Favourite Classical Pieces

[BakersfieldChimp]

Most of my listening is in classical and I even thinking about which classical works are nearest and dearest to me is daunting.
I will revisit it later.

Right now, I'm only focusing on my favorite work.

Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde' . It is a song cycle for tenor and alto( or baritone).
It is late Mahler so of course it is about death, It tickles my post existentialistic heart.

It opens with "the drinking song of earth's sorrow"

The wine beckons in golden goblets
but drink not yet; first I'll sing you a song.
The song of sorrow
shall ring laughingly in your soul.
When the sorrow comes,
blasted lie the gardens of the soul,
wither and perish joy and singing.
Dark is life, dark is death!


My favorite recording is Klemperer/Ludwig/Wunderlich




It ends with a half hour song that is as long as the first five songs taken together.

[BakersfieldChimp]

I thought I was the only one who cared about Wagner's early piano music.

[Creoda]

I know this has been a thread before but I can't be bothered finding it.

My top 20 in chronological order:

Johann Pachelbel - Canon in D (1680-1706)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLKm5txgRmw

George Frederick Handel - V'Adoro, Pupille from Giulio Cesare (1724)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpCa_-KLtvI

George Frederick Handel - And the Glory of the Lord from Messiah (1741)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROBTXWJMOwc

George Frederick Handel - Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah (1741)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU

Giuseppe Verdi - Hebrew Slaves Chorus from Nabucco (1842)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3FHsqjWh1g

Richard Wagner - The Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhauser (1845)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoSLD1sCyfc

Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walkure (1856)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGU1P6lBW6Q

Edvard Grieg - Morning Mood from Peer Gynt (1875)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol6hOMZidBk

Richard Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral March from Gotterdamerung (1876)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5zNH6R1zsE

Jacques Offenbach - Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann (1881)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7czptgEvvU

Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov - The Sea and Sinbad's Ship from Scheherazade (1888)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiS9_sOBUTA

Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov - The Young Prince and Princess from Scheherazade (1888)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_8xyfiIzVQ

Antonin Dvorak - Adagio from New World Symphony (1893)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJL8n6HThnM

Edward Elgar - Nimrod from Enigma Variations (1899)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbfUl9Pxnas

Johann Strauss II - Kaiser Waltz (1899)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8oSgMpNn2o

Edward Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 (1907)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZZcyFwlcI

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6sWqfrnTs

Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending (1914)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2JlDnT2l8

Gustav Holst - Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets (1916)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQoP9iLwoos

Honourable Mentions:

Johann Sebastian Bach - Cantata No 208, 'Sheep May Safely Graze' (1713)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.7 in A major op.92 - II, Allegretto (1812)
Henry Bishop - Home! Sweet Home! (1823)
Michael William Balfe - I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls from The Bohemian Girl (1843)
Richard Wagner - Overture from Tannhauser (1845)
Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody #2 in C Sharp Minor (1851)
Johann Strauss II - The Blue Danube (1866)
Richard Wagner - Siegfried Idyll (1870)
Giuseppe Verdi - Triumphal March from Aida (1871)
Johann Strauss II - Overture from Die Fledermaus (1874)
Edvard Grieg - Solveig's Song from Peer Gynt (1875)
Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake, Op 20 (1877)
Gabriel Faure - Pavane, op 50 (1887)
Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov - The Story of Prince Kalender Lento from Scheherazade (1888)
Antonin Dvorak - Largo from New World Symphony (1893)
Antonin Dvorak - Allegro from the New World Symphony (1893)
Edward Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March 1 (1901)
Gustav Holst - Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets (1916)
Gustav Holst - Neptune, the Mystic from the Planets (1916)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - English Folk Song Suite (1923)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Greensleeves (1934)

9 more to round out my top 50:

Johann Sebastian Bach - Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring (1723)
George Frederick Handel - Zadok the Priest (1727)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony 9, Movement 2 (1824)
Giuseppe Verdi - Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore (1853)
Richard Wagner - Overture from Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (1868)
Richard Wagner - Feuerzauber from Die Walkure (1870) (could be in my top 20)
Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 (B Flat Minor) (1875)
Edvard Grieg - Death of Ase from Peer Gynt (1875)
Maurice Ravel - Bolero (1928)

[cass]

Dvořák and goosebumps for free

[BakersfieldChimp]

Here are my favorite works by ten composers.
They add to the Mahler "Das Lied von Erde" above

Wagner-"Parsifal"

Beethoven- "Kreutzer" Sonata

Sibelius-4th Symphony

Bach The Goldberg Variations

Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

Mussorgsky "Khovanchina"

Rimsky Korsakov "Scheherazade"

Bruckner 8th Symphony
'
Stravinsky "The Soldier's Tale"

Barber- "Hermit Songs"