Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima

cond. Penderecki, Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra

This is eerily horrible, so painful that it burns the skin of the soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSer6k-4zj0

Debussy: La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques

https://youtu.be/dmKulRzGd4g

This is one of my favourite recordings of this work. The Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder whips up the waves beautifully; it's delicate and fascinating, the oriental sea in all her incarnations. There isn't another recording that has the orchestral clarity of this one: really beautiful texture.

Another superb recording is with the French National Orchestra conducted by Emmanuel Krivine. This performance seems to delve into the fantastical, with la mer teeming with extraordinary creatures and sensations. It's wonderful playing.

https://youtu.be/OY-10vP22zI

Johann Strauss II - Wo die Zitronen blueh'n

Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn1S3YOFMGw

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major Op. 15

*played by Martha Argerich at 8 years of age*

Maybe not the best recording quality, but it was 1949 and it is so exciting (for me at least) to listen to little Martha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8qvQeXEAa4

And here she plays Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor Op.54 three years later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZKyHHJB3Gg

Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

https://youtu.be/Znz2Eu3uwDI

Again, I've chosen a performance with Sir Mark Elder conducting the Hallé Orchestra (live recording). It's delicate and sensuous and sheer magic.

As an alternative, here's Nureyev dancing like a god to it (the original choreography by Nijinsky). Oh mon dieu, mon dieu, mon dieu - animalistic, frank yet stylised, natural, yet very firmly rooted in the antiquity of this pastoral scene of the faun and the nymphs... I'm enraptured by this. It looks like a series of panels, painted in a neo-classical style, come to life.

https://youtu.be/2GqGVkfUip8

Mozart: Vorrei spiegarvi, o Dio, K. 418, (one of the Mozart concert arias), sung (live) by the peerless Edita Gruberova, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

https://youtu.be/iyyY7XNkDts

There are other wonderful coloratura sopranos who've recorded this, but this is the version to which I keep coming back.

Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

Performed by the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, the University Chorus and Alumni Chorus, and the Pacific Boychoir at the Mondavi Centre at UC Davis (June 2007)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEllLECo4OM

Just "O Fortuna" from "Carmina Burana":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons

Budapest Strings

Bela Banfalvi - Conductor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA

Something different...

Adrian von Ziegler - Darkness Eternal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfubPZzgd1Y