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I am now thoroughly convinced that Brahms' 1st piano concerto is the greatest piece ever written for piano and orchestra.

As I was driving home today I was listening to the Leif Ove Andsnes recording of this piece. In the slower section before the coda of the last movement I felt tears welling up in my eyes. Once the fast section at the end begin I started crying like a sissy girl...while driving on the interstate. I had to pull over to gather myself and just cry for awhile. Anyone else ever have an experience like this? Man...I'm so hardcore.

I'm gonna have to make this the next piece on my "to do" list.

Lol.

PS:

Lol.

I know what you mean by having a very emotional feeling through a piece though. Some Yann Tiersan makes me feel really sad. Chopin also does that to me alot. A lot of just down-tempo minor key music does that for me. I don't really cry from how beautiful it is though in a happy way. It's more just I feel the whole sorrow of the world and it's hopelessness.

I am almost convinced that I play and listen to classical music, not because of my love for it, but because of my hate for everything else. It sounds harsh, and I don't mean I am belittling everything in the world constantly, it's just a feeling I have inside me.

I get the goose bumps when I listen to Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos. The shear joyeous and wonderfully sublime music fills my body with ecstasy.

So you're not the only one.

John

For emotional punch, I must say that the first time I ever heard the Mahler Second Symphony I was completely overwhelmed by the ending. I didn't know the organ was coming, and it just floored me. The last movement of his Third Symphony is also sublime. By contrast, the last movement of his Fifth Symphony always makes me chuckle with delight.

I have been deeply moved by (amongst countless other things) a medieval conductus in the form of Talens m'est pris orendroit (from de Coincy's Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame), the conclusion of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and by Rihm's Fourth String Quartet -- but I seriously doubt anyone would think such pieces are capable of moving anyone.

Every day. It becomes pointless.

To me most non-classical music leaves me completely unmoved because it seems so shallow and repetitive. The lyrics all seem to whine. The level of skill seems pretty low and limps along with the help of electronics. It doesn't go anywhere and leaves me disappointed.

On the other hand, classical music routinely moves me to - tears, goosebumps, sorrow or whoops of joy. Today it might be Brahms' first concerto, tomorrow Dvorak's 7th symphony the next day a Bach concerto. It all has such tremendous depth of feeling and marvelous complexity. The skill level of the musicians blows me away. Each time I listen, I hear something new. I just can't understand how so many people are turned off to classical music.

You are not alone. Bring tissues.

Well, I don't (I'm afraid) know the de Coincy or the Rihm, but I fully agree with you that the conclusion of Figaro is intensely moving. As is much other Mozart. Pamina's aria; Idomeneo; the G minor string quintet; several of the piano concerti...

the only piece that brought me close to tears was rachmaninoff's elegie in Eb minor.

the second movement of beethovens 4th piano concerto came pretty close.

Colin my dearest mate, it is only "pointless" if you cannot distinguish between what is important and what is not important in your life. If this situation happens "every day", then it is time to take stock. You are just going to burn out, and I will not see that happen.

Elgar's Dream of Gerontius is the greatest "emotional monsoon" in my life (yeah, and other forum members tire of me saying so... even to the point of bringing up the subject of Elgar), and during the second half of Gerontius I'm always reduced to uncontrollable tears. I don't think I can attend a live performance anymore, and certainly I'm a veteran of many performances...

Ultimately Colin, "every day", has got to be the occasional day. That is how we survive. This is how I see it, I don't pretend to have all the answers. Cheers...

I think it's the vibrations of the music speaking through our brains to our souls.

You want emotion? - real emotion? ... Schubert's Sonatas and Impromtus

Greatest thanks. It's good to know that one is not completely alone.

I am deeply moved by music everyday. Today I've been charmed by this beautiful duo:

it made me weep

Happens to me all the time. I once thought that as I was getting older, I'd get jaded and it would take more and more to move me, but just the opposite has happened, and I've become more emotionally sensitized than ever. This is weird, and not entirely welcome.

I mean, there are all these composers and performers constantly baring their innermost souls to any passing stranger (like me, for example) and all that emotional intensity gets tiring, you know? You end up feeling like the person closest to you in life has just died or has given birth or left you forever or said they will never leave you or announced they have a terminal illness, and this is going on 24/7, which is just a bit much. In a funny way, it's almost like the much-satirized eternal agonies of country and western music (except at much more sophisticated and complex level, of course ).