Tell me your favourite classical music

[clucky3]

Just that really. I'm approaching middle age and want to broaden my musical horizons. I've never really listened to classical music, I didn't grow up in a house where it was ever played or discussed, my knowledge of it is minimal.

Whilst I'm perfectly capable of jumping in and trying a few things out, I'm looking for recommendations on where to start.

What are your favourite pieces?

Barber - Adagio For Strings
This Rachmaninov piece (and most of his work)

Chopin Nocturnes

Favourite all time: symphony for a thousand, Mahler. (Saw it live by accident and it blew me away) other favs: symphonies fantasique, fanfare for the common man, Vivaldi's Gloria, enigma variations, Tchaikovsky piano concertos

Dd is a semi pro musician so I get to see a lot as chief chauffeur (she cannot drive for medical reasons)

Classical is technically from about Mozart onwards. I prefer Baroque music, which is the period that includes Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and many other giants like Rameau, Buxtehude, and Frescobaldi.

Surf YouTube for their music and you will be amazed.

Anything by Delibes ... my dad's favourite. I woke up in tears one morning and couldn't understand why, then realised that the radio was playing one of his favourites.

A big YES to Ludovico Einaudi - Divinire is the only new thing I've heard in years that has made me stop what I was doing and just sit and listen. Gorgeous.

I’m a complete classical music dunce but I absolutely love Einaudi. Such beautiful music.

Brilliant responses, thanks so much for all your suggestions. I am going to try switching from listening to today to the radio 3 breakfast show tomorrow, all the brexit talk on R4 is too dull and depressing for words anyway.

Plenty of stuff to work my way through here, MN is so fab sometimes, thanks all for taking the time to comment

I love Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata although it's quite melancholy and Bach's Air on the G string which was my entrance music at my wedding.

All my favourites are obvious ones but they all make me emotional. Chopin - Nocturne.
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata.
Barber - Adagio for strings

Chopine op no. 9

Camile saint sains aquarium and danse macabre

Pretty much everything Mozart wrote

Rachmaninov piano concerto no 2 (thanks to muse who used it in the song space dementia)

Vivaldi four seasons

In the hall of the mountain king

Also yes to moonlight sonata and 1812 overture!

And a slightly bizarre one but a stunning peice of music nonetheless is the legend of zelda 25th anniversary album. They wrote the music from the games for an orchestra and it's as good as anything listed above

Moxart - Gran Partita. Beautiful.

Allegri's Miserere. It's an utterly, hauntingly, beautiful piece.

Agree with a pp. The lark ascending is my favourite piece. I tagged along to a recital in a cathedral with a friend and a violinist played this so beautifully I cried. I was then hooked

Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony
Most of his sonatas
Mozart's clarinet concerto K622
Weber's Invitation to the Dance
Bach's anything
Mozart's Requiem
Overtures to Fidelio

I second classic fm as I find radio 3 a bit highbrow . I love most of Tchaikovsky- loads of good tunes, Nigel Hess is a good contemporary composer, film scores especially John Williams. Many many more too.

Some pieces that do it for me:
Elgar Cello Concerto
Prokofiev violin concerto no. 1
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (if you can find the remastered recordings of Yehudi Menuhin playing these in the 1930s even better)
Shostakovich - Leningrad Symphony
Sibelius - Karelia

Radio is a good place to start, and also TV documentaries - sometimes it helps to have heard someone talking about the music first. For example I have never listed to Nimrod (from Elgar's Enigma Variations) the same since I saw a conductor being interviewed on a documentary talking at length about the climaxes of the piece.

Overture The Hebrides/Fingals Cave by Mendelssohn.

I first heard it in the 1980's in secondary school when it was seriously uncool. I joined in with the "this is shit" crowd but made an excuse to stay behind where I asked the teacher to write the name of it down. Sounds cheesy but it just spoke to me

I ordered a cassette with it on after badgering the poor sales assistant at WH Smith and played it to death.

I used to "conduct" it in front of the mirror and can still do it now.

I also love Spiegel Im Spiegel

I listen to choral music mainly (my current user name is a nod to Herbert Howells), but for orchestral music I love Rachmaninoff’s Symphony no 2, especially the 3rd (slow) movement. Others which are beautiful are Ravel “Pavane pour une infante defunte” and Vaughan Williams “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus” and “Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis”.

I didn't grow up with classical music, and only discovered it as an adult. I know very little and I suppose I love obvious 'classics'.

My favourite, and I'll never forget the first time I heard it when I was invited to a concert by a friend, is Beethoven's 7th. I absolutely love it. I could listen to it over and over and every time I hear it I love it more. The man was an utter genius.

I've only come across the odd track but these are the ones that have stuck with me:

Swan Lake (Suite), Op.20a, TH 219: 1. Scene - Swan Theme by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi

Barbers Adagio For Strings

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Ryuichi Sakamoto

Bella's Lullaby - Solo Piano / Theme From "Twilight" by Stan Whitmire (this is from Twilight but.. you wouldn't know I promise)

Chants D’Auvergne by Canteloube, particularly sung by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Madame Butterfly by Puccini, especially O Mio Babbino Caro and One Fine Day.

Elgar’s Enigma Variations, especially Nimrod.

Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending.

Ebben? ne andro lontana from La Wally, particularly sung by Maria Callas.

Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Verdi.

Clair de Lune by Debussy.

Carmen by Bizet.

I also listen to film scores (thanks Alexa). Some very beautiful music by modern composers.

*Chants D’Auvergne by Canteloube, particularly sung by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Madame Butterfly by Puccini, especially O Mio Babbino Caro and One Fine Day.*

Yes yes yes to both of these. Though for me the most satisfying aspect of Madame Butterfly is the Maria Callas recording where she sounds like she might actually be planning to stab Pinkerton at the end.

Rachmaninoff piano concerto number 2 and rhapsody on a theme on a theme of panini
The pas we deux from the Nutcracker suite

Not 'classical' as such, but I'm a big sucker for instrumental movie soundtracks.