The Best

[hornteacher]

Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven's 9th, and Dvorak's New World are my perfect choices.

[karlhenning]

Lots of good stuff in this thread, of course.

I just cannot sign off on any of it as The Best.

Well, maybe Sean's thread about how we're all the cows in front of the abbattoir is The Best.

[MN Dave]

Lots of good stuff in this thread, of course.

I just cannot sign off on any of it as The Best.

Well, maybe Sean's thread about how we're all the cows in front of the abbattoir is The Best.

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's by Shostakovich, right? 

[woodshedder]

I adore Handel's Messiah from beginning to end. In my book, it is a couple notches above everything else. Admittedly, I am a relative newbie to classical (about 3 years), and so a lot of the music some of you guys enjoy probably still feels a little inaccessible to me.

Incidentally, I can hardly stomach Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but mostly I reckon its a bias from having heard Spring (or is it Summer?) so durn much its sickening. However, I do enjoy several other Vivaldi works.

[karlhenning]

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's by Shostakovich, right? 

You may just be onto something there!  0:)

[karlhenning]

I adore Handel's Messiah from beginning to end. In my book, it is a couple notches above everything else. Admittedly, I am a relative newbie to classical (about 3 years), and so a lot of the music some of you guys enjoy probably still feels a little inaccessible to me.

Incidentally, I can hardly stomach Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but mostly I reckon its a bias from having heard Spring (or is it Summer?) so durn much its sickening. However, I do enjoy several other Vivaldi works.

Welcome, woodshedder!

I'd suggest simply giving the Vivaldi a miss for a couple of years;  I am very familiar with the "tedium-by-overexposure" effect.  if you can avoid hearing the Le quattro stagioni for a few years, and then hear it with fresh ears, you may like it (again).

[Ten thumbs]

I am totally astonished that any of you should imagine there is such a work.

[Mark]

Welcome, woodshedder!

I'd suggest simply giving the Vivaldi a miss for a couple of years;  I am very familiar with the "tedium-by-overexposure" effect.  if you can avoid hearing the Le quattro stagioni for a few years, and then hear it with fresh ears, you may like it (again).

Or, hear Europa Galante with Fabio Biondi on Virgin Classics, and your ears will hear this cycle of old warhorses as though for the first time.

[The new erato]

4' 33"

This is a work where it is simply impossible to leave out a simple note.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Well, the composer would have to be BACH of course.    My nomination:

BACH: Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major: BWV 552

[Bogey]

I will have a bit of fun with this Dave and use another genre, jazz.  Two come to mind.  First, for me, it would be Miles's Kind of Blue.  This can be either the composition that goes by this name or the entire album....your pick.    Next, on Ken Burns's jazz series, Louis Armstrong's West End Blues, was actually described using the word "perfect", I believe.  Not sure what episode, but the professor(?) that put forth this notion just may be on to something.

[Millfields]

I vote for Mozart's Symphony #40, K550.

Thirded PW! Would also add most of the Ring sans Act 1 of Siegfried. Also Tristan und Isolde is 3.5 hrs of total perfection    0:)

[Ten thumbs]

Beethoven Op131 or 132. If hard pressed I'd go with 131.

I'll add to these Mel Bonis Op127.

[The new erato]

I'll add to these Mel Bonis Op127.

I don't think it's possible to speak about best without discussing, lengthily, what is meant by best, and since it is unlikely that we aill agree, we will be stuck.  That said, for me it will be op 131, closely followed by 127 and 130. Why - I don't know, but no other works affect me as strongly.

[quintett op.57]

It doesn't exist. Sorry.

I agree.

So you can find an objective defect in any piece of music you've heard?

[Mark]

So you can find an objective defect in any piece of music you've heard?

Given the OP ...

What is the single most perfect piece of music ever written?

... my reply was merely focusing on the idea of perfection, which I don't believe exists anywhere here on earth.

[btpaul674]

One of the reasons I think I've come to love music is because of its imperfection; its human-ness.

[Great Gable]

... my reply was merely focusing on the idea of perfection, which I don't believe exists anywhere here on earth.

That's rather damning Mark. With all the thousands of hours (could it be millions?) that I have spent listening to music, the idea that nothing could reach the heights of perfection is rather sad. There are quite a few pieces which I deem to be perfect - why shouldn't there be? There are a few which could not have been improved upon even if an eternity had been spent on their composition. It's all in the ears of the beholder though, isn't it?

[Josquin des Prez]

It's all in the ears of the beholder though, isn't it?

Nein.

[Great Gable]

Nein.

That was a rhetorical question. What else can it be. There is no set blueprint that music must fulfil, or comply to, to qualify as perfect. It's completely subjective. Come to that, it is also utterly irrelevant what anyone else's opinion is with regard to one person's stated favourite. If one person thinks a piece is perfect in every way - then it is, even if the rest of mankind thinks it clashing and dissonant.