What composition do you believe to be the most passionately romantic?

Hi

I'm just curious to what you guys believe to be the most romantic, most passionate, most beautiful piece of music that you've ever heard, that just tugs at your heartstrings and makes you want to cry.

You might laugh, but I tend to believe that John Williams' rendition of Hatikva, from the Munich soundtrack, is one of those pieces, as is the soundtrack from Schindler's List

Other compositions that I believe fit that venue have to be, of course, the Prelude from Tristan and Isolde, the Lullaby by George Gershwin, and.

Oh, man, I almost forget, perhaps THE MOST ROMANTIC, beautiful piece of music, has to be the finale of Jean Sibelius' Symphony #1. If you haven't already, DOWNLOAD IT! It is just gorgeous, and simple at the same time. Quasi fantasia, the trumpets are just like silk, it's just so...tongue flapping.

I'm going to pick Borodin's 2nd symphony as the most romantic piece I can possibly think of. If the slow movement of that symphony doesn't move you, nothing will.

Other passionately romantic pieces that I can name:
Borodin, String Quartet No. 2
Brahms, Piano Quintet
Brahms, Horn Trio (1st mvmt)
Brahms, String Quartet No. 2
Brahms, Piano Trio No. 1
Brahms, Double Concerto
Mendelssohn, Piano Trio No. 1
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3
Szymanowsky, Etude Op. 4 No. 3 for piano

The climax at the end of Debussy's La Mer... incredibly dark, lucious, brass and I'm a sucker for dark brass sections. Man, I must have looped that little bit 100 times!

The most passionately romantic? Schuman's piano concerto in a minor of course!

Other..;
Grieg, Piano Concerto In A Minor (he used schuman's as a template)
Claude debussy, Reflections in the water
Brahms, Some Piano Quartet In G Minor

Brahms, Some Piano Quartet In G Minor

That would be #1. Brahms only wrote three piano quartets, and only one in G minor.

That's a question I wasn't expecting ...

Erm, the second movement of the Tchaikovsky and Bruch violin concertos are great - passionately romantic if you want to say so! Overall, as far as passion, I think any concerto with a string instrument could fit that description.

To pick one? I'd go with Elgar's Cello Concerto.

There must be a million of them for me, but I'm going to go with the first thing that came to my mind:

Andante un poco mosso from the Piano Trio in B-flat D899 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Without identifying it, I used it as melody #7 in the Harmonize a Melody section. It also has great personal significance to me; I consider it to be perfectly descriptive of my feelings toward my partner. I can't listen to it without crying.

The Nocturne from Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" comes to mind, too.

There are several that jump out at me in that regard.

For making me cry: John Corigliano's Cantata 'Of Rage and Rememberance'. It is his reaction to the AIDS epidemic that claimed the lives of several of his friends. Near the end the coir can sing out the name sof any who they have lost to disease. The very ending in a haunting Bb melody a boy soprano sings the opening to the 23rd Psalm in Hebrew. I get chills just tihnking about it. But that piece moves me to tears every time.

For most passionate: Ernst von Dohnányi's 'Passacaglia in Eb Minor' for Piano. That work is the epitome of Romantic Piano playing. It's antipodes are a fiery storm of minor chords and the serene lusciousness of amelody that tries desperately to stay in th emajor key but cannot quite manage to end on a happy note. No other peice of piano music can compare with its pure romanticism.

For the most beautiful: Wagner's Seigfried Idyll. Ah, what work can compare in sheer luscious beauty? This work was written for his wife, and it feels like the soft caressing hands of a lover from whose tongue sweet poetry cascades. I fell completely in love with this piece at a time when I generally was only interested in fast rhythmically powerful works. This gentle languid tour de force shook me free of my earlier misconceptions about music and helped me learn a larger world.

Those three pieces probably cover it for me.

Variation 18 in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. A beautiful piece.

I would have to say my favorite and most passionate piece I like is called Two Socks from the soundtrack of the movie dances with wolves. It is just beautiful.