POX Classical pieces

What are your ten favourite pieces of classical music? I'll be back with mine soon...

Brahms "Requiem"
Bach "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied"
Martin "Mass for Double Chorus"
Howells "Take Him, Earth, For Cherishing"
Copland "In The Beginning"
Mozart "Requiem"
Weill "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"
Orff "Carmina Burana"
Verdi "Requiem"
Britten "War Requiem"

Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé
Mahler - Symphony No. 8
Byrd - Masses
Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge
Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier
Mozart - The Magic Flute
Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time
Pärt - Tabula Rasa
Ives - Three Places in New England
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

I've changed my mind btw

Mahler 8 is awesome, yeah. Kind of crushed I couldn't also fit Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" in there too.

In threads like this I never end up definitively answering the question but a) it's fun and instructive to think about what a possible POX might be, and b) you get to check out other people's lists and hear new things.

Are yours all vocal pieces btw Dan?

Not only are all 10 of mine vocal pieces, they are all choral pieces that I have performed. (2-5 are a capella)

I guessed as much. My take when I was a kid and actually playing wd be very different I think.

(My secret shame is that the vast majority of my exposure to "classical" music comes via performance since I never formally studied music outside of fledgling piano and tenor sax lessons when I was much younger, so I'm pretty terrible at identifying non-choral/vocal music.)

Henry Purcell - King Arthur
Richard Strauss - Vier Letze Lieder
Gabriel Fauré - Pelléas et Mélisande
Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier
Mozart - any of his violin sonatas
Satie - any of the Ogives, Sarabandes, Gymnopédies, Gnossiennes but probably Les Gnossiennes
Chopin - Les Etudes
Dvorak - Slavonic Dances
Sait-Saens - Le Carnaval des Animaux
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet

This is too hard, I don't think I can do this. :(

not an all time POX cos that's too hard, so just recent POX

Vladimir Ussachevsky - Wireless Fantasy
Takemitsu - Rain Coming
Ligeti - Piano Etudes
Sofia Gabaidulina - Stufen
Arvo Part - Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Pauline Oliveros - Horse Sings From Cloud
Iannis Xenakis - Hibiki-Hana-Ma
Ravel - Piano Concerto In G major
Robert Schumann - Gesange der Fruhe op.133
Ivor Gurney - various songs

oh I left out Barber's "Adagio for Strings"/"Agnus Dei" (depending on arrangement)

In order to even think of doing this I have to make a limit of 1 pc per composer. And I have to just do it fast and not think about it too much.

Debussy- Preludes Book I for solo piano
Sibelius- Tapiola for orchestra
Schumann- Davidsbundlertanze for solo piano
Mahler- Sixth Symphony
George Crumb- Music For A Summer Evening for two amplified pianos and percussion
Beethoven- Piano Sonata op. 106 "Hammerklavier"
Schubert- Piano Sonata D894
Mozart- String Quintet KV515
Stravinsky- Le Sacre Du Printemps
Bartok- Music for Strings Percussion & Celeste

Sirenes / Claude Debussy
Vieille prière bouddhique / Lili Boulanger
Symphony No. 18 / Moishei Vainberg
Misa Criolla / Ariel Ramirez
Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé / Maurice Ravel
L’Ascension (for orchestra) / Olivier Messiaen
Sonata for Viola & Piano / Rebecca Clarke
Mississippi River Suite / Florence Price
Trois mouvements perpétuels / Francis Poulenc
Requiem / Gabriel Fauré

^^^ Given your user name I'm surprised you chose L'Ascension!

Also, eyeing the warp of your choices, I wonder if you know the orchestral stuff of Charles Koechlin? If not, check 'im out pronto. There is a superb series in progress on the Hanssler label.

Yes, great call. I *love* him. Esp. this recording of Le Docteur Fabricius & Vers la Voûte étoilée. Have been recently listening to his piano quintet & pieces for solo ondes --- some gorgeous stuff there.

They just released his quite lengthy orchestral 'Offrandre Musical sur le nom BACH'-- it's awesome. (The B-A-C-H theme is always great: slithery and gloomy. Liszt did a great set of variations on it as well.)

Oooh. I need that! Schnittke also used it to great effect a few times.

It is coupled with another of his Jungle Book pieces (Les Bandar-Log).

Britten - Peter Grimes
Shostakovich - Symphony No 10
Prokofiev - Symphony No 6
Walton - Symphony No 1
Stravinsky - Symphony in 3 movements (at least a dozen possibilities for Igor)
Szymanovsky - Krol Roger
Sibelius - Symphony No 4
Strauss - 4 Last Songs
Dutilleux - Tout un monde lontain
Varese - Ameriques

Could come up with umpteen completely different yet overlapping (composers at least) tens that were equally valid. What floats my boat is pretty much mainstream early - mid 20 Century stuff, with a bias towards the Russians and (to a lesser extent) East Europeans. I don't listen seriously to much else these days tbh, one reason I so rarely post on ILM. I'll still investigate the occasional new rap album, but finding good pop/rock is too much like hard work given the amount of crap I need to sift through to find the occasional gem. It all seems to be about readymades. The only jazz I can be bothered with is late acoustic or electric Miles, or maybe some vocal stuff in a particular mood. Strange confession for a guy who spent so much of his life playing jazz and travelling across Europe to hear it. I'd rather just listen to another set of Shostakovich symphonies or a new recording of Les Noces or Janacek. I've turned into a boring old fart, I know, but I'm not apologising for it either - in fact I'm most comfortable with it.

but finding good pop/rock is too much like hard work given the amount of crap I need to sift through to find the occasional gem.

I completely relate, frankiemachine. Nothing 'boring' about your choices, either. Fabulous, I'd say. :D

These three in particular slay me:
Sibelius - Symphony No 4
Strauss - 4 Last Songs
Dutilleux - Tout un monde lontain

Tchaikovsky- Piano Concerto No. 1
Bach- Goldberg Variations
Bach- Brandenburg Concertos
Mozart- Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter)
Beethoven- Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)
Beethoven- Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)
Mendelssohn- Violin Concerto in E Minor
Debussy- La Mer/Nuages/Fetes/Sirenes
Wagner- Tristan und Isolde
Rachmaninoff- Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

In no order, naturally.

xpost Walton's First is so smack-you-in-the-face great.