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.

re, Mahler: Hello Frap & Detlof, my personal conclusions:

1st-- Walter/ N.Y.Phil. (Sony)
2nd-- Klemperer/ Philharmonia (EMI-Great Recordings...etc NOT the Concertgebouw-Decca)
3rd-- Adler/ Vienna S O (ORF)
4th-- Walter/ Vienna Philharmonic (Urania - must exist on other labels too)
5th+6th-- Barbirolli/ Philharmonia (EMI, etc)
7th-- Barbirolli/ Halle Prch (BBC Legends)
8th-- Horenstein/LSO (BBC Legends)
9th-- Bernstein/Berliner (Deutsche G)
10th--Bernstein/Vienna Phil. (Deutsche G)

6th-- Horenstein & Kubelik (with the Bavarian S O) also offer (to me) interesting versions.

Cheers!

Eva Cassidy "SongBird". Thought I'd never compare a female voice to Ella and get confused as to who I preferred.., well it has happened. She died in a car accident in 1996, but her music lives on. Please try it, then drop me an email and tell me thanks :)

Mike

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.

OK it's time for some Rock n Roll and blues. There is so many tunes that move me that it is impossible to give a top three. Right now I am listening to Elvin Bishop's "Struttin My stuff" and it is moving me. Among others that move me are
"Golden Country" REO Speedwagon
"Fantasy Girl" 38 Special
"Good Day for the Blues" Storyville
"Easy Rider" Iron Butterfly
"More Than One Way Home" Keb Mo (many more by keb Mo)
Some others
Handel's "Halleluia Chorus"
Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers"
Charles Wesley's "And Can It Be"
Uh Oh Got to go. Delbert McClinton's "Every Time I Roll The Dice" just came on. I can't type and tap my foot at the same time. Happy listening