Classical Music With Big Mike

I love to go with Mrs. B to Jones Hall to hear our world class Houston Symphony Orchestra in a classical concert.  We have heard so much beautiful and great music from the classical music masters.  We have never been disappointed.

While there have been great concerts we have gone to, there are certain concerts containing pieces that are so stirring, so moving, so majestic, so exciting, that I can’t even call them concerts.  I have to put them in a special category that I call, ‘epic events’.  These are pieces that will actually give you goose bumps when you hear them. These pieces of awesome music will at times having you hold your breath, so to not dare make a sound. I have four such pieces that I, myself, call epic events.

The four pieces are from four great masters: 1. the German Classical/Romantic master, L.V. Beethoven [1770-1827];  2. The German/British Baroque composer, George F. Handel [1685-1759];  3.  Austrian Romantic, Gustav Mahler [1860-1911];  and 4. the French Romantic composer, Camille Saint-Saens [1835-1921].

The four pieces are Beethoven’s choral symphony #9, “Ode to Joy”, Handel’s oratorio, Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony #8 “Symphony of a Thousand”, and Saint-Saens, Symphony #3, “Organ Symphony”.

I hope that every one of you who loves classical music will get to experience these [in my opinion] epic events at a concert hall near you, at least one time. I will not give them an order, except to say, in my opinion, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the epic event of all epic events. When the final movement is about to come on, you will get goose bumps and hold your breath, just waiting in anticipation.

Because Handel’s Messiah and Mahler’s 8th symphony are so long, I will give a key moment of each. I will have Saint-Saens beautiful organ symphony and Beethoven’s amazing Choral Symphony in full on the following You Tubes [thanks and credit to all the You Tube publishers].

So, please turn up the volume, play in full screen and enjoy these “epic” events:

George Frederick Handel: ‘Messiah’, Scene 7: God’s ultimate victory: 2. Hallelujah Chorus:

Gustav Mahler: Symphony #8 in E Flat Major, Symphony of a Thousand, Part 2: Final Scene Goethe’s ‘Faust‘:

Camille Saint-Saens: Symphony #3 in C minor: “Organ”:

L. van Beethoven: Symphony #9 in D minor, “Choral”: