[science]

As far as I can tell - maybe I'm not using the search function correctly - this topic has never been done on this board!

(Please don't take "great" too seriously - I know a lot of you won't admit the possibility of "great pops" works if you do, and anyway, I only mean something like "famous" or, if it's not unforgivably redundant, "popular.")

This isn't a ranking (as far as I'm concerned; you do whatever you want and I won't object), just recommendations.

This is important to me, because I don't want to miss these works, and they're actually rather hard for me to find out about, and I want to know all of them if I can. Discussion usually centers on the more, perhaps, "serious" or "major" works. All of these scare quotes are necessary because, to me at least, "pops" are not inherently less worthy than any other kind of music - being mentioned as a pops work does not, to my mind, imply a criticism.

I'll start, just to save some work for the more knowledgeable here (I know that some of these are just crossover songs or very famous arias, but I don't mind if that's included - to me, inclusivity is more helpful than exclusivity):

Albinoni/Giazotto: Adagio
Bach: "Air on the G-string" (adopted from Orchestral Suite #3)
Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 532
Bach (attrib.): Minuet in G, from Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Bach/Gounod: Ave Maria
Bach/Wilhelmj: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (from Cantata #147)
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Beethoven: Fur Elise
Bizet: Carmen Suite
Boccherini: Minuet from String Quintet op. 11.5
Borodin: Prince Igor
Brahms: Hungarian Dances
Brahms: Cradle Song ("Lullaby")
Chabrier: Espana
Debussy: Clair de lune, from Suite bergamasque
Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Dvorak: Slavonic Dances
Elgar: Pomp & Circumstance Marches (#1 especially)
Faure: Pie Jesu, from Requiem
Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite, especially "Morning" from #1
Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite
Handel: Hallejujah Chorus, from Messiah
Handel: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, from Solomon
Kabalevsky: The Comedians
Khachaturian: Gayane Suite
Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite
Massenet: Meditation, from Thais
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies (at least #2)
Mendelssohn: Wedding March, from Midsummer Night's Dream
Mouret: Rondo (ie "Masterpiece Theater")
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Offenbach: Gaite parisiene
Offenbach: Overture, and Cancan, from Orpheus in the Underworld
Orff: O Fortuna, from Carmina Burana
Pachelbel: Canon
Puccini: Nessun Dorma, from Turandot
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
Ravel: Bolero
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Rossini: Overture to William Tell
Rossini/Respighi: La boutique fantastique
Sibelius: Tapiola
Smetana: Ma Vlast, especially "Vltava" ("The Moldau")
Strauss, Johann Sr.: The Radetzky March
Strauss, Johann Jr.: Waltzes, especially The Blue Danube, Kaiser-Waltzer, Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, and Morning Papers
Strauss, R.: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite
Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty Suite
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Suite
Weber: Invitation to the Dance
Wagner: Bridal Chorus, from Lohengrin
Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries, from The Valkyrie
Williams: Suite from Star Wars

So, that kind of thing....

 

[kv466]

Ok,...so I can't list any by name but I always enjoy it when it night at the pops or something like that and you've got the season tickets anyway so, yeah...fun to watch and enjoyable to listen to but me no very familiar.

 

[bigshot]

I really like Briitsh Light Classical works. I got a CD of it that said Volume One, but I never found a Volume 2. Leroy Anderson is great too.

 

[QuietGuy]

Warsaw Concerto - Addinsell
Spellbound Concerto - Rosza
Mississippi Suite - Grofe
Cowboys Overture - Williams
The Rievers - Williams

 

[GGluek]

Saint-Saens. Bacchanale from Samson et Delilah
Prokofiev. Knights Dance
? March of the Little Lead Soldiers
Waldteufel. Skaters waltz
Overtures to: Merry Widow, Bartered Bride, Midsummer Nights Dream, Figaro, William Tell, Candide,
March Slav
Chabrier Espana
Wei Berger. Polka and Fugue from Schwanda
Gounaud. Waltz from Faust
Academic festival overture
Egmont overture
Leroy Anderson anything
almost any Broadway medley
Suppe. Light cavalry overture etc.
Schoenberg. String Quartet No. 4
Til Eulenspiegel, Don Juan, Waltz sequence from Der Rosenkavalier
Kodaly. Galanta Dances, Hary Janos suite
Rodrigo. Concierto de aranjuaz
Britten Young Persons Guide
Berlioz overtures to Corsair, Beatrice et Benedic, Benvenuro Cellini, Royal Hunt and Storm, queen mab scherzo
Mendelssohn. Hebrides Overture, "Italian" Symphony
Maxwell Davies. Orkney Weddiing with Sunrise
Adams. Short ride in a fast machine
Wagner. Meistersinger Overture, Dance of the Apprentices
Rozsa Entrance of the Charioteers
. . .

 

[Nereffid]

There was a long-running show on BBC radio called "Your Hundred Best Tunes".
Wikipedia lists the 100 chosen by poll in 2003: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Hundred_Best_Tunes

 

[quack]

Alexander Borodin - In the Steppes of Central Asia
Johan Halvorsen - Entry of the Boyars
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Mlada: Cortage (Procession of the Nobles)
Julius Fučík - Entrance of the Gladiators
Sergei Prokofiev - Love for Three Oranges: March
Jeremiah Clarke - Trumpet Voluntary
Amilcare Ponchielli - La Gioconda: Dance of the Hours
Manuel de Falla - El Amor Brujo: Danza ritual del fuego
Ethelbert Nevin - Water Scenes (Op. 13) No. 4 Narcissus
Juventino Rosas - Sobre las Olas (Over the Waves)
Arturo Márquez - Danzón No. 2

 

[GGluek]

Also Prokofiev. Classical Symphony, Lt. Kije, march from Love for Three Oranges, Peter and the Wolf

 

[brianvds]

What exactly is the definition of a pops work?

 

[Nereffid]

What exactly is the definition of a pops work?

I'd define it one way as a piece of classical music that someone who might claim to know nothing about classical music would recognise, often because it's been used in an advert, TV or movie. This doesn't cover all such works, and I suppose in recent years classical music doesn't get used that way so much and the pieces might not be so recognisable.

 

[GGluek]

What exactly is the definition of a pops work?

Also used to be called "light classics." Works that in the U.S. would be played at concerts by the Boston Pops etc. for audiences wanting entertainment more than serious fare (often with refreshments) to bridge between the serious winter concert season and summer festivals. Kind of an institutionalized Vienna New Years concert but with a wider variety of music. Music that was often liked / recognized / or could be counted upon to be minimally disliked by people who weren't necessarily hard core classical audiences.

 

[Nereffid]

could be counted upon to be minimally disliked

Oh, I like that one!

 

[BBSVK]

Let's revive this old thread. It's inspiring

 

[fbjim]

classical poptimism!

I am totally not too up my rear end to resist Rossini overtures and orchestral excerpts.

 

[BBSVK]

The 4-th movement from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor - Ode to Joy.

Just heard it as a children's performance on our school meeting :-D

 

[hammeredklavier]

(number of views: 243,558,424 / 30 Jan 2011)

(number of views: 103,996,777 / date of upload: 5 Mar 2009)

(number of views: 112,823,031 / date of upload: 22 Dec 2010)

(number of views: 199,575,210 / date of upload: 19 Jun 2013)

 

[geralmar]

 

[Highwayman]

Faure: Pie Jesu, from Requiem

I almost got offended by the inclusion of this. This is certainly not "pops" material for me. If I`ll have to name a Fauré piece it would be Pavane. Things like BWV 565 and the excerpts from the Orchestral Suites are probably my favourite pops works. Also, I generally enjoy "cowpat" works.

 

[Alfacharger]

When I saw the topic title I thought about some fun commisions by the Boston Pops

Peter Schickele as PDQ Bach.

Henry Mancini

Peter Maxwell Davies

Walter Piston

 

[Rogerx]

I remember this for two thing, one a new member want to know what it was.
Two it was broadcast on the radio not so long on Belgium radio and they has complains that it 's not Classical so it should not be played at the classical channel.