JoAnn Falletta’s Valentine’s Day playlist, Buffalo News

If music be the food of love, it’s great to be ready before approaching the buffet. Luckily, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director JoAnn Falletta has forwarded to The News a list of her top 10 choices.

Here is her list, along with her explanations of why she chose each number.

1. “You are So Beautiful” by Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher, sung by Joe Cocker.

“Whether you are looking at an adorable puppy or kitten, or your own sweetheart, this is the music of love.”

2. Symphony No. 2 in E Minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“This is truly the most romantic symphony ever written. The third movement is so gorgeous it has been stolen for pop tunes.”

3. “The Way You Look Tonight,” by Jerome Kern.

“It reminds me that the people we love always stay ‘the way we first saw them’ in our hearts.”

4. “Se,” by Ennio Morricone.

“ ‘If you could see through my eyes for a day, then you would see the beauty I see in you’… and it sounds even more romantic in Italian.”

5. “Oblivion,” by Astor Piazzolla.

“Perhaps the most beautiful tango – unforgettable – filled with the melancholy of lost love.”

6. “Romeo and Juliet,” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

“No one has crafted a more beautiful setting of the star-crossed lovers – we hear the whole story, without words – in 18 glowing minutes.”

7. “My Funny Valentine,” by Rodgers and Hart, sung by Frank Sinatra.

“Growing up with parents who adored Sinatra, I have to include him on the list – and this is the classic Valentine song to ‘make you smile with your heart’.”

8. “Someone to Watch Over Me,” by George Gershwin.

“When we hear Ella Fitzgerald sing the words that she herself wrote, we know that she so perfectly understands the love that all of us yearn for.

9. “Misty,” by Erroll Garner, sung by Johnny Mathis.

“This is a classic forever.”

10. Adagietto, from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5

“Mahler’s heartbreaking love letter to his wife, Alma – a love song never equaled!”