OK, there are two ways to write this story.
Take one: a chilling trawl through a clutch of the spookiest classical works for Halloween...
Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre
Recommended recording: ORTF National Orchestra / cond. Georges Prêtre (EMI/Warner)
The French composer's glorious carnival of the flesh-eaters (well, that's the way I like to think of it around this time of year). In this red-blooded performance, French music specialist Prêtre brings out all the score's vivid colors and muscular orchestration, while Michele Boussinot's violin drips with a kind of romantic devilry.
Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Recommended recording: LPO / cond. Adam Fischer (Kultur Video, film)
There are more orchestrally sumptuous and better recorded accounts of this frightening tale of curiosity killing the cat (well, at any rate condemning the wife to a fate worse than death), but this film scared the living daylights out of me when I saw it as a young teenager. And Robert Lloyd is a seriously cold Bluebeard. Shiver.
Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer
Recommended recording: Bayreuth Festival / Knappertsbusch (Orfeo)
I've previously recommended other versions of this (and overall I still treasure my Thomas Stewart set), but for chills, there's something just very unsettling about Knappertsbusch's conducting here, and Hermann Uhde's is the most haunting Flying Dutchman on record.
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
Recommended recording: LSO / cond. Sir Colin Davis (LSO Live)
The "Witches Sabbath" movement, of course, is one of the great horror pieces. Bungled suicide, witches, all manner of devilry, it's all here in some rather wonderful music. Nobody did it better than Sir Colin Davis.
Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore
Recommended recording: LSO / Farris (Acorn Media, film)
This horror spoof caused shrieks...of outrage, at its première because of its then racy title. It's still a sharp parody, for my money Gilbert and Sullivan's finest hour. This smashing film has the benefit of Vincent Price as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Basingstoke my dear, Basingstoke...
Take two: If you really want to scare yourself, why not compile a list of terrifyingly terrible performances?
Anyone care to chip in with a suggestion? If you dare.
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