# Pieces that you like despite their over-popularity



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

As classical music lovers, I think a lot of us tend to get turned off to a piece if it becomes over-popular, or even worse, if it becomes practically a marketing scheme that companies plaster onto everything they want to sell.

Are there any works that are over-popularized or over-saturated in media, yet you still love anyway.

For me these pieces would include, the air from Bach's 3rd orchestral suite, Barber's Adagio for strings and Mozart's g minor symphony.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Good thread! Being a pianist here i'm going to stick mainly to piano works, and let others deal with the other genres  But...

Rachmaninoff - Prelude in C# minor Op 3 No. 2.
Liszt - Liebesträume No. 3.
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
Debussy - Clair De Lune.
Chopin - Scherzo No. 2.
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2/Paganini Rhapsody (the overpopularised bit being mainly variation 18).
Beethoven - Piano Sonata's Op 27 no 2, Op 13.

Actually there are a lot more. If you manage to keep the pieces fresh and despite their popularity, not listen to them too often, they keep their beauty and don't get...tedious.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bach's cello suites
Chopin's nocturnes
Dvorak's ninth
Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade
Ravel's Bolero
Mozart's clarinet concerto
Bruch's first violin concerto

and many others.


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## Evelina (Sep 30, 2011)

Tchaikovsky's ballet suites! I get excited this time of year when classical radio stations start overplaying The Nutcracker just about every day. And I love Gliere's Russian Sailors Dance from The Red Poppy.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Dvorak's 9th - It gets played to death on classical radio, but I still love it!
Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; Jesu

What ruins it for me is when classical pieces are trivialized by being used for ring tones and TV ads.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Shosty's 8th SQ
Schubert's Ständchen

Handel's Hallelujah Chorus


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Pachelbel's canon (i've never understood aside is popularity why is so maligned, to me is an incredible melody and it is so popular exactly because of this fact)

Orff - Carmina burana


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

norman bates said:


> Pachelbel's canon (i've never understood aside is popularity why is so maligned, to me is an incredible melody and it is so popular exactly because of this fact)
> 
> Orff - Carmina burana


YES on both accounts. Again there tends to be a reason why famous pieces are famous.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Despite my railing against warhorses on this forum, I do like most of them, but I'm just bored with them being played year in year out by some of our flagship groups here live. I like to go to concerts that not only include warhorses but also other things, either by mainstream old era composers, or even better something new from the post-1945 crowd.

Anyway, these are what I like, apart from many others -

All of Beethoven's symphonies & concertos, except Sym. #5.
Rodrigo - Concierto de Aranjuez, Saint-Saens - Carnival of the Animals (I've changed tack on these recently)
Rachmaninov - PIano Concertos 2,3, the famous preludes, Vocalise, etc.
Mozart - Eine kliene Nachtmusik, Rondo Alla Turca, etc.
Prokofiev - Classical Sym., Peter & the Wolf, Lieutenant Kije
Bruch - Vln Concerto, but esp. Scottish Fantasy
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture, Romeo & Juliet Overture, Serenade for Strings, Capriccio Italien, etc.
Vivaldi - Four Seasons
Kodaly - Hary Janos
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata, Fur Elise, Minuet in G, etc.
Villa-Lobos - Bachianas Brasileiras #5
Gorecki - Sym. of Sorrowful Songs (Sym. #3)
Philip Glass - String Quartet #2 "Company"
Arvo Part - Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, Fratres, Summa, etc...


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

The 3rd movement of Brahms's 3rd is often played out of context as a popular 'chillout' piece, but in context I think it's magnificent.


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

Toccata & Fugue in D minor, the most extreme combination of excellence and cliche through pop culture appropriation I can think of right now.


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## mleghorn (May 18, 2011)

Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concert & Nutcracker.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Another vote for Dvorak's New World Symphony. I've listened to it, performed it, conducted it, taught it, arranged it, marched it, judged it, and analyzed it more times than I can count. Yet I still love it.


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

*overplayed stuff*

overplayed stuff that I like anyway: Beethoven 5th, 9th symphonies, Schubert 'Unfinished', Stravinsky 'Firebird', Barber 'Adagio', Gorecki Sym of Sorrows, Nirvana 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.



violadude said:


> As classical music lovers, I think a lot of us tend to get turned off to a piece if it becomes over-popular, or even worse, if it becomes practically a marketing scheme that companies plaster onto everything they want to sell.
> 
> Are there any works that are over-popularized or over-saturated in media, yet you still love anyway.
> 
> For me these pieces would include, the air from Bach's 3rd orchestral suite, Barber's Adagio for strings and Mozart's g minor symphony.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Beethoven's 5th symphony, Dvorak's 9th, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring... I just have to ration my hearings.

_The Little Drummer Boy_ has gone beyond the pale.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess. Piano or orchestra, I don't mind, it's just a beautiful piece, and when someone like Ozawa or Bavouzet perform it, then it transcends itself. I suppose the right word is "ineffable." Not in a sentence, but alone. Ineffable.

Wide variety of stuff by Bach...in context, anyway, in the right key and played with commitment and NOT during a wedding outside by a string quartet insistently in C, G, or D...as has been said before, _this_ stuff is popular because it's good.


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## TrazomGangflow (Sep 9, 2011)

Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.
Brahms Hungarian Dance no. 5
Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

The *Jupiter* *Symphony* by Mozart and Beethoven's *Fifth* *Symphony*.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

samurai said:


> Beethoven's *Fifth* *Symphony*.


Going to hear that one live tonight along with Brandenburg 4.


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