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!

Totally agree! Lang Lang playing this I actually stopped breathing; it’s so beautiful

I love this so much

If I had to go through childbirth again I’d want this music in the early stages.

The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it, an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, until a clarinet took it over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.

Elgar cello concerto

I'm a BIIIIG RVW fan, but I do know what you mean. It is often quite... bucolic. But then, isn't it a sign of how good he was that his music makes you feel like that? It seems irresistibly to inspire people to think of the countryside, and our beautiful, gentle landscapes - I think that takes some skill.

For a change, you could give the Sea Symphony a go... <ducks>

<the action, not the bird>

I need to add Sleep, by Eric Whitacre, to my list. Utterly sublime.

@alpinia absolutely, a stunning piece that is both sad and uplifting

Ennio Morricone Chi Mai
The Mission

Max Richter- Spring 1

It’s Vivaldi Four Seasons- Spring 1 recomposed, it’s very beautiful and uplifting, we had it as our exit song at our wedding.

It is really beautiful.

Grieg; peer gynt suites in the hall of the mountain king will speed things up
Rimski korsakov; flight of the Bumblebee
Vivaldi; the four seasons
Riverdance

Yes! Jacqueline du Prè’s recording is by far the best!

I’d also add Bruch’s violin concerto, Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, and Beethoven’s 7th.

That’s a fair point, he did what he did very effectively, it’s just not at all to my taste.

This:

It was a stroke of genius using it for the Onedin Line.

Some people with amazing taste in here...

Carnival Of The Animals - Aquarium by Camille Saint-Saens.

Grieg, Morning from Peer Gwynt

*Gynt!

Swan Theme from Swan Lake
Nimrod: Elgar

Vivaldis gloria, or mozarts requiem

Or faure's chansons, beautiful

I agree! It's my 'go to' every time I need to clear my mind. I love it so much 💗

Wow, some really beautiful suggestions here. Thank you so much. I recognise many of the recommended pieces but there are also a
lot that I need to listen to. Many have mentioned Debussy’s Clair de Lune, I walked down the aisle to this piece when I married DH; its on my list 😊

Someone upthread mentioned that listening to RVW is like ‘licking a cow’, we’ll, I wouldn’t quite agree with this analogy but what I love about his work is he transports the listener to peaceful bucolic pastures; the landscape that he lived in was a huge influence to his work. He composed a good deal of his most well known work from Leith Hill Place in the Surrey Hills. A beautiful place where he must have felt so inspired.

Thanks once again.

Vide Cor Muem. It's opera, though.

I made a Spotify playlist I would be happy to share! Maybe slightly different in tone as I had to have section, which I knew prior to picking my music. It was hands down the most beautiful, magical experience of my life, and it made giving birth such a wonderful memory.

This is one of my all time favourite arias! Stunning.