Sections of songs that make you freeze in joy

[Alex K]

I have these moments in various genres, but since rock/pop is already well represented, something classical:

The return of the main theme around 8:00 and the change in mood and key before ca. 12:30

0:46

If you've ever been to a live symphony, you know what a racket the musicians make when practicing or tuning before the conductor arrives onstage.  To me, the moment up to 0:46 is meant to simulate that-- it is kind of like the slow bubbling of the musical primordial soup, and at 0:46, a human or maybe a Greek god spontaneously erupts out of it, fully formed.  I really do believe that this is partly autobiographical by Beethoven-- he's showing how his great and powerful ideas come crashing into the world!

I always loved the sound of the orchestra tuning (I think it's the perfect ouverture to the concert and am always happy to have it on the actual recording), and I know exactly what you mean. I remember thinking as a young lad in some classical symphony - why can't the composer use those amazing colours of sound that I hear in the beginning in the actual work? The repertoire of sound colors in the actual music often seemed stale in comparison to those amazing spacey open string sounds. I later discovered the epic romantic symphonies and the modernist stuff and was partly satisfied. I don't grok impressionist music for some reason, even though it is closer to that aesthetic in some ways.