(SERIOUS) What is some breathtaking classical music that gives you goosebumps?

1. I'm a sucker for Pictures at an Exhibition. It's a suite by russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. (Brief history) The music describes him touring an art exhibition and each movement is the reflection each of the paintings he visits with the Promenades being transitions between. You can find pictures of some of the paintings floating around online, but I believe some were lost.
   — santoast_


2. Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity- Gustav Holst
   — jaysusra


3. Vaughan Williams - [Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6sWqfrnTs) Barber - [Agnus Dei Op. 11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW743K3yDms) The following two can get pretty dissonant, but it's great when the dissonance resolves Wagner - [Tristan und Isolde: Prelude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qoaioG2UA) Bach - [Ricercar a 6 from "A Musical Offering"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSm9LEYixvA) There are a few 'modern' classical composers like Philip Glass, Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter where most of their music gives me goosebumps, e.g. Glass - [Pruit Igoe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq_SpRBXRmE), [Prophecies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Tc9YGNDJ4) Einaudi - [Experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VONMkKkdf4) Richter - [On the Nature of Daylight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN1B-tUpgs)
   — YomiGen






4. Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto - The 2nd movement is especially beautiful. Le Cygne from 'Carnival of The Animals' Ravel's Piano Concerto in G - 2nd movement. There's a point where it builds to a climax before the return of the first theme and it's absolutely breathtaking.
   — Konjuro


5. The finale of Stravinsky’s Firebird.
   — CookLove


6. [The Swan by Camille Saint-Saens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b44-5M4e9nI) The single most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard.
   — Necroluster






7. All the Chopin Nocturnes tend to hold my attention in an immersive way. Not overwhelming or emotional, but a sort of similiar
   — icantfeelmyskull


8. Die Moldau- Smetana. I get goosebumps when the main theme hits every time. https://youtu.be/l6kqu2mk-Kw Edit: technically from the Romantic period
   — 7968546352


9. Beethoven's Seventh, Second Movement. If you watched The Fall you know this song. https://youtu.be/vCHREyE5GzQ
   — p0p0






10. **Der Erlkonig** by Schubert. I've always thought it was a creepy and cool sounding piece of music, but then I stumbled across [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcnSX319OhI), which explains what it's about, and how the composer weaved the subtext into the music itself. I know nothing about classical music, but now that song is one of my favorites ever. That channel is really good at making music theory interesting, btw. He talks about a lot of stuff I'm familiar with, like video game and movie soundtracks, so it's easy to relate to.
    — LupinThe8th


11. Elgar - Cello Concerto in Em Brahms - Cello Sonata in Em, or the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello Erik Satie - Gymopedies, and Gnossienes Astor Piazzolla - Le Grand Tango, and Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas. Aarvo Part - Fratres (there is an arrangement for cello and harp)
    — flacocaradeperro


12. I've always been a big fan of Dvorak's New World Symphony, specifically the [second movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCydQm83cJQ). In the UK, [they used it to sell bread.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mq59ykPnAE) (Fun fact: that advert was directed by Ridley Scott, of *Alien*, *Gladiator*, *Blade Runner* and [looking-not-at-all-like-he's-eighty-years-old](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bladerunner/images/4/49/Ridley_Scott.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161019042252) fame.)
    — Portarossa






13. [Bartok String Quartet #2, mvt. 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzsWlJwjrHQ) [Brahms Symphony #4, mvt. 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cqv8PRsZRw) [Das Rheingold Vorspiel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDBa1jgwR7k) Starts slow but turn it way up, close your eyes, and imagine the universe emerging from nothingness until it explodes into a titanic blur of color and light. ["At the Summit" from An Alpine Symphony](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK7z2NhUrsQ) Imagine you just summited a huge dangerous mountain and are looking across the valley. [Tannhauser overture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTM7E4-DN0o) [Dvorak Symphony #8 Mvt. 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOv6ZWxkpQ0) [Mahler Symphony #8 finale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYM54vhLYTU) Too many to recount here, it makes me sad that classical music is seen as something snobby and boring, there are many lifetimes of absolutely stunning music we've collectively forgotten for the most part. EDIT: I've got more... [Pines of Rome Mvt. 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My6K__9Cwao) This is epic AF, give it time. [Tchaikovsky Symphony 4 Mvt. 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e90IXc4gaII) Love this one, so much energy and momentum at a very small dynamic. [Beati Quorum Via Integra Est by Stanford](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnNq7bK403M) Such a beautiful and colorful choral masterpiece, in my opinion. The harmonic motion and registration here is excellent. [Spem in Alium, Tallis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn7ZW8ts3Y) The flowing, seamless and balanced counterpoint is the sonic equivalent of a soaring Gothic Cathedral. [Brandenburg 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLj_gMBqHX8) The mechanical perfection, the interlocking, inevitable logic, perfect proportions, it's like you can't stop listening. [Symphony of Psalms](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQJ9jJQEIEA) Underrated Stravinsky in my opinion. The choral entrances are almost overwhelming in some mix of terror and awe. [Kyrie from Ligeti's Requiem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89XEfY9TYFM) Let the sheer ugliness and horror of the gulags, the concentration camps, torture, nuclear weapons, hundreds of millions of deaths, ICBMs, global war, chaos, murder, death, and total annihilation burrow deep into your soul as you listen to this and beg God for mercy for the crime against the universe that was the 20th century. The demonic absurdity is overwhelming, and "breathtaking" but in a different way LOL. [Brahms 1 first movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POW-u-RGspY) I love the shit out of this opening, it's such a glorious paroxysm of musical beauty. Brahms was terrified he would be compared unfavorably to Beethoven, so he spent tons of time crafting this as his "first impression." [Saint Seans 3rd symphony mvt. 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68gT9XQMEw) Love this one too, this is really amazing to hear live in a good hall with a good organ and orchestra. [Copland Symphony 3 4th movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zavpr0gODQ) Imagine all the millions of people who sack up, every single day, and go to jobs they either hate or are indifferent about, just to keep the world moving forward. They get it done, every time, no matter what. The world rests on their shoulders and backs, and they get no fanfare or recognition, except for this of course.
    — muffinlemma


14. [Finlandia](https://youtu.be/F5zg_af9b8c) is 99% the answer for most Finns on Reddit. For us, Finlandia is a part of our national identity.
    — vxrnxr


15. Claude Debussy - Clair de Lune
    — lightwintermorning