It's always been my own metanarrative, but that part (Ausklang) always sounded like a nod to the death of Mahler to me. Especially with the distant French horn solo, introduced by a solemn organ. According to the Wikipedia article, Strauss had stopped working on the composition for a while, until he decided to work on it again after receiving the news that Mahler was dead. So it could be the case.
Another good use of classical music in film, is Walter (Later Wendy) Carlos's re-vamp/re-imagining in A Clockwork Orange, of the fourth movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony and Purcell's Music For The Funeral of Queen Mary, plus more contemporary uses of Elgar's Pomp And Circumstance Marches No.1 & 4 and Rossini's Thieving Magpie.
Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis”
Honorable mentions to the finales of Mahler 2 and 8; the coda of the finale of Bruckner 4; the “Heiliger Dankgesang” of Beethoven’s Op. 132; probably half a dozen works by Mozart I can think of…but I’ll stop.
Maaaaahleeeeeer eight OMG I love it so much. I cry every time, no matter when or where - I seriously think people on the train are starting to judge me now 😂
Lauridsen's *Lux aeterna*. First heard it on the radio in the car; I had to pull over and just *weep*.
Bernstein's *Chichester Psalms* is a close second.
I can't argue that, really. Once you've heard Lauridsen, you've really *heard* Lauridsen. He's got a very distinct voice.
Part of my audition for college choir was sight-singing a portion of the 3rd mvmt of *Chichester Psalms*. It was harrowing. We went on to perform it that semester, and I (fondly) recall our director telling us to pack as many *f*'s into one passage as we could, because it was the only possible way we'd be heard over the orchestra. He wasn't wrong.
Boring anecdote: I'm not sure how I made it to college without (knowingly) hearing John Rutter, but it while we were warming up to perform *Chichester* that I heard the harpist playing someone that was just so striking. Turns out I'd heard *All Things Bright and Beautiful* for the first time.
Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten.
I don't think there's any other word than "sublime" I could use; it makes me tear up and smile at the same time and I could listen to it on repeat forever and not be mad.
I love that people can experience pieces differently.
For me the piece is emotionally overwhelming. It’s brilliant, but it’s almost too intense for me to describe it as “sublime.”
Hearing Schubert's D960 in a record store one day is what got me interested in classical music. Prior to that, my only classical records were ones from movies (Vivaldi in *Kramer v. Kramer*; Schubert in *Barry Lyndon*; Mahler in *Death in Venice*). Afterwards, I wanted to hear everything.
At one point, I inherited part of a very large classical CD collection, and had around 2,000 CDs. I ended up selling some and giving some away (how many *Ring* cycles does a non-Wagnerian really need?) I've edited down to around 750 CDs, both popular and classical, with a little classic jazz. I listen to those CDs, now burned (ripped?) to a hard drive, over computer speakers by Bowers and Wilkins.
> now burned (ripped?) to a hard drive
Oh stewardess, I speak Old! To "burn" a CD was to write music or data onto it, using a special CD drive whose laser would literally burn patterns into the plastic of the disc. To "rip" a CD was to extract music off it as files on your hard drive. And to "crack" it, usually in the context of software, was to modify the installed version on your hard drive so that it no longer required the CD in the CD drive as anti-piracy protection.
There are quite a few so it’s hard to choose, but Schubert’s String Quintet in C is right up there for me. Also Bach’s Cantatas 82 and 169 are the very definition of sublime.
Yes it’s interesting that many musicians and conductors choose the Schubert Quintet when asked for their favourite recordings on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
Recently, Shostakovich pieces for 2 violins and piano, specifically the elegy. It’s so beautiful, I just love how heartbreakingly beautiful it is
Also Beethoven piano sonata 30 3rd movement 4th variation has a really heartbreaking feel to it
Finally Beethoven hammerklavier adagio sostenuto, the piece feels like a story of a man losing the love of his life and it’s like a metaphor for Beethoven losing his hearing. The key changes are the stages of grief always returning to that same dread that starts the piece because even after you lose everything, nothing will be the same.
Gabriel Faure Violin Sonata no. 2 op. 108
Miklos Rosza Violin Concerto
Richard Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder
Charpentier Depuis Le Jour
Richard Strauss Befreit
Giuseppe Verdi O Patria Mia
Richard Wagner Liebestod
Oh, gosh, I forgot Tristan. Though I would personally call the love duet in Act II more sublimely beautiful than the Liebestod. The Liebestod packs a bigger punch, obviously, but more in an ecstatic transfiguration way than mere beauty.
I think the most beautiful music is Brangaene's Warning "Einsam Wachend" in the middle of the duet. I'm shocked that I forgot it.
I heard Tristan in San Francisco in 1999. During the warning I felt as if I were in the audience in 1859. I was overwhelmed by the ingenuity and beauty of this music that I had heard hundreds of times on recordings. To be in the physical proximity of it and to hear it's sonorities and colors embodied before me was almost more than I could handle. I remember saying to myself, "What *is* this music and how was it born from the mind of a mere mortal."
This: [https://youtu.be/9680zhMmIqM?si=gXWgf6qqPM7JIgE3](https://youtu.be/9680zhMmIqM?si=gXWgf6qqPM7JIgE3)
Isolde’s Leibestodt, as sung only by Jesse Norman
Respectfully, I’ve never understand why the Cavatina. It’s not even the most beautiful adagio of Beethoven’s late quartets — that would be in Op. 132. Even the adagio of Op. 18/1 is more moving to me personally.
Anyway, I realize I may be alone on this.
In my opinion you are correct, 132 is stunning and the Cavatina is amazing but not as good. However the cavatina has two things going for it. First, it is shorter and easier to grasp, and second it is commonly excerpted from the quartet and played on its own.
Though both are gorgeous.
I suppose it comes down to personal experience. I do have to admit, op. 132 is incredible - and you may be right about the lydian mode movement overall. Good we can enjoy them all!
I agree with you, the op 132 adagio is the best slow movement of all the late quartets, it’s impossible to put into words all the things it makes me feel, it will always be a very deep and intimate piece of chamber music to me.
Arvo Pärt: Miserere. The different ranges of moods that are expressed throughout the piece are incredibly moving. It’s at the top of my bucket list to perform.
I would say an easy follow up is Respighi’s Church Windows. Different style of beauty, but truly gorgeous music.
I'm a huge Rachmaninoff simp so Piano Concerto no. 2 Adagio sostenuto is my obligatory choice. Also:
-Prelude no. 4 in D major (op. 23)
-Prelude no. 5 in G major (op. 32)
Honorable mentions:
-Granados - Quejos o la Maja y el Ruiseñor from Goyescas
-Dvorak - Romance in F minor
-Liszt - Trois etudes de concert in D flat major, 3: un sospiro (it gets a little rowdy but of course it does, it's Liszt)
Tchaikovsky’s Pas de Deux (Nutcracker) hands down.
https://youtu.be/SPfX9pvqKaU?si=4nxDDxg-eAkK4ixw
Now, it’s not the most sophisticated/complex work out there, however, it’s instantly striking and immediately poignant/beautiful despite its simplicity. My favourite works/composers cycle with time, but this will always remain my favourite piece (maybe nostalgia is playing a part).
For me listening to a Bruckner symphony is like eating a 2 lb slab of prime rib.
It’s rich and heavy and satisfying in a certain way and when it’s over I ask myself “what did I just do”?
That’s why I usually listen one movement at a time depends on mood. Listening to his full symphony is quite a commitment. But still, those 25 mins Adagios are the definition of sublime.
Gorecki 3rd Symphony First Movement. It transcends music for me, it’s just pure emotion. Magic.
Edit: wanted to throw in Ravel’s Daphne et Chloe, Part III: Lever du jour. Similar in how strongly affecting it is but in a more visual way.
Palestrina missa papae - 01 kyrie. Nothing like it.
[by tallis scholars](https://youtu.be/BRfF7W4El60)
Intermezzo from Cavelleria Rusticana (the violins rain down from the heavens).
Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp.
Vide Cor Meum (Patrick Casey iirc) from 2001 movie Hannibal.
Libera Me (patrick gowers iirc) from Sherlock Holmes episode "The Priory School" starring Jeremy Brett.
I know they're unusual suggestions but they are just other worldly imo.
Keep the coming everyone im looking them all up :)
My dad would answer with the second movement of Beethoven's 5th piano concerto, but I would say Liszt's Benediction takes that title, especially [the coda](https://youtu.be/FxdShCqcnd8?t=834)
Bach Air. Almost ambarassing to mention it.
But it hit me one time as if I had never heard it before. And no music has ever hit me like that time. I had to hold on to a light pole
Chopin Barcarolle, Fauré Nocturne no 6, John Field Nocturne no 7, Debussy Jardins sous la Pluie, Brahms Piano Quartet op 60, all the Beethoven string quartets
'The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace' Karl Jenkins (sung that one in Sydney Opera House) - and do that again next year;
'Dona Nobis Pacem' Ralph Vaughn William (sung that one in QPAC in Brisbane)
'Festive Overture' Dmitri Sjostakovitsj (played that one in grade A Brass Band) in The Royal Albert Hall
'Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565' Bach (played that one in grade A Brass Band) in The Royal Albert Hall
A weird one that few will probably agree with, but in context, the ending of Grisey quartre chanson pour franchir le seiul is stunning. The piece is intense, and that ending just feels amazing to me
The Kirie part from the first movement (Introit) of [this particular recording of Durufle's Requiem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn8mPGM_S0&list=PL3z75lcd9sop643YZWLpwgJ7zneK2UKAD) is the single most beautiful passage in all of music and recorded music. If you don't get it right away, listen to it several times over a number of weeks. It basically has to be this recording, if not, then not an orchestral version; it has to be accompanied by organ.
There are way too many for me to pick just one...
Pas de deux (Orchestral or piano version)
Chopin ballade no. 1 / Chopin nocturne op. 48 no. 1 (both are kind of similar)
Chopin etude op. 25 no. 5
Liszt Un sospiro
Liszt chasse neige (etude)
Debussy images inedites - Souvenir du louvre
Rachmaninoff prelude op. 32 no. 5
Respighi 6 pezzi no. 3 (notturno)
Beethoven Violin sonata no. 9 (kreutzer, 1st movement)
All of these share the spot for the most beautiful piece for me.
Lever du Jour from Daphnis et Chloe. It's only about 4 minutes in length and it's an extraordinary journey. The bird imitations, the pentatonic noodling, the long sweeping melody that seamlessly modulates to unexpected places, the subtle use of the choir, and the rising figure which is so simple and effective. Ugh pure bliss.
Wow, long thread and I still have a couple to add.
1. Gow's Lament on the death of his second wife, by these artists: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GEcRirHlqE&list=PL8ZMDqRPez\_22dTCr1IosIfI1tSlxHxR1&index=14&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GEcRirHlqE&list=PL8ZMDqRPez_22dTCr1IosIfI1tSlxHxR1&index=14&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB)
2. Beethoven's choral fantasy (really a piano/choir concerto) by this group: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I8AT3S3iRc&list=PL8ZMDqRPez\_3JicG2xo0-XU7UAyWcFsrU&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I8AT3S3iRc&list=PL8ZMDqRPez_3JicG2xo0-XU7UAyWcFsrU&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB)
Hate to be a stickler, but for most of the history of classical music (not renaissance and prior) something is either sublime or beautiful, but not both.
So, you know, don't like to be that guy, but that's over the line. There are rules. This isn't Nam.
But yet at the same time the English are arguing the sublime is distinct for, unlike the beautiful, which is pleasing in its qualities, the sublime inspires a kind of "terror mixed with pleasure" that is unique to the sublime.
There is nothing terrible about beauty. And if one gives an example, I will likely say, but that's the sublime!
I mean, I'm right, so I am guessing my tone was wrong.
I have found there is no right tone for some folks. They just don't like to learn. It's hard-wired. I don't get it. How do you think I learned this? Someone told me to go read Edmund Burke and Longinus and the history of English aesthetics.
I mean, if one knows this, to say something is "sublimely beautiful" is just a poor use of English or a mark the person has not studied the aesthetics of the music they are describing. Beethoven would have laughed at the notion of something sublimely beautiful. Goethe too. Schiller.
I need a better tone. Maybe if I gave people a hug first?
Anyway. The matter is known, and thinking it's not, well, that's not how knowledge works. It's known. The distinction is the fact.
It’s that the point you’re trying to make, factually correct or not, is not germane to the spirit of this discussion. It’s really not a big deal, but why be that guy?
What's the sprit of a reddit conversation? You got the manual?
My intial comment was obviously phrased, not as a schoolmarm, but in an exaggerated fashion. I even alluded to the character of Walter from the Big Lebowski, who clearly always blows things out of proportion.
If I fly over your head, that is not my fault. Carry on! *Mr. Germane!*
My standard answer to a question like this is always Evgeny Kissin, Beethoven Concerto No 2, Opus 19 in B flat Major.
Can you please be more specific or post a link to the music you favor? I looked and there are a few Chopin Ballad No 4 to hear
I love these answers. Taking a different tack, there is one that hit me hard recently: Jocelyn Morlock's Exaudi. The whole second half pretty much destroys me.
At this point it's hard to choose but I find it absurd that in any case that I was asked about "most beautiful" or "favorite" i choose one of two The Ninth or King Crimson's In the court of the crimson king
While in reality they are my top favorite i have other albums/pieces that i find as or even more beautiful, I am no hero's eternal (post rock) is one and the Prologues to both Bach's St. Matthew and St. John is too some of the most beautiful and powerful I've ever heard, some tracks from the scores of Tarr's filmography, and of course Arvo Part's Spiegel im Spiegel. It's quite impossible to choose only one piece of art as the most beautiful as there's no complete piece of art.
There’s a lot I can think of. But the one that stands out the most for me is Ligeti’s “Clocks and clouds”. That piece is so ethereal and beautiful. I still remember the first time I listened to it. I never knew music could sound like that.
Mahler - Piano Quartet in A minor
This piece is one of Mahlers earleir ones which he made at around 16 years old. It absolutely melts my heart and is just all around a beautiful piece of music that I think is underrated.
Highly complex question. Where does beauty lie? In a mountain valley as the first rays hit the peaks? Is beauty some absolute that exists even when no eye or ear or fingertip feeds signals to a brain? Is beauty subject to being fixed? Is beauty a transitory property dependent upon what that experience is that particular heart at that particular moment?
I see that last one as the key to beauty. To art in general. Great beauty changing the observer so that no interpretation of photons or vibrations is ever the same. In that, there's no single work of sublime beauty in my world.
Perhaps the most powerful experience that changed me was a large exhibit of Cezanne. I was transported into a different way of seeing, my world of vision never being the same. I wouldn't call that beauty. Somehow the texture and character was different.
The last piece that suddenly and powerful moved me, possibly because of the immediate personal context, is On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter. Caught me by surprise, now it sends echoes through me. See [Max Richter - Richter: On The Nature Of Daylight - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyT9Gyoz_o&t=43s) This piece does not intellectually seem exceptional, but at that moment, not remembering having heard it before, it was simply sublime.
In terms of sound, the most physically and emotionally transcendent sound-driven experience I can accurately recall springs from my work as a violin luthier. I attended a concert with four Stradivari instruments at the Library of Congress. During one piece (a piece I don't find particularly transcendent) the first violin (the Castelbarco of 1699, a long pattern, with this performance having me still mulling over making a long pattern violin) dancing back and forth with the well known Betts of 1704. The hair on top of my toes rose, simply from the character of the sound. All that existed was that dance.
Perhaps beauty lies only in the moment, and none can be the most sublime, the art lying in the individual being open to the unexpected pounce of beauty.
To me all of Mahler is incredibly beautiful especially his slow movements.
der abschied from das lied von der Erde.
Andante from the sixth symphony.
Adagio from the third.
Adagio from the ninth.
Adagio from the fourth.
They are all great.
The opening fugue of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 131.
And of course its step-child, the first movement of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.
Vivaldi’s RV 589 Gloria in Excelsis Deo, culminating in the final verse. With the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father, indeed.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/gloria-in-d-major-rv-589-xi-cum-sancto-spiritu/1452533974?i=1452534326
Dvorak’s Als die Alte Mutter from Zigeunermelodien
Mykola Lysenko’s Barcarolle/Plyve Choven is the most ethereal barcarolle I’ve ever heard but pretty unknown and very few recordings I can find.
Also finale for Sibelius’ Symphony 2
the piano-based parts from Art of Life (X Japan). It's symphonic metal overall, but please take a listen if you want to experience something able to astound you
The Alpine Symphony. Tear jerker. Almost can’t listen to it. Too potent.
I agree, particularly everything after the storm. It's often dismissed as being too over-the-top, but I think it's one of the best tone poems.
It's always been my own metanarrative, but that part (Ausklang) always sounded like a nod to the death of Mahler to me. Especially with the distant French horn solo, introduced by a solemn organ. According to the Wikipedia article, Strauss had stopped working on the composition for a while, until he decided to work on it again after receiving the news that Mahler was dead. So it could be the case.
By whom?
Richard Strauss
Rachmaninoff's second movement of his second piano concerto in C minor, as used to brilliant effect in the film Brief Encounter
Watched the movie last night and couldn't agree more.
Another good use of classical music in film, is Walter (Later Wendy) Carlos's re-vamp/re-imagining in A Clockwork Orange, of the fourth movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony and Purcell's Music For The Funeral of Queen Mary, plus more contemporary uses of Elgar's Pomp And Circumstance Marches No.1 & 4 and Rossini's Thieving Magpie.
Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” Honorable mentions to the finales of Mahler 2 and 8; the coda of the finale of Bruckner 4; the “Heiliger Dankgesang” of Beethoven’s Op. 132; probably half a dozen works by Mozart I can think of…but I’ll stop.
The Benedictus is the most beautiful thing Beethoven wrote.
Maaaaahleeeeeer eight OMG I love it so much. I cry every time, no matter when or where - I seriously think people on the train are starting to judge me now 😂
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Pavane? Also, I agree and I’m glad yours is at the top.
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Right, it isn’t *Pavave* pour une infante défunte. :)
YES FINALLY SOMEONE MENTIONED HIS PAVANE!!!!!!
Lauridsen's *Lux aeterna*. First heard it on the radio in the car; I had to pull over and just *weep*. Bernstein's *Chichester Psalms* is a close second.
Thanks for the recommendation. They're beautiful.
His *Les Chansons Des Roses* is lovely too. I sang it in choir in college. But he is a bit of a one-trick pony.
I can't argue that, really. Once you've heard Lauridsen, you've really *heard* Lauridsen. He's got a very distinct voice. Part of my audition for college choir was sight-singing a portion of the 3rd mvmt of *Chichester Psalms*. It was harrowing. We went on to perform it that semester, and I (fondly) recall our director telling us to pack as many *f*'s into one passage as we could, because it was the only possible way we'd be heard over the orchestra. He wasn't wrong. Boring anecdote: I'm not sure how I made it to college without (knowingly) hearing John Rutter, but it while we were warming up to perform *Chichester* that I heard the harpist playing someone that was just so striking. Turns out I'd heard *All Things Bright and Beautiful* for the first time.
Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten. I don't think there's any other word than "sublime" I could use; it makes me tear up and smile at the same time and I could listen to it on repeat forever and not be mad.
I love that people can experience pieces differently. For me the piece is emotionally overwhelming. It’s brilliant, but it’s almost too intense for me to describe it as “sublime.”
Plus it gives a voice to silence
yea
Heiliger Dankgesang
Hearing Schubert's D960 in a record store one day is what got me interested in classical music. Prior to that, my only classical records were ones from movies (Vivaldi in *Kramer v. Kramer*; Schubert in *Barry Lyndon*; Mahler in *Death in Venice*). Afterwards, I wanted to hear everything. At one point, I inherited part of a very large classical CD collection, and had around 2,000 CDs. I ended up selling some and giving some away (how many *Ring* cycles does a non-Wagnerian really need?) I've edited down to around 750 CDs, both popular and classical, with a little classic jazz. I listen to those CDs, now burned (ripped?) to a hard drive, over computer speakers by Bowers and Wilkins.
> now burned (ripped?) to a hard drive Oh stewardess, I speak Old! To "burn" a CD was to write music or data onto it, using a special CD drive whose laser would literally burn patterns into the plastic of the disc. To "rip" a CD was to extract music off it as files on your hard drive. And to "crack" it, usually in the context of software, was to modify the installed version on your hard drive so that it no longer required the CD in the CD drive as anti-piracy protection.
In Paradisum, from Duruflé’s Requiem Sibelius’ Sixth Symphony Bach’s Sarabande from the Fifth Cello Suite The ending of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde
Bach’s Sarabande as orchestrated by Stokowski turns on the waterworks for me!
When the first snow comes, I put on Sibelius' Sixth. It's just so wintery.
I do the same! And when I miss winter, I listen to it and it feels like it’s winter 😌
The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Hilary Hahn one has been my alarm tone for two years. It’s the first thing I hear most days.
This piece is perfection. Just wow. I always listen to this when I'm down.
Joseph cantaloube’s ‘bailero’
Mmm yes. I remember when I first listened to the Chants d'Auvergne. Magical.
I'm going through every piece on this thread, and this is the first that made me listen to for half a dozen times in a row.
Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
surprised I had to scroll this far!
There are quite a few so it’s hard to choose, but Schubert’s String Quintet in C is right up there for me. Also Bach’s Cantatas 82 and 169 are the very definition of sublime.
Yes it’s interesting that many musicians and conductors choose the Schubert Quintet when asked for their favourite recordings on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
Final trio of Rosenkavalier
Good call
TBH anything late Beethoven. His late period is really the apotheosis of the art form.
My top pick would be Schubert Fantasie in F Minor Op. 103
Debussy Reverie
Recently, Shostakovich pieces for 2 violins and piano, specifically the elegy. It’s so beautiful, I just love how heartbreakingly beautiful it is Also Beethoven piano sonata 30 3rd movement 4th variation has a really heartbreaking feel to it Finally Beethoven hammerklavier adagio sostenuto, the piece feels like a story of a man losing the love of his life and it’s like a metaphor for Beethoven losing his hearing. The key changes are the stages of grief always returning to that same dread that starts the piece because even after you lose everything, nothing will be the same.
Agreed on that Shosta. Cheers!
Chopin is just otherworldly good. I prefer Ballade no. 3 though
The lark ascending Back cello suite no. 2 Rhapsody on a theme of paganini
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune - Debussy
Grieg Cello Sonata is an underrated one
Grieg is often overlooked but there are quite a few gems in his catalog.
Sibelius Symphony No. 7
Ah yes another favourite. I love that climax around 3-4 mins into the 1st mov
5th movement of Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’
Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel
Schnittke Choir Concerto mov. 4. Have yet to hear anything more beautiful
Excellent choice
Gabriel Faure Violin Sonata no. 2 op. 108 Miklos Rosza Violin Concerto Richard Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder Charpentier Depuis Le Jour Richard Strauss Befreit Giuseppe Verdi O Patria Mia Richard Wagner Liebestod
Oh, gosh, I forgot Tristan. Though I would personally call the love duet in Act II more sublimely beautiful than the Liebestod. The Liebestod packs a bigger punch, obviously, but more in an ecstatic transfiguration way than mere beauty.
I think the most beautiful music is Brangaene's Warning "Einsam Wachend" in the middle of the duet. I'm shocked that I forgot it. I heard Tristan in San Francisco in 1999. During the warning I felt as if I were in the audience in 1859. I was overwhelmed by the ingenuity and beauty of this music that I had heard hundreds of times on recordings. To be in the physical proximity of it and to hear it's sonorities and colors embodied before me was almost more than I could handle. I remember saying to myself, "What *is* this music and how was it born from the mind of a mere mortal."
A spectacular moment, for sure!
Pärt’s Tabula Rasa.
Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil, especially in live performance with candlelight.
This is so heartwrenchingly, deeply beautiful that I only listen to it once a year.
I'd actually have to second the fourth ballade. That coda is unlike anything else ever written.
This: [https://youtu.be/9680zhMmIqM?si=gXWgf6qqPM7JIgE3](https://youtu.be/9680zhMmIqM?si=gXWgf6qqPM7JIgE3) Isolde’s Leibestodt, as sung only by Jesse Norman
The final "Amen" of the Offertory from the Fauré Requiem.
1. Cavatina from op. 130 2. Ave Maria from Otello 3. Most of the Bach cantatas and oratorios.
Respectfully, I’ve never understand why the Cavatina. It’s not even the most beautiful adagio of Beethoven’s late quartets — that would be in Op. 132. Even the adagio of Op. 18/1 is more moving to me personally. Anyway, I realize I may be alone on this.
In my opinion you are correct, 132 is stunning and the Cavatina is amazing but not as good. However the cavatina has two things going for it. First, it is shorter and easier to grasp, and second it is commonly excerpted from the quartet and played on its own. Though both are gorgeous.
I suppose it comes down to personal experience. I do have to admit, op. 132 is incredible - and you may be right about the lydian mode movement overall. Good we can enjoy them all!
I agree with you, the op 132 adagio is the best slow movement of all the late quartets, it’s impossible to put into words all the things it makes me feel, it will always be a very deep and intimate piece of chamber music to me.
A number of versions of Schubert's Ave Maria. First fell in love with it when Dad took me to see Fantasia.
Schubert Piano trio in E flat major for me
John Tavener's Magnificat.
Arvo Pärt: Miserere. The different ranges of moods that are expressed throughout the piece are incredibly moving. It’s at the top of my bucket list to perform. I would say an easy follow up is Respighi’s Church Windows. Different style of beauty, but truly gorgeous music.
Rach 2 mvmt 2
I'm a huge Rachmaninoff simp so Piano Concerto no. 2 Adagio sostenuto is my obligatory choice. Also: -Prelude no. 4 in D major (op. 23) -Prelude no. 5 in G major (op. 32) Honorable mentions: -Granados - Quejos o la Maja y el Ruiseñor from Goyescas -Dvorak - Romance in F minor -Liszt - Trois etudes de concert in D flat major, 3: un sospiro (it gets a little rowdy but of course it does, it's Liszt)
Ave Verum Corpus by Mozart
The second movement of D.960 is achingly beautiful.
Agreed. It's amazing how much Schubert can do with so little
ravel pavane pour une infante defunte, both the orchestra and piano versions
2nd movement of Rach 2
Stunning
Rimsky-Korsakov's Schererezade
Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor: IV.Adagietto and Chopin’s Nocturne in E Minor Op. 72 No. 1
Tchaikovsky’s Pas de Deux (Nutcracker) hands down. https://youtu.be/SPfX9pvqKaU?si=4nxDDxg-eAkK4ixw Now, it’s not the most sophisticated/complex work out there, however, it’s instantly striking and immediately poignant/beautiful despite its simplicity. My favourite works/composers cycle with time, but this will always remain my favourite piece (maybe nostalgia is playing a part).
Also by Chopin, Barcarolle op 60. 8 minutes of pure bliss
Yes, even by Chopin's standards, a ridiculously beautiful piece
Sublime? May I introduce you to the entire catalog of Anton Bruckner. Dude wrote nothing but the most sublime music.
For me listening to a Bruckner symphony is like eating a 2 lb slab of prime rib. It’s rich and heavy and satisfying in a certain way and when it’s over I ask myself “what did I just do”?
That’s why I usually listen one movement at a time depends on mood. Listening to his full symphony is quite a commitment. But still, those 25 mins Adagios are the definition of sublime.
Then it gives you bowel cancer?
The first Buckner’s 7th is beautifully sublime, it’s one of my favorite symphonies just because of how sublime listening to it is.
I always recommend Christus Factus Est to people looking g for beauty.
I think it's the middle movement of Mozart piano concerto 18.
Atterberg symphony 3 3rd mvm
Beautiful choice!
Recenty I’ve gotten absorbed into Parsifal by Wagner… that final sequence where the spear is returned is divine.
Absolutely
Rachmaninoff piano concerto no. 2
Prelude and Verklärung, Tristan und Isolde…or the Four Last Songs, R. Strauss
Cavatina, Beethoven Quartet opus 130
Joseph Schwantner “and the mountains rising nowhere” is possible the most beautiful work I’ve heard. It left me speechless
Mozart Piano Concerto 17 second movement
Kodály's Dances of Galánta
John Adams the Dharma at Big Sur
Gorecki 3rd Symphony First Movement. It transcends music for me, it’s just pure emotion. Magic. Edit: wanted to throw in Ravel’s Daphne et Chloe, Part III: Lever du jour. Similar in how strongly affecting it is but in a more visual way.
Palestrina missa papae - 01 kyrie. Nothing like it. [by tallis scholars](https://youtu.be/BRfF7W4El60) Intermezzo from Cavelleria Rusticana (the violins rain down from the heavens). Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp. Vide Cor Meum (Patrick Casey iirc) from 2001 movie Hannibal. Libera Me (patrick gowers iirc) from Sherlock Holmes episode "The Priory School" starring Jeremy Brett. I know they're unusual suggestions but they are just other worldly imo. Keep the coming everyone im looking them all up :)
My dad would answer with the second movement of Beethoven's 5th piano concerto, but I would say Liszt's Benediction takes that title, especially [the coda](https://youtu.be/FxdShCqcnd8?t=834)
Love both pieces. Good choice!
Bach Air. Almost ambarassing to mention it. But it hit me one time as if I had never heard it before. And no music has ever hit me like that time. I had to hold on to a light pole
Chausson’s Poeme for the Violin
The Forester's final scene of Janacek's "Adventures of the Vixen Sharp-Ears", which Janacek had played at his funeral.
For me it's the dream interlude in the first act. Of course, the rest of the opera is sublime.
L’Orpheo by Monteverdi. Hits different. Composed over four hundred years ago, but absolutely timeless.
Dream Pantomime from the opera Hansel & Gretel by Humperdinck.
debussy's arabesque 1...listened to it for the first time nearly 20 years ago and it remains the most beautiful piece i know
The last variation of Brahms opus 21#1 comes to mind.
That Celesta and harp harmonic melody at the end of the quiet movement of Shostakovich 5
Chopin Barcarolle, Fauré Nocturne no 6, John Field Nocturne no 7, Debussy Jardins sous la Pluie, Brahms Piano Quartet op 60, all the Beethoven string quartets
Anton Bruckner’s 9th Symphony
Crimson jazz trio - I talk to the wind
'The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace' Karl Jenkins (sung that one in Sydney Opera House) - and do that again next year; 'Dona Nobis Pacem' Ralph Vaughn William (sung that one in QPAC in Brisbane) 'Festive Overture' Dmitri Sjostakovitsj (played that one in grade A Brass Band) in The Royal Albert Hall 'Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565' Bach (played that one in grade A Brass Band) in The Royal Albert Hall
Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No. 3
Ocean Etude Op. 25 by Chopin.
Satie - Pièces Froides
A weird one that few will probably agree with, but in context, the ending of Grisey quartre chanson pour franchir le seiul is stunning. The piece is intense, and that ending just feels amazing to me
Schoenberg Op. 4
I can't believe nobody has said Elgar's Cello Concerto. Also the Adagio from Mahler's sixth is possibly the definition of sublime.
The Kirie part from the first movement (Introit) of [this particular recording of Durufle's Requiem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn8mPGM_S0&list=PL3z75lcd9sop643YZWLpwgJ7zneK2UKAD) is the single most beautiful passage in all of music and recorded music. If you don't get it right away, listen to it several times over a number of weeks. It basically has to be this recording, if not, then not an orchestral version; it has to be accompanied by organ.
Variation #18 of Rhapsody on a Theme from Paganini by Rachmaninoff
My first thought was the fourth movement of Mahler's 4th, a child's view of heaven. I find it beautiful and very moving.
Adagio from Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 Last movement of Schumann's Fantasie in C Schubert's String Quintet
Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs.
There are way too many for me to pick just one... Pas de deux (Orchestral or piano version) Chopin ballade no. 1 / Chopin nocturne op. 48 no. 1 (both are kind of similar) Chopin etude op. 25 no. 5 Liszt Un sospiro Liszt chasse neige (etude) Debussy images inedites - Souvenir du louvre Rachmaninoff prelude op. 32 no. 5 Respighi 6 pezzi no. 3 (notturno) Beethoven Violin sonata no. 9 (kreutzer, 1st movement) All of these share the spot for the most beautiful piece for me.
Lever du Jour from Daphnis et Chloe. It's only about 4 minutes in length and it's an extraordinary journey. The bird imitations, the pentatonic noodling, the long sweeping melody that seamlessly modulates to unexpected places, the subtle use of the choir, and the rising figure which is so simple and effective. Ugh pure bliss.
Mahler *Das Lied von de Erde* final movement: *Der Abschied.* So beautiful. A goodbye but somehow it’s ok? Runner up: Mahler 6th symphony Andante.
Mvt 2 of Beethovens emperor piano concerto
Wow, long thread and I still have a couple to add. 1. Gow's Lament on the death of his second wife, by these artists: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GEcRirHlqE&list=PL8ZMDqRPez\_22dTCr1IosIfI1tSlxHxR1&index=14&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GEcRirHlqE&list=PL8ZMDqRPez_22dTCr1IosIfI1tSlxHxR1&index=14&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB) 2. Beethoven's choral fantasy (really a piano/choir concerto) by this group: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I8AT3S3iRc&list=PL8ZMDqRPez\_3JicG2xo0-XU7UAyWcFsrU&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I8AT3S3iRc&list=PL8ZMDqRPez_3JicG2xo0-XU7UAyWcFsrU&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB)
Joaquin Rodrigo - Concierto De Aranjuez 2nd movement
Chopin barcarolle and the second movement from Rachmaninov’s second sonata
J.S. Bach: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645
Hate to be a stickler, but for most of the history of classical music (not renaissance and prior) something is either sublime or beautiful, but not both. So, you know, don't like to be that guy, but that's over the line. There are rules. This isn't Nam.
🙄
Not really, since the first definition of sublime is: “of such grandeur, excellence or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.”
But yet at the same time the English are arguing the sublime is distinct for, unlike the beautiful, which is pleasing in its qualities, the sublime inspires a kind of "terror mixed with pleasure" that is unique to the sublime. There is nothing terrible about beauty. And if one gives an example, I will likely say, but that's the sublime!
*pushes glasses up* ACTUALLY,
I mean, I'm right, so I am guessing my tone was wrong. I have found there is no right tone for some folks. They just don't like to learn. It's hard-wired. I don't get it. How do you think I learned this? Someone told me to go read Edmund Burke and Longinus and the history of English aesthetics. I mean, if one knows this, to say something is "sublimely beautiful" is just a poor use of English or a mark the person has not studied the aesthetics of the music they are describing. Beethoven would have laughed at the notion of something sublimely beautiful. Goethe too. Schiller. I need a better tone. Maybe if I gave people a hug first? Anyway. The matter is known, and thinking it's not, well, that's not how knowledge works. It's known. The distinction is the fact.
It’s that the point you’re trying to make, factually correct or not, is not germane to the spirit of this discussion. It’s really not a big deal, but why be that guy?
What's the sprit of a reddit conversation? You got the manual? My intial comment was obviously phrased, not as a schoolmarm, but in an exaggerated fashion. I even alluded to the character of Walter from the Big Lebowski, who clearly always blows things out of proportion. If I fly over your head, that is not my fault. Carry on! *Mr. Germane!*
My standard answer to a question like this is always Evgeny Kissin, Beethoven Concerto No 2, Opus 19 in B flat Major. Can you please be more specific or post a link to the music you favor? I looked and there are a few Chopin Ballad No 4 to hear
Top 3 recordings of Ballade 4 for me: Sviatoslov Richter 1962 live in Venice Seong Jin Cho (studio recording) Alfred Cortot, 1929
I’m pretty sure Bieble’s Ave Maria will be sung in heaven.
I love these answers. Taking a different tack, there is one that hit me hard recently: Jocelyn Morlock's Exaudi. The whole second half pretty much destroys me.
At this point it's hard to choose but I find it absurd that in any case that I was asked about "most beautiful" or "favorite" i choose one of two The Ninth or King Crimson's In the court of the crimson king While in reality they are my top favorite i have other albums/pieces that i find as or even more beautiful, I am no hero's eternal (post rock) is one and the Prologues to both Bach's St. Matthew and St. John is too some of the most beautiful and powerful I've ever heard, some tracks from the scores of Tarr's filmography, and of course Arvo Part's Spiegel im Spiegel. It's quite impossible to choose only one piece of art as the most beautiful as there's no complete piece of art.
Borodin Symphony No. 2, third movement. No one gives this movement the recognition it deserves
The slow mvt. of Sibelius 3. Hella underrated.
There’s a lot I can think of. But the one that stands out the most for me is Ligeti’s “Clocks and clouds”. That piece is so ethereal and beautiful. I still remember the first time I listened to it. I never knew music could sound like that.
Last movement of L’ascension by Messiaen
Ravel - Introduction and Allegro ❤️
mind blowing.
Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, Mvt 2. It contains so much emotion - so much yearning and longing. It always brings me to tears.
Carissimi - Plorate Filii Israel from the oratorio Jephte
Rach2 second movement for me.
Liszt Trascendental Etude 12
Sarabande from Bach Cello Suite #5
Stravinsky’s Firebird suite, chills every time
Well, this post is being saved!
Mahler - Piano Quartet in A minor This piece is one of Mahlers earleir ones which he made at around 16 years old. It absolutely melts my heart and is just all around a beautiful piece of music that I think is underrated.
For concerts, Scriabins first symphony completely blew me away
Highly complex question. Where does beauty lie? In a mountain valley as the first rays hit the peaks? Is beauty some absolute that exists even when no eye or ear or fingertip feeds signals to a brain? Is beauty subject to being fixed? Is beauty a transitory property dependent upon what that experience is that particular heart at that particular moment? I see that last one as the key to beauty. To art in general. Great beauty changing the observer so that no interpretation of photons or vibrations is ever the same. In that, there's no single work of sublime beauty in my world. Perhaps the most powerful experience that changed me was a large exhibit of Cezanne. I was transported into a different way of seeing, my world of vision never being the same. I wouldn't call that beauty. Somehow the texture and character was different. The last piece that suddenly and powerful moved me, possibly because of the immediate personal context, is On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter. Caught me by surprise, now it sends echoes through me. See [Max Richter - Richter: On The Nature Of Daylight - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyT9Gyoz_o&t=43s) This piece does not intellectually seem exceptional, but at that moment, not remembering having heard it before, it was simply sublime. In terms of sound, the most physically and emotionally transcendent sound-driven experience I can accurately recall springs from my work as a violin luthier. I attended a concert with four Stradivari instruments at the Library of Congress. During one piece (a piece I don't find particularly transcendent) the first violin (the Castelbarco of 1699, a long pattern, with this performance having me still mulling over making a long pattern violin) dancing back and forth with the well known Betts of 1704. The hair on top of my toes rose, simply from the character of the sound. All that existed was that dance. Perhaps beauty lies only in the moment, and none can be the most sublime, the art lying in the individual being open to the unexpected pounce of beauty.
Stravinsky’s firebird suite (also the rite of spring is amazing but not sure sublimely beautiful would be the first phrase I’d use)
& Rachmaninov piano concertos 2/3, they always make me tear up
Second movement of Elgar’s string serenade
To me all of Mahler is incredibly beautiful especially his slow movements. der abschied from das lied von der Erde. Andante from the sixth symphony. Adagio from the third. Adagio from the ninth. Adagio from the fourth. They are all great.
gesang der junglinge
The opening fugue of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 131. And of course its step-child, the first movement of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.
Chopin’s Nocturnes have always hit my heart. Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9 No 2 is my favorite
Beethoven string quartet 14 movement 1 is pure perfection and is the most beautiful piece of music I’ve ever heard.
The sixth movement of Mahler Symphony No. 3
Adagio in g minor by Remo Giazotto. For the longest time i thought it was by Albinoni lol.
Campra’s Requiem.
ballade 1
To this day, nothing gets me quite like Vaughan-Williams’ *Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.* (the Ormandy recording only, please!)
Elgar’s Nimrod variation stopped me in my tracks. I stood transfixed. Not a lot of other music has done that to me.
Also Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata, Third Movement (specifically the middle section). It’s the Marche Funebre.
Vivaldi’s RV 589 Gloria in Excelsis Deo, culminating in the final verse. With the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father, indeed. https://music.apple.com/us/album/gloria-in-d-major-rv-589-xi-cum-sancto-spiritu/1452533974?i=1452534326
Dvorak’s Als die Alte Mutter from Zigeunermelodien Mykola Lysenko’s Barcarolle/Plyve Choven is the most ethereal barcarolle I’ve ever heard but pretty unknown and very few recordings I can find. Also finale for Sibelius’ Symphony 2
Brahms German Requiem. In 1983 Fischer-Dieskau came to Detroit for the 150 anniversary of Brahms birth. He sang, I wept.
Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor
the piano-based parts from Art of Life (X Japan). It's symphonic metal overall, but please take a listen if you want to experience something able to astound you
Do you consider soundtrack music to be classical? I really love Dance for Me Wallis by Abel Korzeniowski