In this thread, you may post a list of your 10 favorite classical works, either ranked 1-10, or an unnumbered list. You are welcome to edit your list whenever it changes.

I'll have to think about this some more, but in the meantime, I'll include these:

Ludwig van Beethoven - "Moonlight Sonata"
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - "The Sleeping Beauty"
Igor Stravinsky - "The Rite of Spring"
Modest Mussorgsky – "Night on Bald Mountain"
Johann Strauss II - "Tales from the Vienna Woods"
Johannes Brahms - "Hungarian Dance No. 5"
Franz Liszt - "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2"

Damn this is harder than I thought it would be

1. Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto No.2
2. Mozart, Requiem
3. Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht
4. Liszt, Transcendantal Etudes
5. Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.4
6. Wagner, Tristan und Isolde Prélude
7. Chopin, Ballade No.1
8. Brahms, Piano Concerto No.2
9. Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf

Not sure on the 10th yet...

interesting lists, guys... brian, post yours too!

i don't know how strict the definition of classical music is here, but here are some of my favorites off the top of my head, in no particular order at all, limiting to one or two from my favorite composers...

Contrapunctus XIV (Bach) ...almost impossible to choose 50 or 10, much less one, but this is may be his ultimate piece both literally and figuratively
Prelude 15 aka Raindrop (Chopin) ...love practically all of his nocturnes and preludes
Chaconne in G minor (Weiss)
Allemande in D minor (Weiss) ...love every single one of his sonatas
As One Who Has Slept (Tavener) ...new to tavener but this piece in particular resonates with me and is already an all-time favorite
Passio (Part) ...courtesy of ddd's greatest nemesis
Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo) ...my standby answer to the question of my favorite piece of music ever (the live paco de lucia version; no substitutes accepted)
Adagio for Strings/Agnus Dei (Barber) ...always adored it to death but my recent discovery of the choral version "agnus dei" has rekindled my love affair with it
Spem in Alium (Tallis) ...courtesy of my favorite rogerson in the world
Elegia (Ogerman) ...not the version with bill evans, though, paradoxically enough... i burned a cd with it a few years ago and still can't figure out where the heck i got it from
Expromt (Babajanian) ...by armenia's second most famous composer (and imo every bit as great as khachaturian)
Koyunbaba (Domeniconi) ...the lone guitar piece here... perhaps not coincidental that i thought of it right after babajanian
Adagietto from the 5th (Mahler) ...to die for
Larghetto (Vivaldi) ...more beauty to die for... really obscure even by vivaldi standards and i can't even remember the exact source right now but will do some research tomorrow
Miserere (Zelenka) ...like the vivaldi adagietto, very particularly baroque harmonies and voice leading that tug on my strings like nothing else
Aria for Flute and Piano (Schulhoff) ...showing the influence of his mentor, debussy (particularly i have the "syrinx" in mind)
Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini (Rachmaninov) ...may seem banal but it's definitely part of my inner temple
Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin) ...speaking of rhapsodies... i've heard purists/idiots deny it being a classical piece... a. why not, b. who cares??!
O Clarissima Mater (Hildegard) ...courtesy of my guitar teacher ...my wake-up alarm (which is getting to be a problem due to overplay)
Daphnis et Chloe (Ravel)
Jeux d'eau (Ravel)

i'll try to update and add more soon

^^ I was expecting a whole bunch of stuff I had never heard of but there are some nice classics there too like Chopin, Mahler, Ravel and Rachmaninov I'm pleased to see! I'll definitely try to check out some of those other ones and give my impressions. I might also add other of my favourites, because classical music is so vast people often listen to very different things (I for one barely know any baroque at all) so it could always be helpful in expanding others' taste.
I think one possible definition of classical music would be that classical works don't stand alone, they need an interpretation whereas in popular music most of time there isn't a difference between the work and its interpretation, there is one definite interpretation of the song by the artist, and covers are considered different songs/works altogether. All the same, that's not aesthetic difference, and definitely doesn't explain the term "classical".

it's neither aesthetic nor even close to being true, either

my favorite classical periods are baroque, renaissance, and ars nova & ars antiqua... though almost all works i listed are baroque and post-baroque, which i'll try to address (but it's also because there's more parity and it's more difficult to choose favorites)

George, how do you go about acquiring music from the Renaissance and earlier? And are there any good composers/pieces that serve as a good introduction?

It's okay to laugh but how would you define classical music then? It's just the way the allmusic site is divided that made me suggest that.

hmmm... well, any european music for the past 1000 years that wasn't folk music, that was written down (even if its essence was improvisational), and that has become part of a particular canon and particular evolutionary sequence. it is rather vague, but it is the best way i can think of uniting everything from hildegard up to now.
of course, in the 20th century things get crazier... now you're classical because of the lineage/evolution you're continuing, your academic background, generally your acceptance by the contemporary classical world. there are more variables now, it would seem.

there are plenty of great cds out there!

i won't claim to be an expert on this stuff, because i'm myself relatively new to it... but some of the central figures are Hildegard von Bingen; Leonin and Perotin (representing the Notre Dame School); Guillaume de Machaut, Landini, Guillaume Dufay, Josquin Desprez, Orlande de Lassus, Giovanni da Palestrina, Giovanni Gabrieli, and the Englishmen Tallis and Byrd (also Dunstaple, Power, and Gibbons - Glenn Gould's favorite composer)

through these you get to witness the evolution of harmony, rhythm, and form in the european classical tradition, how from the early primitive chants we end up with bach, and even schoenberg and cage... (of course there are other developments and variables besides these composers - evolution of instruments, of tuning systems, of notation, of art patronage, etc)

Hildegard seems to be a bit of an outsider in the tradition (even though she's clearly part of it), and very underappreciated (even by john17). What's amazing is that she was a woman (think of her time and age!) and probably to this day remains the greatest female classical composer. What's also amazing is that she was a genius polymath and contributed to many diverse fields in addition to music.
There are a bunch of good recordings out there. One very unique and interesting one is by Jocelyn Montgomery (produced by David Lynch).
http://www.amazon.com/Lux-Vivens-Living ... s_ep_dpi_1

it is also on youtube in its entirety (user RdaL333)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icNd55pMCwE




Leonin and Perotin came slightly later than her, but are frequently referred to as the first composers (which is wrong on many levels). We don't really know exactly how original they were, who preceded them, or anything else, really. They're just the only two names we have to associate with music of the Notre Dame School (the form of music is called organum, btw).
Here's an excellent sampler:
http://www.amazon.com/Leonin-Perotin-Sa ... 937&sr=8-6
and there's a few others, plus a whole bunch of stuff on youtube.

Don, you might want to look at the Choral Works list for works by the composers that George mentioned. Choral music was the dominant form from that period, or at least it can be said that most of the most highly renowned works from that period are choral.

Another composer that George didn't mention was Monteverdi. Some consider him Renaissance and some consider him Baroque, which is probably why George din't mention him. Whatever he was, he was a great composer.

I do consider Rhapsody in Blue (and also Porgy & Bess) to be classical, but Gershwin blurred the line between classical and popular music.

1. Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet
2. Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2
3. Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5
4. Ralph Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 9
5. Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (yes cliche but I think I've finally come to the conclusion that it is his best work)
6. Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 4
7. Bach - Mass in B Minor
8. Stravinsky - The Firebird
9. Debussy - La Mer
10. Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10.

1. Claude Debussy - La Mer
2. Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde
3. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony #6
4. Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
5. Johann Sebastian Bach - The Goldberg Variations
6. Ludwig Van Beethoven - Piano Sonata #14
7. Bela Bartok - The Miraculous Mandarin

(for now, one per composer)

Have you tackled Mass in B Minor yet for Bach? Seems you managed to make it through Tristan alright.

I've given it a few tentative listens. Bits and pieces of it have captured me, but as a whole it hasn't yet. Still working on it.