My dad and brother were driving me back to the airport, and my pater familias put on some Bach (I think it was Bach). The arrangements had a full German choir, and they were absolutely breathtaking. True, there were contributing factors (I hadn't seen the beauty of the Texas landscape since I left for school and we had smoked a few bowls), but the music almost brought me to tears.

Are there any classical buffs here who can reccomend some of the BEST classical compositions like the ones I listened to in the car? I'm looking for soaring, incredible stuff, and a full choir would be a definite bonus.

Bach and Wagner are my personal favorites.

Can't go wrong with Mozart. Symphony No. 40 is my favorite piece by him. If you're looking for really over-the-top, full sounding compositions, look mostly towards the Romantic period. Wagner, Braums, etc. Also check out "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" by Debussy. My favorite orchestral piece ever. If you had asked this question a year ago, I'd have a much better response, but it's been a long time since I was really into this kind of thing.

If you like Classical Piano..check out Erik Satie.

"Four Seasons" by Vivaldi.

Vanessa Mae does a badass version of this.

Any Gershwin.

I second that

Reading your description of what you were listening to I would guess Beethoven's 9th 'choral' Symphony and the beauty of this could bring tears to your eyes even without chemical aides. The vocal part is Ode To Joy, and starts in the IV movement about 7 minutes in. The whole symphoney is about 75 minutes long. My other favorite Beethoven is the 7th Symphony.

Also Rachmaninov's piano concerto #3, beautiful. I'm also found of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
A good thing to get for classical sampling would be Shine: The Complete Classics. This is the music from the movie Shine from 1996 with Geoffrey Rush. This not the actual soundtrack but the classical pieces from the movie. Many of the composer's mentioned thus far in this thread are on here.

his 9th done by Klemperer or Hogwood are out of this world

Another thing I thought of, stuff with a chours, Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
He is actually a 20th century composer, died in 1982. The first part of this you may have heard 'O Fortuna' it's turned up in a couple of movies, Glory is the movie I remember it in.

I loved that one when I was a kid.

Dvorak's Symphony No 9 "From the New World" is nice.

I'm thinking of getting Brahms' Requiem as done by Levine and the Chicago symphony; I think that may be the piece I was talking about.

Does anyone have anything to say regarding recordings of this Requiem?

I know nothing about Classical music

I wish someone would incorporate some classical into modern music. I love the big choir on Talk Talk's "Time It's Time," more stuff like that would be awesome.

The 2001 soundtrack really jogged my interest in classical. It has everything from extremely well known (Blue Danube Waltz) to obscure (Ligeti's Requiem). It's pretty cool.

So Amazon's having a classical blowout and since I'm getting into this stuff a lot I thought I'd get a few albums:

I wish I knew more about classical music. I feel that my next swoop as a culture vulture might be aimed at the classical genre.

It's pretty great. I think I like chamber music more than orchestral stuff. I'm really excited about the Bach violin solos and the Beethoven solo piano stuff.

Im not a fan of the violin's tone...too high-pitched, it lacks depth and earthy tone that the viola and cello has.

i admire a lot to Bela Bartok.