My favorite classical music pieces:

I’ll try to keep it to one piece per composer...

Honorable mentions: Beethoven - String quartets 13-16, Mozart - Clarinet Quintet, Brahm - Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto, Debussy – String Quartet, Janacek - String Quartet #2, Ysaye - 6 Violin Sonatas, Messiean - Quartet for the End of Time, Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht, Graham Fitkin – Circuit, Tristan Perich – Surface Image

This top will be limited to 4 spots, because there are only 4 pieces of classical music that I can confidently say are among my all time favorites.

4. Johann Sebastian Bach – Fifth Brandenburg Concerto – First Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V7oujd9djk

The first classical piece of music I began to enjoy. Yes, I began to listen to classical music with Bach! I was exposed to Bach’s music from my older brother and this was the first piece that grew on me.

The colors coming from the solo violin and the flute during the development sections make me nostalgic for moments I never lived, memories from an alternate reality I am exposed to from my dreams.

I initially didn’t really appreciated the harpsichord solo in it, but now it is all the contrary!

3. Maurice Ravel – String Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieRQyyPowH0

Ravel is mainly known as a great orchestrator. However, I much prefer his early chamber and piano music, so most more intimate! In general, I prefer chamber music to orchestral music. The orchestra seems to play for the whole crowd. A chamber ensemble, in the other hand, seems to play specifically for me…

Just from the first 10 seconds of the piece, I am transported into another world! Wow, such evocative harmonies! The composers before him that were limited to functional harmony seem so bland in comparison…

This is one of the most complex pieces I regularly listen to (among some pieces by John Adams or Graham Fitkin, complex in their own way). Its colors are immediately pleasant to the ear but I think the piece requires attentive listening to be fully appreciated.

2. Steve Reich - Eight Lines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZXfc1bUL1I

For me, the best period of Steve Reich is from 1973 to 1979. The pieces he had written in this period are the most “soundscapes” ones. Most of them are quite calm and could lead to sleep. Eight Lines is quite an exception to this. It is really energetic and really makes me want to dance, which is rare. I am generally more predisposed to sing, not dance.

I really perceive the pianos and winds as sounding “cold” and the strings as sounding “hot”, which creates a nice contrast.

I could go very deep in the analysis of this piece (maybe in a future YouTube video). Just to point out that this piece uses all of the minimalist techniques he developed in his previous pieces, except for “pulse” (which never was his most interesting technique in my opinion). In terms of structure, this piece is as pure as a crystal.

The two suggested modes are Lydian and Dorian, my 2 favorite modes. The third section has my favorite suggestion of Lydian from all of music in it, coming from the violins.

1. Morton Feldman - Piano and String Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEzPYIkfYOk

This piece is an emotional and contemplative soundscape, like most of the pieces of Feldman’s late period. The piano sounds enigmatic with its chromatic arpeggios. The strings are more emotional and comforting, like a nice breeze of cold wind on the face. I interpret all the piece as trying to come to terms with the universe’s silence in our quest for meaning. The piano is our head asking a question, the strings are our gut feelings responding to it.

Halfway into the piece, the strings begin restricting themselves to just play two incredibly emotional and well chosen chords, the first being diatonic and the second chromatic. Feldman than plays with these chords’ inversions to get more mileage out of them. The rhythm becomes more regular, and mimics more what breathing is like. The first chords are breathing in, the seconds are breathing out.

At about one hour into the piece, we reach an emotional climax that lasts for about 10 minutes. I see it as an almost near perfect acceptance of our human condition, but not quite. I also perceive in it a kind of desperation in trying to hold onto this state of mind, as it is temporary and requires mental effort.

This piece is stationary, but also quite a journey. It is the ultimate aesthetic I aspire to in music.