Banging classical music suggestions?

[Euan Uzami]

A lot of the classical music you hear is pretty boring - soft, tuneless, nondescript violins but you get the occasional odd bit that is actually really banging - can anybody list any examples?
Ideally catchy melodies, loud bassoons, etc. 

[Wowbagger]

Disagrees with major premise.

[Jaded]

1812 Overture.

[nicknack]

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum by Olivier Messiaen is very banging - but there aren't many catchy tunes.

[Kim]

I agree with Wowbagger.

[Tewdric]

Some ideas:

Beethoven 5th and 9th symphonies
Mahler 2nd symphony
Stravinsky The Firebird
Shostakovich 5th symphony
Bernstein Prelude, fugue and riffs
Wagner  Overture Die Meistersingern von Nuernberg
Verdi requiem

But don't bother unless you are prepared to invest some hours of concentration.  If you want wallpaper tune into Classic FM.

If you get to like a work and want to get to know it properly, buy the score and follow it while you listen.  It can be hard graft but you reap the rewards in connecting with the music.

[mcshroom]

I agree with Kim and Wowbagger.

Still, if you are after catchy bits and loud stuff: -

Ride of the Valkyries
1812 (especially the end)
O fortuna (Carmina Burana)
Pomp and Circumstance
Montagues and Capulets
Radetzky March
Mars (from the Planets)
William Tell Overture

that's a start from the top of my head

[Euan Uzami]

1812 Overture.

yes, that's the sort of thing I mean, cheers

[Lordy]

Not totally banging but for me the thieving magpie by Rossini is hard to beat.

[andrewc]

Shostakovich ?  The 7th could be classed as Banging I suppose....
Smetana - Ma Vlast
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring & the Firebird.

None of these could be described as boring 

Try some Part to chill out to...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/DL4wHdal0yc&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/DL4wHdal0yc&rel=1</a>

[mcshroom]

I'll probably be told it's not classical enough (containing some electric instruments as well), but a modern one I like is 'An American Symphony', from the film 'Mr Holland's Opus'

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/dYo67-n7E-Q&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/dYo67-n7E-Q&rel=1</a>

[Lordy]

1812 Overture.

yes, that's the sort of thing I mean, cheers

If that floats your boat try the Barber of Seville-overture.  Odd but perhaps olden days version of prodigy 'smack my bitch up' (as you can see an a closest Rossini fan).

[Biggsy]

Organ.  You want a big organ.

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=famous+exciting+organ+music&oq=famous+exciting+organ+music&gs_l=hp.3..33i29l3.1489.8314.0.8586.27.20.0.7.7.0.207.2299.6j13j1.20.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.2.hp.nUuzHmIbInc&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41867550,d.d2k&fp=cb9df04a10e3c0b7&biw=1279&bih=862

[Basil]

A lot of the classical music you hear is pretty boring - soft, tuneless, nondescript violins

Eh? 

OK, you're after what my boys call "Heavy Mental Classical"

<whole lot of Prokofiev and Rachmaninov links redacted>  You find 'em

[Exit Stage Left]

The Dies Irae from the Verdi Requiem, Heather's choir are combining to do it with two other choirs in Bolton this year. http://www.cecilians.org.uk/cecilians/verdi2013.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY

[clarion]

Some ideas:

Beethoven 5th and 9th symphonies
Mahler 2nd symphony
Stravinsky The Firebird
Shostakovich 5th symphony
Bernstein Prelude, fugue and riffs
Wagner  Overture Die Meistersingern von Nuernberg
Verdi requiem

That's a pretty good list.  I'd add The Rite of Spring to the Stravinsky, and Sibelius to the list of composers.

[spesh]

"Sunrise" from Also Sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)
Toccata and Fugue for organ in A minor (Bach)
In The Hall Of The Mountain King (Edvard Grieg)
Carmen - Prelude to Act 1 (Bizet)
The Sorceror's Apprentice (Dukas)
Sabre Dance (Aram Khachaturian)

[Biggsy]

Toccata and Fugue for organ in A minor (Bach)

That's one I was thinking of.  Whack yer sub-woofer up.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_FXoyr_FyFw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_FXoyr_FyFw&rel=1</a>

[Exit Stage Left]

Clearly there's a big demand for this sort of thing, and Raymond Gubbay has the market covered.
http://www.raymondgubbay.co.uk/whatson/classical-spectacular-march-2013

[Wowbagger]

Toccata and Fugue for organ in A minor (Bach)

That's one I was thinking of.  Whack yer sub-woofer up.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_FXoyr_FyFw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_FXoyr_FyFw&rel=1</a>

Except, as the clip demonstrates, it's in D minor (I've also heard Maxim Vengerov transcribe it for violin, in which case it's in G minor). There are suggestions that it may have originally been a violin piece that was later transcribed to organ.

It is currently thought that this work is probably not by Bach at all as it's so different from anything else he composed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565 refers.

[Juan Martín]

Night on Bald Mountain - Mussorgsky (definitely)
Overture: Ruslan and Ludmilla - Glinka (perhaps, I haven't hear it for years)

[rafletcher]

You could try the not-really-classical  "Classical Gas", or the "Sky" albums from John Williams & co.

[tiermat]

1812 Overture.

yes, that's the sort of thing I mean, cheers

If that floats your boat try the Barber of Seville-overture.  Odd but perhaps olden days version of prodigy 'smack my bitch up' (as you can see an a closest Rossini fan).

The Babrber of Seville would be my recommendation.  Ideal for car-oke...

[Toady]

I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about classical music but I do sometimes listen to Shostakovitch's Leningrad Symphony precisely because it's bangin'.  I chose this after making a request almost identical to the OP of a good friend who worked in the classical music business many years ago.  Whether it's more or less bangin' than the other suggestions I have no idea.

[CAMRAMan]

I agree that the music from Carmen offers great variety and includes some rousing stuff, as does the Peer Gynt suite by Grieg. Ravel's Bolero certainly builds up to a crescendo and is a really great experience when you see it live from a few feet away, as you could when the CBSO were based at the Town Hall in Brum.