrumental piece?

[liberalhistorian]

3. I still say the Pachelbel Canon is the greatest,

most beautiful piece of music ever written and that will probably ever be written!

Ravel's "Bolero" is another favorite. For piano, my favorite concerto (and one I've always wanted to play) is Tschaikovsky's Concerto in B flat minor. Of course, for the piano, anything by Chopin, particularly the Fantasie Impromptu and the Prelude in C, I just love!

[HEyHEY]

18. I second that

I like it in d minor

[JohnyCanuck]

4. Since I am a classical guitar nut

I have to go with Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Arunjuez for guitar and orchestra.

[catzies]

5. Bach's Brandenburgs

Chopin's Nocturnes, preludes, impromptus and etudes

Beethoven's piano concertos

Dvorak's Serenade for Strings

Delius' Florida Suite

Telemann's Tafelmusik

Corelli's and Handel's concerto grossi (concerti?)

Mozart's everything but esp. his Mass in C minor, Sinfonia Concertante in e flat major, flute and harp concerto no. 1, 29th symphony, 27th piano concerto, Le Nozze di figaro and Die Zauberflote

Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, live, with full orchestra

Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Nice choices Catzies!

If you like the Dvorak Serenade for Strings, check out the ones by Suk, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar. Also, Britten's Simple Symphony and Warlock's Capriol Suite are lovely works for strings. :nopity:

[Snow]

15. Wish I could find the Warlock -

that's a very nice piece, and Amazon is forever out of it. By the way, have you seen the film on the man's life? "Voices from a locked Room", I think it's called...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. No I haven't...

Can you give me more info?

Try this version of the Capriol: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000041LB/qid=1059685644/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-5706703-5992708?v=glance&s=classical

There are a number of other really nice pieces on the same 2 disc set.

[Snow]

26. Wow! Capriol and Carmina Burana, too...

I saw a full staged version a while back - a ballet company from, ummmm, Portland I think, and a snake - a python, I think.

Anyway, here's the movie:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0114866

Warlock was a very strange guy.....

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. Was the Swan blackened or served with orange sauce?

LOL! That must've been pretty bawdy!

Thanks for the link!

[Snow]

32. They showed these gory slides overhead -

nothing explicit, but feathers, splashes of red, hatchets, and the like. The guy was carried in a plate, sort of twisted up on top of it.....and some of my friends in the chorus told me later that he came off stage all pissed because the audience actually laughed at his aria! Incredible! I mean, he did a fine job singing it, but it is meant as a comic bit, for crying out loud.

[a_random_joel]

6. Am I allowed here?

Since I started the other thread?

My favs:

Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
Debussy - Claire De Lune
Strauss - Blue Danube Waltz
Ravel - Bolero
Almost anything Bach or Mozart

[Snow]

8. Heheh - sure, you're welcome.....sorry I couldn't

contribute to your thread. If you like Rimsky-Korsakov, get your hands on a copy of "Russian Easter Overture". For a 'minor', 'second-rank' composer, he wrote some beautiful stuff.

[a_random_joel]

12. Hi Snow!

I love Rimsky-Korsakov, thanks for the tip! I'll check it out.

No way was he a "second-rate" composer...

[Bake]

7. Does "Classical Gas" count?

If not, I'm still a big Chopin nut. Grande Valse Brilliante comes to mind, that's my favorite, especially the way the lovely Mrs. Bake plays it!

Bake

[Snow]

27. Why not!

We're Democrats - we'er inclusive!
(ummmm, what's Classical Gas?)

[Jeebo]

9. My favorites...

My ALL-TIME three favorite pieces of music (of ANY genre):

1. Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony
2. Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony
3. Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony

After that, there is LOTS of classical music that I just LOVE. I know I'll forget something, but just off the top of my head (and in no particular order):

All of Tchaikovsky's symphonies
Beethoven's 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th symphonies
All of Beethoven's piano concertos
the Beethoven violin concerto
the Beethoven triple concerto
Beethoven's "Battle" symphony (a.k.a. "Wellington's Victory")
Mozart's later piano concertos (No. 16 through 27; No. 26 is my favorite)
Brahms' and Chopin's piano concertos
Mendelssohn's "Italian," "Scottish" and "Reformation" symphonies
Cesar Franck's Symphony in D Minor
Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony
Almost anything by Handel and J.S. Bach
Vivaldi's concertos (it's been said that he composed only one concerto, but he composed it over 400 times, and there is some truth to that, but all of those 400+ concertos are uniformly wonderful)
Mahler's first and fourth symphonies
Prokofiev's first violin concerto
Debussy's "La Mer" and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun"
the Sibelius violin concerto, and also his fifth symphony, and also his "Swan of Tuonela", which I can listen to five or six times in a row and not get tired of

I know I'm forgetting a lot of stuff that I'll be thinking of all night after I post this.

Thank you for starting this thread. It seems as if whenever somebody starts a music thread, it's NEVER a classical music thread, which is the only kind of music I ever listen to any more. I suppose I should have started one myself, but I'm really happy that somebody else did.

I'm not mentioning opera, because this is supposed to be just about instrumental music. But if somebody wants to start an opera thread, I'll post my favorites there.

Also, I love the Beatles. Even though their music is neither classical nor instrumental, I mention them because I am reminded of the saying you've no doubt all heard: "The Three B's." Well, with me it's The FOUR B's: (listing them chronologically) Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and the Beatles.

Ron

[Snow]

11. Yes to all of the above

I had the privilege of singing in Mahler's second. There were about 10 french horns sitting right in front of me. Holy Decibles, Batman! Anyway, in the score, for the second basses, in the spot where we first sing a low b-flat, Mahler put in a note that reads (roughly) "It doesn't really matter if the low basses can be heard on the low b-flat, just so long as they don't sing the note an octave up." Well! Take that as a challenge we did! There were about 6 of us who could consistently reach those notes, and we did our best to make the floor tremble. And, those were usually dotted quarter notes - none of this touch it and back off stuff. And he wrote in several places that low, not just one. And in one spot we're even expected to sing it forte! Then, to top it off, at the end, he has us, the second basses, singing with the baritones a high f above middle c. Incredible! But what a piece of music. And our conductor loved it, so it was even more exciting. Even so, after each performance I came out of there exhausted and dripping. For such a short choral section, it was a lot of work - although you don't notice it when you're singing.

[Snow]

16. You wanna start the opera thread, or shall I/

now that we've got the GD group out of here we won't get buried. And speaking of vocal/instrumental, how would you classify the Coloratura Concerto?

Anyway, favorite opera, favorite opera that comments upon the current state of the world, or favorite piece(s) from an opera. For my voice range, the aria that King Philip sings in Don Carlo, when he discovers that the girl he thought loved never did..."I shall sleep alone in my royal mantle tonight - she never loved me." And to listen to Pinza or Ramey perform it (or even sing it yourself!)

[oneighty]

13. Over and over

I have been playing Mozart.

Symphonie No. 29A-dur KV201

Symphonie No. 35D-dur KV 385

Maurerische Trauermusik KV 477 (Masonic funeral music)

Symphonie No. 38 D-dur KV 504

Symphonie No. 39 Es-dur KV 543.


Each time I listen I hear more than I did before.

I have many more composers waiting in the wings. I am looking for Doezetti: Daughter of the Regiment.

180

[sweetheart]

14. rossini and mozart

overtures of gioachino rossini make me weep...

practically all of mozarts stuff does similarly.

[geniph]

30. Rossini

All of Rossini makes you weep? Even the Barber of Seville? Can anyone really hear that and not immediately picture Bugs Bunny? :-)

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

17. Barber's Adagio for Strings

I've loved it ever since first hearing it in Platoon (which goes to show my woeful lack of classical knowledge).

[Az]

19. Ah so many

Bach's Brandenberg Concertos are a must. Of course the Winter movement from Vivaldi. A particular emotional choker for me is Wagner's Sigfried's Funeral Musique. Another is Pavan for a Dead Princess. Oooh, Bald Mountain. Think think think.... Oooh, Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King. Ack, too many to mention....

[salmonhorse]

20. Vivaldi: Mandolin Concerti ~

1-3 Concerto in G Major; 4-6 in C Major, 7-9 in C Major; 10-12 in D Major

While there're too many "Instrumental tunes, classical genre...." to note here; once you hear these by Vivaldi, you end up hearing them everywhere. Grand entry ways & marble foyers, salad commercials, the whole kit & caboodle ~

[Snow]

21. Yeah, I've always wondered, did Vivaldi

really expect the kids (what age? Teens, maybe) at the girls' school/orphanage where he worked to play all this stuff? Did they succeed? Holy Cow! Also, don't the mandolin concerto and the concerto for diverse instruments sound an awful lot like parts of the brandenburgs? You don't suppose Bach......?

[Snow]

22. Yeah, I've always wondered, did Vivaldi

really expect the kids (what age? Teens, maybe) at the girls' school/orphanage where he worked to play all this stuff? Did they succeed? Holy Cow! Also, don't the mandolin concerto and the concerto for diverse instruments sound an awful lot like parts of the brandenburgs? You don't suppose Bach......?

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

23. Ravel's 'Pavane for a dead Princess'

Introduced to me, ironically enough, on a Larry Coryell album as a guitar arrangement.

[Richardo]

25. I have always thought "Pavanne" was the most beautiful melody ever written

I arranged it as a ballad for our stage band in high school (at the dawn of time). Never performed it, tho.

GMTA, UIBP! :thumbsup:

[Snow]

28. Hmmmm, yeah.....

know the piece pretty well - it gives me the willies though - as I said elsewhere, as a result of a stint in the Peace Corps, many years ago, my wife is a princess (and my daughter, and my late, beloved (really! she was a very nice, funny lady) mother-in-law)...

[geniph]

29. Beethoven's Fur Elise

the prettiest piece of music ever written. My only beef with it is that it's so short.