Classical music fans? Place to put favorite works!
 

Hey all, I'm a big fan of all music, but especially of "classical" music. Typically people think that this means you never played sports. I've always gotten that a lot, people sharing their shock and amazement that I'm athletic by saying "Whoa, you're athletic?!?!?!", simply because my main focus is music, and because I direct a church choir and lead the praise band. I understand that thought process, but, as it may be with some of you - this wasn't the case. Thankfully, I've always had well-rounded interests, and played baseball, basketball, and football throughout high school. I also would be in the "musicals" such as Les Miserables.

ANYWAYS, just wanted to offer a place for people to share some of their favorite works.

The criteria: Pre-1920, not because there is nothing good after that, but because I want to stay reasonably focused. I love virtually any GOOD music (which is nearly non-existent today), but I think it will get rather tangential if we post musical links from any era.

Share any context that makes a piece of music more "moving" or whatever, whether it's personal or historical.

Anyways --- I'll start with a piece that's not the most brilliant, but is definitely one of the most popular, and ripped off --- the melody for "All by Myself" was taken from the 2nd movement of this piece.

Context, the pianist in this link was born blind, and is brilliant.

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhKJN...B7E75E10554378

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Mahler
 

I like just about all works by Gustav Mahler.
I have a Pandora station of his stuff, and while it does mix in other composers, I can almost always pick out the Mahler pieces.

This is relaxing to me (although Mahler's music is not particularly "soft")
I think I will play some Gustav tonight while lamenting about my Phillies 0-2 start.......:o

Orpheus In The Underworld

Good stuff David and Brian. Yea Brian, Mahler's 9th Symphony is definitely not ideal for a birthday party! His 5th symphony is also one of my favorites.

I'm a classical fan. Lucky to have grown up in a family that listened to classical music on the record player. Favorite composers include Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Handel, Bach, Samuel Barber, Ligeti, Panderecki.

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concert #2 is one of my all time favorites.

Here's a nice piano piece I listened to recently.

Svietaslov Richter plays J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue Richter was a great Soviet pianist who didn't like playing in the U.S., in part because of political protests. But he's a wonderful player. As with his countryman Sergei Prokofiev, Richter actually had no interest in political issues. He considered himself a musician not a politician.

Not classical but I am going to the Crossroads Festival tonite at MSG and the headliner is Eric Clapton. Four and a half hours of classic guitar music.