Barrett Reynolds wrote:

>Anyway, I suppose the first question I'd like to
>pose to this group is, what pieces comprise your absolute musical zenith?

Not sure what you might mean by "absolute," but there are MANY works
that provide me with a sense of the profound.  It isn't that they are
the most noble, or the most beautiful, but there are many that "stand
out" in my experience:

A selection:
Adams: Harmonielehre
Adams: Harmonium
Alain: Litanies for Organ
Albert: Cello Concerto
Albert: Symphony No.1
Arnell: Symphony No.3
Andriessen, Hendrik: Symphony No.4
Apostel: Haydn Variations
Atterberg: Suite for Violin, Viola and Strings
Atterberg: Symphony No.3
Bach, JS: Art of the Fugue
Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor
Barber: Symphony No.2
Barber: String Quartet
Bartok: String Quartets
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle
Bartok: Music for Perc. Strings and Celeste
Bax: Symphony No.6
Beethoven: String Quartets
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4
Beethoven: Symphony No.8
Benjamin: Symphony
Bennett, Richard Rodney: Symphony No.2
Bentzon: Symphony No.8
Berg: Violin Concerto
Berg: Wozzeck
Berger: Ideas of Order
Berio: Visage
Berio: A Ronne
Berlioz: Damnation of Faust
Bernstein: Symphony No.3 "Kaddish"
Blackwood: Symphonies 1,2
Bloch: String Quartets
Bloch: Violin Sonata No.2
Boulanger: Faust and Helene
Boulez: Pli Selon Pli
Brahms: Symphony No.4
Brahms: German Requiem
Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Bruckner: Symphony No.7
Busoni: Faust
Busoni: Fantasia Contrappuntisica
etc.

Out of the works I have encountered over the years, these are amongst
those that seem to be reaching for something.  That is not to say that
they are "favorites." I can find equal significance in many "lighter"
works.  Such a list would be much longer:

Abramson: Dance Variations
Adams: Century Rolls
Adams: Chairman Dances
Adler: Symphonies 1,2
Akutagawa: Music for Symphony Orchestra
Amirov: Piano Concerto
Amirov: Gulestan
Amirov: Symphony for Strings
Andre-Bloch: Concerto Ballet
Andriessen, Hendrik: Organ Concerto; plus many other works
Antill: Corroboree
Arnold: English, Scottish, Cornish Dances
Arnold: Concerto for Piano 3 hands
Arnold: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8
Atterberg: most everything
Aubert: Cinema
Aubert: Le Tombeau de Chateaubriand
Aubert: Dryade
etc.

And the list goes on...

So much music and so little time...

Karl