What is currently your favorite piece of music?

The sonatina is a pretty piece of music but I find it to be rather.... shallow as far as Ravel's output goes. Pretty music but gets tiring fast. Try his Ondine.

My favorite movement of Gaspard de la Nuit is actually Le Gibet, but I'm generally in the minority there.

I would advise that fans of Griffes check out his Three Tone Pictures for Piano:

Art of the States: Three Tone Pictures, op. 5

My favorite movement of Gaspard de la Nuit is actually Le Gibet, but I'm generally in the minority there.

I would advise that fans of Griffes check out his Three Tone Pictures for Piano:

Art of the States: Three Tone Pictures, op. 5

Le Gibet doesn't do much for me actually. I dunno why. It just strikes me as a less interesting version of "The Lonely Bird" from the Miroirs suite. My favorite movement is actually Scarbo though. It's just hard to find a decent interpretation. Even Argerich's interpretation is a little spotty in places.

As for Griffes, I just don't know about him. Some of the time I think he was brilliant, other times, he just sounds like a more dissonant and much less interesting Debussy. Still an under-rated composer either way though.

Perlemuter's Le Gibet is pretty good:

II. Le Gibet by Ravel

I think the biggest problems with many interpretations of Le Gibet is that they're either too fast to begin with, or they vary the tempo too much.

Omgwtflolol no wai!!!! He said Griffess!

Wow, such an under-rated composer. I'm not too much a fan of his White PEacock actually (but the last time I listened to it was when Scriabin's sonatas still sounded like dissonant white noise to me so many I should take another listen :whistling:) However, I do love his poem for flute and orchestra and his Fountains of the Acqua Paola.

Yeah, pretty much any impressionist is my homeboy, and I quite agree that's he's uber-underated. I think it's because his style differs a bit - it kinda vascillates between German late-Romanticism (like his Piano Sonata, kinda thick and chromatic) and French Impressionism (like the White Peacock or the Pleasure Dome).

But, still, he's my homeboy. :D lol.

Currently, it's Mozart's 4th violin concerto

Second movement of Brahms' Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major. GORGEOUS. And I really love the use of parallel minor for this movement.

^YES. I completely agree.

The third movement is very "meh" for me, though. I really like the fourth movement of his first clarinet/viola sonata.

Garbel's Por Una Cabeza, the arrangement by Williams with Perlman more specifically.

Der Freischutz by Weber.. we played it at all state and i fell in love with it

I've recently fallen in love with music for solo strings again. Favorites:

Ysaye: Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1, Mvmt. 2, "Fugato"

Bloch: Unfinished Suite for Solo Viola

Bach: Sonatas for Solo Violin No. 1 and 3

Reger: Three Suites for Solo Viola

Kodaly: Sonata for Solo Cello

Cassado: Suite for Solo Cello

Sch

Poulenc Piano Concerto, Ravel Piano Concerto, Debussy String Quartet! (part. 3rd mov.)

Recently I've warmed up to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder a lot, hehe. A piece by Luigi Nono called Il Canto Sospeso has also become one of my favorites.

Pachelbel's Canon! . . . .

Just kidding. My last favorite piece of music was Ravel's String Quartet. I haven't really had any favored pieces recently.

"No one else",

Have you heard the Debussy string quartet? :O

That is possibly my all time favorite along side the Firebird Suite.

The "Assez vif et Bien Rythm" or Second movement... OMG!

lol

That is my vote at the moment.

I enjoy Ravel's String Quartet more as a whole than Debussy's. The fourth movement is one of the most intense emotional experiences I've ever heard for a string quartet. When the theme from the first movement is being stated once again and the entire piece just builds to that one final tremolo note...sends shivers down my spine. Pity Ravel didn't just end the piece right there.

Currently? Hmmm, that's a tough one...as of now I'd have to put my favorite piece as Symphony No. 2 "Romantic" by Howard Hanson. The way the melodies and orchestral textures flow in and out of the various movements still amazes me, and the raw emotional content of the score is very powerful; no wonder John Williams based (and I use that term loosely) his "Adventures on Earth" from E.T. on the final movement of this symphony.

But, then again, tastes change, favorites come and go...and I've been on a real Philip Glass kick lately. Rescore of the 1933 Dracula, anyone? Check it out.

K, these are my top four...Currently, Mozart String Quartet "Dissonance"(if I had to pick a number 1), and Gustav Holst's "The Perfect Fool" ballet music. Appalachian Spring, all of it, especially that one early fast part-Copland. I also remembered how much I love "music of the night", from Phantom of the Opera-Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I'm not sure if it counts. Those are my official top for the time being.

Below are all the other classical beloved's I can think of that are very very incredible to me right now. Tell me if you totally identify!

Fanfare for the Common Man-Copland...amazing. Pastorale Symphony, the famous part...amazing, plus the "Emporer Concerto" and "8th symphony"-Beethoven. This one wind orchestra piece by Mozart, his 29th, 25th, all movements of the 40th, the 41st symphonies. Mozart in general. The first movement of the "Clock Symphony", its less well known, but very exciting-Haydn. Water Music Suite-Handel. The 5th and 6th part of the rite of spring-Stravinsky. Saines Saines-"Fossiles" and opening to carnival of the animals, and the elephant. Swan Lake Overature and anything from the Nutcracker. Every part of the New World Symphony is interesting-it used to bore me a bit, but its a keeper-Dvorak. Haha, Le Piccadilly-Erik Satie, and Golliwog's Cakewalk-Debussy. Overature to Die Fledermaus-Johann Strauss II. Barber of Seville Overature-Rossini. The theme from the startrek movie, "The Wrath of Khan, its awesome trust me, not by Jerry Goldsmith, some other guy. Gnossienes no. 5, 6 and 7-Erik Satie. French Suites-J.S. Bach. Rhapsody in Blue-Gershwin. As long as I have Gnossienes, why not Moonlight Sonata-Beethoven, all movements, especially the last, and Debussy's Arabesque, orchestra versions of Claire de Lune. Maple Leaf Rag, Elite Syncopations-Scott Joplin. All of the Planets, especially Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Uranus-Holst. Suite Pastorale, Overature to Gwendoline-Emmanuel Chabrier.

If I keep going, my list is going to start including more and more, my filter getting looser and looser, I know there's plenty I forgot that will seem just as deserving...

Franck Violin Sonata

Hindemith Bassoon Sonata, Mvmt. 1, Viola Sonata 1939 Mvmt. 1 and 4, Piano Sonata No. 3

Xenakis "Keqrops"

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 Mvmt. 2

Bloch String Quartet No. 2

Szymanowski's Mythes "La Fontaine d'Arethuse"

Bach Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin, Prelude and Fugue in C minor from WTC I, Brandenburg Concertos 1 and 6

All of Hindemith's duo sonatas, basically...

*blah blah blah*

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 Mvmt. 2

*blah blah blah*

:w00t: !!!!!

Tsiolkovsky's 6th symphony. I've been obsessed with it for i don't know how long now.

Jees' guys, is it allowed to post some music as your favorite that is composed by guys that aren't long dead? :D

I'll try anyway, Hans Zimmer Pirates of the Caribbean OST.

currently: "Till Eulenspiegel's Lustige Spass", Strauss.

Love that D Clarinet part, too bad the instrument basically doesn't exist. :(

Love that D Clarinet part, too bad the instrument basically doesn't exist. :(

Hmmm, what do they play it on, then? Eb? C?

The C Clarinet is nearly as rare. Almost all D Clarinet parts are played on the Eb Clarinet.