100 Best Chillout Classics

The first CD begins with one of the most popular works from the Baroque era: Pachelbel’s Canon in D, followed by another equally well-loved Baroque classic: Albinoni’s Adagio, both of which are ideal for chilling out. The chill-out mood is maintained with Bach’s tranquil ‘Air on the G string’ and the slow movement from ‘Winter’ from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. After more Baroque masterpieces by Purcell and Handel we move forward to Beethoven’s beautiful ‘Moonlight Sonata’, a few more equally cool works by Schumann and Chopin and finally the Agnus Dei from Karl Jenkins’ Mass for Peace: The Armed Man.

Many liturgical choral works perfectly fit the mood of chillout music and none more so that Barber’s Agnus Dei, a choral setting of his famous Adagio for Strings. Other well-loved choral pieces heard here include the Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, John Tavener’s Song for Athene, performed so movingly during the funeral service for Princess Diana, and the beautiful ‘In Paradisum’ from Fauré’s setting of the Requiem.

The third CD brings us a collection of female vocal solos and duets that are also conducive to chilling out. Foremost among these are the gentle Flower Duet from Lakmé by Delibes and the sensuous Barcarolle from Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Among the solos are the lilting, laid back ‘Baïlèro’ and ‘Brezairola’ from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne and the exotic Aria from Bachianas brasileiras No.5 by Villa-Lobos.

CD 4 moves to the instrumental field and the mood is immediately set by Debussy’s ethereal ‘Clair de lune’ and ‘Le Cygne’ by Saint-Saëns. Nothing could be more chilled out than the piano music of Erik Satie and here he contributes his famous ‘Gnossienne No.1’ and ‘Gymnopédie No.1’. The guitar gives us ‘Homenaje a la guitarra’ by Sainz de la Maza and on the violin and piano we are charmed by the ‘Romance’ from The Gadfly by Shostakovich and perfectly chilled out by the hypnotic Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt .

The next CD covers famous orchestral works and concertos like ‘Venus’ from Holst’s The Planets, The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams and the lovely slow movement from Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto. It ends with the hauntingly beautiful Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No.5, used so effectively in the soundtrack of Death in Venice.

Included on CD 6 are a number of works specially written for film soundtracks, including ‘Any Other Name’ from American Beauty, ‘Cavatina’ from The Deer Hunter, ‘The Heart Asks Pleasure First’ from The Piano and the Main Theme from Titanic by James Horner. A particular highlight of this final CD are arrangements for piano and full orchestra of some iconic songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, including ‘Let it Be’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Michelle’.