What kitschy very famous classical pieces of music do you like?

OK, I know people love it, but I can't bear to hear Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' one more time. I actually love Eric Satie, very much.

March from Tannhauser.

I LOVE the Moonlight Sonata.

So much of Tchaikovsky's work might well be considered kitschy, but as we used to say, "Mary, it takes a fairy to make something pretty". I love the Marche Slav, and especially played by these young kids in Caracas (I hate thinking about what they're going through nowadays). If I could, I would host the whole lot of those lovely young men and women and rescue them from their dire situation.

Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries from Apocalypse Now.

Debussy Arabesque No. 1.

I love Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Claire de Lune almost always moves me to tears.

Tchaikoveky's Serenade for Strings is one of those chestnuts, that's just played too much. I love Tchaikovsky, but I'm tired of listening to the Serenade for Strings.

yes, it's lovely, R9.

Have a good cry, on me.

Ravel's Bolero

People don't appreciate the classics until they hear it.

Anything from the Nutcracker, but I love the Russian dance, more than almost anything. Kitschy, but I am, too.

ravel's bolero

this one conducted by the very hot gustavo

beat me by seconds (r12) lol

We all know this, but everyone doesn't 'know' it. Aram Khachaturian'.

Such a great wonderful and lively performance, R16 and great choice.

This is how I know about the Sabre dance--- Saturday cartoons with Tom chasing Jerry.

Didn't dawn on me then that it was a classic piece of music.

Grieg Piano Concerto.

I remember I first really heard it on a demo tape that came free tape that came with an early Sony Walkman.

fantasia on greensleeves

[quote]I remember I first really heard it on a demo tape that came free tape that came with an early Sony Walkman.

sorry about that - got distracted by a W&W

offenbach's barcarole from "tales of hoffman"

R17, R18, Aram Kachaturian was an amazing Armenian composer. I encourage you to listen to his 'Masquerade' suite: very beautiful: the waltz is one of my favorite pieces of music: it just sustains me when things get nasty.

R3, I love that, too, and have it as one of my phones dial-tones.

vaughn williams (fantasia on a theme of thomas tallis"

Kitschy but doesn't have to be kitschy?

But does it have to be very famous or will just famous be okay?

I don't usually respond to fat female OPs, but I do so much want this to be acceptable.

smetana's "the moldau"

Jerusalem

always, from the proms

I love "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt.

I understand Tchaikovsky fatigue. I never want to hear the Pathetique again.

oops

[quote]I don't usually respond to fat female OPs, but I do so much want this to be acceptable.

actually, you're the first bitch to arrive.

It's been a very nice thread and am enjoying it immensely.

I LOVE this.

Carmina Burana. My ex and I went to the ballet, and saw the semi-nude dancers, and whispered to me, "Now I understand ballet". Damn straight!

That's great fun, R28.

I can't help but like the flashy showmanship of Yuja Wang's performance of Mozart's Turkish March.

Night on Bald Mountain

Igor's 'Firebird.'

Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 "Andante"

Can you get any kitschier than the March of the Swiss Soldiers from the William Tell Overture?

[quote]Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 "Andante"

Very nice, R36,

Haven't heard it for years.

I think it was a much played classic of yesteryear.

Indeed "The Theme From Elvira Madigan"

Love Debussy, so much fun to play on piano.

How do you feel about Tomita's version r9?

Peter & The Wolf

Its very famous, but not kitschy

R12 I really like Ravel's Bolero.

I believe Ravel turned against the piece, and said he wish he never wrote it.

Nessun Dorma - very kitschy. but irresistible

ravel's "pavane for a dead princess"

[quote]Nessun Dorma - very kitschy. but irresistible

I can resist that one. GOD!

Kenneth Anger's Eeax D'Artifice with Vivaldi. So Kitsch, so great. Here's a snippit

BEAUTIFUL, R46. OMG!

well then, faure's "pavane" (not for a dead princess)

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue - Not classical per se, but I always associate it with Rhapsody in Blue because I paired them on a cassette MANY years ago. Takes me back Strange how potent cheap music is.

R43, The Danse Macabre, when the skeletons come out to play, on Halloween. One of my very favorite pieces of music.

I hate when you listen to a nice piece of classical music and they suddenly start singing.

bitches, nobody does kitsch like moi

Pachbell canon

handel's "sarabande" used in the movie, "barry lyndon"

Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man"

R54 that's kitschy and abominable. You like it?

hey, she's famous, and it defines "kitschy" so a good fit, "liking" is irrelevant

Hmmm. Did you read the OP thread title?

ok, i liked it when i was 19....at 70.....not so much....lol

Johnnie and I aren't really into entire pieces. We're more into "themes". We like "themes".

Un bal, Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz

[quote]I can't help but like the flashy showmanship of Yuja Wang's performance of Mozart's Turkish March.

That was great, R33. For off-the-scale kitschy flash, I also enjoy the Cleo Laine/John Dankworth version, brought up to date as "Turkish Delight."

This gem from Camelot

Ave Fucking Maria by Charles Fucking Gounod.

No, the Ave Fucking Maria by Franz Fucking Schubert is not so much kitschy as dripping in treacle, dipped into buttered chocolate chips, rolled in ground sugar cookie crumbs, deep fried in honeyed lard and covered with a half-inch coating of powdered sugar. It is the frau's prayer.

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 In C Sharp Minor, for PIANO. E.g, Josef Bulva or Vladimir Horowitz.

This thread has come to a kitschy sticky end - people posting modern crap.

fucking theater queens. this is a classical musical thread. please take your follies/mame/gypsy obsessions elsewhere.

You don't consider Rachmaninoff classical r69? Sheesh.

Jupiter!

This one! I always play it when my gentleman caller asks me to deign to dance with him. It's nothin' less than an aphrodisiac pour moi!

Fritz Kreisler has fallen off the radar of late, but he is a wonderful bit of mitteleuropäische schmaltz.

Rossini's Thieving Magpie. Often used in cartoons as "ice skating music" at this point in the overture.

The opening of Melancholia - Beethoven's 7th

mussorgsky: pictures at an exhibition, great gate of kiev

1812 overture

albinoni: adagio

Mussorgsky: Dawn on the Moskva

Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

But, R75 , Melancholia is really scored to the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. (Yes, Beethoven 7 is fab, though).

flight of the bumblebee

grieg; "anitra's dance" from "peer gynt

sibelius: "finlandia"

ippolitov-ivanov procession of the sardar

strauss: blue danube

Johann Strauss Sr. "Radetzky March" performed by Vienna Philharmonic

delius: "flower duet" from "lakme"

I first heard 'Musica Poetica' by Carl Orff in the film 'Badlands' and have loved it since.

Here they are all in one album OP!

These threads become a bore when one person multi/multi-posts.

Wonderful! R13

My orgasm spurts out at 16.40!

The definition of kitschy would be an album that came out for kids (1980s?). It was a bunch of classical music combined together in a one track song kind of thing. Oh dear, I’ve forgotten what it was called. Someone help me out on this one!

"Hooked on Classics," perhaps, R92?

You are right R4, R10 and R28. I ration Tchaikovsky and enjoy his fabulousness to special occasions.

Theme from Swan Lake

While we're talking Khachaturian, the adagio from Spartacus.

I’m sure you recognize this lovely melody as “Stranger in Paradise”. But did you know that the original theme was from the Polovstian Dance #2 by Borodin?

The poster up above reminded me of one my favorite waltzes, which I wish to hell I didn't associate with that shitshow Eyes Wide Shut:

R19 I remember my mom had this 45 as kid which was knock off of Grieg’s piano concerto called Asia Minor by Kokomo. i used to turn the 45 to 78 so it played even faster. Grieg must have turning over in his grave.

R86, that march played over the opening credits of Colonel Redl, one of the best gay movies ever (albeit a depressing one with the requisite suicide).

J'adore every classical piece on this thread. My contribution is Fauré's *Les Berceaux*.

Another vote for "Nessun Dorma".

What's particularly irritating about this is that opera generally leaves me pretty cold - and the one big exception happens to be the biggest cliche.

thank you, OP. what a lovely way to spend 15 minutes.

I've never heard of Colonel Redl. How is it a gay movie?

R79 Mentioned the 'Carnival of the Animals'. The 'Aquarium' sequence is my favorite, used in the opening and closing credits of 'Days of Heaven'.

So you don't have to go looking.

OP for my money Satie's piano works are about the loveliest music ever written.

Thanks R101. Love the Lieder.

r104

It's about the real-life case of an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army who was blackmailed into being a spy on account of his homosexuality.

thank you, r109

It's not at all kitschy but my favorite piece and performance is Verdi: Messa di Requiem- Abbado, Scotto, Horne, Pavarotti, Ghiaurov Roma 1970.

It's a Hungarian-German film the 80s, R104, based on real historical figure, Alfred Redl, an intelligence officer in the Prussian Army before WW1. He came from very humble roots in Poland I believe, but managed to rise quickly through the ranks to a command position. He was also a closeted gay man whose secret was discovered by the Tsarist military intelligence ane used to blackmail him into becoming a spy. When his treason was discovered, his CO gave him the option of committing suicide rather than facing disgrace, trial and likely execution, and he shot himself, about a year before the assassination of the Archduke in Sarajevo which triggered WW1.

The events became a play, A Patriot For Me, by John Osborn, which is a pretty homophobic portrait, and which was used as material for the movie, which took a more sympathetic view. The film gives him a secret love in the form of his straight best friend, an invention of the director, and the unconsummated relationship is depicted in more romantic than sexual terms, and it's suggested that his frustration and seeking of relief in other outlets are what lead to his downfall. Though it's fictionalized, there may be a real element to this angle.

It was the film that launched the career of Klaus Maria Brandauer, one of the most interesting actors of the last 30-some years, Baron Blixen in Out of Africa for you "M" fans.

^^^^forgot to mention, it won a bunch of awards and was nominated for a Foreign Film Oscar but can't remember if it won.

I love Karen’s version of the Gounod Ave Maria. Her voice is divine.

thank you, r112. I wonder why this film is never mentioned when 'gay films' are catalogued in magazine articles. I've never heard of it.

Bugs Bunny - Rhapsody Rabbit

The Tchaikovsky piano concerto used throughout "The Great Lie." Sometimes interpolated into the score.

Two of my favorites, the second inspired by the first: first, Massenet's beautiful and yet kitschy "Meditation" from the opera "Thais"--depicting an Alexandrian prostitute's conversion to Christianity in late antiquity.

And inspired by Massenet's "Meditation," Shostakovich wrote the beautiful "Romance" section of his "Gadfly" suite--probably the most accessible and nostalgic piece of music he ever wrote. And yes, kitschy too.

It is very famous as the theme music for the 80s British TV show "Reilly Ace of Spies"

r87 I think you meant Leo Delibes, not Frederick Delius. (Although, the latter's "A Summer Night on the River" & "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" would both fit the thread.)

I love Satie's Nocturnes, but I don't know if they'd be considered kitschy--maybe cliched is a better word? And only in the Pascal Rogé version.

Beethoven's fifth is still one of my favourite pieces of music, and yes I'm a version snob: only Carlos Kleiber.

And how about that Charles Dutoit!

I don't know if I'd use "kitschy" to describe any of these "war horse" masterworks. Overplayed or predictable sure, but hardly kitsch.

A few of my choices:

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Danse Macabre

Gliding Dance of the Maidens from the Polovtsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor (Stranger in Paradise)

Chopin's A flat major Polonaise. Op. 53 (you know the one)

Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun

The White Peacock

Daphnis et Chloe. Suite no. 2

Scheherazade

Song of India from Sadko

The Swan from Carnival of the Animals

Adagio from the Spartak ballet.

classical musician here, but I'll admit a true inexplicable love for this adagio form "spartacus"

The Flower Duet from Lakmé.

And I don't care how overplayed Barber's Adagio for Strings is (and it is) but it is a beautiful, elegiac, moving piece of art.

This is slightly off topic, but on topic as well. I was having tea today in a hotel tea room and their atmospheric classical music was Swan Lake immediately followed by Ride of the Valkyries. It was so random it was hilarious. I loved it.

Ottorino Resphigi OWNS this thread!

I agree with R122 that many of the beautiful music listed on this thread are not kitschy, but overplayed.

Dvorak's HUMORESQUE is kitschy. And I still love it.

I love classical, especially the really old stuff, like Jo Stafford, Bea Wain, Artie Shaw.

Smetana The Moldau

Pay attention (R130)

(R26)

How are you defining kitsch for classical music?

[quote]How are you defining kitsch for classical music?

Most people seem to have worked it out - we're at post number 132.

r128 disagrees.

Sorry R131. Somehow I missed that post.

In R122's vein, The Nocturnes by Chopin, esp the Artur Rubinstein recordings.

I do like Ravel and many of the famous French composers (particularly Rameau), but then I'm fond of French symbolism and ballet as well. Is everything he wrote considered treacly kitsch, now?

'Daphnis Et Chloé' plays fairly 'Disney' in contemporary ears, but I sometimes enjoy its dreamy swooping dynamic. Played with clear sincerity but also with tones of dark doubting, it can sound spellbinding.

Bernstein's Candide Overture, intentionally kitschy yet endearing

Wake up, everyone! Have you forgotten "The Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's opera "La Gioconda" used to accompany the dancing elephants in "Fantasia" and also used by Spike Jones? A co-worker of mine was going to see "La Gioconda" at the Met, and I reminded her of the "Fantasia" connection; she said she's glad I did, otherwise she would have had a laughing fit.

well, hippos, that is.

There are also elephants in the Disney version.

Yes, and alligators too! Amazing how twisted the folks at Disney were back in 1940! It's fabulous and practically defines kitsch.

Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony No 1"

A classic that has not been mentioned yet. Elgar concerto for cello. Jacqueline du Pre....

Wasn't there a woman cellist who used to perform topless -- perhaps even in Carnegie Hall? Was that considered kitsch? A few classical guy musicians and singers posed topless to further their careers, though it didn't seem to work that much (unless they went full-frontal in opera, like a few did).