What is your favorite piece of classical music?

[cathairetic]

I am quite enamoured of anything by John Tavener or Alan Hovhaness. And I love the new choral pieces that have a huge choir singing in every interval there is all at the same time. It gives me chills!

[CJP]

I've always loved Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, ever since I studied it in school. I've listened to it so many times I can replay the entire first movement note-for-note in my head.

I also love Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, especially the fourth movement. There's something about deafening brass and percussion that always gets my blood pumping.

[FawkesThePhenix]

I like ''The Planets'' from Gustav Holst, especially:

Jupiter, the bringer of jolity
Neptune, the mystic
Uranus, the magicien

[Barbara_O]

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir, "Lux Arumque"

Vangelis, "Heaven and Hell Part 1"

Ravel, "Bolero"

Vivaldi, "Mandolin Concerto in C major"

[FawkesThePhenix]

Last week I saw "Romeo and Juliet and it was wunderful. So now my favorite classical piece is the music from Romeo and Juliet from Prokofiev.

[MmeBergerac]

Good choice, indeed.

[Goddess_Clio]

Originally Posted by AldeberanBlack

Borodin

As in the first mate in The Hunt for Red October? (Sorry, I just read that book - and watched the movie...)

Here are some of my favs:

The Summer: Allegro non molto by Vivaldi - I just love this, it sounds like a summer storm.
The third movement of Oboe Concerto in D Minor: Presto by Vivaldi [starts at minute 4:00 in this video clip] - for a time I played the oboe and for that time I had aspirations of learning this song.
Clair de Lune (the orchestral version) by Debussy - because the clarinets get a lot of featured time in this song (compared to most other songs) and I played clarinet for years and we always got the shaft from the flutes or violins who get all the melodies while we clarinets were stuck with harmonies...
Hungardian Rhapsody No. 2 by Liszt (I think...) - This song is so mood but so funny at the same time. Plus, I love this guy's performance of it, it's so obvious that he's having fun!
The Pastoral Symphonie (I think it's called) by Beetoven, but mostly because of Disney's Fantasia animation which is so adorable, I love the little black pegasus baby!!
For that matter, let's throw in The Carnival of the Animals for the same reasons as the Pastoral Symphonie


Ones that might be stretching the definition of "Classical" - they are certainly instrumental...

Under the Stars by Hans Zimmer from The Lion King <-- AMAZINGLY powerful! I get chills every time I listen to it. This song defines the turning from the second act to the third act in every story ever for me.
Up is Down from Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End by Hans Zimmer - Just fun to listen to; I love how the tempo feels like it changes from 1:00 to 1:25 but it actually doesn't, it's all done with instruments and ever so slight variations in rhythms. Fun.
I dreamed there Was No War by The Eagles - okay this is really stretching "classical" to the limits but I love this song. (This whole album is fantastic, BTW)
And many, many soundtracks

And one to top them all:
But you have to follow the link to find out what it is...

[cathairetic]

With the holidays soon upon us I would encourage you all to listen to Victor Hely-Hutchison's Carol Symphony (4 parts). One movement of this was used as the theme music for the BBC production of The Box of Delights. He also wrote many other variations on Christmas music.