Barrett Reynolds:

>Hey, y'all!  Greetings from Charlotte, NC.

Welcome, Barrett.  Do you know the Amantes?

>All I know is that when I first heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony only
>weeks ago, it sparked in me a passion for classical music that has led
>to some very rewarding hours of listening and learning.

Damn!  You're one of the few people I know of who has been turned on to
classical music by a genuine masterpiece.  Usually, most of us get into
it by watching Bugs Bunny cartoons and listening to commercials.

>Everything I've heard so far is so magnificent, I'm constantly searching
>for new pieces to discover.

If there's a good library in Charlotte, you might try borrowing CDs so
you can listen without breaking your budget.  In the days of LPs (vinyl),
I used to hit the card catalogue of the Cleveland Public Library.  I'd
borrow those records whose titles appealed to me.  If I liked the work,
I went on to look at more abstract titles (like symphonies and sonatas)
by the same composer.  Just a suggestion.

>Anyway, I suppose the first question I'd like to pose to this group is,
>what pieces comprise your absolute musical zenith?  What's that piece
>of music that, when you hear it, it totally rejuvenates your spirit,
>gives you mental clarity, and elevates your being to a consciousness
>worlds above the earth?

Unfortunately, no piece of music does that for me.  No work of art does
that for me.  Apparently, I'm pretty earth-bound.  I can, however, tell
you some of the pieces I really like.

Byrd: Cantiones sacrae
Bach: Magnificat in D; Cantatas No. 4, 21, 131; English Suites;
Well-Tempered Clavier
Handel: Dixit Dominus; Israel in Egypt
Mozart: Don Giovanni; String Quintet in g minor
Haydn: Sinfonia Concertante
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis; Elegaic Song; Piano Concerto No. 4; Waldstein
Sonata; Sonata 31
Brahms: Motets, op. 74; Schicksalslied; Haydn Variations; Piano Concerto
No. 1; Double Concerto
Wagner: Meistersinger
Mussorgsky: Everything
Grieg: Piano Concerto
Rimsky-Korsakov: Everything
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Ballet; Violin Concerto; Serenade in C; Symphonies
1 & 6
Mahler: Everything
Debussy: Nocturnes; 3 Chansons
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerti 2, 3, 4; Paganini Rhapsody; The Bells
Shostakovich: Violin Concerti 1&2, Symphonies 6, 9, 13; String Quartets
(all); Execution of Stepan Razin; From Jewish Folk Poetry; Cello Concerti 1
& 2; Piano Concerto No. 2
Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2; Friede auf Erden; De Profundis; Survivor
from Warsaw; Piano Concerto; Suite for Strings
Ravel, Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Britten, Tippett, Walton,
Stravinsky, Holst, Bartok, Copland, Martinu, Janacek, Piston, Webern, Bloch,
Bernstein: Everything, or so close, it makes no difference

These are just what I can think of right now.  Another time, you'd get
another list.  I've also left off postwar composers.  I've found that my
tastes are too idiosyncratic.

Steve Schwartz