What's your favorite piece of Classical Music?

[Roy Hersh]

Mine is Beethoven's 9th Symphony

[Edward Nemergut]

I think it is really hard NOT pick Beethoven's 9th Symphony as the greatest (if not my favorite); however, other pieces worth mentioning include Beethoven's 14th string quartet and Mahler's 9th Symphony.

I guess, right now in September 2009, I'll say Mahler's 9th symphony is my favorite....maybe it will change as I grow older...

[Eric Menchen]

Beethoven's 9th is good, but I might prefer his Eroica Symphony more. But for my real answer I have to search back a little more, as I prefer Viennese Classical and Baroque over the romantic era. For now, I'm going with Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and I think the 10th movement.

[Peter W. Meek]

JS Bach: Air on the G-string (from Orchestral Suite 3 in D-major; 1068)

The orchestral version is great, but to really wrench your heart, find a good, simple version as adapted for a single violin + piano (Wilhelmj). There is a pretty good rendition by Sara Chang on Youtube, but I think she complicates it too much. There is a quavery old 78 recording on Wikipedia that must have been intense when it was performed. Somewhere there must be a good modern recorded version.

My grandfather (mother's side) was an audiophile all his adult life. He always had state-of-the-art audio equipment. When he died it was MacIntosh MC-60 amps, home-made transcription turntable, and Electro-Voice Patrician speakers.

In the mid-30s, my parents had a group of college friends that liked classical music, and the best place to listen to recordings was at my grandfather's home. They would listen until late and when grandfather gave the nod to my mother, the next piece would be Air on the G-string: the signal that the evening was over - time to go home.

I still have the amps, the turntable (rubber parts disintegrated) and the huge 16" transcription disks. Someday I will get the system working and play that piece and just sit here and cry for a while.

[Jonathan S]

Mozart's 40th... followed closely by Mozart's 41st (The "Jupiter," a nickname that derives from its sheer power.) Both are sublime and, along with the 39th, were written during a two-month burst of activity during the summer of 1788. What a genius he was!

[Moses Botbol]

Chopin on the piano. Could only play a couple of pieces, wish I had attempted to learn more.

[Eric Menchen]

Jonathan reminds me that my favorite performance of classical music was probably Mozart's 40th that I heard in Utrecht in 1991. Just as individual bottles of Port can show variation, individual performances of music can make all the difference.

On Saturday morning I listened again to the three selections I mentioned above, and stand by them. But in fairness, I listened to BBC recordings from London of Beethoven, and my other recordings are by the Academy of Ancient Music. Perhaps if I had listened to a Karajan led performance my opinion might be different. I also like Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, but I've yet to find a recording of it that I really like.

[Jonathan S]

Eric,

I wish that I could have experienced that performance of the 40th in Ultrecht... Was it in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, perchance? Also, I completely agree with and appreciate your analogy regarding the nuances of similar bottles of port and performances of an opus. Finally, as a fan of the utilization of period instruments, the crown jewel of my classical music collection is Trevor Pinnock's Complete Mozart Symphonies box set. Captured digitally from 1993-1995, these performances are just sublime! I think I'll go listen to the 40th right now... Thanks for the prod, Roy and Eric!

[Timothy B.]

If I had to make a single choice, I'd say the Bach Cello Suites. (To me, the cello is *the* sexiest instrument.)

On the whole, I'm pretty pedestrian - various incarnations of Barber's Adagio, Dvorak's "For the New World", Orff's "O Fortuna". Does O'Carolan count? - he was influenced by Italian harpsichord music.

-- T

[Marco D.]

Another vote for "The Jupiter", every movement is sublime.