Your Top 5 Favorite Pieces

[KGill]

I did happen to attend it, and am sad to say that I was rather disappointed. Frankly, I thought the set got in the way - it succeeded in making it into something 'cute' and trivial for the audience to giggle over. It was quite distracting, really - even downright annoying. And the balance could have been better (the orchestra completely drowned out the singers at some points, especially in the church scene, especially during the entrance of the percussion), although that could have been just that day.

[vinteuil]

I didn't notice any balance problems.
The papier-mâché nose was a bit much. One must be reminded, however that a lot of the opera is supposed to be a little ridiculous and giggle-worthy
Anyway, I much prefer Lady Macbeth.

[pml]

Recently ABC Classic FM (the national classical broadcaster) ran again its “favourite 100 pieces” poll, which invited listeners from all over the country to submit their 10 favourite works to build up the most popular works, nationwide across Australia. They’re currently playing the top 100 pieces progressively over a number of days, having just played # 76 (it was highlights from Act I of Mozart’s Don Giovanni; progress can be monitored at http://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic100/ or http://twitter.com/abcclassic ).

Having put in my 10 favourite suggestions, I thought I might as well list them here, in two divisions of those in the top 5 category, and those just outside that high mark.

The top 5:
BRUMEL - Earthquake Mass (Missa Et ecce terrae motus)
MOZART - Mass in C minor, KV427 'Great'
BERLIOZ - Benvenuto Cellini
MAHLER - Symphony No. 8 in E flat major, 'Symphony of a Thousand'
HAVERGAL BRIAN - Symphony No. 1, 'Gothic'

The Brumel mass is a wonderfully luminous twelve-part setting, a one-off unique achievement of tonality, completely unlike anything written in the entire generation either side of it (and yes, Perlnerd, that includes everything Josquin ever wrote). It was hard to choose a single Mozart work, but the Mass (while incomplete) is such a well-thought out and expertly constructed, expressive work and shows off most, if not all, of Mozart’s many-sided genius. The first two tableaux of Berlioz’s Cellini surpass anything else in his œuvre for brilliance and vitality, even if his Troyens is the greater work; maybe not great opera, but then as a well-known broadcaster has said, opera isn’t music. The first movement of Mahler 8 is perhaps the most successful attempt at the world-embracing, choral–orchestral–sonata movement hybrid work of the largest scale and range. And the Te Deum of the Gothic is paradoxically an unconvincing solution to the basic idea of Beethoven’s archetypal Choral symphony, precisely because it unleashes a universe of music while trying to simultaneously control it; its greatness is not so much in failing to do so, but in the uncompromising nature of the attempt.

The next 5:
BACH, J.S. - Mass in B minor, BWV232
BEETHOVEN - Missa Solemnis in D major, Op. 123
SCHUBERT - Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944, 'The Great'
MENDELSSOHN - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21 & Op. 61
HOLST - The Planets, Op. 32

It goes to show the historical domination of sacred music from church patronage of musicians, that two more masses went into the selection. The B minor mass was almost entirely compiled out of movements borrowed from Bach’s church cantatas, and it reflects the quality when you select “the best of the best”. With Beethoven and Schubert I could have instead chosen one of Beethoven’s symphonies (probably the A major 7th for choice, though the 8th in F is my personal favourite) and Schubert’s masses (there is no surpassing the A flat major), but went with two large, late, monumental works; and I notice the Schubert is the only purely instrumental work here (and the only one to feature in the ABC’s top 100 countdown, so far, at # 85). The choice of the Mendelssohn overture and incidental music are personal favourites, but they are a high point in Mendelssohn’s copious œuvre for being a particularly apt musical response to the play, the fifteen year gap between the composition of the two parts of the work making as little difference as the similar amount of time which it took Bach to piece together the four sections of his mass. And the Holst is another personal choice which I couldn’t leave out, even if my favourite movements from the suite have often changed in magnitude (as the planets observably do in the night skies).

PML

[pjones235]

1. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, by Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Piano Concerto in A Minor, by Robert Schumann
3. 1812 Overture, by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
4. Marche Slave, by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
5. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, by Johann Sebastian Bach

[pjones235]

Actually, I take that back.
1. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 - Bach
2. Piano Concerto in A Minor - R. Schumann
3. Symphony No. 9 in D Minor - Beethoven
4. 1812 Overture - Tchaikovsky
5. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 - Grieg

... and the list goes on...

[klyde4parliament]

Least favourite? I'd have to think in terms of genre instead of specific pieces

Right on! And it applies to favorite as well. I find it hard to divide groups of works (Chopin's nocturnes, Debussy's preludes) and nearly impossible to judge grand scale works (Ring Cycle, Beethoven's symphonies) against the perfect gems of small-form composition. That said, I have been truly struck by only a few pieces in my life and (possibly because I was young and impressionable when I heard them) there will always be something intangibly special about them:

1. Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto
2. Beethoven's Eroica Symphony
3. Ravel's String Quartet
4. Chopin's 3rd Piano Sonata (The second may be technically better, but the third, for me, is more interesting)
5. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

And yet my favorite composer is probably Brahms...

[pjones235]

... 4. Chopin's 3rd Piano Sonata ...

Hmmmm... Interesting. I've never been all that intrigued with death marches. Haha.

[Paulsson]

1. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (with Böhm, Salzburg 1966)

Notable distance:

2. Mozart: Cosi fan tutte
3. Schubert: Sonate für Arpeggione und Klavier
4. Beethoven: Missa solemnis
5. Brahms: Konzert für Violine und Orchester

Difficult decision! The next would be

6. ff. Haydn: Sinfonies Nr. 50 - 104

[pjones235]

Haha my bad. That would've been his 2nd..

[MaryG]

Faure – Pavane
Mahler&Schnittke – Piano Quartet in A minor
Mozart – Requiem Mass in D minor by
Debussy – “Rhapsodie” for alto saxophone and piano or orchestra
Dobrinka Tabakova – Suite in Old Style for viola, strings and harpsichord, in the performance of Maxim Rysanov

[Rob Peters]

1. Beethoven: one of his late quartets.
Impossible to chose one. Most people prefer Op.131, sometimes I'm more inclined to chose the less popular Op.127 (Es-dur).
I could easily fill the top 5 with the Missa Solemnis and the Diabelli variations, but let's give other composers a chance too.

2. Bach: Mass in B Minor.
Bach's absolute masterpiece, composed (or rather: assembled) in his final years as a showcase of his abilities. A more monumental piece has never been written.
More Bach: Goldberg-variations (getting a bit too popular recently, music like this schould be elite-only, dammit! ) and several of his amazing organ pieces.

3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major.
Probably the most beautiful piece of chamber music ever written.

4. Bruckner: Symphony No.6 in A major.
Everyone always choses the 7th, 8th or 9th. But to me, the 6th has the both the greatest orchestral adagio ever written AND the best scherzo.

5. Wagner: Parsifal.
Tough one. I could have chosen Tristan or the Ring as well, but I don't think any other Wagnerian scene touches me as much as the Good Friday music, and - even more - Kundry's baptism that precedes it.

[Thrax]

1. Brahms Waltz in G major
2. Brahms Hungarian Dance No.5 in F# minor
3. Tchaikovsky Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy
4. Bach Prelude and Fugue in C major
5. Seitz Concerto No.5 3rd Movement

[northraxx]

1. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 - Bach
2. Piano Concerto in A Minor - R. Schumann
3. Debussy – “Rhapsodie” for alto saxophone and piano or orchestra
4. Bruckner: Symphony No.6 in A major.
5. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (with Böhm, Salzburg 1966)

[Alie]

My five are:
C. Debussy - Prélude
R. Dubugnon - Lied
M. Ravel - Pavane
C. Debussy - Claire de Lune
And my most favorite G. Fauré – Pavane. Some of them were my favorites for a long time already and some became just recently after I’ve found an amazing cd at eclassical.com called “Pavane” in the performance of Maxim Rysanov and Ashley Wass and on which all of them and even some more great compositions can be found.

[NLewis]

These are subject to change at any moment, but as of now:

1. Ariadne auf Naxos ; Elektra (Both by R. Strauss) [<-- Function as a unit )
2. Goldberg Variations (Johann Sebastian Bach)
3. Violin Sonata G major (Brahms)
4. Turandot ; La boheme (Both by Puccini) [<--Function as a unit again )
5. Writing to Vermeer (Louis Andriessen)

Next five

1. Art of Fugue (Johann Sebastian Bach)
2. Metastasis (Xenakis)
3. The Cunning Little Vixen (Leoš Janáček)
4. Symphony Nos. 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 (Shostakovich)
5. Agon (Stravinsky)

Next five...

1. Boris Godunov (Modest Mussorgsky)
2. Piano Sonatas 1 and 6 (Ustvolskaya)
3. String Quartet No.1 (Mosolov)
4. Piano Sonata No.5 (Scriabin)
5. Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 4 (Brahms)