Top 10 most beautiful pieces you've heard

[SymphonicAddict]

Great stuff - love the Durufle. Not a fan of 'Serenade to Music'. Cras was a great recent discovery thanks to this forum.

I find the 16 vocal soloists version especially gorgeous. I was also thinking of Tallis Fantasia or Dona nobis pacem.

[SymphonicAddict]

Atterberg's First isn't overall one of his best pieces (though it is still very good IMO), but I find the opening of the finale ethereally beautiful. I could've equally chosen any of the slow movements from his symphonies 4-8, however. Or the Siciliana from his Suite Barocco...

I agree. Atterberg's slow movements are strongly beautiful contenders.

[André]

My definition of beauty in music doesn't entail anything that can be described as pretty, nice or some such qualifyer. Rather, it entails a reach toward the sublime, the transcendent, even if only fleetingly. A quality that has the power to transport the listener to a higher plane of fulfillment and contentment.

Hence the following choices:

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia
Rautavaara: Cantus arcticus
Tchaikovsky: symphony no 1, 2nd movement
Bizet: Nadir's romance "Je crois entendre encore"
Delius: Nocturne (beginning of Part II, A Mass of Life)
Schubert: andantino, 2nd mvmt from sonata D.959
Verdi: Leonora's Act III aria, "d'amor sull'alli rosee"
Elgar: Dream of Gerontius, chorus of Angels "Praise to the Holiest"
Bruckner: 6th symphony, 2nd mvmt

Some more:

Wagner: Die Walküre, Act II, scene IV (Announcement of Death)
Puccini: love duet, Act I of Madama Butterfly
Brahms: symphony no 4, 1st mvmt
Beethoven: PC no 4, 2nd mvmt
Beethoven: SQ op 132, "Heiliger Dankgesang" mvmt

[SymphonicAddict]

My definition of beauty in music doesn't entail anything that can be described as pretty, nice or some such qualifyer. Rather, it entails a reach toward the sublime, the transcendent, even if only fleetingly. A quality that has the power to transport the listener to a higher plane of fulfillment and contentment.

Hence the following choices:

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia
Rautavaara: Cantus arcticus
Tchaikovsky: symphony no 1, 2nd movement
Bizet: Nadir's romance "Je crois entendre encore"
Delius: Nocturne (beginning of Part II, A Mass of Life)
Schubert: andantino, 2nd mvmt from sonata D.959
Verdi: Leonora's Act III aria, "d'amor sull'alli rosee"
Elgar: Dream of Gerontius, chorus of Angels "Praise to the Holiest"
Bruckner: 6th symphony, 2nd mvmt

Some more:

Wagner: Die Walküre, Act II, scene IV (Announcement of Death)
Puccini: love duet, Act I of Madama Butterfly
Brahms: symphony no 4, 1st mvmt
Beethoven: PC no 4, 2nd mvmt
Beethoven: SQ op 132, "Heiliger Dankgesang" mvmt

I like many of yours (bolded text). Did Verdi compose an opera called Leonora? 

[kyjo]

I thing one list is not enough 

If you can do another one, then so can I

Sibelius: Two pieces for cello and orchestra - I. Cantique
Juon: Piano Trio no. 1 - mvt. 2
Schnittke: Cello Concerto no. 1 - mvt. 4
Dohnányi: Konzertstück for cello and orchestra
Delius: Appalachia
Finzi: Eclogue for piano and strings
Andreae: Symphony in F major - mvt. 2
Medtner: Piano Concerto no. 3
Miaskovsky: Symphony no. 22 - mvt. 2
Szymanowski: Etude in B flat minor, op. 4/3

[André]

I like many of yours (bolded text). Did Verdi compose an opera called Leonora? 

No, and neither did Bizet compose one called Nadir 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold

Never getting over the first work that really pulled me into the world of classical music.

[SymphonicAddict]

Szymanowski: Etude in B flat minor, op. 4/3

I recall that etude in an orchestral arrangement (I haven't heard the original piano version yet ). Just mesmerizing, fascinating, a fine choice indeed.

[mc ukrneal]

No, and neither did Bizet compose one called Nadir 

Ah, but then Verdi DID write more than one opera in which Leonora is the heroine!

[André]

But there's only one in which Leonora sings THAT aria...

[kyjo]

Brahms - Poco allegretto from the 3rd Symphony.
(Though the B section doesn't get me as much as the melody in the A section.)

Totally agree - a beautiful movement. It never fails to make me tear up a little

[GioCar]

There actually aren't a lot of things in classical music that I feel fit this category actually (of any era) but one that always gets me like this, is:

Brahms - Poco allegretto from the 3rd Symphony.
(Though the B section doesn't get me as much as the melody in the A section.)

Totally agree - a beautiful movement. It never fails to make me tear up a little

Carlos Santana should have thought exactly the same... in fact he just stole that theme for his song Love of My Life (from his album Supernatural), without acknowledging it afaik 

[ritter]

Carlos Santana should have thought exactly the same... in fact he just stole that theme for his song Love of My Life (from his album Supernatural), without acknowledging it afaik 

And then, of course, there's Georges Auric's arrangement  for the film Aimez-vous Brahms... (a.k.a. Goodbye Again):

https://www.youtube.com/v/Y08dR9s6h_0

I must admit I'm not a much of fan of Brahms's original, of Auric's retouching, or the Carlos Santana song...

[SymphonicAddict]

A new list:

Alwyn - Concerto for harp and string orchestra Lyra Angelica
Arnesen - Magnificat
Johnston - String Quartet No. 4 Amazing Grace
Jongen - Concert à cing for flute, harp and string trio
Lajtha - String Trio No. 3 Transylvanian Nights
Respighi - Trittico Botticelliano
Sibelius - Symphony No. 7
Strauss - Ariadne auf Naxos
Tavener - The Protecting Veil
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis

[vandermolen]

New list from me too! 

Miaskovsky: Two Pieces for String Orchestra (from Symphony 19). First one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E68o0xf0evA

Alun Hoddinott: 3 Welsh Folk Songs. No 2: Fair Lisa:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JeDcQEG1Hi4

Vaughan Williams: Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus

Bax: Harp Quintet

Rootham: Symphony No.2 (conclusion)

Rubbra: Symphony No.4 (opening)

Sibelius: Karelia Suite (middle movement)

Langgaard: Sinfonia Interna (opening)

Diamond: Symphony No.3 (slow movement)

Pettersson: Violin Concerto No2 (conclusion)

[vandermolen]

Since most of the better-known pieces I would list have already been mentioned, I'll give 10 lesser-known pieces/movements/parts of movements that come to mind when I heard the word "beautiful":

Bax: Symphony no. 3 - Epilogue (ending of third movement)
Merikanto: Piano Concerto no. 3 - second movement (Pièta)
Hanson: Symphony no. 3 - second movement
von Sauer: Piano Concerto no. 1 - third movement
Atterberg: Symphony no. 1 - opening of fourth movement (or any of his slow movements really)
Herbert: Cello Concerto no. 2 - second movement
Braga Santos: Symphony no. 2 - second movement
Chausson: Piano Quartet in A major - second movement
Zemlinsky: Der Seejungfrau
Piston: Symphony no. 2 - second movement

That 'Pieta' movement from Merikanto's Third Piano Concerto is very touching indeed. Thanks for alerting us to it Kyle.

[Jo498]

I quite dislike Auric's re-hash of the Brahms although I don't care much for the original either. It is probably my least favorite movement from all the Brahms symphonies. (The 3rd from the 4th is also irritating but there I think it is a necessary contrast and I do like the thwarting of expectations with a grotesquely triumphant scherzo-type mvmt and tragic finale. By far my favorite "symphonic scherzo" of Brahms' is the 2nd mvmt. in the 2nd piano concerto.)

[Cato]

My definition of beauty in music doesn't entail anything that can be described as pretty, nice or some such qualifyer. Rather, it entails a reach toward the sublime, the transcendent, even if only fleetingly. A quality that has the power to transport the listener to a higher plane of fulfillment and contentment.

Hence the following choices:


Tchaikovsky: symphony no 1, 2nd movement

Bruckner: 6th symphony, 2nd mvmt

Wagner: Die Walküre, Act II, scene IV (Announcement of Death)

Brahms: symphony no 4, 1st mvmt

Beethoven: PC no 4, 2nd mvmt

I like many of yours (bolded text).

Das Rheingold
...

Never getting over the first work that really pulled me into the world of classical music.

AMEN!!!  It is a wonder that the Tchaikovsky is not stolen more, speaking of music stolen for other purposes!   

And there is never a good reason to "get over" Das Rheingold !


A new list is allowed now and then, I would think!  How about strictly voice(s) and orchestra?

Mendelssohn - Die erste Walpurgisnacht

Richard Strauss  - Elektra

Alexander Zemlinsky - Lyric Symphony

S. Rachmaninoff - The Bells and The Covetous Knight

Alexander Scriabin - Symphony #5 and via Alexander Nemtin - Universe, The Prefatory Action

F. Busoni - Piano Concerto and Doctor Faust

Paul Hindemith - Cardillac

Karl Amadeus Hartmann - Symphony #1

That's 10...I think! 

[Florestan]

Mendelssohn - Die erste Walpurgisnacht

Pounds the table!

Alexander Scriabin - Symphony #5

You sure?

[Cato]

Quote from: Cato on Today at 03:09:50 AM

Mendelssohn - Die erste Walpurgisnacht

Pounds the table!

   

Alexander Scriabin - Symphony #5

You sure?

Oh yes!      For a long time now (nearly 50 years!) it has been a favorite!   0:)