Your favorite classical tunes...

[Z...]

From the comments: ''Argerich captures the demonic in Mozart better than anyone. This piece is full of anger and metaphysical rage. Mozart is saying "I know the state of things and it's bad." And he's pissed about it. He's trying constantly to contain the anger but it continually breaks free. It seems he's finally done it in the second movement, but then in the middle section it breaks out again with even greater vehemence. In the third movement the anger is taken to an even higher level until a breaking point is reached. But the D major reached at the conclusion of the piece is not a victory, but a cynical conclusion to an epic battle. Mozart seems to be saying that there is no solution, and the only response left is satire. Stick your tongue out at the devil and he'll go away. A fascinating piece which was extremely avant-garde at the time it was written and again demonstrated that in Music there was Mozart and then everyone else. He was very far ahead of his colleagues and it is questionable whether even the Romantics fully understood the implications of what he was doing. This is a truly great performance and Argerich and Rabinovitch come very close to capturing and expressing what this incredible piece is about.''

 

[Vulcan59]

Mongkol is a 61-year-old former logging elephant. His captive-held life was spent hauling trees in the Thai forest. His body shape is deformed through hard labor, he lost his right eye and tusk in this brutal logging practice. Mongkol was rescued and brought to Elephants World to spend the rest of his days relaxing peacefully in freedom by the River Kwai. I discovered Mongkol is an extremely gentle, sensitive elephant who enjoys music, especially this slow movement by Beethoven which I play to him occasionally in the day and night.

 

[Possibility of Being]

Bach - St Matthew's Passion is definitely at the top of my favourite classical works (along with a few others, mostly of the baroque time) with its choirs and arias. "Erbaume mich" is a master piece of all times to me, not many others can match its class.

Julia Hamari - alto, Karl Richter - conductor, Munich Bach Orchestra. It was this performance, I believe, that was used in the last Andrei Tarkovsky's iconic movie Offret/ Sacrifice.

Erbarme dich,
Mein Gott, um meiner Zähren willen!
Schaue hier,
Herz und Auge weint vor dir
Bitterlich.

Eng.:
Have mercy,
Have mercy, o Lord,
for the sake of my tears.

Look at me:
heart and eye are weeping
bitterly for you.

 

[Musicinventor]

 

[goyacobol]

Here is my grandmother playing Dimitri Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues...(not really it is Tatiana Nicolayeva). When in college I think Shostakovich became one of my favorite composers.

Notice there is no sheet music in sight. Kind of my definition of impeccable I guess.

I posted this in the "What are you listening to?" thread but hearing these recent posts in this thread maybe it would have been more appreciated here/or not? I just loved this elderly woman's performance so much.

 

[maiko]

I think the cello is my favorite instrument, maybe that is because I really love Bach's cello suites. I enjoy the sound tapestries that can be woven by a whole orchestra, but the very minimalistic cello suites somehow fill me with a feeling of "Sehnsucht" (longing but different).
Back in Germany, when we lived in the forest, I would sometimes listen to them while walking through the forest, and that would always get my thoughts flowing, and allowed for associative thinking.

 

[naorma]

I am not quite sure whether "Johann Strauß 2" is really a classical composer, but I think it fits here better. Last Thursday, I was a little upset and down because at the moment I am exploring my relationship with my brother a little deeper. And that brings up some things you don't want to see ! 2 days later I found a CD from the Viennese New Years Concert of 2013 and the next day I decided to listen to it. New Years concerts are invented to make people happy . . . so I gave it a try and it worked. One of the nicest one (besides the Radetzkymarsch, of course ) is this . .