I've never really been much into choral stuff but of late I've run into a few pieces that absolutely blew my socks off.

While it's short, Mozart's Requiem In D Minor K626 - Dies Irae is absolutely amazing, and I'm looking to find more powerful stuff like this (for my tastes, the darker the better), so throw your 2p in

Up until now the only choral stuff like this I'd heard and liked had been Nobuo Uematsu's "One Winged Angel", John Williams' Duel of the Fates (Phantom Menace) and parts of Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings film scores. Oh, and of course Beethen's 9th Symphony.

EDIT: Uematsu's piece for those who are unfamiliar with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn71hIsm0U8

I recently went to see a performance of Verdi's Requiem. The Dies Irae in this requiem is amazing!

Agree with Verdi's Requiem. I also like Carmina Burana.

I known many pieces that I love, not all of them are orchestral or choral but here is small list of ones I love.

Shostakovich:
Chamber Symphony for String Opus 110a, String Quartet no.8 Opus 110
His Suite for Jazz Orchestra 1 Opus 38a
String Quartet no3

Bela Bartok:
Concerto for Orchestra

Beethoven:
Symphony No.7 in A major (Opus 92) (especially the 2nd movement)

Witold Lutoslawski:
Funeral Music for strings

Mozart:
Divertimenti K.136 K.137 and K.138
Symphony 25
Symphony 40
Requiem (Confutatis maledictis and Lacrimosa)

Prokofiev:
Romeo and Juliet (Dance of the Knights/Montagues and Capulets)

Vicente Gómez-Zarzuela y Pérez
Virgen del Valle

Ok I'll leave it with that.

I generally prefer works for small choir to large-scale stuff, so many of my favourites don't have orchestral accompaniment.

RVW's "Serenade to Music" is pure lushness.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!...

Verdi's "Four Sacred Pieces" is pretty spiffing. I sang it once surrounded by welsh tenors, so I was inaudible. Probably the best I ever sounded. Some others I have sung in which are damned good:
Orff - Carmina Burana (no surprise there)
Beethoven - 9th Symphony (of course)
Mahler - 8th Symphony (Wow)

Apart from these behemoths though, I too have a preference for smaller scale (preferably unaccompanied) choral works.

Certainly the moving choral experience I had was singing in one of the early peformances of War Requiem in 1966, though I have also enjoyed singing in 'Gerontius' a couple of times.
And I enjoy listening to Bachs B Minor Mass and St Matthew Passion.

Orchestralwise - Shost 10th 11th 12th Symphonies, Beethoven Eroica, and 'Concerto for Orchestra' by both Bartok and Lutoslawski.

Also by Beethoven...the Choral Symphony (No. 9) and the Choral Fantasia (seen as the forerunner to No.9)

Mozart...Mass in C minor; Laudate Dominum; The Requiem
Handel.. Messiah
Bach.. Christmas Oratorio
Fauré..Requiem, Cantique de Jean Racine

Also Allegri's Miserere
Tallis..Spem in Alium; If ye Love Me
Loads and loads more probably..

I know this won't go down too well with at least one forumite ( ) but I really love listening to Night on a Bare Mountain.

Good choices

I recently saw/listened a performance of Shotakovich's Symphony 10 in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
The program for the night was this:
Mussorgsky (orch. Shostakovich) Dawn on the Moscow River (Khovanshchina)

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E minor

Yeah, I enjoy Sea Symphony too, sang it many years ago in Harrogate. (With John Shirley Quirk as soloist)

Great - loads of stuff for me to have a listen to and put on the shopping list, thanks

Eroica is probably my favourite Beethoven work btw (I mentioned this in another thread a while ago)

Having recently attended a concert of The Sixteen singing works by James MacMillan, I am now a fan, and find the intricate harmonies and clashes quite haunting. It was in Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral where the acoustics are astounding and really suited this music.

I am also currently listening to Mozart's Requiem, which has inspired me to re-watch Amadeus as a lot of the Requiem music is played throughout this film!

I agree with Mozart and Verdi Requiems. Another great choral piece is Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast".

Chris

I know it's perhaps of a slightly "lighter" calibre than a lot of the works that have been mentioned, but I love Rutter's "Distant Land"...

"Feel The Spirit" is a fun piece too.

Chris

I love Mozart's Requiem.

Also: Shostakovich 5th Symphony
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto(s)
Handel's Messiah

I've never heard Mahler's 8th before but in the autumn I may have a chance of performing in it (being part of the children's choir), as part of a Cambridge University 800th year thing, with CUMS. Instead of 1000 singers they have 800! (Anyone else notice the recurring theme of 8?.... )

And it's so rarely done! Sancta Civitas is amazing too (Vaughan Williams) - I love the wonderful descent in "Babylon the Great is fallen". I haven't sung in either of these for about 30 years, and would love to have the chance again.

My knowledge of choral pieces is sadly limited, but I love Bach's St Matthew Passion.

Don't Creation and Elijah get a mention on anyone's lists but mine?

If you are after 'dark' music then the following might suit:

Orchestral (some of which include choir)
Tchaikovsky - Symphony no.6 'Pathetique'. (This is in my opinion one of the darkest pieces ever composed and it has one of the most powerful bassoon solos ever written. The subtitle 'pathetique' was added by Tchaikovsky's brother the day after the work's premier, and eight days before Tchaikosky's death.)
Benjamin Britten - Symphony for cello and orchestra.
Sibelius - Symphony no.4, 7 and Tapiola (the 3rd movement of the 4th Symphony has a hauntingly beautiful flute solo).
Vaughn Williams - Symphony no.7 'Antarctic' and Sea Symphony
Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms, Symphony in C.
Bruch - Violin concerto.

Choral
Maurice Greene - Lord, let me know mine end.
Kenneth Leighton - Solus ad victimam
Vierne - Messe Solennelle (the organ parts are outstanding)
Duruffle - Requiem
Rutter - Requiem (I find some parts of this very moving, but there are a lot of people who hate it)

Thanks, I will definitely check all those out.... My Classical CD collection is growing exponentially at the moment

Vierne - Messe Solennelle (the organ parts are outstanding)

We sang it last Sunday - the service lasted nearly two hours!

Maurice Greene and Durufle - yes, both great favourites.

2 Halle concerts from some years ago which are etched into my memory.
Shostakovich 10th conducted by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
A concert of Lutoslawski conducted by Lutoslawski (for which the hall was about 30% full )

Yes, but they're so well known I didn't think to mention them!

Favourite choral pieces....

Spem In Alium by Thomas Tallis

St Matthews Passion by Bach

We Shall See Him As He Is by John Tavener

Don't know where to begin with favourite orchestral pieces.....

I prefer piano music
(mozart's requiem is kinda cool though I guess...)

One of my favourites (because I've both sung and played in it) is Borodin's Polotsvian Dances. I also like the Verdi Requiem (played but not sung) and Spem in Alium (sung).

Bach- St Matthew Passion (sung in it ) Long but full of tunes.

Ok. I apologise in advance. You're probably all going to be moaning and groaning at how uneducated I am in the realms of orchestral music. Up until last year though, I wasn't really interested in music though, ok?

Right, here goes....

I really like Bolero, Sorcerer's apprentice, and The Planets (mainly because those are the only ones I've ever really heard being actually played... but shush).

Then my favourite is probably Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End. There, I've admitted it. It's the first proper thing I've really played with a lovely, big, talented (I didn't feel like I belonged there at all...) orchestra. Well, I'd played Walking in the Air, and a slow, slow version of the Nutcracker. But that was in the very beginner orchestra at school, and wasn't too great.

Do you like Beethoven's Choral Fantasia op.80 for Piano, Orchestra and Choir? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ryZAqqedw
This is one of my favourites!

Jacob.

Hmm... it's kinda cool I guess - thanks for the link