Most achingly-beautiful music

1) Liszt - Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude. Favorite recording by Garrick Ohlsson on EMI/Angel, unfortunately OOP.

2) Durufle - Requiem. Robert Shaw, Telarc

3) Mozart - Ave Verum Corpus. Robert Shaw (again.) This should have been the closing theme for Amadeus...

4) Okay, so I cheated. Morten Lauridsen - Lux Aeterna. Paul Salamunovich with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Proving (once again) Maestro Salamunovich to be the finest choral director ever to have graced our planet...

If these don't move you, you have no soul.

Verdi's Requiem - the whole thing.

Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" is simply The most haunting and beautiful melody I have ever heard...

Bach's "Air For the G String"

For popular music... any ballad played by the late cornetist Bobby Hackett (who can be heard on most Jackie Gleason recordings, "Music For Lovers Only", etc.)

The 2nd movement of Rodrigo's "Aranjuez" is the specific melody I had in mind. But I will shamelessly use this opportunity to mention another hauntingly beautiful melody: Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais...

...Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" on her "Live at Blues Alley" CD. Simply the most beautiful, evocative and emotionally connected vocal performance of this song that I've ever heard. Brings tears to my eyes every time. The rest of the CD is phenomenal as well.