Thanks tuberist for getting my brain into gear.
lohanimal -- start with Maurizio Pollini doing Chopin’s Revolutionary Piano Etude. Things don’t get much more tempestuous. If you like it, try out a couple more of Pollini’s Chopin Etudes. Start with the first Etude of his Opus 10 set.
Try out Andre Watts doing Franz Liszt’s piano etude called "La Campanella." Does he fall off the piano bench dead after the final chord? Too bad there’s no video so we’d truly know. Then there’s Philippe Entremont doing Debussy’s pair of impressionist piano pieces, "Deux Arabesques." Watch the ladies swoon.
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony puts you in an all-encompassing, technicolor, yet gentle fantasy world. A glimpse of a very earth-like heaven. For similar stuff in more traditional guise, try conductor Bruno Walter’s performance of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.
BTW, lohanimal, there’s nothing challenging here. Just great tunes galore, played with tons of persuasion.
