Most achingly-beautiful music

Klemperer's Mahler 2
Kim Kashkashian's Britten Lachrymae
Byron Janis
Shostakovich 11 'The Year 1905'
Peter Pears singing Britten

ah, Milstein's Goldmark Violin Concerto

(what was Sarah Chang thinking!? pardon my bitchiness. )

Just about every single classical music piece can qualify - it just takes a bit of a commitment on our part to come to appreciate it. Since we all have nice systems I am sure, why not try to branch out and appreciate all sorts of music?

Can something be beautiful and ache? What is soothingly-ugly music?

Just a thought.

Poets and psychologists have pondered the question "why we respond to beauty with tears..." without arriving at a final solution, except to wonder if it is becuase it reminds us of the rest of the times in our lives, that are not filled with constant beauty and happiness... making the satisfying listening moments that much more precious.