Help me add some classical music to my playlist

[MEbenhoe]

I really like some of the classical music I've heard. It can be relaxing and a good change of pace at times. However I have no clue what is good to get. So far on my list are Beethoven's 5th Symphony, 9th symphony, and Flight of the Bumblebee, Pachelbel's Canon in D, and the William Tell Overture. Pretty weak list, so help me add to it.

[Shajen]

Wagner has some good stuff. Ride of the Valkyres and all that.

Uhm, the best place IMO to start is the "classical music's Greatest hits" stuff you see at like Barnes and Noble, or music stores. Seriously. You get a wide selection of music in various styles for pretty damned cheap.

GL with this.

[turnipmonster]

do you want symphonic music, or any classical?

some of my favorites
bach: the goldberg variations (get glenn gould's recording of this!)
bach: st matthew's passion
shostakovich: any of his string quartets
bartok: any of his string quartets

other composers: brahms, ravel, debussy, chopin (all have written spectacular works for solo piano)

both mozart and hadyn's string quartets are classic works (I'm writing a string quartet for my wedding, so I've beeen listening to a lot of them).

incidentally, the naxos label is really great for getting inexpensive classical cds.

[BOTW]

Bach Violin Concertos
Handel's Messiah
Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Mozart Requiem & Piano Concertos
Brahms Piano Concerto no 1
Wynton Marsalis Baroque Music for Trumpet

[partygirluk]

Get all of Beethoven's other Symphonies - they are all excellent. I actually think 9 is the the most overrated piece of music in history.

Also, try Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 14 (AKA the moonlight sonata)

[MEbenhoe]

[ QUOTE ]
do you want symphonic music, or any classical?

[/ QUOTE ]

I prob lean more towards the symphonic, but I would say any would do.

[swede123]

Several good suggestions already. You can't really go wrong with Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. Someone also mentioned Debussy, who's made some of my favorite works: Claire de Lune, La Mer being two of them.

Classical guitar is pretty cool as well. Look for works by Vivaldi, Villa-Lobos, and Albeniz. It's often times not symphonic stuff, but I find it one of the most relaxing types of music.

Cheers,

Swede

[lu_hawk]

Handel's Largo from Xerxes is one of my favorite songs, classical or otherwise.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
Get all of Beethoven's other Symphonies - they are all excellent. I actually think 9 is the the most overrated piece of music in history.

[/ QUOTE ]

I completely agree. 7 is superior to 9, and perhaps all the others.

[Bad Beat Coming]

Besides poker, my undergraduate degree is actually in music theory. So here's a subjective list:

Beethoven's 3rd and 7th Symphonies.
Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites
Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique
Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony (Pathetique)
Mahler's 5th and 6th Symphony
Mozart's 40th and 41st Symphonies

and the single best piece of music ever written, by far:

Appalachian Spring, by Aaron Copland. This should be #1 on every list.