your classical music discoveries here please!

[warthog]

for me it was discovering brahms. i couldn't believe someone could write music that could 'get me' so totally.

what are yours?

oh yes, and the debussy string quartet. specifically 3rd movement. ohmygod. my skin prickles just thinking about it.

rimsky korsakoff, and anything played by vladimir horowitz

my dd1 was born to the sounds of horowitz playing

Bach's Cello concerto and Autum in Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Tallis - Spem in Alium - forty different vocal parts intertwining...and if just one falls over...this is dangerous stuff. Highly recommended "live"!
And there's a sublime arrangement of it for brass instruments by Gunther Schuler - almost better than the original.
I also find it impossible not to listen to the Agnus Dei in the Vaughan Williams Mass in G minor without crying. It's a long story but also a wonderful, spiritual piece of music. The Corydon Singers with Matthew Best have done a great recording of this on Hyperion.
Oh, and any Bach played by Angela Hewitt also on Hyperion. She is superb.

Elgar cello concerto has always been a huge favourite, esp the third movement.

Villa-Lobos - Bachianas brasileiras No.5 - is something special - always gets the hairs on the back of my neck going.

Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem.

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2 - until I heard it I'd always been wary of Shostakovich, thinking he was less melodic than he is. The middle movement is beautiful.

Rodrigo - Concierto de Aranjuez - one of the first classical pieces I ever listened to - my mum had an LP of John Williams playing it.

jonesthesteam - that villa lobos is gorgeous! it reminds me of the piece for 8 cellos and soprano, but whenever i hear it it seems to be with full orchestra. do you know if it is the same?

I love spem in allium, too.

Other favourites are:

Ciurlionis - the sea, and in the forest

Grieg - Peer Gynt, especially Solvieg's song

Mozart's laudate dominum

and Bizet's Carmen (except the march of the toreadors!)

My mum made me a CD for my birthday with some lovely stuff on it - Appalachian music with Edgar Meyer and Yo-Yo Ma absolutely gorgeous spring music

the Telemann recorder concertos - ultimate baroque chamber music
The wonderful undemandingness of Mozart
the equally wonderful demandingness of Bach

warthog - it's the same one - scored for voice and 8 cellos.

I've got a version which is voice and guitar I downloaded off limewire - it's sublime.

i love the 8 celli version. so gorgeous and rich!

Agree re the Tallis - Spem in Alium - amazing stuff.

Also

Pergolesi - Stabat Major
Charpentier - Te Deum
Bach's St Mathew's Passion
Gluck - Orphee et Eurydice
Anything by Schubert
Mozart - Clarinet concertos
Elgar Cello concerto

There are some good ideas here. I'm off to listen to some of them!

I forgot the songs of Reynaldo Hahn - the Susan Graham recording is fab!

Oh what a lovely thread! My dad loves 'making' cds and its my birthday coming up soon. I think I'll make a list of a few favourite pieces for him to get cracking on

Mahler 8 for me. It's beautiful. I had the immense privilege of singing in it a few years ago. It's not performed very often due to the numbers involved. We performed it in a Sainsbury's car park! Once in a lifetime thing. Mahler 1 is gorgeous too.

Elgar cello concerto and bach cello suites are great too (not least because I can play them! Get me!)

Carmina Burana is wonderful too. It's a shame it gets murdered by various amateaur orchestras etc.

Tchaikovski's 5th symphony is brill. I like to play it loud in the car.

oh, elgar's enigma variations. when i last played it, the variation with the cello solo made us all cry. i kid you not. a jaded, bitter, old orchestra all collapsed in tears.

We cried when performing Mahler 8. In fact, I donlt think there was a dry eye in the house. It;s such a beautiful piece, and the subject of it is enough to make you sob.

I'm really into Mahler at the moment. Listening to symphony 7 at the mo. The second movement is wonderful

Rachmaninov Vespers - just sung it in a cathedral - gorgeous.

DH introduced me to Danse Macabre by Saint Saens and I just love it. Extremely peeved when it was hijacked by "Jonathan Creek" though...don't you just hate it when beautiful pieces of music become "oh, the theme tune of wotsit" or "the tune from that advert"? As I'm getting older I'm getting much more into classical stuff (was not brought up with it as a child) and will probably print out this thread for all the wonderful recommendations!

The Planet Suite turned me onto classical when they played it to us at school when I was about 6 or so - still quite a nifty piece
Canon - Pachelbel - walked down the aisle to it
Loads of others

Oooh, I love a bit of Rachmaninoff.

Esp piano concerto no 2. Cheesy, but great

don't know the mahler symphonies, apart from 4 & 5 really. look forward to hearing them. that famous theme that's always in soap adverts is so gorgeous. i was vaguely put off him by his death obsession and presumed impotence, but really love his one movement piano quartet. really gorgeous but quite hard to find recordings which is a real pity.

don't laugh, but i 'save' up things so i have something to look forward to. i know it's wierd. i haven't heard brahms no. 3 yet and relish the prospect of getting to know it. ok i'm REALLY wierd.

don't know the rachmaninov vespers. there's SO much out there, thank god i've got a few more decades to listen to it all ! (well i hope anyway).

the one piece of music that i feel has really been torn to pieces is the barbar adagio. when i heard it in that crappy pop tune my heart nearly broke. although i hope a few people that like it from that would go and hear the original, but they probably don't know it's a rip-off.

Ones I can remember from top of my head
Beethoven Moonlight Sonata
Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Satie Trois Gymnopedie

Remembered another
Lark Ascending Vaughan Williams