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For me, there are too many to share but here are a few!
One of my favorite recording's of all time! Never fails to put me in a good mood!
Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony with Leonard Bernstein Conducting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXgBtAD5daM&t=785s
Perhaps an unexpected recording is
Steve Reich's Sextet
This piece is played by all friends of mine from the Yale School of Music, and to be honest there are very few pieces as groovy as this one! Extremely uplifting for me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgX85tZf1ts
And lastly a purely funny piece:
Mozart - "Leck mich im Arsch" - Canon in B flat for 6 Voices, K. 231 / K. 382c
(Not only the words are funny, but it is actually a very catchy tune! Really amusing to think about Mozart writing this and putting so much effort into it!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C78HBp-Youk&t=2s
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Dominic Cheli the Mozart canon is beyond hilarious (that man was trouble with a capital T!), and amazingly well written. Never heard of it, which is surprising for someone raised in a German vocal and choral music tradition.
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Dominic Cheli Mozart...the musical genius with a well-developed sense of humor!
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Dominic Cheli I wish we could go to a dinner party with Mozart! Never heard this before. How'd you find it?
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Alexander Weymann Does it translate into what I think it does? (I don't speak German, but the title is hysterical!)
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Gail Starr yes, I'm afraid what you're probably thinking is exactly what it translates into. If what you're thinking of is extremely rude, then yes, that's it. ;-)
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Alexander Weymann Yes, I’m this case, I think I’ve translated the phrase properly
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Gail Starr it is actually a quote from Goethe’s “Götz von Berlichingen” which soon became very popular in Germany. In fact it still is!
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Andrea Buckland wow, thank you! I wish I spoke German, but I’m currently working on Spanish because now that I live in Florida I actually need it often.
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Andrea Buckland thanks for pointing out the roots in classical German literature - very true! The actual Goethe quote is slightly different ("...er kann mich im Arsche lecken"), but with the "Götz" having been published in 1773, there can be little doubt that the line served as the inspiration for Mozart's canon.
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The last movement from Ravel's orchestration of his own Ma mère l'oye - "Le Jardin Féerique" (The Fairy Garden) - rarely fails to lift my mood, and just as often brings me to tears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDIR2um4zh4
And if I were to name the last piece of music I ever wanted to hear before leaving this Earth... as many contenders as there are for that spot, it would have to be this one:
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Alexander Weymann The Brahms you selected lives in my heart.
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Gail Starr I'm so glad to hear it! Each time I get to share this sonata that I love so much (and used to play myself, back in the day) with another human being, it makes me happy. :-)
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Alexander Weymann Playing chamber music is the BEST! Especially when it is an equal partnership with a string player. When I was growing up, my best friend was a child prodigy and we played lots of stuff together. She's a pro now in an orchestra in Germany!
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Gail Starr wow! Sounds like an amazing experience to have had...
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Alexander Weymann My friend and her family shaped my musical activities. My own dad was very musical, but Gretchen’s mom was REALLY keen on developing her children’s talents and insisted that they practice for 2 hours after school before they were allowed to go out and play.
So…guess what?… from ages 9-12 (when I switched to piano from violin) I also practiced after school since I was waiting for my friend anyway.
Most kids that age won’t practice unless someone insists that they do it, I think.
Kind of interesting how a kid’s friends can mold their interests?
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Gail Starr The Brahms Violin Sonatas are all beyond wonderful. I particularly love the 3rd, in d-minor. There are a number of excellent performances available on youtube. I especially like the Szeryng-Rubinstein. We always associate Rubinstein with Chopin, but for me, Brahms was his composer. His golden sound, instinctive musicality and taste were perfect for Brahms. In my opinion, his f-minor Piano Sonata (Op. 5) is the finest recorded performance.
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Don Allen and the Brahms Trios he recorded with Szeryng and Fournier!
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Prokofiev piano concerto 3 especially when Argerich plays it....
I'm not sure "uplift" is what most listeners get from it--I just find it so playful, almost bratty at times.
https://youtu.be/BS0SwRoYAW0-
Sandhya (Sandy) Asirvatham , Playful is pretty uplifting, too.
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Rachmaninov adagio from second symphony. Sumptuous, lyrical with that sorrow of being away from his beloved homeland. Brings me to tears.
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Ray McHenry Ooooh, I agree 100%
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Gail Starr Great to know that there are still a few unreconstructed romantics in existed.
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The Schubert Eb Piano Trio. Heavenly length (do NOT do the cuts in the last movement!).
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Don Allen After a performance of Schubert's "Great" C Major symphony, an audience member speaking to the conductor, Karl Böhm, again trotted out the old dictum of how this symphony is "so beautiful, but simply much too long". Karl Böhm replied grumpily [cue the Austrian accent]: "Wenn nur net Sie zu kurz san!" ("Let's just hope that it's not you who is too short!")
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