Your top 10 pieces of classical music

Symphony Fantastique is pretty good, but not among my Top 10. Maybe Top 20 ...

 

It's better than anything Genesis ever did.

 

Can Gershwin really be considered a classical composer? I don't know where you'd place his work otherwise ... but I've always thought of Gershwin and Copland as separate from the classical genre.

 

In terms of relatively modern times, I would agree with you.

But under what classification would one otherwise put George Gershwin and Aaron Copland? Their pieces are more in line with art/traditional music (don't like the word "classical" given what we're working with ... that was one period of music history). Besides, much of the work by Russian composers is also relatively recent. How fine do we split hairs with them?

Along the same lines of thought, where does one put John Williams? Many of his pieces should stand the test of time, even if some of films he's written compositions fail to do the same.

 

Simon, excellent thread! I got in one of those classical CD clubs that gives you a listening guide with each CD (The Classical Composers. $31.85 for two CDs, but damn, it's worth it.)

1. Ninth Symphony - Beethoven.
2. 1812 Overture - Tchaikovsky
3. The Piano Concerti - Liszt (made mainstream by Tom and Jerry cartoon)
4. The Blue Danube Waltz - Johann Strauss
5. Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven
6. That piece from the Phantom of the Opera - J.S. Bach
7. The Barber of Seville - Rossini
8. An American in Paris - Gershwin
9. William Tell Overture - Rossini
10. Minute - Chopin (incredible piano piece)

 

Not the greatest but a group of music I love to run too.

Wagner Ride of the Valykries -
Tchaikovsky - Trepak
Mendelssohn - Symphony # 4
Rossini - Soldiers Dance
Beethoven - Symphony no 5 in C
Vivaldi - concerto in D minor
Mendelssohn - Wedding March
Brahms - symphony # 4
Tchaikovsky - Mazurka
Dvorak Symphony # 9 in E minor

 

1. Aaron Copland -- Billy the Kid
2. Gustav Mahler -- Symphony No. 5 (hon. mention: Kindertotenlieder)
3. Nikokai Rimsky-Korsakov -- Scheherezade
4. Antonin Dvorak -- New World Symphony
5. Ottorino Respighi -- Pines of Rome
6. Dmitri Shostakovich -- 4th Ballet Suite (hon. mention: Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 5)
7. Gustav Holst -- Suites 1 and 2 for Military Band
8. J.S. Bach -- Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
9. Edward Elgar -- Enigma Variations
10. Richard Wagner -- Der Ring des Nibelungen

 

1. Beethoven's Ninth
2. 1812 Overture
3. Spring from the Four Seasons
4. Mars from The Planets

That's all I've got for the moment.

 

Sounds like you bought that 5-CD set off the TV commercial.

1. Bethoveen's Third symphony (Eroica).
2. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25.
3. Mozart's concerto for two pianos.
4. The Italian Symphony by Mendelsson.
5. The Unfinished Symphony by Schubert.
6. Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni.
7. Mozart's Requiem Mass.
8. Almost anything from La Boehme.
9. Tales from the Vienna Woods, Johann Strauss.
10. Orpheus in the Underworld overture.

 

There's one that's kind of operatic eerie, horror movie favorite that I can't think of the name of for the life of me. Thought it was from the Omen but it isn't.

 

Copland is most definitely considered a classical composer. He even wrote an opera "The Tender Land". As for Gershwin, he straddles the line. While a lot of his song compositions are 'Great American Songbook', many are decidely classical. I'd include the opera "Porgy and Bess" and "Rhapsody in Blue" here. Bernstein is similar. He wrote for Broadway but he wrote classical music as well.