- BWV 1009, Prelude to the 3rd Suite for Cello by JS Bach. Far more introspective than a great deal of his other works, the cello suites always conjured up a picture, to me, of a deeply religious man speaking to contemplating the Creation.
- BWV 1047, the Second Brandenberg. It's all trumpet, baby.
- Overture to the Marriage of Figaro, K492 by Mozart. This is the only piece I ever wanted to conduct. The Opera itself of the great achievements of human history.
- Adagio for Strings, Op 11 no 1 by Samuel Barber. Gut wrenchingly beautiful.
- Ein deutsches Requiem, op 45 by Johannes Brahms. Written not as a prayer for the dead but as a comfort for those who grieve.
- Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 by Franz Schubert. Text by Goethe from Faust Part I. Gretchen is sitting at the spinning wheel. Listen to the piano accompanyment and you'll hear it spinning.
- Egmont Overture, Op 84 by Ludwig van Beethoven. You have to hear this.
- Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 by Richard Strauss (the final trio and then the final duo). Check out the words.
- 4:33 by John Cage. You can perform this one yourself.
- Symphony 9, Op 125 by Ludwig van Beethoven. This is the big one. Hamlet, the Sistine Chapel, The David all rolled into one.
Again, subject to change at any moment.
19 comments:
What, no Rachmaninoff?
Adagio for Strings, Op 11 no 1 by Samuel Barber: some years ago this piece was used in an HBO movie and I wanted to find out what it was so I called HBO and managed to somehow work my way up to talking to the producer of the film (I give good phone!). Unfortunately, all he could remember was that it was called Adagio but not the composer. Super helpful. NOT.
A friend finally figured it out from my description.
I would have added Nimrod by Elgar.
About Rachmaninoff...
To paraphrase the great Nadia Boulanger, "How could such a wonderful pianist be such a lousy composer."
No Rachmaninoff now, No Rachmaninoff tomorrow, no Rachmaninoff forever.
There, I said it.
guys... dangerously close to that "elitest liberal" tag....
my exposure to classical musical as of late, comes strictly from the baby einstein dvds and the disney series, "little einsteins".
:P
For what it's worth, my top ten, in no apparent order:
Mozart's Piano Concerto #27
Schubert's Last Piano Sonata, D.960
Mahler's 9th Symphony
Arvo Part. Spiegel in Spiegel
Bruckner's 8th Symphony
Beethoven, Piano Sonata #31
Schubert's Trout Quintet
Mozart's Symphony #40. K.660
Bach, Cello Suites
Mozart's Clarinet Quintet
Yinz're gettin' too fancy here!
And where's "Kill da Wabbit! Kill da Wabbit!! Kill da Wabbit!!!"?
Yeah, where's "kill da wabbit", and that Bug Bunny barber music, and that Die Hard music (oh, you covered that), and the Alfred Hitchcock theme, and the Excaliber music and the cartoon running horse music (Light Cavalry Overture By Franz Von Suppe ... Oops, too liberal elitist myself).
"Kill da Wabbit!
Well that is where I got my start!
Bolero?
Scheherazade?
Carmina Burana?
The Four Seasons? -(Have to have something to listen to while we eat.)
PS. The "Kill the Rabbit" is from The Barber of Seville opera. (I think)
you mean its not from the 'dve morning show??????
;P
It's Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"...
Yeah, I can picture those Hueys now...
"It's smells like"... Duvall shrugs ... "victory".
I don't remember wabbits anywhere in that. Hunh.
By popular demand:
Kill da wabbit!
Maria,
Awesome!
The choral from the 9th I discovered by way of a commercial from the first "Die Hard."
Much of the rest of Bheetoven, though, is now associated with Malcom McDowell.
guys... dangerously close to that "elitest liberal" tag....
Eff that. Anyone can get exposure to quality classical music. Anyone. It's not expensive, in fact a lot of time it's completely free of charge, and it doesn't even need to be intellectual if you don't want it to be.
And I'm playing 4:33 right now. Maybe again later.
The Rabbit of Seville
Dave: Ya big snot.
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