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Top 100 Favourite Classical Melodies is a must have for those of you seeking quintessential classical works commonly used in film and television. It's also a great album for classical music beginners, as many of the classical pieces featured on the 5 disk collection are instantly recognizable. For the seasoned classical music aficionado, you may find yourself asking why certain works were not included and why others were.


The recordings are top notch and the sound quality is superb. Bottom line, beginners and experts will agree it's a great collection of classical music.



Pros

• 100 tracks of great and recognizable classical music
• From baroque to romantic, you'll be impressed with the variety of music styles
• High quality recordings and superior performances

Cons

• Not enough symphonic movements

Description

• Released: June 2010
• 5 Disks, 100 Tracks
• Total Play Time: 6.1 Hours

Guide Review - Top 100 Favourite Classical Melodies

With 100 pieces of classical music, mind you each piece can stand alone, it would be nearly impossible to review. However, having listened to the 6 hour collection of classical works for the past few weeks, I can say without a doubt, I have found one of my favorite classical albums. The variety and multitude of pieces ensures that there is always something perfect to listen to depending on my mood at the time. I've already uploaded the 5-disk collection to my iTunes account and dispersed the plethora of music to my iPad, iPod, and iPhone (yes, I'm an Apple geek).

Top 100 Favourite Classical Melodies features an outstanding collection of short classical works, with the longest (Mozart's Piano Concerto #21 in C, mvmt.2) and shortest (Rimsky-Kosakov's Flight of the Bumble-Bee) pieces clocking in at 6:51 and 1:17 respectively. You'll also find Beethoven's Adagio Sonata Pathetique, Faure's "Solveigh's Song", Mendelssohn's "Venetian Gondola Song", Verdi's Choir of Hebrew Slaves, Grieg's "Aase's Death" from the Peer Gynt Suite #1, Brahms' Hungarian Dances 1 & 5, as well as Delibes's Flower Duet. After I became familiar with the music on the album, I would have enjoyed hearing a few symphonic movements by Mozart, Handel, and Mahler. However, their lengthier times would have taken up much valuable disk space, and if the producers were trying to keep costs low, it's easy to see why they were not included. You can fit much more music on a CD if the tracks are shorter! I guess a symphonic "best-of" album will have to come later. For now, I will enjoy what I have.

Featured Composers

• Vivaldi
• Handel
• Tchaikovski
• Mussorgsky
• Telemann
• Dvorak
• Verdi
• Saint-Saens
• Delibes
• Mozart
• Debussy
• Bach
• Bizet
• Mendelssohn
• Schubert
• Liszt
• Faure
• Satie
• Grieg
• Brahms
• Offenbach
• Pachelbel
• Rimsky-Korsakov
• Beethoven
• Schumann
• Paganini
• Strauss
• Wagner