Classical music - what makes you listen?

Subject: RE: Classical music - what makes you listen?
From: Kaleea
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 06:32 PM

Sometimes my favorite works are my favorites because of the memories associated with what I was doing once while listening (or whom I was with!), or because I used a recording of the work for some odd reason, such as when some idiot decided to go ahead & make my day:

Back in collete, when exhausted from yet another of many sleepless nights due to people in the apartment downstairs throwing ridiculously rowdy parties, I waited until it was all quiet & they had been asleep for about an hour.
I dragged my stereo speakers into my bedroom & placed them face down on the floor over the spot where their bed was. Then I played The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky--& I cranked it with the bass up all the way.
   

    Don't mess with this Choctaw woman.

Subject: RE: Classical music - what makes you listen?
From: Wesley S
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 05:32 PM

A lot of my favorites tend toward the "bombastic" side. Copelands "Fanfare for the Common Man" and the second movement of Beethovan's 9th. I remember first hearing that one as the credits rolled at the end of NBC's Nightly News with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley

Subject: Classical music - what makes you listen?
From: Helen
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 05:09 PM

Yes, I know, this is a folk/blues music site, but I'm interested to know what other people's favourite classical pieces are, if any. I have always loved Vivaldi, and JS Bach, because of the complexity, the way the parts weave in and out synergistically (is that a word?) to make a beautifully crafted whole experience.

My current favourite, which I am now listening to, is specifically the Rondo (Part III) of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op 7, called "La Campanella". My CD is by Ruggiero Ricci.   You may have heard it and not known the name of it.

It stops me in my tracks when I hear it. I can't do anything else but listen.

Another one I discovered while driving and listening to the classical radio station is Bruch's Adagio appassionato, Op 57. Still gives me tingles down my spine when I hear it.

So, what are your classical favourites?

Helen