Five of the most moving to me, one per composer, with my current reference recording of each:

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Furtwängler/PO, 1952)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 "Choral" (Toscanini/NBCSO, 1952)
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished" (Kleiber/WPO, 1972)
Mozart: Requiem (Böhm/WPO, 1971)
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Fedoseyev/Pletnev/PO, 1998)

 

Schubert String Quartet 15
Tchaikovsky Symphony 6
Grosse Fuge
Beethoven Op 132 movement 1
Handel Messiah
Beethoven Symphony 9
Beethoven Symphony 5
Handel Israel in Egypt
Bruckner Symphony 7
Bruckner Symphony 9
Beethoven Op 131

 

Claudio Monteverdi - Magnificat from Vespro della Beata Vergine!!

There is a very good interpretation on YouTube (Filharmonia Narodowa), this piece is absolutely unbelievable for me...

 

Some good examples:

Mozart - Requiem in D minor - Lacrimosa
Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 - Movement 4 - fugato
Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 4 - Movement 1 - fugue
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 - Movement 4 - coda (the: "The return home & end credits" moment)
Williams - Schindler's List theme

 

Oh, I am full tears and moved into wordless languishiness by a piece of music, its name is music. There is only one piece I love most, it is called music. It has only one name, and needs only one name, it is music.

 

Brilliant.

Ufzitztxy

 

Strauss' Metamorphosen

 

In Chronological order, because ranking how moving something is would seem a little bit odd. However, I have put in bold my 5 favourites.

Bach: Goldberg Variations - Listening to the entire piece beginning to end is often a transcendental experience.
Bach: St Matthew Passion - Opening chorus + Klemperer is my recipe for being moved.
Bach: Art of Fugue - 'Moving' is an understatement when it comes to the final fugue. (played by Gould)
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater - very sublime.
Mozart: Requiem - I usually just listen to the Kyrie, but God, it is heavenly music
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 - The opening violin notes sound like stabs in the heart.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 - The storm clearing away to the 5th movement is a hypnotising moment for me.
Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor - It's a very magical 5 mins of music.
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 - Such a well constructed, moving work.
Schumman: Kinderszenen - It's childlike simplicity in the 1st and Traumerie movement is very moving.
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 - The coda of the 1st movement and the last 5 minutes..... No words. Only chills
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 - I still can't get over the finale.
Mahler: Symphony No. 10 Finale - I find this the most moving of them all. Especially the last chord.
Elgar: Cello Concerto 1st movement - Very dark, nostalgic, and
Strauss: Metamorphosen - Strauss could't attend the premier, surely that tells you something.
Gorecki: Symphony 3 movement 1 - This movement I find absolutely devastating (I don't much care for the others)
Arvo Pårt: Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten - The 'good' type of atmospheric.

 

For now:

Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Pärt: Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten
Schmidt: Symphony No. 4
Schnittke: Cello Concerto No. 1 and Piano Quintet
Schubert: String Quintet (for the 2nd movement)
Shostakovich: String Quartets 8 and 15 and Viola Sonata
Tavener: The Protecting Veil

 

The ones that have the most effect on me depend on the emotion felt, but usually these never fail to move me in some way:

Elation - Beethoven 9 (all of it, but especially the 4th movement CODA)
Perseverance - Shostakovich 5 (4th mvt)
Playful - Haydn 102 (4th mvt) or 88 (4th mvt)
Happy - Beethoven Violin Concerto (3rd mvt)
Serenity - Mozart Clarinet Concerto (2nd mvt) or Dvorak NWS (2nd mvt)
Melancholy - Dvorak Cello Concerto (2nd mvt)
Adrenaline Rush - Beethoven 7 (4th mvt)
Sadness - Tchaikovsky 6 (4th mvt)
Foreboding - Beethoven 7 (2nd mvt)
Loving - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (1st mvt)
Struggle - Beethoven 3 (1st mvt)
Angst - Mozart's Requiem (all of it)
Macabre - Berlioz Symphony Fantastique (5th mvt)
Grandiose - Holst The Planets (Jupiter, especially the chorale)
Hope - Copland Fanfare for the Common Man

 

Threnody for the people of Hiroshima - Penderecki
Adagio for strings - Samuel Barber
Quartet for the End of Time - Olivier Messiaen

 

Most Moving Pieces of Classical Music

Any pieces played by a marching band in a street parade.

 

Anything Joan Sutherland sings.

 

In no particular order:

Beethoven 3rd Symph. From the first note to the last. I totally surrender to it.
Beethoven 3rd and 4th Piano Concertos . I am in love with them
Beethoven Violin Concerto Paradise...
Mahler 5th Symphony Heaven on Earth
Smetana "The Moldau". One word: Beautiful...
Schumann 4th Symphony. when played well, the deepest emotional symphony on earth.
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet "Dance of the Knights" I like Shakespeare, and this peace is very Shakespearean!
Wagner Tannhäuser Overture. Always calming, very soothing, kind of therapeutical

Johann Strauß II "G'schicten aus dem Wienerwald" Have too many memories associated with it and Vienna, where I grew up and became interested in Classical music

 

Filharmonia Narodowa -- Tarnowski's interpretation of "Planets" is absolutely the best, ESPECIALLY the Neptune movement. Anyone know if there's a CD by them out? I've only heard it on YouTube.

 

Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto, 2nd movement. Lump in the throat every time.
Rachmaninov 2nd symphony, 3rd movement opening. That heartbreaking solo clarinet..
Beethoven piano sonatas Op.110, last movement. All human life is there.

What an old softie I have become!

 

Kreisler - Liebesfreud
Massenet - Meditation from Thais
Mahler - Symphony no. 5, 4th movement
Faure - Violin Sonata in A Major
Tchaikovsky - 5th symphony, slow movement
Chopin - Barcarolle for piano
Schumann - Fantasy for piano
Schubert - Great C Major symphony (no. 9) - Finale
Mendelssohn - Midsummer Night's Dream Overture
Franck - Violin/Piano Sonata, Finale
Verdi - Rigoletto Quartet
Wagner - Gotterdammerung, Finale
Rachmaninoff - Second Symphony, 3rd movement
Elgar - Enigma Variations, Nimrod