Chopin nocturne in e flat if it's played slowly and softly. Whenever I hear a version I like I wonder if this what drug (heroin?) addicts must feel like when they start feeling the effects of the drug. Or the way a drop of color dye or blood would slowly diffuse in a glass of water-- that's how my euphoria feels like it's being released when I hear Chopin nocturne in e flat. Same with moonlight sonata and beethoven's piano sonata #8, 2nd movement but only if it starts off slowly and softly. It's almost like the slowness helps to extend the euphoria. If I hear a version where the keys seem like they're struck too hard or if it starts off too fast, I get really annoyed and turn it off immediately. I guess it's also similar to how one might feel during sex but effects of drugs or smthg euphoric slowly being released from the area right above the nape of my neck is what I end up thinking about.

Among those moments: the shock of hearing (for the first time) : the tenor duet from The Pearl Fishers sung by Rufus Wainwright and David Byrne (whose voices have a roughness and urgency that's often missing from operatic performance).

The guitar theme in AND YOU AND I by YES as played by Steve Howe touched me deeply as a teenager and still does. My musical tastes have changed into middle-age, but I recently saw the YES SONGS performance of it on YouTube and it had the same effect on me.

More recently Tommy Jarrell's playing of the Old Timey Fiddle tune CLUCK OLD HEN can make me tear up.

My high school Music Theory teacher showed me Rachmoninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A Minor Opus 43 var. 18. It always puts a smile on my face and shivers on my skin.

My high school Music Theory teacher showed me Rachmoninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A Minor Opus 43 var. 18. It always puts a smile on my face and shivers on my skin.

Fascinating topic. I am an actor and classical composer and to this day my favorite musical moment, out of many many possibilities, is the Third Movement, "The Alcotts" from Charles Ives Concord Sonata, the Gilbert Kalish recording from Nonesuch. The entire movement is sublime, but the last page of the piece has a section that builds from a sort of chaos into this crashing quotation from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (which is the germ that generates the entire work) and this spectacular cluster chord, followed by a single note before going into the denouement of the movement. Even writing about it gives me shivers of joy. Rapturous, deeply deeply moving joy.

Favorite moment of musical magic: Wagner's Die Walkure, Seglinde's “O, Herstes Wunder!” moment. Done WELL, it destroys me. My mother sat me down when I was young and played these 15 seconds over and over again, crying and explaining to me that she will die but her child will live on. It's part of why I became an opera singer.