Music Recommendations

Try The Kronos Quartet's "Winter Was Hard"-its not old "pompous"classical. Well-recorded, some might classify much of it as avant-garde, especially their take on John Zorn's "Forbidden Fruit". I believe it's on the Elektra/Nonesuch label. I have it on vinyl, dont know if its available on CD. There's also a work by modern composer Arvo Part on it ("Fratres"), as well as their take on Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings".-Mrmitch

This may be from left field,well to me yes it is,but for a 'hoot' I think a listen to 'Yo Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone' is well worth the effort.No it is not 'classical',but it is, imho,a pleasure.'Dynamic' and 'exciting' are other adjectives that come to mind.

I would try Korngold and Waxman their music from famous movie's is absolutley right up there.

If you want dynamic, try Mahler's 2nd, 3rd and 5th should do the trick. Shostakovich's 5th and 7th symphonies. Others to consider - Copland(pick any symphony or el Salon Mexico), Prokofiev(Romeo and Juliet), Stravinsky.

Based on who you have said that you like, I would suggest that you pick up "The Yellow Shark" by Frank Zappa, as well as "LSO - Zappa". I think you would really like it, if you also like Danny Elfman who was surely influenced by this music. Then, I would check out Bela Bartok, Edgar Varese, and Igor Stravinsky, whose music influenced Zappa. Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is a necessity in any serious music collection, and I highly recommend it.

Cheers.