haunting/dark classical

Here's a short list of mostly 20th Century "Dark" works.

Shostakovich 14th Symphony: Don’t listen to this if feeling suicidal.

Schubert Piano sonata in A, D959. He knew he was dying when he wrote this. The slow movement laments the inevitable and is in parts angry. Powerful.

Allan Petterson’s 8th Symphony: Petterson suffered through out his life and it shows in his music. The 6th is also worthy to be on this list.


Birtwistle: Triumph of Time

Gerhard: The Plague

These next three were all written in the late 30’s as the cloud of war were gathering over Europe. It’s interesting how each differently handles the subject matter.

Hartmann: Concerto Funebre
Martinu: Double Concerto for Two String Orchestra’s, Piano & Timpani
Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste

Mozart - Piano Concerto #20 in D minor K.466
Brahms - A German Requiem Op.45
Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave Op.31
Liszt - Totentanz for piano and orchestra
Prokofiev - Scythian Suite Op.20
Mahler - Symphony #9
Shostakovich - String Quartet #8 Op.110

A good sampler. All of the compositions are "standard repertoire" and recordings are readily available.

Cheers.

I Second Gorecki Symphony #3
Try Also Tchaikovsky Symphony #6 and Shostakovich #7 & #8
Enjoy

I'm very fond of most of what's been recommended and applaud the others for their thoughtful responses. I would like to recommend a piece that won't qualify as Classical music in the usual sense but it is orchestral and most definitely describes what you're are looking for: the sound track of "The DaVinci Code." It's extremely dramatic and dark. The recording is wonderful, too, with unusually good dynamic range and low frequency reproduction.

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony #8 - Get the complete Symphonies box Frans Bruegen and the Age of Enlightment Symphony Orchestra. Mozart's final work - the Clarinet Concerto, he had alot of haunting/dark problems in his life when he wrote this work.