Sonata-allegro form is just so hot

October 13, 2005 11:12 PM

I am looking for sexy "classical" music.

For you fellow music nerds out there: Romantic and 20th century (or post-20th century) music would be preferred to classical, actually.

I'm looking for music that strikes the listener as being very sensual. Examples: the Tristan und Isolde overture by Wagner, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, the second scene of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, and the love duets in La Boheme.

posted by honeydew to Media & Arts (34 answers total)

Gnossiennes no. 1 by Eric Satie
posted by skylar at 11:37 PM on October 13, 2005

Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings is maybe not sexy per se, but the climax is positively /orgasmic/. Seriously. All who have heard this know what I mean. I'd check it out if I were you.
posted by rossination at 11:40 PM on October 13, 2005

Well it's technically baroque, but I've always thought Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor is of this category.
posted by epugachev at 11:45 PM on October 13, 2005

Well if you have ever watched the movie 10 with Bo Derek, I'm sure you can appreciate the sensuality of Ravel's Bolero. Reeds always seem to have that quality.
posted by JJ86 at 12:09 AM on October 14, 2005

Aram Khachaturian’s Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet Spartacus.
posted by misteraitch at 12:20 AM on October 14, 2005

As for stuff more in your time period of interest, how about Górecki's Symphony #3, some stuff from Villa Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras (particularly the Aria from #5, of course, but there's other stuff too), and maybe Bailero from Cantelouble's Chants d'Auvergne. I've never seen the movie Aria, but from my parents' descriptions it sounds like a bunch of the shorts that mad it up were rather sensual.
posted by epugachev at 12:20 AM on October 14, 2005

Seconding the Spartacus adagio; it's possibly the most lushly sensual piece of music ever written (IMHO). Some other good choices (some widely-recorded, some you may have to hunt down):

* Sergei Rachmaninov's second piano concerto (the second and third movements especially)
* The "intermezzo sinfonica" from Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana"
* The barcarolle from Jacques Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman"
* Most of Johann Strauss' waltzes, particularly "Tales from the Vienna Woods" and "Vienna Blood"
* Most of Fritz Kreisler's violin music (look especially for the "Midnight Bells" from "Der Opernball" and "Viennese Melody")
* Frederic Chopin's nocturnes for piano
* Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune"
* Camille Saint-Saëns' third symphony (the "Organ" symphony), and also the "Swan" from his "Carnival of the Animals"
* Michael Kamen's suite "The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms" (second and sixth movements in particular)
* The fourth movement (adagietto) from Gustav Mahler's fourth symphony
* Robert Farnon's Intermezzo for harp and strings
* The second movement of Howard Hanson's second symphony (aptly titled "Romantic")
* Frederick Delius' "Florida" suite (second and fourth movements particularly)
* Samuel Barber's violin concerto
* Maurice Ravel's "pavane pour une infante défunte"
* Franz Schubert's impromptus for piano

Let me know if you need more, I could keep at this all night ;)
posted by ubernostrum at 12:58 AM on October 14, 2005

"Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear. There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. "

-- Claude Debussy

Trois Nocturnes and La Mer are two of my favorites.
posted by speicus at 12:59 AM on October 14, 2005

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (Boult conducting is good).
posted by paperpete at 1:51 AM on October 14, 2005

You may fing good tunes on Piano society.
posted by vincentm at 2:37 AM on October 14, 2005

Are film scores 'classical'? I'm a music ignoramous so apologies if I'm off topic. Either way, I'm certainly going to lower the tone...

Some of the most sensuous music I've heard is on the soundtrack to In the Mood for Love. And of course, Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to The Mission.

Sorry if this isn't what you want. I must do something about my musical education...
posted by londonmark at 4:18 AM on October 14, 2005

We used the signature theme from Rachmanninof's "Variations on a Theme by Paganninni" as our wedding march. It's lush music. You can find it overused in movies a lot -- Christopher Reeve's "Somewhere in Time" used it, as well as a stupid jazz rendition of it in the otherwise good Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day".
posted by thanotopsis at 6:23 AM on October 14, 2005

I've always thought that Stravinksy's "L'Apres Midi d'une Faune" was an amazingly sensual work.
posted by bonehead at 6:32 AM on October 14, 2005

Brahms Piano Quartet in C Minor, Opus 60 changed my life. I heard it while driving on a country road at night, and pulled over to make sure I didn't drive out of range before it finished. Brahms is said to have composed it as a way to declare his love for Chopin's wife. The notes I read said something like "He played it, and she understood." You will too.
posted by alms at 6:53 AM on October 14, 2005

Check out Selenography by The Rachel's, a chamber music group on Quarterstick Records. Music for Egon Schiele is also good.
posted by rabbitsnake at 7:00 AM on October 14, 2005

Mendelssohn. Songs without words. That famous one in A flat is some powerful stuff.
posted by sfenders at 7:19 AM on October 14, 2005

...and that would be Op.38 number 6 I was thinking of. On searching for it, I find the sheet music is all there on the web! Wow. Now I need a printer.
posted by sfenders at 7:24 AM on October 14, 2005

Definitely got to go for "Claire De Lune," as said above.
posted by johngoren at 7:59 AM on October 14, 2005

Saint-Saens's Havanaise is the sexiest classical music you'll ever hear. Basically a sensual Cuban dance, writhing and melodic, moreso than the Habanera in Carmen. You can often find this on the same cd with Sarasate's Ziegeunerweizen (gypsy tunes), which is also pret-ty damn hawt!

Also, Edvard Grieg transcribed Slatter (Norwegian peasant songs) for piano. The results are very sensual if a bit moody. Might be hard to find recordings of these, however, as they are not what Grieg is generally known for.
posted by mds35 at 8:16 AM on October 14, 2005

Forget the overture, go for the Mild und Leise from Tristan and Isolde. There's your orgasm.
posted by matildaben at 8:37 AM on October 14, 2005

how about Górecki's Symphony #3

This would never do for me. I cannot imagine making love to music about the Holocaust. brrr
posted by jdroth at 8:46 AM on October 14, 2005

Khachaturian's Sabre Dance puts me in the mood.
posted by horsewithnoname at 9:08 AM on October 14, 2005

I second the Barber adagio.

Author Louis de Bernieres suggested that Beethoven's "Eroica" (3rd Symphony) should have been called "Erotica." (Ok, so it was a character in one of his novels that suggests this.)

Sibelius' "Swan of Tuonela" is very sad, but very sensual.

(Sorry that these aren't from your preferred time period. I seem to remember that my high-school impressions of the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" fit the bill. Note that it's soundtrack #2 that contains the instrumentals, not soundtrack #1, which has the songs.)
posted by CiaoMela at 9:09 AM on October 14, 2005

Here: Sensual Classics has many of the pieces recommended above and is a pretty good compilation (despite the horribly cheesy cover).
posted by widdershins at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2005

string quartet in F - ravel
posted by Satapher at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2005

Are film scores 'classical'?

Sometimes classical music appears in film scores, though a lot less frequently (IMO) than several decades ago (for example, a lot of people first heard Barber's 'Adagio' in "Platoon"). To many people, "Classical Music" means anything composed by Dead White European Men which an orchestra is playing, but the wikipedia entry defines the Classical era as between 1550 and 1825, predating motion pictures. The Romantic era came after the Classical.

And bonehead, "L'Apres Midi d'une Faune" (or "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun") is actually by Debussy (who characterized his music as Impressionistic) -- but I'd add sections of Stravinsky's "Firebird" to this list.

And I think Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is very sensuous; unfortunately, that music now evokes United Airlines.
posted by Rash at 10:18 AM on October 14, 2005

I've always thought that Stravinksy's "L'Apres Midi d'une Faune" was an amazingly sensual work.

"L'Apres Midi d'une Faune" is Debussy's, but Stravinsky did say "Mediocre composers borrow, great composers steal." (But some say he got that from Sir Thomas Beecham)
posted by Eothele at 10:55 AM on October 14, 2005

Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:33 AM on October 14, 2005

(horsewithnoname, you owe me a new keyboard.)

There's a famous duet from the opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes that's to die for. It figures prominently in a seduction scene in the film The Hunger. (Catherine Deneuve...there goes my afternoon's work.)
posted by alumshubby at 12:35 PM on October 14, 2005

Now I remember...it's the "Flower Duet." A couple of the links from this search have brief excerpts.
posted by alumshubby at 12:46 PM on October 14, 2005

Belkis, Queen of Sheba suite and Metamorphoseon by Ottorino Respighi. The first and third movements of the suite, in particular, are about as sensual as it gets. Seriously. Buy this CD. I think it's exactly what you're looking for.

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The linked recording is particularly recommended. One of my absolute favorite pieces of music of all time, and it doesn't get any more lush and gorgeous than this.

For something a little slinky and exotic, try the Bacchanale from Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila" or the Dance of the Seven Veils from "Salome" by Richard Strauss.

Enrique Granados's "Danzas Españolas," specifically the second movement ("Oriental"), as played by Alicia de Larrocha. That movement always makes me think of love.

The chamber music of Debussy, in particular the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp.

The violin concerto and cello concerto of Samuel Barber are by far the most beautiful and sensual concertos I've ever heard.
posted by musicinmybrain at 1:53 PM on October 14, 2005

Continuing with Ralph Vaughan Williams recommendations, I find "The Lark Ascending" and "Serenade to Music" to both be extremely beautiful and somewhat sensual.
posted by komilnefopa at 8:25 AM on October 15, 2005

Response by poster: Thank you all very much. Bonehead, you actually made me wail in despair, but I take Stravinsky more seriously than most sane people. Barber's adagio and Gorecki's 3rd are a little too mournful for me. And I was in a production of Lakme last year, so the Flower Aria will forever remind me of cursing at those damn robes backstage. Everything else is delightful (and Lakme would have been if our costumes hadn't been horrible, hee)/
posted by honeydew at 1:25 AM on October 17, 2005

This would never do for me. I cannot imagine making love to music about the Holocaust. brrr

I guess I was going for instensely emotionally evocative independent of the positivity or negativity of the emotions. But in this context my recommendation does come across as being rather inappropriate. I'm going to look up the definition of "sensual" for future reference.
posted by epugachev at 1:00 AM on October 19, 2005