Ralph Vaughan Williams

A symphonic piece featuring lead violin, perhaps my favourite version is `Nicola Benedetti

The Lark Ascending

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Piano Concerto No. 2

Orchestral piece based on a folk melody of the early English composer

Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis

Debbie Wiseman

The Glorious Garden

Edward William Elgar

Enigma Variations

Gustav Holst

The Planets

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Concerto No 5

Antonio Vivaldi

Summer perhaps the first rock piece in my humble opinion and very fine it is too.

The Four Seasons

Called the Chorale and includes the anthemic Ode To Joy

Symphony No 9

John Williams

Schindler's List

Also called the Pastorale conjuring up images of the meadow and rural scenes.

Symphony No 6

From The New World; forever famous as the Hovis bread advertisement

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Includes the Lacrimosa which I've heard Andrew Lloyd Weber say is the best piece ever written, praise indeed.

Requiem

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1812 Overture

Used in the film 'Out of Africa' starring Robert Redford & Meryl Streep

Clarinet Concerto

Perhaps the intensity and magic of Jaqueline Du Pre's recorded performance will never be recaptured

Cello Concerto

Karl Jenkins

The Armed Man

Jean Sibelius

The wonderfully patriotic piece dedicated to his homeland

Finlandia

The Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1811 and 1812

Symphony No 7

Geroge Gershwin

A superb jazzy piece highlighting the piano with the orchestra

Rhapsody In Blue

Gregorio Allegri

Miserere

Max Bruch

Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) is one of the most popular Romantic violin concertos.

Violin Concerto No.1

Dmitri Shostakovich

Piano Concerto No.2

Arguably the best known ballet piece and scene.

Swan Lake

This includes the theme Eric Carmen borrowed for his song 'All By Myself'

Symphony No 2.

Edward Grieg

Piano Concerto No1.

Samuel Barber

Quite stirring and used in the Killing Fields'

Adagio For Strings

The Music of Kings & Queens

George Frideric Handel

This oratorio work includes the Hallelujah chorus not to be confused with Leonard Cohen's piece

Messiah

Camille Saint Saints

The song and the symphony were used as the main theme in the 1995 family film Babe and its 1998 sequel Babe: Pig in the City and can be heard in the 1989 comedy film How to Get Ahead in Advertising.

Organ Symphony No3

Claude Debussy

Includes the simple but nevertheless beautifully melodic Clair De Lune

Suite Bergamasque

Lovely melodic variations on Paganini's well known theme. One of them perhaps best known as The South Bank Show signature tune played by Julian Lloyd Weber

Rhapsody on A Theme of Paganini

The best known piece in this is the 'Waltz No. 2' which was used in the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

Jazz Suite No.2

A number of well known tunes from the sci-fi film franchise and series

Star Wars

Better known as the Moonlight and a must for any aspiring pianist

Piano Sonata No 14.

Includes the two well known pieces 'Morning Mood' and 'In The Hall of The Mountain King'

Peer Gynt Suite No.1

Hans Zimmer

Soundtrack to the 2000 film directed by Ridley Scott'

Gladiator

Gustav Mahler

Best know for the emotional 'Death in Venice' adagettio'

Symphony No.5

More popular fim music from this long running film franchise and veteran composer'

Harry Potter

More ballet music from the great Russian composer. Many over the first flush of youth will remember the Cadbury's advertisement with Frank Muir

The Nutcracker

Johann Pachelbel

Used for many a wedding and the basis of a surprising number of pop tunes

Canon in D major

Howard Shore

The Lord of The Rings

The first 4 notes of the first movement are probably the best know in classical music if not all music.

Jay Ungar

The piece is a waltz in D major, composed in the style of a Scottish lament.

The Ashokan Farewell

Pietro Mascagni

Includes the beautifully melodic Intermezzo and the Easter Hymn.

Cavalleria Rusticana

Very British and staple fare for the last night of the proms.

Pomp and Circumstance

The Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus

Elmer Bernstein

A prolific film composer and this one for the 1961 film starring Gregory Peck based on the book by Harper Lee

To Kill A Mocking Bird

Felix Mendelssohn

Hebrides Overture

Johann Sebastian Bach

Virtuosic organ piece and forever associated with Vincent Price in Hammer Horror

Toccata & Fugue In D Minor

Another piece dedicated to his homeland and the region called Karelia

Karelia Suite

Jurassic Park

Giacomo Puccini

This opera includes 'Un Bel Di' and 'The Humming Chorus'

Madama Butterfly

Ennio Morricone

This 1986 film score includee 'Gabriels Oboe' and 'The Fall'

The Mission

Frederic Chopin

The 1976 film The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane featured this Concerto, performed by pianist Claudio Arrau and the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Piano Concerto No.1

Includes the beautifully melodic 'Swan' and 'Aquarium' used in the Disney film 'Fantasia'

Carnival of The Animals

Ludvoico Einaudi

I Giorni

Gabriel Faure

Including Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei and In Paradisum

A tone poem for orchestra. Perhaps best known as the theme tune to the BBC series 'Jonathan Creek'

Danse Macabre

Fantastic opening notes. If you don't appreciate this melody you don't like music

The concerto is significant in the 1996 film Shine, based on the life of pianist David Helfgott.

Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Includes 'The Prince and The Young Princess'

Scheherazade

A very popular and well known violin melody

Violin Concerto in E Minor

Some cracking music in this comic opera not least of which is the opening Overture and the bass aria 'Non piu andrai'

The Marriage of Figaro

Opera featuring the well known arias 'Che Gelida Manina' and 'O Soave Fanciulla'

La Boheme

All three movemements stunning with the largo being particularly beautiful melodically'

Double Violin Concerto

The Magnificent Seven

John Barry

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Avro Part

Spiegel im Spiegel

Six instrumental works. They are widely regarded as some of the best orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.

Brandenburg Concertos

Giuseppe Verdi

This opera includes the famous Hebrew Slave's Chorus, Va Pensiero

Nabucco

The Musical Zodiac

Alexander Borodin

A symphonic poem which he dedicated to Franz Liszt

In The Steppes of Central Asia

Coronation Anthems

A beautiful score for the sad romance 1980 film of the same name starring Jane Seymour & Christopher Reeve

Somewhere In Time

This opera wit its German libretto incudes The Queen of the Night's aria

The Magic Flute

Joaquin Rodrigo

The best known of all guitar concertos and the B minor adagio particularly beautiful

Concierto De Aranjuez

Aram Khachaturian

Ballet music including the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia

Spartacus

Symphony No 6.

Richard Wagner

This opera includes Bacchanale and 'The Pilgrim's Progress'

Tannhauser

This opera includes the well known soprano aria 'O Mio Babbino Caro'

Gianni Schicchi

Suite for orchestra including the romance scored for the 1955 Soviet film

The Gadfly

Some fine music in these 6 pieces, perhaps the most poplular the prelude in G major

Cello suites

In E flat with three movements. The swan call motif is used in a number of pop songs

Ave Verum Corpus

Bedrich Smetana

Including the lovely Vltava named after the river

Ma Vlast

Gioachino Rossini

Well known as the Lone Ranger signature tune

William Tell Overture

Some might say a bit heavy for their ears, but nonetheless an acquired taste

The Ring Cycle

Fim scpre to the 1990 film starring Kevin Costner

Dances With Wolves

Known as the resurrection - unsually 5 movements and scored for large orchestra

Symphony No. 2

The evergreen Brindisi (drinking song) comes from this opera amongst other joys

La Traviata

A grand orchestral oratorio work celebrating the Easter festival

St. Matthew Passion

Oratorio featuring the superb 'Arrival of The Queen of Sheba'

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