What's your favourite piece of classical music?

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Foghat

Freight-train-groove-rider
Favourite piece is the 3rd movement from Beethoven's 7th Symphony, mostly because of the wonderful exuberant motif alongside some beautifully delicate oboe-led restatements playing the same melody.



A close second is probably the 1st movement from Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony - the moments of resolution in this are some of the most satisfying sounds in music one will ever hear.



A couple of weeks ago, piano virtuoso Stephen Hough and the world class Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performed a stunning Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 to an empty concert hall, broadcasting it live online - the orchestra's new digital strategy is doing wonders in helping keep classical music performance alive during the pandemic. Still available here for a couple more weeks: Hough plays Brahms (BSO@Home) - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (bsolive.com)
Interesting to compare with the same piece from his younger days:



Something which has really stuck in my brain, ever since I was introduced to it by Carl Sagan's epic Cosmos in 1980, is this haunting yet pleasing passage from Alan Hovhaness's Symphony No. 19 'Vishnu':

 
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C R

Guru
Location
Worcester
For sheer fun and joie de vivre Khatchaturian's Sabre Dance is hard to beat.

The raw power of the fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th makes it my favourite piece of classical music, gives any metal band a run for their money.

I also very much like Prokofiev's stuff, it makes my blood boil every time the Dance of the Knights is referred to as the music from the apprentice.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
'Jupiter' from The Planets Suite has to be up there...!



This brings back lots of memories.

I used to work for a band that always used this as their entry music, it's exactly seven and a half minutes long.

Once 'play' had been hit, every member of the crew had jobs to be done, sound up, lights all powered, every member of the band on stage (in total darkness), crowd control all in place with back to the audience ready for the massive surge as the lights we hit on the last note and the band always came in with the same song that blended perfectly, so many assumed they had played the entire piece.
 
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