Evening Classical Music; listening for relaxation

IMO the Romantic and Impressionistic periods are good for that. Debussy sure puts me to sleep ;-).

Beethoven, Symphony no. 9, movement III: Adagio molto e cantabile

Ravel, Pavane pour une infante defunte (see if you can find the Julian Bream/John Williams duo guitar version, but piano or orchestral versions are great as well)

#1 for me is Bach Cello Suites. In digital the Casals Hi-rez is nice, in vinyl I love the much heralded Starker box (3LPs) reissue. Cheers,
Spencer

Mieczyslaw Horszowski: Piano Sonatas

A 90-year old Horszowski plays Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven piano solos beautifully. It is also very well recorded.

Thanks guys. Tostadounidos I love guitar and like both Bream & Williams so I know I'll enjoy that and the Beethoven-and you have reminded me how much I like much of his work for smaller ensembles. I find many of them give no clue as to his more intense side but are intellectually and musically very interesting. Thanks Sbank,Bach is beautiful and I'll look for those. Thanks Bdp, I agree with you about Debussy particularly and the artwork his albums is often of dreamy setting, I'm thinking Monet among others. I'm hoping to get more input on specific pieces and albums that I can look up. Best wishes

Solo piano music by Ivan Moravec, one of our finest pianists, should be right up you alley. He is woefully under recorded but what he did was really wonderful. For starters I'd suggest:

Beethoven piano sonatas (Appassionata, Pathetique, Moonlight, and Les Adieux. (VIA Audio)

Moravec plays Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms (VIA Audio)

Chopin Nocturnes (Electra Nonesuch) This is outstanding!
These pieces have been reissued by various labels and they can be found of different ones simutaniously. For more 'modern' flavor I really enjoy the complete works by Louis Lortie on Chandos.

And, for some of the finest Debussy an old set by Paul Jacobs on Electra Nonsuch. The recordings/playing is very atmospheric or dreamy. At a minimum you should hear his Preludes. For the same pieces (an a few more) in a more modern presentation I highly recommend the complete works (on 5 CD's) by Jean Efflam Bavouzet on Chandos.

I really enjoy casual listen to solo piano music when the recording is a is a program (as you would experience live) of various composers music. Of some more recent acquisitions I can recommend:

Benjamin Grosvenor - Chopin Liszt Ravel (Decca)
Michael Sheppard - Rogers/Hough, Barber et al) (Harmonia M)
Sebastian Knauer - Bernstein, Barber, Copland (Berlin Classic)
Jenny Lin - Get Happy - (Steinway)
Lara Downes - Exiles Cafe (Steinway)
Antonio Pompa-Baldi - The Rascals and the Sparrow (Steinway)
Sean Chen - La Valse (Steinway)
Jeffery Biegel - A Grand Romance (Steinway)

Hope you might find a few of these as enjoyable as I do.

Bach's "Air on a G-string." A beautiful piece of music if there ever was one.

Svaitoslav Richter is my favorite for any relaxation time.....

Reveries by Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra (Reference Recordings). Simply beautiful.

In addition to the ones mentioned above (I especially like Moravec), Nimbus Records made a few sampler discs such as Meditations at Sunset, as well as ones for a quiet evening and morning, which are very relaxing, if you can find them, They include a good deal of quiet English music, good for meditation.

Thanks for the posts friends : )   Interesting comment on meditation. I find meditation has been surprisingly effective for me in recent years and am interested in music that leans toward it. 

I recently saw a video of Ringo Starr and David Lynch together discussing TM, both of them proponents of the practice.

I have always enjoyed the PBS special this time of year from the Vienna House Holiday Concert!

This title while not necessarily Classical is one of my favorites for winding down, meditation and therapeutic massage. Ms Joy has me quite smitten.
http://bluecoastrecords.downloadsnow.net/fiona-joy-signature-solo

Enjoy!

Clair de lune. Rca living stereo

If you subscribe to the Idagio or Primephonic classical streaming services, they have curated playlists that give you a great sampling of music and composers that you may never have heard of for all different moods, including relaxation and meditation.  Highly recommended.