Spring has sprung in Chicago. The tulips on Michigan Ave are in colorful bloom, sidewalks are filling up with outdoor diners, green buds are out on the trees, and even in the cold mornings, it kind of smells like a new season.

It’s not hard to imagine why some of the old stand-by favorite classical pieces are inspired by spring.  Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite seem kind of like obvious choices for spring-themed classical music (thank you television commercials and Looney Tunes episodes).  But in lieu of these standard selections, I’ve picked the “other” spring music, both obvious and maybe not so certainly spring, that I’ll be uploading on my iPod this week. What are your favorite springtime classical pieces?

Mark O’Connor- Butterfly’s Day Out
Ludwig van Beethoven- Symphony No 6.
Aaron Copland-Appalachian Spring
Johann Strauss- The Voices of Spring, Op 410
Felix Mendelssohn-Spring Song
Maurice Ravel-Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra
George Gershwin-Prelude 1