I'm not familiar with Alkan, but I'm a classical music fan. I tend to prefer full blown symphonies, and consider my knowledge on the matter to be relatively limited to the more widely known composers. My personal favorite for some time has been Dvorak's Ninth.

I listen to it via Sirius Online's Symphony Hall and Sirius Pops channels; does that count? I pull the "programmer hermit" move at work with the enormous headphones so as to drown out the distracting sounds of the workplace. I usually don't know what I am listening to but I like it.

I have a weird question but probably lack the musical vocabulary to express it. Why do the most complicated pieces of music evoke the simple, powerful emotions while the less complex works evoke the more subtle, intricate emotions?

I'm a classical music fan, though my collection is weighted a little more toward the vocal end of the spectrum. I can find something to appreciate in most anything out there, but I tend to find myself indentifying most strongly with early music and modern stuff. I also love a good lied, and the impressionists have a lot to offer. And then you've got your wacky New Viennese guys, and...aw heck, I like it all!

As far as little-known composers, I'm a big fan of the early 20th Century English dudes. Pretty much everyone knows Vaughan Williams and Holst, but many of their lesser-known contemporaries penned some truly stunning material including Stanford, Finzi, Gurney, Howells, Parry, etc. If you're looking for some great Christmas music, look up Herbert Howells' Three Carol-Anthems (Here is the Little Door, A Spotless Rose and Sing Lullabye). It's some of the most hauntingly beautiful choral music ever written.

I love classical music. When I was a kid, it was the only kind of music I listened to. My favorite composers are Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Schubert. My favorite compositions are Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven, Prelude Op. 28 No. 20 (especially the two guitar version on one of my CDs) by Frédéric François Chopin, and Serenade in D minor (again, dual guitars preferred) by Franz Peter Schubert.

I also like Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune; Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra; Vivaldi's Four Seasons; Georges Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1: Overture (and the very similar L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2: Farandole); Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A, Op 16-1: Allegrom Molto Moderato; and George Frederic Handel's Water Music Suite #2 in D, HWV 349-2, Alla Hornpipe. There's surely others, but that's the cream of my CD crop.

Your reasoning is sufficient.

Some very good suggestions I'm going to have to look into, especially the vocal music. Seems I'm going to have to invest in a few more actual CDs.
Curse you, Limewire and all of your failings!

Classical music, for me, is the only reason to own a stereo. Though I like a lot of different music, compared to classical everything else is a side dish. There is plenty of good stuff out there. In recent times I've been very hooked on Howard Shore and the entire sound track to LOTR's. However I can live without Annie Lennox singing.

Tchaikovsky is my favorite classical composer. I've never listened to anything he wrote that I haven't enjoyed. And yes, cliched as it might be, his Nutcracker suite is my favorite of his compositions.

Classical music and orchestral soundtracks (LotR, Star Wars, etc) are pretty much all I own and listen to on my stereo. iTunes has my other tastes (rock mostly).

I also really like Tchaikovsky (especially his 1812 overture), although I don't really have a favorate composer. This is mainly because my tastes change quite a bit depending on mood. Continueing on the russian theme, I really enjoy Dmitri Shostakovich as well. His 5th symphony being tops on my list.

Another composer that I enjoy, other than ones mentioned here already, is Grieg.

I don't believe it is the complexity of a piece that evokes emotion, but the key that it is played, along with it's tempo. As a basic rule of thumb, music played using alot of majors tends to evoke a more happy emotion, while pieces using minors and 7th's tend to evoke a more somber emotion. There are infinite note combinations that can evoke a certain emotion, and it is this knowledge that composers use to evoke the emotions of his listeners.

Make sure you listen to the track before the 1712 overture. It tells the story of how the piece was "written." It makes what is already a humorous piece of music cause extreme amounts of pain from laughing too hard. Seriously, I could have died.

I agree 100%. Are you talking about the Ave Maria Virgo Serena (Ave Maria a 4)? Josquin wrote a few different Ave Maria settings. Anyway, I've got recordings of both the Tallis Scholars and Chanticleer singing the Ave Maria Virgo Serena and they're both just sublime. I've heard the Chanticleer recording criticized as being too slow to be authentic, but I like it anyway. Those last few bars, with that plaintive "O Mater Dei, memento mei. Amen" give me goose-bumps every time.

YES. The Vespers are a must-have for anyone interested in choral music. And speaking of Ave Maria settings, the Bogoroditse Devo from the Vespers is just about as profound a piece of music as you'll ever hear.

And to tie Requiem settings back to my lesser-known English doodz: Herbert Howells' Requiem is really an amazing piece of work. It was written for his son, who died of leukemia, and it was so intensely personal that Howells wouldn't allow it to be published for most of his lifetime. It's only since just before his death in the early 80's that the work has entered the choral repertoire. It's not exactly an easy listen, but it's become one of my favorite Requiems, along with Reqiuems from Brahms, Faure and Palestrina's Missa Pro Defunctis.

I took a couple semesters of music appreciation in college. For most it was an easy "A" but it was something I really enjoyed.

At this point I mostly listen to Symphony Hall on SIRIUS. At some point I will build a nice classical collection, though my explorations in jazz and electronic music are more at the forefront right now. Too much music, not enough years on Earth.

Podunk: I was going to mention Gorecki's Symphony No 3. I haven't seen it live but I have a great London Sinfonietta CD that someone recommended to me years ago, fantastic stuff.