The award for the most effective piece of classical music in a film goes to......

[chomalungma]

Well - lots of candidates.

But I think that Variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis ...by Vaughan Wiliams which is used at the end of Master and Commander just after the battle when they are reflecting on their losses has to be a contender.

Plus the use of the Enigma variations in Dunkirk when the little ships arrive.

A perfect use of classical music to fit a scene in a film.

So what's yours?

Again, not technically classical but the entire score for Gladiator was perfect. Especially the final three pieces.

not a classical piece but A La Claire Fontaine at the end of The Painted Veil, especially after reading the english translation

Siegfried’s Funeral March in Excalibur. Wagner is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that film.

The trio from Act 1 of Cosi fan Tutte in Sunday, Bloody Sunday (probably not many people will have seen it, but I think it's still worth seeing - directed by John Schlesinger, stars Glenda Jackson, Peter Finch, Murray Head, set in London at the end of the 60s/start of the 70s - excellent performances all round). First time I ever heard it, and it stayed with me for years until I heard the opera on the radio and finally knew what that beautiful piece was. My favourite piece of music and one I want played at my funeral.

The use of music in The Godfather trilogy is inspired. I think especially of the christening scene at the end of The Godfather, which is intercut with scenes of rival mobsters being ruthlessly murdered.

I will vote for the Rach 3 in Shine, partly because I am in this clip:

Siegfried’s Funeral March in Excalibur

I haven't seen that film for ages. The whole use of classical music in that film is amazing.

Immediately brought to mind Kubricks's Barry Lyndon

This is mine too! especially the Schubert piano trio. They used it in an Agatha Christie drama last Christmas as well, so wonderful.

Elergy for Dunkirk, by Dario Marianelli from Atonement. That scene is, imo, one of the most stunning scenes ever and the music is utterly beautiful. I think it was the longest, unbroken scenes in cinema actually. The music pulls at my chest every time. Heart breaking, but brilliant.

Was going to link, but my phone's being slow, so worth a Google if you can handle it.

TheVanguardSix
Schubert’s Trio op 100 from Barry Lyndon (one of the best film soundtracks of all time) played during the Lady Lyndon scene and during the final scene

I was going to say the same. So good.

Also,not a film, but a BBC documentary about a former prisoner's return to Auschwitz, had the Adagio from Schubert's C Major Quintet running through it. It was so apposite and I think of it every time I see something about Auschwitz or,conversely,when I hear the Quintet I remember the programme.
It's a sublime work and so poignant,being the last music he wrote.

MsJuniper

Audience or orchestra? Or pianist?

@HopeClearwater

It really moved me. I loved Christopher Reeve, such a brave man😢

I have just remembered Billy Elliot and Swan Lake - not the bit at the end - although that is stunning, but when they cross the transporter bridge.

The choreography of the bridge and the music is perfect.

Sorry not highbrow but the exploding heads to pomp and circumstance in kingsman

Also not highbrow but mozarts requiem with the shoot up scene in Lucy

You secretly love them both, admit it

Oh yes, definitely a vote for "Kingsman" here, Plasebeafleabite.

YY to lots of these. I also love the Hannibal soundtrack.

Dr Zhivago (not original film - the mini series with Keira Knightley). Ludovico Einaudi wrote the soundtrack. I was 14 at the time and I wept. I have rewatched it so many times and every single time without fail I ball my eyes out.

The standout song for me is farewell - that has so many personal memories for me.

strauss - also sprach z...
(space odysee)

and the smoking cello thingy in 'witches of eastwick'

FuzzyPenguin it’s been so long since I watched Brassed Off that I’d forgotten how poignant the music really is.

My eldest plays in a brass band, and did a workshop with the youth arm of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. The lads involved in the youth outreach are a cracking bunch.

Another very effective Woody Allen one... Donizetti's Una Furtiva Lagrima in Match Point.

Great thread. Thanks for the reminders, especially the Troika in Love and Death. Inspired.

Really enjoying these, especially Brassed Off and Billy Elliot.

Gabriel’s Oboe blew me away when I first heard it. It made me buy an oboe and take lessons.

Love the Shine soundtrack, especially Chopin's Raindrop prelude and Schumann Scenes from childhood.