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[rippingdragon]

Been listening to a lot of epic post-rock stuff lately and figured it was time to give classical music another shot.  Any recommendations for epic classical and choral music?  It would be fantastic if you could recommend albums/CDs as well as opposed to artists.  Went into the record store and was just overwhelmed by the selection before me.  From what little classical music I've heard I do enjoy the stuff that is very intense bordering on cheesy (only cheesy because its been spammed around pop culture so much I guess) like O Fortuna, Ride of the Valkyries, 1812 overture etc...

Thanks for your time in advance!

[Phalanxe]

Debussy's String Quartet in G minor is pretty great.  But, you should probably listen to everything you can by him.  Probably.

[John Curtin]

The Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem is pretty bombastic and 'epic'.  Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" is a winner also, and seems to be something of a favourite around here.

I also recommend Bruckner's eighth symphony (if you're getting bored, skip to the last movement, but try to give the whole thing a full listen-through at least once.  It's eighty-odd minutes long, by the way).  Also, Mahler's sixth symphony starts and ends with loudness, energy and dread.  There are some quiet moments but really, what is music without contrast?  I mean, it's not like post-rock is all loud driving intensity by any stretch of the imagination.

I also always seem to recommend Brahms' fourth symphony, and the last movement fits your bill perfectly I'd say.  Also, his first symphony is a good one for this sort of mood too, though it's optimistic rather than dreadful.

Going waaay back to Baroque music, I'd check out "Zadok the priest" from Handel's Coronation Suites.  It takes a while to build, but the instrumental opening goes through some of the most delicious chord changes in my opinion.  And then the chorus blasts out and it's just wonderful.

Jumping forward to Beethoven (since he invented this kind of music, Zadok notwithstanding), there's the old warhorse that is the 5th symphony.  However, you maybe aren't familiar with the third and fourth movements, which are great.  It's one of the few third movements that are truly great listening on their own (usually they are, or rather were, 'lighter' interludes between the slow calm of the second movement and the energy of the finale).  Also, there's the 7th symphony; I'm guessing you'll probably take to the second movement first (it's in the style of funeral march), however I'd suggest giving the first movement a lot of listens, until you either fall in love with it, or are so sick of it you never want to hear any orchestral music again.

If you take a liking to some of the Beethoven here, I whole-heartedly recommend you pick up a copy of a recording of the whole 9 symphonies.  The Deutsche Grammophon 5 disc recording by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic is probably the most widely-available, and is usually pretty reasonably priced (I see it everywhere for around AU$35), and it's probably the most 'famous' and widely used recording of any classical music (for instance, this is the recording you hear in A Clockwork Orange).  I would suggest that pretty much anyone who's vaguely interested in any kind of western music should probably own a copy of a Beethoven cycle.

So there are maybe some starting points.  If you're unsure about which recording to buy, going for Naxos is usually a very good choice.  Don't be put off by the ridiculously low price (remember, there's usually no copyright on music that's hundreds of years old) or the awful cover art.  The sound quality and performance standards are almost always at the top of the range of what's available.  In any case it's always a good starting point to get exposed to a wide range of classical music if you're new to it.

[IronOxide]

Wagner has a history of epically composed works, he made full use of the largest orchestras available (parts of Der Ring des Nibelungen had seven harps included in the score), and demands the strongest voices required of the time. It seems like you've already discovered Die Walküre, so you may want to take it upon yourself to look at some of the other ones in the cycle (Das Rheingold, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung).

Our next stop on our tour of ridiculously large orchestral music is The Planets by Gustav Holst. I feel like a broken record, recommending it any time someone asks for some kind of classical music, but it's one of the grandest pieces of music written in the twentieth century. It contrasts the highs and the lows so dramatically that when he cuts out the meter and tells the orchestra to play a quadruple forte, you are going to feel it.

Finally, we have Incantation and Dance by John Barnes Chance. One of the most respected and popular pieces for a concert band, it starts with a simple theme that he morphs and changes as the piece changes from its original slow flute feature to the full band's force, it shows the power of the Concert Band's sound and the quality of its repertoire. This one might be slightly harder to find a recording of, but often times the traditional concert band gets little love in classical music threads, so I am going to include it.

[casull]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/405faf
Eric Whitacre - Cloudburst

He's a modern choral composer. The title track is probably the most 'epic'.

[mpknighit]

Epic, you say? Let's see...

Well, Gustav Holst's suite The Planets has been mentioned already, and I think that's about as epic as you can get. I would also listen to Wagner, as mentioned above, and not just the Ride of the Valkyries - there's lots more great music, even in just that one opera. If you've seen Disney's Fantasia 2000 you've heard Respighi's Pines of Rome (think flying whales); if not, go out and give it a listen. The final movement in particular might be the sort of thing you're looking for.

Try the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique (it usually goes by the French title, but I suppose there's a chance you might see it as 'Fantastic Symphony' or something like that). The first three movements are a little slow, and honestly you can skip those if you want - it's the last two movements that people are familiar with, anyway.

I think someone mentioned Mahler already, and really you can't go wrong with his music, it's fantastic. That being said, it's not always like O Fortuna or Ride of the Valkyries, there's a lot of much gentler stuff - beautiful, but probably not 'epic' in that way.

In addition to Night on Bald Mountain, you might also try the finale from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which is called 'The Great Gate of Kiev.' (If you like that, consider listening to the whole piece.)

OK, this is getting long, so just a few more suggestions. Saint-Saens' Symphony no. 3, usually called the 'Organ Symphony,' has a great moment about halfway through the second movement, when the organ comes in by itself on a loud, sustained chord, followed by the string section and then the brass in a triumphant fanfare. (If you've ever seen the movie 'Babe,' you might recognize the theme.) The rest of it is great, too, but that moment always gets to me.

Stravinsky simply cannot be passed over on a list of intense music - his Firebird ballet music has a lot of it, as does Rite of Spring (alternate French titles: L'oiseau de feu and Le sacre du primtemps, respectively). Bear in mind that Rite of Spring is considerably more 'modern' than Firebird; I guess it bothers some people.

FINALLY, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote a lot of music that is not only intense, but also by turns witty, despairing, beautiful, harsh, and just about anything else you could think of. His symphonies are great stuff - some possibilities are Symphony no. 5 (probably the best-known), no. 7 (I would call this the most 'epic' one), no. 10 (the second movement and parts of the last movement are downright terrifying), and perhaps the Festive Overture (much happier than the others). If you like chamber music at all, his string quartets are simply not to be missed. The 8th quartet in particular is worth listening to.

Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about choral music. I like John Rutter's religious choral works, but I don't know whether I'd call them 'epic.'

I hope you find something somewhere in that tangled mess of references. Do keep us posted!

[the-artful-dodger-rodger]

John Williams stuff can be epic, like the score to Phantom Menace, some other epic stuff like Gustav Holst's The Planets. I will found more epic classical music after I search some more.

[Mnementh]

John Williams is awfully derivative, I'd go so far as to call him a bit of a rip-off artist. 

Antonín Dvorák's 8th and 9th symphonies are both pretty excellent.  Prokofiev's piano concertos are also pretty epic, as is Rachmaninov's piano concerto no 2.

[wm_star]

You took the words out of my mouth, Daniel - I was just going to suggest Dvorak and Rachmaninov.

Also, going back to Beethoven, I feel the need to mention my personal very favorite Beethoven, the Egmont Overture.  The entire Egmont suite (Op. 84) is maybe a bit much if you're just trying to get into classical - it was written as music for a Johann von Goethe play about the Count of Egmont, and the whole thing is fabulous, but it is the length of an entire 17th-century stage play.  But the Overture is pretty short and sweet, beautiful and powerful and not all that well-known by the "layperson", 8 to 9 minutes of pure awesomeness in my opinion.

[rippingdragon]

You guys are champions!  Thanks for the overwhelming number, thoroughness, and detail of all of your recommendations. 

Thanks especially to John Curtin for the Naxos tip.  Saves me money and piss-farting around wondering which copy/recording to buy.

Got a stack of albums to make it through now.  Very excited by the way some of you described some of these pieces.  Will let you know how the listening goes.

Thanks again!

[John Curtin]

Let us know what you like/dislike, so we can help you out more if you're looking to get some more stuff.

[RyanT]

Naxos recordings are pretty cheap, but it's usually pretty poor recording quality.  However, at my university, we have a free membership (well, probably payed for in the fees) to Naxos online, so we can stream any recording in the Naxos catalog.  If you go to school still or yet or whatever, check it out.  It might be worth it to find out.

Also, the nice thing about classical music is that a lot of libraries, if they have cd collections, will have lots of these recordings, so you can check out a good recording for free to hear what the piece is like instead of buying a halfway decent Naxos cd.  I mean, even if you like it, you'll probably end up buying another better recording sometime soon anyway.

[John Curtin]

I absolutely disagree as to Naxos.  The recording quality isn't the same as you get on, say Chandos or Harmonia Mundi, but they usually cost 4 times more.  There are always a few clunkers, but the vast majority of Naxos discs are of decent-to-good quality, and for someone who's just discovering classical music and wants to be exposed to a wide range of music without breaking the bank, they are ideal.

I don't know about the online versions though - chances are they're highly compressed for streaming so it's no surprise if they sound a bit flat.

[thenosebleedkid]

Dvorak - new world symphony
Tchaicosky (I know I spelled it wrong sorry!) all symphonies, particularily the 1st and 4th movements of 5, personal favorite.

[flamingtangerine]

i have quite a few individual pieces that are quite epic
saint-saens organ symphony has already been mentioned but it deserves another visit, what could be more epic then a giant organ belting it out at top volume? Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture is about the most epic and exciting piece of classical music there is, hell it even uses cannons as musical instruments.
as for choral pieces i think Puccini's Nessun Dorma is one of the more epic pieces that i can think of.

[objectnull]

One band you should definitely check out is E.S. Posthumus, they are about as epic as it gets. Their album Unearthed is amazing.

E.S. Posthumus : Pompeii     http://lisa.fadedsky.net/stuff/esposthumus/Pompeii.mp3

Also, Clint Mansel (music for Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain) and John Murphy (28 Days Later, 28 Weeks later) are always good. Not as choral as E.S. Posthumus but still pretty epic.

Clint Mansel: Lux Aeterna     http://upload.uraltb.ru/Anubys/Music/Clint%20Mansell-%20Requiem%20For%20A%20Dream.mp3

John Murphy: In The House - In a Heartbeat      http://www.twango.com/media/In-quietude.public/In-quietude.10058

[casull]

Hah, you ask for epic choral- I'm almost tempted to recommend Blind Guardian's A Night at the Opera.
Does layering count?