Most achingly-beautiful music


Ultimately, we listen to music to be moved, for example, to be elated, exulted, calmed or pained. Which are the 3 most affecting pieces of music do you find the most affecting?
hungryear
I don't think any of these have been mentioned.

1-Beethoven "HammerKlavier" Sonata op.106 (slow movement)
The words "achingly beautiful" were invented for this piece.
The approximately 90 seconds in the middle of the piece where the main theme transforms into an almost whispered refrain is the most orgasmic 90 seconds I have ever experience,listening to music that is:)

2-Beethoven Quartet opus 131.
The middle child or the brilliant "late quartets". Unlike the Hammerklavier, this one has to be experienced in its entirety. Unfathomably beautiful.

3-Jeff Buckley's cover of Len Cohen's "Hallelujah"
It's rare, but pop music can occasionally achieve "achingly beautiful" status. I feel like a selfish bastard always wishing he had not left us, just so he could make more music that touches the soul.
Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos No. 2 & 3; Horacio Guttierez/Lorin Maazel on telarc --
IMHO, the ULTIMATE recording of the ULTIMATE composition.
Ravel and Prokofiev. has anyone mentioned these geniuses? Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe and Piano Concertos demand great equipment. huge dynamic range. Prokofiev's romeo & juliet, piano concertos 1,2, and 3, and violin concerto no. 2 are essentials. Especially listen for the excellent contrast at the beginning of Romeo & Juliet montagues & capulets theme! (before the famous lumbering melody strikes) A true test of concert hall aptitude.
Oh boy, music which I cannot perform without a good ,long period of desensitization to get my emotions under control.Also, have any of you noticed that the emotional impact seems to increase as we get older? The Allegri "Misereri", the Brahms motets, in particular, "Warum?" and "Las Dichts Nur nichts nicht dauren" but all of them are great The J.S. Bach motets also persist in blowing me away after 30 years of exposure.