Old Nick

Orff. How could I forget Orff. O Fortuna is pretty dark.

The Masterâ„¢

Carmuna Barana is very dark, with little light bits...

WorldRuler

Sorry, anyway Gustav Holdst is a little inconsistent, but The Planets is great when played by a good group.

Esioul

Try some opera- perhaps Puccini's Tosca or his Madame Butterfly. It's good.

jenna

*scribbles away madly at shopping list*

lol, looks like heaps of people here are classical fans. so nice to be around like minded people. my sister actually called me a "nerd" for listing Beethoven as one of my fave artists and saying i loved Classical. silly immature girl! i sat her down and played her Mozart's Requiem and she took it all back!!

The Masterâ„¢

Jenna, if it is any consellation... There are a lot of CULT movies that use classical music scores... Both traditional and contemporary... If your sister has a favourite movie, find out if there is a classical score in it, then call her a "nerd" for that...

Movies with classical scores, to name but a few:
2001
Apocolypse Now!
Star Wars
Gladiator
Lord of the Rings
Titanic
The Piano
Harry Potter movies
American Beauty

angrybuddhist

I would like to suggest Bruckner's Symphony No.9 conducted by Bruno Walter with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. It has it's dark and brooding moments. But my favorite Classical cd is the Mercury Living Presence disc of Enesco's Roumanian Rhapsody No.1 with Antal Dorati conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. The disc also contains Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 1-6. Pretty good stuff.

jenna

Bah, she wishes she was a nerd! my other sister and i pick on her all the time for being un-nerdy. she's so normal, it's sickening lol! i'm proud of my nerdiness, i thought it was funny that she thought it was an insult!

The Masterâ„¢

If you are wanting a good classic radio station... On the Internet, I would recommend www.classicfm.com...

mzarynn

Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms- dark and lyrical, Very beautiful.

Sirathiel

Another radio station that's quite good and plays all from Bach to Film music and even modern classic music is Klassikradio. You can listen to eat online under www.klassikradio.de --> live and then select the player you want.

polymorphikos

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/

The listen option is down in the sidebar.

Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov is quite good, as is Le Coq d'Or.

Ailanna

I love Classic FM!

Lately I've been listening to Schubert's "Death and the Maiden," which is absolutely beautiful. The student I tutor was writing an essay on the Ariel Dorfman play of the same name, which made me want to hear it again. Beautiful.

Sibelius is wonderful-- how about some Elgar? I like his Enigma Variations a great deal. I also love classical soundtracks. James Newton Howard's score for The Village is superb, rather minimalist in almost a Philip Glass way, and most period flicks (the recent Mansfield Park, whatever you thought of the movie, has a great instrumental score, and there are also the soundtracks to Wings of the Dove, Jude, Much Ado About Nothing, and Sense and Sensibility) have good instrumental music as well.

For a more modern sound, try Ludovico Einaudi's fluid piano compositions-- Le Onde and I Giorni are excellent albums, as is Echoes (a 'best of' collection). Classic FM loves Einaudi, and I found out about him through them. I've also been listening to acoustic guitar interpretations of classical works by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Their interpretation of Handel's "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" and Mozart's "A Little Night Music" (i.e. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star") are especially fun.