What’s the most beautiful classical music piece ever composed?

[AndTwoFilmsByFrancoisTruffaut]

Pls help me put together a classical playlist for when I give birth in a few weeks and tell me your favourite ‘birth worthy’ piece.

I have many I love but think mine is Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, it’s gorgeously ethereal, so that’s going on there. I also love Camille Saint-Saëns's classical masterpiece, Danse Macabre but probably a little dark for this particular event even if it will be around Halloween!

Another vote for Scheherazade, and also Rachmaninov's second piano concerto, it's just beautiful.

Oh heavens - where to start?!

John Fould's Keltic Lament.
William Walton: Touch her soft Lips and Part.
Sometime I Sing by Alec Roth
Un Jionto Posturo by Canteloube:
Search any music by Eriks Esenwalds

There are so many .... good luck with the birth!

I think a lot of Handel would be great

The Messiah
Zadok the Priest - for a boy
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba - for a girl

I love almost anything by Faure and Chopin, but watching the comments for new music!

Clair de Lune - Debussy

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2. Simply gorgeous!

Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky from The Nutcracker. Takes me straight back to childhood, like a warm hug.

How about the Sleeping Beauty Waltz - Tchaikovsky?

Of, if you need a chuckle at any point - Grieg's piano concerto as beloved by Morecambe and Wise.

Michael Nyman, ‘The heart asks pleasure first’ from the piano south track.

Vaughn William's Lark Ascending is absolutely beautiful.

A requiem is a celebration of the life of a dead person, so not appropriate for giving birth IMO, no matter how beautiful the music

For me I’d chose either Mozart (anything cheerful) or Tchaikovsky - either violin concerto or The Nutcracker.

Allegri's Miserere or O Magnum Mysterium by Morton Lauridsen. Not sure either are very giving-birth-ish though?

The nutcracker suite

I’m guiltily laughing at the idea of giving birth to a selection of requiems.

My suggestion would be Bach’s suites for solo cello. Beautiful without drama and you can sort of get lost in the patterns. Or Bach’s Goldberg Variations, for the same reasons. Maybe skip the Glenn Gould version unless you want bonus grunting.

So many to choose from.

I first only heard Thomas Tallis Fantasia when watching Master and Commander.

It's in the scene when they are doing the funeral at the end

Bass Danse from Capriol suite.

Another RVW fan. His choral music is sublime. Gutted the 150th anniversary concert I was going to last night was cancelled because of the Queen.

Definitely. It makes me well up.

About 9 times out of 10 this wins favourite classical piece countdowns. My son and I always say "Not that bloody bird again" .

There are so many beautiful pieces of music. I'm very fond of Elgar and Grieg but couldn't pick a favourite.

What coincidental timing.. DS is actually playing a version of this on my grandmothers piano right now! Always make me cry, which is really difficult as it's used in schools quite a lot and I have had to teach units around it several times!
It would be lovely if we could put this thread in Classics so we can go back to it.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=rGgG-0lOJjk

Love this.

Rimsky's Korsakov's Scheherazade, especially 'Tale of the Calendar Prince'