# What is your favorite Baroque piece?



## quietfire (Mar 13, 2017)

What is your favorite musical work from the Baroque period (~1600-1750)?


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Mass in B Minor - Johann Sebastian Bach (1749)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bach - St Matthew's Passion.


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## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Prelude in G major, BWV 568 - JS Bach


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

If it's just one: Bach - St Matthew's Passion.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Hmm. I don't listen to a lot of Baroque but maybe that makes my opinion more interesting (for me anyway, as I can reach a decision quite quickly).

Purcell - Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary.


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Handel Concerti Grossi. What's yours, quietfire? You didn't mention.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

French Baroque is my favorite. I don't know if I have a single work narrowed down, but Lully's Thesee and Charpentier's sacred works are tops


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

J.S. Bach, Well Tempered Clavier, Books I and II.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Handel's Messiah.


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Definitely Händel

Orlando or Imeneo

Or maybe Solomon or Giulio Cesare

Or Semele Or Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno


And if it can't be Händel I would maybe choose Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona because it has this unique vibe


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks
Bach - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Bach - Brandenburg Concerto no. 3
Vivaldi - Four Seasons
Handel's Messiah


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Razumovskymas said:


> And if it can't be Händel I would maybe choose *Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona* because it has this unique vibe


Definitely a unique and wonderful work!


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I can't choose just one! Here are my top 5 Baroque works:

1. Bach: Mass in B Minor
2. Handel: Giulio Cesare
3. Bach: Goldberg Variations
4. Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier
5. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas 

Honorable mention: Biber's Requiem in F Minor


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I like too much to listen to others play (lazy), but I've played Bach-Prelude, Fuge & Allegro BWV 998 many times live myself, so it has a special place in my heart and soul.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Louis Couperin, Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Blancrocher said:


> Louis Couperin, Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher


Seems to be outta stock on Amazon.

Even Armadillo Music in Davis, CA doesn't have it; so that's about it.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Seems to be outta stock on Amazon.
> 
> Even Armadillo Music in Davis, CA doesn't have it; so that's about it.


That's a shame--nobody does it like Leonhardt.


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## LesCyclopes (Sep 16, 2016)

Impossible to choose just one piece. I would not even be able to narrow it down to one cantata, one keyboard piece, one organ work.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Blancrocher said:


> That's a shame--nobody does it like Leonhardt.


Yes. Richard the Leonhardt on bow and his surrogate, Robin Hood on arrow.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

I really enjoy the "Coffee Cantata" by Bach. Its like a one-act opera buffa but with Baroque style.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

hpowders said:


> J.S. Bach, Well Tempered Clavier, Books I and II.


Same here. Among favorites regardless of era.


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## leonsm (Jan 15, 2011)

- J. S. Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232
- J. S. Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
- J. S Bach: Violin Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004


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## bioluminescentsquid (Jul 22, 2016)

Blancrocher said:


> Louis Couperin, Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher


Another Louis Couperin nomination: his Pavan in f# minor. If the _tombeau_ is about hope, this is about despair.


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## bioluminescentsquid (Jul 22, 2016)

chill782002 said:


> Hmm. I don't listen to a lot of Baroque but maybe that makes my opinion more interesting (for me anyway, as I can reach a decision quite quickly).
> 
> Purcell - Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary.


Always loved the Canzona and "In the midst of life we are in death" :tiphat:


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## Schumanniac (Dec 11, 2016)

Handel's Concerti Grossi 
Bach Double Violin Concerto

One of those without question for me.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

There are so many good ones. 
Maybe Biber's Mystery Sonatas for now.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Florestan said:


> Handel's Messiah.


I should add that after Messiah, I'll take Cecilia Bartoli on most any Baroque work.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Between F. Couperin ordre 6 in Bb major or ordre 8 in b minor.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Florestan said:


> I should add that after Messiah, I'll take Cecilia Bartoli on most any Baroque work.


I love this - so dramatic. (Wish I knew what the lyrics meant!  )


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Ingélou said:


> I love this - so dramatic. (Wish I knew what the lyrics meant!  )


Funny because it seems the counter tenor's voice is higher than Cecilia's. My problem is that in order to get Bartoli in Baroque I have to accept counter tenors and that I find hard to stomach.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto #5

Handel: Watermusic; Royal Fireworks


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## Ekim the Insubordinate (May 24, 2015)

"Favorite" 

Hmm - I wouldn't want to be tied down to that term for a field so broad and with such an embarrassment of riches.

My preferred piece of the moment, though, is Bach's Goldberg Variations. I love that work. I like rotating the recordings I listen to - Perahia or Gould on Piano, Gilbert or Suzuki or Pinnock on harpsichord, Guillou on organ, or even transcribed for strings recorded by Fretwork. I hear different things in each.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Handel - Dixit Dominus

Particularly the Gloria.


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