Today's Top Ten List of Best "Classical" Pieces

1. Schubert, "Quintet in C Major" (This has double bass with the string quaret)

2. Bela Bartok, "The Miraculous Mandarin" (A man in love with his prostitute learns about love the hard way)

3. Elliot Carter, "String Quartets" (He won the Pulitzer Prize for these)

4. Edward Grieg, "Peer Gynt Suite"

5. Maurice Ravel, "Mother Goose Suite" (Impressionism was not just Faure, and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra does it best.)

6. Claude Debussy, "Nocturnes" (Hearing the "Sirens" sing would put any man "In the Mood.")

7. Alban Berg, "Violin Concerto" (Itzhak Perlman is the man)

8. Gustav Mahler, "Tenth Symphony" (If you wondered where the "Theme from Star Trek" came from...?)

9. Alexander Borodin, "Polovtsian Dances" (The Russians were influential to American music Rachmaninov bridged the gap between European orchestral music and American movie music. Erich Korngold carried this torch and made the loot)

10. Igor Stravinsky, "Persephone" (Who knew a monodram could be so inticing?)