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
good suggestions Boa2.
and im all for jamie cullum. his cover of "high and dry" is fantastic but he totally ruined "Lover you shouldve come over"
Dvorak New World, Moody Blue Nights in White Satan (or practically any other Moody Blues), Saint-Saens Sym 3 Organ.
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Dvorak Romance for Violin and Orchestra (Anne Akiko Meyers playing violin)
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Ralph Vaughan Williams, "The Lark Ascending" - romance for violin and Orchestra (Anne Akiko Meyers).
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Both pieces are on an out of print CD that has Anne Akiko Meyers playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, both pieces above and Massenet's Meditation.
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This is just a gorgeous, gorgeous CD that is worth looking for on eBay. Anne’s playing is just heavenly and the music is to die for.
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Rgds,
Larry
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I too like Anne Akiko's playing - I went to school with her - and she was as nice as beautiful even then. I play the cello - do you play also?

Her playing is different from the usual New-York style of Isaac Stern group - softer and sentimental in approach. Pleasure to find a musician who will follow a different drumer - we enjoy variety this way.

I love the sound of David Oistrach's violin - so rich and deep - pierces my heart and not just my ears on a good system.
I had to revive this again - Samual Barber Adagio

Also its the main theme to the movie Platoon. Just beatiful
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Gonglee3,
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I picked the moniker "Cello" due to my love of the instrument. Unfortunately, I don't play. I have dabbled in several instruments, but never the Cello or Violin.
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I also have a great passion for the Violin and Viola as well.
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Anne is one of my favorite Violinists. I have quite a few of David Oistrak's LPs. I also love and collect Henryk Szeryng's LP's. Some of his recordings are just incredible.
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Rgds,
Larry
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1) Richard Strauss, Last Four Songs (Vier letzte Lieder) sung by Lucia Popp, on Sony with Thomas conducting LSO: play it late at night, and if you cannot get that recording don't bother. 2) Nathan Milstein's Bach Solo Sonatas/Partitas. 3)Quan Zhou and Edmund Battersby playing Romance in F minor, op. 11, on Dvorak: Music for Violin and Piano, Vol 1, on Naxos. 4) Josef Suk and Julius Katchen (and only them) playing the Brahms Violin Sonatas.
geez Slappy,i got a good laugh on that one ,ive pictured the same thing!with me its more like sitting in the sweet spot drooling when i play Sade!i get visuals when i listen to her,
Lisa Gerrard - Duality
Pergolesi - Stabat Mater, Decca, Scholl and Bonney
Ella Fitzerald - Jazz 'Round Midnight' - Polygram
id say the swan theme from swan lake there is so many from tchikovsky i dont know where to begin also 2nd movement from the 5th synphony some rachmaninov and also vaunhn williams 5th synphony
- Tsai Chin singing "Mindlessly Waiting" from her "Old Songs" album in Mandarin Chinese.
- Evgeny Kissin playing Chopin's Fantaisie in F Minor.
- Jacintha singing "Autumn Leaves".
- Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
- Rurouni Kenshin OVA soundtrack "In Memories 'A Boy Meets a Man'".
I'm not a classical type of guy (so, sue me!), but David Bowie's "Heroes" always brings tears to my eyes. One of the most hauntingly beautiful pop/rock songs I've ever heard.
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 'Isolde’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
Barber's "Adagio for Strings", Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up", Moody Blue's "Driftwood", and sorry for one extra, but Steeleye Span's "Gaudete".
1.Epitaph/King crimson(music and words in a perfect harmony)
2.Michal Nyman/Miserie(no words)soundtracks from a Greenway's movie Cook,thief,wife and lover
3.Traktory/Plastic people of the universe(primitive song of pain from living in Orwell's world)
4.Sunday Morning/Velvet Underground(innocent start of velvet revolution)
Last night, I popped in a newly purchased nearly mint LP (Goodwill, .99 on sale for .49). The LP was Beethoven: Konzert fur Violine und Orchester D-dur op. 61'. Christian Ferras violin, and the Berlin Philharmonic with Herbert von Karajan conducting. DG Records (German press).

It the finest classical music I've (newly)heard in 25 years. I'm still buzzing ten hours later.
...makes me want to cry. Also, Sade's "Pearls" - if you've got a kid, it breaks your heart. I'm getting teary just thinking about it.
Oops, invisible subject line. Once again:

George Winston's "Thanksgiving" makes me want to cry. Also, Sade's "Pearls" - if you've got a kit, it breaks your heart. I'm getting teary just thinking about it.
Cat Stevens "Lisa Lisa" and CSNY "Country Girl". To me, both are "achingly beautiful" and both impart a mysterious sense of yearning.
Jonell Mosser "Do You Love Me" and October Project "Return to Me". Two songs by women with absolutely beautiful voices.
Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" or Sakamoto's soundtrack from the movie "The Last Emporer"
Sacred: Sanctus from Charles Gunod's Mass in Honor of St. Cecilia as sung by Kiri Te Kanawa in her Ave Maria Album; Ave Maria, by Franz Schubert by numerous artists and orchestras; Gunod's Mass for St. Cecilia (in its entirety) Just as I am, buried in the Hymns Triumphant album, by the London Philharmonic Choir; Berlioz's Te Deum.

Secular: (Clasical) Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly, but only the version by the Bavarian Radio Chorus from the CD: The Only Choral CD you'll ever need; Joshua Bell's violin version of Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro from his Romance of the Violin CD; Any version of Claude DeBussy's Claire de Lune; the stupendous choral movement from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; Issac Albeniz's Asturias, by John Williams in his Greatest Hits CD.

Secular: (Traditional and Country)Barbara Allen as sung by Emmy Rossum on the Songcatcher CD from the movie of the same name; Will the Circle be Unbroken, by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Gonna Find Me a Bluebird, by Marvin Rainwater; Your Cheatin' Heart by Hank Williams; Young Love by Sonny James; Red River Valley; Battle Hymn of the Republic by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Secular: (Pop and Rock) Goodnight Irene by the Weavers; Oh My Papa by Eddie Fisher; The Third Man theme, by Guy Lombardo, but especially the version by Anton Karas from the movie of the same name; The Wayward Wind, by Gogi Grant; The Poor People of Paris, by Les Baxter; So Rare by Jimmy Dorsey; Theme from A Summer Place by Percy Faith; I Will Follow Him by Little Peggy March; Only the Lonely and Running Scared by Roy Orbison; It Doesn't Matter Anymore by Linda Ronstadt, Please Come to Boston-- Harry Chapin or Joan Baez do a great job; El Condor Pasa, by Inkari (Music of the Andes CD) or Simon and Garfunkel; Theme from Chariots of Fire by Vangelis; Longer by Dan Fogelberg; Memory by Barbara Streisand; Untamed Heart, by Cliff Eidelman; No Matter What by Boyzone; Time to Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli; Show Me How to Love You by Sarah Brightman and Jose Cura; and several songs, whose titles I don't have time to look up, by Celine Dion.

-- just a selective and subjective submission for your approval.
(1) Puccini--"Madama Butterfly":"Un Bel Di "
(2) Berlioz--"Romeo and Juliet"--"Love Scene"
(3) Malcom Arnold "Third Scottish Dance--Adagietto (?) "

... and haunting:

Gyorgy Ligeti - "Atmospheres"
Clannad - "Caislean Oir"
Shriekback - "This Big Hush"

Most chillingly sad...I mean make-you-wanna-die music: Djivan Gasparyan's "A Cool Wind is Blowing." (Armenian duduk player)

Most beautiful Soprano solo that got me through Army AIT School: June Anderson singing "Stetit Puella" on Carmina Burana, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Michael Levine.

Music that gets me totally "amped" and thankfully makes me act childish: The Cure's "Hot! Hot! Hot!" off the Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me album.
"When God Made Me" from Neil Young's "Prairie Wind." Especially poignant when played through my previously owned Spendor S8e's with Musical Fidelity KW500 integrated amp.
"Ice" incredible, and achingly beautiful guitar solo by Andy Latimer, from Camel "I Can See Your House From Here".

Also Camel "A Nod and a Wink" especially the last track ("For Today"
Bach Johannes Passion, No. 7. Von dem Stricken meiner Sünden, and No. 9. Ich folge dir gleichfalls', Mahler, Sympony no. 2. IV. Urlicht,
Almost 5 years to this day, I posted on this thread and haven't looked again until tonight. At that time, I stated that "Sentimental Journey" was the song that was the most "achingly beautiful" to me at the time. Please look back at my post of 04/28/2001 for more information.

Tonight, it would have to be the end credits from the movie "Cast Away" by Alan Silvestri. It, too, reminds me of my father who was diagnosed with rapidly advancing Alzheimer's Disease during February 2006.

2006 has proved to be a difficult year so far. On February 15th, our son and only child was deployed with the USMC for the 2nd time to Iraq (and possibly other destinations before this deployment is over). One week later, on February 22nd, my father's physician confirmed what we feared: he was progressing rapidly with AD.

This particular piece of Mr. Silvestri's music has always made me shed a tear. The tears come easy tonight for a father who is not the same and a son who is very far away.

Dad and Lcpl R, I love you and miss you both. I am praying for each of you.
Mcrheist:

As a father and a son, my thoughts and prayers go to each of yours on their journey.

Mike.