Here are my contenders for the greatest piece of all time:

Polonaise Op. 53 "Heroic" - Chopin
Ballade No. 1 Op. 23 - Chopin
Ballade No. 4 Op. 52 - Chopin
Barcarolle Op. 60 - Chopin
Scherzo No. 2 Op. 31 - Chopin
Sonata No. 3 Op. 58 - Chopin

If I had to pick just one of these, I'd go with the Ballade No. 4 Op. 52.

I go for:
Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2
The Grand Galop Chromatique
Chopin op10 no4
Flight of the bumblebee(Cziffra)
Moonlight Sonata movement 3

If it had to be only one of them, I would choose:
As a crowd pleaser: Flight
As a showy: Grand Galop
As a techinical marvel: Chopin op10 no4
As musicality: Hungarian Rhapsody no2

Random. I linked to this performance that I found because it's awesome.

BTW.....I didn't even check to see if Kreger is the pianist or the cellist.

Wanna tell us about him?

Go no further!

The Heroic Polonaise would be my runner-up.

I think I love you

Good one.

I agree. Some performances really give me that spine-tingling feeling / raise the hairs-on-your-neck-and goosebumps-all-over when the choirs enter pp singing "Alles Vergangliche..." and then it all just gets better and better up to the final fff passages with everybody singing their lungs out, the orchestra thundering away and to top it all off the extra brass choir sounding out the theme over everything else. Did you know the score includes a piano part as well as parts for organ, celeste, and harmonium? Although the organ part is fairly unexciting I've always wanted to be the organist for a performance. I sang in the choir years ago for a performance in Adelaide under Henry Krips and can still remember the bass part throughout. Has the version under James Levine been recorded and issued? THe Haitink version is my yardstick. We could have a whole thread on the 8th but this is a piano site after all so it would be a bit off-focus.

I just cannot make up my mind right now. There is so much music I love...

Come on guys , it's OBVIOUSLY Justin Bieber "Baby"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4

This is even "better" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxUey1tSqJg

Some contenders:
Chopin: Barcarolle, polonaise fantasie
Beethoven: 3rd symphony, waldstein sonata
Bach:mass b minor, Goldberg's, brandenburgs
Mozart:Figaro, don Giovanni , k330, symph. 39 40 41 36 29
Mend: Octet
Vivaldi: 4 seasons


This is impossible!

No, it's this:



Don't laugh. The trio is one of the most magnificent tunes ever written, and even such a master as Mahler never matched that exquisitely expert orchestration.

Elgar's vision summed up a whole period in time, and like Mahler, his music is very pertinent to us today.

Ummm...yeah.

BACH PASSACAGLIA IN C MINOR

period.

Understood. The tune has too many 'graduation' associations for it to be taken seriously in the US.

Elgar has always suffered from the usual suspect British stigma. Empire, mauve decade, self-congratulation, Mahler without the comfortably obvious complications. So hypocritical. The British Empire (which, IMO has little to do with Elgar) even at its height was no match for America's awesome and unforgiving power.

Whatever happens in Egypt, America will make certain that the outcome is to her advantage, screw whatever the people of Egypt want. It's all on Fox News, don't blame me, okay?

Goodness, Jason.. Can't blame Yankeehood for that one. Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance is fine. But it is no Mozart Requiem or any such.
As for the people of Egypt, well wish them luck.. They will need it. They are likely moving from one dictatorship to another, America or Her Majesty non-withstanding..

Someone that I know. There's plenty of info to be found about him. I just thought you might've either known or known of him as he's quite a devoted Scriabinist.

I actually regard Elgar as one of the greatest composers of all.
Serenade for strings and sospiri are amazing, and of course the cello concerto!

Heart and Soul

Interesting -- because we 'might' think of a Scriabinist as someone who like fuzzy stuff and maybe even has a preference for fuzzing things up -- but that performance of the Chopin is sharp as a tack.

I feel like selecting the Pathetique or the Appassionata right now.

It changes, but today I vote for the Brahms' German Requiem.

Or Mozart's Requiem or even Allegri's Miserere (Mozart wrote it down after hearing it only once at the age of 12)...

That piece is wonderful!!

Ahahahha.. don't blame me, I've had certain influence lately.

Tongue-in-cheek Department.

Chopsticks.

Part of me really wants to say 'Hot Cross Buns'
Seriously though, umm, it varies, if I really had to pick, it'd possibly be the Hammerklavier Sonata. Or Chopin's Ballade in G Minor

Yes, good choice.

The greatest composition would have to either be Bach (non-piano) or Beethoven (piano). Simple as that. All else is subjective greatness.