The Lark Ascending -- Ralph (pronounced Rafe) Vaughn Williams.
It always gives me chills. I hope you get a chance to hear it and like it.

Oh, God, you have opened Pandora's box here. At least for me.

I love "classical" music as many people call it and I really can't pick one or two favourites. Each day I would have to choose a different one.
Today it may be Haydn's cello concerto in D, for example.

Why do I love it? I don't know, I just do. It touches me. I can't say why, I just have some sort of special connection with Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, Prokofiev or Stranvinsky. And about which kinds... well, anything from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. I have some trouble with Schönberg, Stockhausen or John Cage, but I think the music from twentieth century has real jewels, though they're a bit harder to appreciate (for me).

It's such a wide genre- I think the best way to find what you love is try different time periods and see if particular style 'clicks" with your heart. Does not have to be one style, of course, but a lot of people have strong preferences. My mom, for example, loves Bach and Vivaldi and is not that fond of Romantics. Somebody else will love Mahler but be indifferent to Chopin, for example...
Some of my favorites:
Mahler. Adagietto from 5th Symphony
http://youtu.be/VWPACef2_eY
(if you are a movie fan you will recognize it from "Death in Venice".

Chopin. Ballade #1
http://youtu.be/RR7eUSFsn28

I might be back with more.

I prefer German and Russian composers such as J.S. Bach, Handel, and Borodin. I always found Mozart a little too airy.
Borodin is my all time favorite classical composer.

And then of course, now that Dramagod's brought him up, John Williams. He's only movie music (except Air and Simple Gifts, which he composed for President Obama's inauguration four years ago) but his compositions are still fantastic and could stand on their own. Alexandre Desplat, in the same vein.

I refer to Rhapsody in Blue, another favorite of mine, as 'the soundtrack of death' because that's what was playing at full blast during my first driving lesson.

When it comes to movies about classical music, they don't come much better than SHINE starring Geoffrey Rush. Highly recommended.

I love John Williams's music for "Schindler's list" which is truly worthy of the film.

Another beautiful piece also used in a film (Out of Africa): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcIyTiKwDvU

I like it as a whole although I prefer the slower parts to the more monumental ones. I remember my mother has the "Unvollendete" somewhere in her old 1950s record album and I think it might be even this Furtwängler recording.

I like Vaughan Williams' works as they are so redolent of English Folk Tunes. Holst The Planets especially Mars and Jupiter. Peer Gynt by Grieg with Hall of the Mountain King and Morning (I think that is what the latter is called) which was always played as we walked into assembly at my junior school.

Last edited by Davina (July 17, 2012 9:22 pm)

Wow, it seems it wasn't such a bad idea to make a thread about classical music, you guys have a lot to say about it, apparently .

Well, thanks for all the suggestions! It's a lot to check out.

Oh, sometimes they use classical music in such creepy ways on movies, like really happy melodies while the murderer is duing some gross stuff, for example. ;)