# Top 10 or 20 Favorite Works



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Hey guys. Out of all music, instrumental or vocal, what are your top favorite 10 or 20? For the opera section members.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Aarre Merikanto's JUHA 
LA NOCHE TRISTE by Jean Prodromidès 
Georges Enescu's OEDIPE
Paavo Heininen's THE DAMASK DRUM
Karl-Birger Blomdahl's opera-in-space ANIARA
Karol Szymanowski's KING ROGER
Luigi Dallapiccola's ULISSE
THE SINGING TREE by Erik Bergman
Richard Rodney Bennett's THE MINES OF SULPHUR
Morton Feldman's NEITHER
THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO by Wolfgang Rihm
Einojuhani Rautavaara's VINCENT
THE DEVILS OF LOUDON by Krzysztof Penderecki
Olivier Messiaen's ST. FRANçOIS D'ASSISE
William Alwyn's MISS JULIE
ELECTRA by Mikis Theodorakis
THE GREEK PASSION by Bohuslav Martinů
LE FOU by Marcel Landowski


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I really like your choices so far. Thank you for creating your list for us!

If you can also be sure your posts reflect your top favorites of *any music*, ie. opera, instrumental, other albums. This thread is to see what variety the opera community may or may not rank alongside opera if they choose so.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

An impossible task. I love opera but I also love a massive range of other music and my collection includes solo instrumental, chamber, orchestral, vocal and choral works as well as opera, by composers ranging from early Mediaeval plainchant to contemporary composers, although the lion's share is probably nineteenth century.

Berlioz and Verdi are my favourite composers and I have recordings of virtually everything they wrote. I am also a completist when it comes to the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov and the orchestral music of Debussy and Ravel.

Unsurprisingly the majority of composers in my collection are European, but the other continents are also represented, and I make no bones about liking operetta and lighter music as well.

I also have quite a large collection of musical theatre and popular music. 

Reducing my favourites down to a mere twenty is impossible.


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

As Tsaras as said, a truly impossible task. I use a piece of software called 'Roon' to organise and play my music. I have over 2,000 discs worth of music in there.....

So, having declared it impossible - here goes in no particular order....

1. Wagner - The Ring
2. Nightwish - Angels Fall First (for the opera lovers on here, spend some time listening to Tarja Turunen in all her styles!)
3. Mary Chapin Carpenter - I can't pick one Album, but her lyrics are utterly brilliant
4. Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell
5. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
6. Verdi - Il Trovatore
7. Scorpions - Savage Amusement
8. Bruchner - All the symphonies, especially conducted by Celibidache
9. Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte (and many others)
10. Rossini - Tancredi - and many others
11. Yngwie Malmsteen - Odyssey
12. Oscar D'Leon - La Formula Original
13. Loreena McKennitt - Nights from the Alhambra
14. Beethoven - Fidelio / Leonore
15. Puccini - Can't pick one, so most of his Operas(!)
16. Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust, and other albums
17. Ishtar - La Voix d'Alaina
18. Guns 'n' Roses - Use Your Illusion 1 & 2
19. The Doors - just about everything
20. Donizetti - most of his music

I've tried to give a broad flavour without focusing too much on Opera in order to answer the original question. Hopefully it's worked......


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

This was difficult, but limiting myself to one work or groups of works for each composer, in alphabetical order - 

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.30
Bellini - Norma
Cherubini - Medea
Chin - Cello Concerto
Chopin - Preludes
Crumb - Ancient Voices of Children
Lieberson - Neruda Songs 
Liszt - Piano Sonata
Lutoslawski - Chantefleurs et Chantefables 
Macmillan - The Birds of Rhiannon
Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde
Messiaen - Turangalila Symphony
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto
Puccini - Tosca
Respighi - La Fiamma
Saariaho - L'Amour de Loin
Scriabin - Piano Sonata No.5
Strauss - Salome
Verdi - La Traviata 
Wagner - Tristan und Isolde


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## Parsifal98 (Apr 29, 2020)

Aerobat said:


> 13. Loreena McKennitt - Nights from the Alhambra


Glad to find another Loreena McKennitt fan. Her concert at the Alhambra is truly a classic, and the wonderful setting helps a great deal in making the atmosphere magical.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

As with others, I find it impossible to stick with 20. I’m a Callas and Franco Corelli collector and just these number many more than 20 works.

Then there’s Mozart, Händel, Verdi, Wagner operas that must be included, and Rossini. Chopin works, Tchaikovsky ballets, and piano works by him and Rachmaninoff. What about Beethoven? Mahler? Prokofiev‘s ballets? American classic musicals? Tangoes? Villa Lobos? Debussy and Ravel? Canteloube and Berlioz and Bizet?

Not even close, maybe 100 or so. 200?

Also The Messiah!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Bach - Well Tempered Clavier
Beethoven - Hammerklavier Piano Sonata
Berlioz - Symphony Fantastique
Brahms - Variations on a Theme by Handel
Chopin - Preludes, op. 28
Dvorak - Rusalka
Handel - Messiah
Haydn - Piano Sonata no. 58
Mahler - Symphony no. 4
Mozart - Magic Flute
Myaskovsky - Cello Concerto
Nielsen - Symphony no. 3
Penderecki - Symphony no. 6 "Chinese Lieder"
Pettersson - Symphony no. 7
Ravel - String Quartet
Scriabin - Preludes, op. 11
Shostakovich - Symphony no. 10
Strauss - Metamorphosen
Weinberg - String Quartet no. 5
Zemlinsky - Lyric Symphony


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

this guy needs more luv on this subforum:




Concerto in D Minor, Wq. 22, H. 425: I. Allegro




Concerto in E Minor, Wq. 15, H. 418: III. Vivace




Concerto in G Major, Wq. 34, H. 444: I. Allegro di molto




Concerto in G Major, Wq. 4, H. 406: II. Adagio




Concerto in C Minor, Wq. 37, H. 448: II. Andante ed arioso


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## ThaNotoriousNIC (Jun 29, 2020)

Here is a list of 20 pieces/operas in no particular order that are among my favorites:

1) Ring Cycle, Wagner
2) Lohengrin, Wagner
3) Parsifal, Wagner
4) La Forza Del Destino, Verdi
5) Macbetto, Verdi
6) Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss
7) St. Matthew's Passion, Bach
8) St. John's Passion, Bach
9) Water Music Suites, Handel
10) Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral), Beethoven
11) Mandolin Concerto in C Major, Vivaldi
12) Scheherazade, Rimsky Korsakov
13) Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel Orchestration), Mussorgsky 
14) Symphony No. 4, Mahler
15) La Cenerentola, Rossini
16) Horn Concertos, Mozart (counting them all as one on the list)
17) Horn Concerto No. 1, Strauss
18) Symphony No. 3, Brahms
19) Symphony No. 7, Beethoven
20) Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti 

Honorable Mentions:

Night at Bald Mountain, Mussorgsky
Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter), Mozart
Alexander Nevsky, Prokofiev
Lyric Pieces, Grieg
Sleeping Beauty Suite, Tchaikovsky 
L'Arlesienne Suites, Bizet
Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Offenbach
Requiem, Mozart
Orchestral Suites, Bach
Symphony No. 100, Haydn


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

If because this thread is in the Opera forum are we supposed to be listing operas only? But I see a number of people have listed works outside of opera, so here's my list, with only one opera, but only because I'm limited to 20 works.

Duruflé - Requiem
Bernstein - MASS
Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier
Bach - Goldberg Variations
Bach - Art of Fugue
Bach - B Minor Mass
Machaut - Messe des Nostre Dame
Mahler - Symphony No. 6
Mahler - Kindertotenlieder
Mahler - Rückert Lieder
Debussy - String Quartet
Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande
Brahms - Clarinet Sonatas, 1 & 2
Brahms - Clarinet Trio
Schubert - String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
Schubert - String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor "Death and the Maiden"
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 10
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor "Pathétique"
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-Flat Major, Op. 81a "Les adieux"

Next month the list would no doubt be different.


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