Most achingly-beautiful music

Bach's Mass in B Minor does it for me. How can I ever forget seeing/hearing it performed in the church Handel attended in London. Check out #7, "Gratias agimus tibi"...it starts simply with the chorus and builds from there, adding tympani and trumpets by the closing forte. You would swear the angels had graced you with a brief appearance in your listening room.

Not so well known is Scriabin's Piano Concerto in F Sharp Minor. If you're partial to piano concerti and haven't heard this yet, I can't recommend it too strongly...as beautiful as anything by Rachmaninoff. I have it with Vladimir Ashkenazy, London 414 252-2 (CD).

Anything by Puccini works for me. I wish everyone could hear Jose Cura sing "Ch'ella mi Creda" from La Fanciulla del West, an extraordinarily powerful aria.

Mikeam, you're a man after my own heart. You must also try Eva Cassidy's Live at Blues Alley. Her "covers" of Fields of Gold, Autumn Leaves, People Get Ready and What a Wonderful World are fabulous. Concerning her much lamented death, my understanding is that she died at age 34 of cancer. The world has lost one of the great blues voices.

Mikeam, I forget to mention Eva's exquisite rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. This is the first of her songs that I heard...more than enough to hook me. As for Ella, no one has surpassed her in an overall sense...so versatile and always spot on.