Most achingly-beautiful music

ANY early Cocteau Twins,Dead Can Dance, or Chameleons UK

I nominate whatever it was the opera troupe was singing in the concert scene in Hannibal. Very haunting...

I can't name the three *most* affecting: that various depending on my mood and a host of other circumstances. But here are a few very random pieces that came to mind as very moving:

Beethoven's 5th, 6th, 7th symphonies
Bach's Goldberg variations
Mozart's Piano Concertos 23, 21
Bizet's Carmen and Le Arlessienne Suites
Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto
Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, symphonies 4-6
Mendelssohn violin concerto, Italian symphony, octet
Schubert trout quintet
Brahms Hungarian Dances
Haydn Symphony No. 94
Bach solo cello suites
Strauss waltzes
Bolling Suites for Flute and Jazz Piano
Mussorgsky's Night on a Bald Mountain

A smattering of my perhaps "cheesier" choices ;-) :
"Meeskite" from the musical Cabaret
Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Three nominees, expressing different kinds of longings, in no particular order: (1) "Hard Times Come Around No More", a Stephen Foster tune sung by James Taylor on Yo-Yo Ma's "Appalachian Journey" CD. The song captures the wistful hope of better times I see in a friend and neighbor of mine, a desperately poor, elderly disabled farmer living in a shack here in the northern reaches of the Appalachia. (2) Roberta Flack singing "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" for the evocation of the complete, single-minded rapturous joy of the mind and senses upon discovering one's true love (3) Laura Love's soulful rendition of the traditional folk song "Shenandoah" on her "Fourteen Days" CD, for expression of the deep and simple love of any beautiful place one calls home and ache of separation from it. And there's so many more... the joy of high end audio is that the emotion shines through.

Jackie Gleason Orchestra; Music for Lovers Only, we play this LP when we make ourselves a nice candlelit dinner. Basia; Time and Tide on gold CD. Anything by Enya!