It's great to share our musical discoveries, and find out what other people are enjoying too. So let's play! Here, RPS Members share a favourite work that they would include in their own personal 'Hall of Fame'. You can read their sentiments about each piece, then listen to them on the Spotify playlist linked below. You can also join in: use the form below to tell us about a piece you love, and we'll add it to the playlist.

‘I was 17 when I took a school trip to the Bath Festival. The concert featured Brahms Double Concerto with Yehudi Menuhin and Maurice Gendron, then Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with soprano Victoria de los Angeles, conducted by Istvan Kertesz. We were behind a pillar, so I could only see the scroll of a double bass on one side and the third trumpet on other! Maybe not being distracted by the visual impact was a help as, at that concert, I ‘got’ classical music for the first time and have never looked back. Mahler’s diverse sound world, yet its ready approachability, was transformative.’ Anthony Pinching

‘Grazyna Bacewicz is one of my favourite composers. Engaging with her country’s folk music helped her through the turbulent times in Poland after the Second World War. As a violin virtuoso, she appreciated the ‘gypsy fiddle’ skills in folkloric music. The high energy of traditional music suited her own manner; she embraced the exuberance and driving rhythms, and created violin and piano works such as Polish Dance, Slavonic Dance, and Mazovian Dance, as well as the fine Quartet for Four Violins. To me, her series of seven string quartets rank second only to Bartók’s.’ Diana Ambache

‘A work that deserves greater fame is Ernst von Dohnányi’s First Piano Quintet. Published when he was only 18, it’s full of energy, glorious harmony, and fine writing for strings and piano. Brahms himself said “I could not have written it better myself” and played the piano in its first successful public performance. I was lucky enough to hear it live at Kings Place in late 2020, performed by the Kanneh-Masons’ Cassadó Ensemble. We had all been starved of live music for months, which made their stunning musicality and maturity of playing even more precious.’ Ann Sheffield

‘As long as I can remember I have been a Beethoven fanatic. Some time ago, I decided to get acquainted with his string quartets. I love his Quartet No.13 in B flat major, but equally its original final movement which became the Grosse Fuge. When Beethoven started out, he produced the music of frock coats and periwigs: very much of the 18th century. By the 1820s, he was writing music like this extraordinary fugue… incredible! No wonder Stravinsky said the Grosse Fuge would be “contemporary forever”.’ Alan Grimshaw

‘To add to orchestral works describing the sea by Mendelssohn, Debussy, Rubinstein, Bridge and Vaughan Williams is a 1907 symphonic poem called Jura
(The Sea) by the Lithuanian composer Ciurlionis. He creates a vivid picture of the movements of the sea and his orchestration is outstanding. In his short life he produced around 400 compositions and also 300 paintings.’ Judith Gore

‘I have always loved pastiche, and admire enormously the skill of arranging. Both are brought together brilliantly in Richard Strauss’s little-known Dance Suite from Keyboard Pieces by Couperin. It features a prominent part for celesta, heard tinkling away in the little march which concludes the set. It always makes me happy and I have long enjoyed the thought that this would be my signature tune if ever someone asked me to do a radio show!’ John de la Cour

‘When I was young, my very musical mother asked me what I would like for my birthday. I told her I had heard an amazing piece of music on the wireless, called ‘Jupiter’, and would love the LP. My mother said “Ah, yes, the Jupiter Symphony! Is that what you heard?” I had no clue so I told her it must be. So my first ever record was indeed Mozart’s Symphony No.41, nicknamed ‘Jupiter’. I remember playing it and… quite liking it, though found myself wondering when the rollicking themes of ‘Jupiter’ from Holst’s The Planets would arrive! Nonetheless, I have loved Mozart ever since.’ Laurie Watt

'I recently came across the work of the Swedish composer Helena Munktell when I saw the Royal Northern Sinfonia perform her symphonic poem Bränningar (Breaking Waves) at the Sage Gateshead. Munktell first studied as a pianist and singer, before studying composition with Benjamin Godard and Vincent d’Indy. After initially composing for voice, she began to write for orchestra in the in late 1890s. Bränningar, premièred in 1898, is a stunning example of her orchestral writing: as the title might suggest, the music vividly depicts the Mediterranean Sea, and the influence of Swedish folk music is clear.' Charlotte Smith, RPS Administrator