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
Hello,

I love this thread. However, all I ever listen to is achingly-beautiful music. So, I'm going to list 12 but from a vast array of music types.

1. Bartok--Piano Concerto in F (#2). Gena Anda/DG or the Janodo/Naxos verions. Listen to the 2nd movement (Adagio-Presto-Adagio). That introductory string phrase just kills me inside. I have 3 versions of that work and looking for more. Man should never be able to transverse emotion that effortlessly.

2.Wagner--Tristan und Isolde. On vinyl, find the Decca/London with the VPO under Solti; on CD, find the DG Originals with Karl Bohm and the Berlin. In particular, I like Act 3 from the prelude to the last part of the eternal aria 'Isoldeā€™s Liebestod'. Very heart-moving music.

3. Bill Evans-With Symphony Orchestra. Here is the master of impressionistic jazz with a full orchestra playing Bach, Granados, Scraibin, and more. I have a affinity to his piece "Time Remembered" and this version is a tear-trampler.

4. Miles Davis--Kind of Blue. Here, I'm refering to the Bill Evans composition Some Other Time (Flamenco Sketches). The music sublime with an atmosphere of peace and tranquility.

5.Beethoven--Missa Solemnis (Santus, Benediction, Agnus Dei). At a time when Beethoven was deeply in the trenches of defeat, this piece came about. You really feel the sorrow and the 'giving up' he felt at that time. It's 40 minutes of a 90+ minute question to God: Why me?

6. Milt Jackon--Reverence and Compassion (Here's to A Rainy Day). Such emotion! Such a coherence of harmony. Remarkable temperance of the vibraphone.

7.Bill Evans-Symbiosis (MPS). Just beautiful.

8.Keith Jarrett--The Koln Concert (Part 2a)...the last 6 mintues of this piece build to this heartbreaking climax, as of the end is never fully resolved.

9.Bach-Christ lag in totesbonden (christ lies in death's arms). This piece will grab you with sorrow Johann intended to put into it.

10.Miles Davis--Iris and Mood (from E.S.P.). Just listen...trust me!

11.Hindemith--Piano Sonata #1. Listen to the third movement, Lebhaft. It's so emotion....typical Hindemtih.

12. Diana Krall--The Girl in the Other Room. Listen to Almost Blue's prelude. Sounds very simlar to #11.

Marty
Christmas around 2000 or so I heard a girl sing that I do not even know if I have her name correct but I think it was Denice Graves. she sang a song that I am not sure the name of either, I think it was "Come back Mary and Follow" that left three men literaly in tears each trying to hide it from the other and two were defensive lineman for the Auburn Tigers. I am unfamiliar with this singer, but I am sure others know her well as she sang at the memorial for thee World Trade Center I think it was. My point being she has a voice that is as gifted as as any music, that can be produced by any instument on earth, by any person.
It always brings tears to my eyes when my father sang to us when we were young then " One day, when we were young one wonderful morning in May; you told me you love me, one day when we were young........ Sadly missed my father who passed away 8 years ago
Michael Ko
Also, Morning Mood from Peer Gynt Suite No1, and Solvejg's Song from Suite No.2. And "Meditation" from"Thais" by Jules Massenet.
John Dean