Top Five Works That Have Touched You The Deepest

[Mirror Image]

This is a going to be a difficult poll for some, but the general idea behind it is to list five works that have gone straight to your heart and left an undeniable impression on you. These are works that define your essence.

I'll post my list later.

[nathanb]

Classical music has always been a sort of emotional/intellectual hybrid experience, for me. I would suggest works such as Mozart's 20th piano concerto, Beethoven's 7th symphony, the Ring Cycle, the LICHT Cycle, Uaxuctum, Limited Approximations, Metastasis, Le Sacre Du Printemps, and so on... But if I'm to truly name pieces of music that have shaped my heart and soul into what they are today, they would honestly probably just be old rock, metal, or folk songs I used to listen to in infinite loops as an adolescent and young adult. Either that, or I'm just having a moody, pensive morning...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kod9e2BgRA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDyvClUsCJU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64x_RCArfjU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX0JtuhsrwY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwgEOmXNzDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qC4iVFPJr8

[NikF]

Alphabetical order -
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3
Brahms: Piano Concerto in D Minor (stirs emotions and serves as salve for the pre-stirred)
Janacek: Intimate Letters
Mahler: 6
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8

[The new erato]

I'm not good at lists, but works that stand out are Shostakovich's violin concerto no 1, Bach's St Matthew Passion and Cantata no 21, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and practically all of Beethoven's late quartets.

But like Nathan, there were pop music that had an equally emotional response with me in my formative years, eg Hendrix (I still cannot hear Machine gun without turning th volume to max and getting goose bumps all over my body) and lots of Beatles stuff. But really too much to go into specifics.

[Sergeant Rock]

Fauré Sicilienne from the Pelléas et Mélisande Suite
Wagner Die Walküre
Havergal Brian Gothic Symphony (especially the Vivace movement)
Elgar Enigma Variations
Mahler Symphony No.6

But like Nathan, there were pop music that had an equally emotional response with me in my formative years

Yes...Pop/Rock/Soul/Folk/Country also deserve Top 5 lists.

Sarge

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

For me it would probably be something like.....................

Ligeti: Atmosphères
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Boulez: Dérive 1
Feldman: For Philip Guston
Boulez: Répons

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Very good thread John! I'm gonna have to think about this.

Is this works that effected yourself in music tastes (essentially) as a listener? or works that give you the biggest emotional impact? 

That may be two completely different lists 

Another typo brought to you by an Armature Pianist.........I would assume that it is music which has affected you in your musical tastes. I would be surprised if those pieces did not have a big emotional impact. Our response to music is always an emotional one anyway.

[Jay F]

I grew up listening to pop and rock, starting in the 1960s, and did not listen to much classical music until I was 35. So, while my initial responses re: music that gets to my heart involve people like Phil Spector, Bruce Springsteen (pre-1987), Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, the Beach Boys, I will attempt to fashion a classical response.

Mahler 6: top of the list.

Beethoven 7: the Allegretto. I first heard it in some WWII movie. It was playing on the radio of this Jewish home as the Nazis were searching for them.

"Di Provenza." I had a mother like Germont Père. She wasn't happy I was going to marry a Jewish girl. She lost her complete shit when I told her I was going to marry a Jewish boy.

I could cite the "Kramer v. Kramer" movement of Vivaldi's RV 425, but my experiences with "mean girl" classical record clerks over the years make me afraid, still, to mention classical music I found at the movies. (Yes, You-Know-Who at Tower in DC, I'm talking about you.)

I don't usually realize how emotionally attached I am to a piece of music until I experience it outside my living and listening environments. I had a character talk about the third movement of M6 in a play I wrote once, and the theatre used it as the intro music. Talk about verklempt. (Even now, just thinking about it...)

[James]

Some good ones, take your pick of 5 ..

Bach, Dona nobis pacem, BWV 654, 659, 662
Faure, Piano Nocturne 13
Bartok, SQ 6
Poulenc, Nocturne 8
Stravinsky, Symphonies of Winds
Webern, Symphony op. 21
Wagner, Parsifal Prelude, Tristan Prelude

[Mirror Image]

Very good thread John! I'm gonna have to think about this.

Is this works that effected yourself in music tastes (essentially) as a listener? or works that give you the biggest emotional impact? 

That may be two completely different lists 

Works that have touched you deeply --- emotionally, intellectually, spiritually...all at the same time. The reason why I chose to only allow five works to be chosen is because this avoids the whole 'list everything that has ever meant anything to you' kind of mentality and forces one to pick only the works that have meant the most to you and help define your very essence.

[Mirror Image]

Okay, here goes nothing...(in no particular order):

Szymanowski: Litany for the Virgin Mary
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola, & Harp
Stanford: The Blue Bird

These are works that have gone straight to my heart and have never let go. Not even for a second.

[Mirror Image]

Now I see! 

Forget that list I made, that was more a first-milestones list.
I can give a much more accurate list 

Looking forward to reading it, Josh.

[vandermolen]

Difficult but interesting thread:

Howells: Hymnus Paradisi (heartbreakingly beautiful - written in memory of the composer's son who died very young)
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 9 - facing the darkness with defiance.
Pettersson: Violin Concerto 2 - I find the last part unbearably moving.
Rootham: Symphony 2 - a recent release - completed at the very end of Rootham's life. The choral/ethereal conclusion is terribly poignant.
Bruckner: Symphony 9 or Shostakovich Symphony 15

[springrite]

Feldman: For Philip Guston
Medtner Piano Sonata Opus 5
Chopin Ballade #1
Mahler Symphony #9
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

[North Star]

Bach – Partita no. 2 for solo violin
Beethoven – C sharp minor Quartet
Ravel – Piano Trio
Sibelius – Symphony no. 6
Janáček – String Quartet no. 2

[Amore di Viola]

Music heard in the formative years does have a better chance of ending up on a list like this:

Britten: War Requiem - the old one conducted by Britten himself.
Verdi: Otello. I was 20, in Paris, bought a 50 FF student ticket to the Opéra for something else (I thought), found myself sitting on the sixth row, totally perfect seating, and little unprepared provincial me was totally swept away. Cried after less than ten seconds.
Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, When I am laid in earth, Anne Sophie von Otter. Very very simple, very powerful. I read The fourth song of the Aeneid, that adds a lot of depth.
Stravinskij, Sacre du Printemps. Scary, profoundly shocking.

Before getting to the most important, I too would like to sneak in a couple of non-classical ones: The water is wide played by Charles Lloyd, Faith played by Joshua Redman, Life on Mars and Starman by Bowie, and one that I really do not know how to classify: Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960 from On Land by Brian Eno: Is this even music, or a soundscape?

The most important piece of music in my life, however, is Beethoven's last piano sonata. I thought I knew that piece of music, had heard different versions over twenty-plus years. Then one day I heard Solomon play it, and suddenly, in the second movement, it clicked. I am not at all religious, but the only way I can describe it is that I found myself standing naked before the power and love of God. It was an epiphany, a high. I must admit, I just sobbed.

I often wonder whether I am a nutcase or others have had similar experiences?

[The new erato]

Regularly.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I really feel like I should have mentioned Kate Soper's 'Voices from the Killing Jar' but that is something I only discovered very recently. Can it still count? It really did knock my socks off like nothing else has when I first heard it.............

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

In a way it's not fair to composers not named J.S. Bach. My list could have five Bach compositions depending on my mood. Aside from Bach, let's do this (could change tomorrow!):

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
Beethoven: Hammerklavier sonata
R. Strauss: Metamorphosen
Tallis: Spem in Alium
Brahms: German Requiem

Here are my Bach five:

Mass in B Minor
Partita No. 2 for unaccompanied Violin
Prelude and Fugue in Eb major, BWV 552 (for organ)
WTC Books I and II (is that cheating?)
Orgelbuchlein (cheating again?)

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

... The water is wide played by Charles Lloyd...

The most important piece of music in my life, however, is Beethoven's last piano sonata. I thought I knew that piece of music, had heard different versions over twenty-plus years. Then one day I heard Solomon play it, and suddenly, in the second movement, it clicked. I am not at all religious, but the only way I can describe it is that I found myself standing naked before the power and love of God. It was an epiphany, a high. I must admit, I just sobbed.

I often wonder whether I am a nutcase or others have had similar experiences?

Fascinating about the Charles Lloyd. Several months ago I heard parts of his LP (still, only available on LP) Big Sur Tapestry played on a local radio station. I hunted it down and played it on New Year's day. I was blown away in a way I have never experienced. It was almost as if I have finally found peace. Buy a damn turntable if you have to, but get this!!!! I am eager to check out The Water is Wide.

The Solomon observation is also interesting. He is one of my favorites. His Hammerklavier Sonata and Brahms Sonata No. 3 are untouchable and both are as profound as music-making gets. Honestly, I prefer Michelangeli in the Op. 111.