# Best endings



## Glaliraha (May 2, 2010)

In my opinion, the following pieces have the greatest climaxes:

Ravel's _*Bolero*_
Respighi's *Pines Of Rome*
Tchaikovsky's *1812 Overture*
Stravinsky's *The Firebird*
Mike Oldfield's *Tubular Bells, Part 1*

What do you think? What are your favourite climaxes in music?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Setting aside 'best', a game I don't play, a potentially very stirring climax (which may not be at the end) can be heard in the piano solo version of Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition". As evidence I offer Richter performances in Prague (1956) and Sophia (1958).


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I just wanted to point out that climaxes and endings are two different things. In most classical music, those pieces using the sonata allegro form anyway, the climax might be the recapitulation or the return to the home key. I guess that's usually near the end so I know I'm splitting hairs and being pedantic, but it may be why I'm having trouble thinking of great endings.

If you're including Tubular Bells, I could think of several dozens of downright orgasmic endings/climaxes to other progressive rock pieces, but will save that for another venue.


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

MAHLER 2! 

Although then he sustains the same chord with the organ and strings for like a minute and it kinda loses the effect it had with the chorus... but still. Relatively speaking, it's near the end. 

Also Beethoven 6, as well as his violin concerto. Shosti 15, The Lark Ascending and Mozart 41 also have pretty ingenious endings.


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## karenpat (Jan 16, 2009)

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D 

Plus many Rossini opera finales come to mind...


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The end of the first movement of Bruckner's 4th symphony is a great climax.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

Also the end of Peter Grimes - a real tearjerker


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

Chris said:


> Also the end of Peter Grimes - a real tearjerker


Help! It's going through my head now 

'....In ceaseless motion comes and goes the tide
Flowing it fills the channel broad and wide
Then back to sea with strong majestic sweep
It rolls in ebb yet terrible and deep....'


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

The last half hour of _Gotterdammerung_ takes some beating, I think, particularly after four successive, long evenings. And as a comment on the end of the world as we've known it during that time, the last five minutes seem unanswerable.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Chris said:


> Help! It's going through my head now
> 
> '....In ceaseless motion comes and goes the tide
> Flowing it fills the channel broad and wide
> ...


SO GOOD.

But what I think I like even better is the hair-raising reprise of "What harbor shelters peace" shortly before this.


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## tedk (Oct 20, 2010)

I'll go with Mahler 2,3 Bruckner 7, Chopin Piano Concerto 1, Beethoven Piano concerto 3, Mozart sym 41, Saint-Seans Organ


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Glaliraha said:


> In my opinion, the following pieces have the greatest climaxes:
> 
> Ravel's _*Bolero*_
> Respighi's *Pines Of Rome*
> ...


My favourite climax in music is John Cage's _4'33"_, the piece starts off quietly and gradually builds up to a very, very subtle climax at precisely the 33rd second of the 4th minute, unparalleled in all the centuries of fine music before it.


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## Ian Elliott (Nov 15, 2010)

Without a doubt, the last 6 or 8 minutes of Taras Bulba, by Leos Janacek.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

For me, the greatest climaxes are:

Varèse - _Amériques_ (maybe not the 'prettiest', but hard to imagine a more relentless, heart-pumping end than this)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkYcx9Cs72Q#t=2m45s
Skryabin - _Le poème de l'exctase_ (The Poem of Ecstasy). Designed to be an orgasm in music (he was a weird guy, Skryabin!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3_McW9HP48#t=7m15s


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Delicious Manager said:


> For me, the greatest climaxes are:
> 
> Varèse - _Amériques_ (maybe not the 'prettiest', but hard to imagine a more relentless, heart-pumping end than this)


I didn't realize how huge of an orchestra this calls for. And that's one dynamite youth orchestra.


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## teccomin (Mar 21, 2008)

Manxfeeder said:


> The end of the first movement of Bruckner's 4th symphony is a great climax.


The fourth movement also has a great climax at the end. Bruckner is the greatest ending climax writer.

Shosti 5th symphony, 4th movement with the trumpets.

Daphnis & Chloe ending, and La Valse ending by Ravel.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*wonderful*

Varèse - Amériques (maybe not the 'prettiest', but hard to imagine a more relentless, heart-pumping end than this)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkYcx9Cs72Q#t=2m45s
Skryabin - Le poème de l'exctase (The Poem of Ecstasy). Designed to be an orgasm in music (he was a weird guy, Skryabin!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3_McW9HP48#t=7m15s

The Kandinsky painting and the Scriabin Poem...But Kandinsky applies rather to Schönberg.
I love Wozzeck quasi finale...When the guy dies....It is awesome!






Well...I didn<t know about the naked people....LOL

Martin


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Dvorak Symphony 7 Finale. Love the almost organ-like power move from minor to major.

Also DSCH 5th Finale - BOOM BOOM BOOM CRASH


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Martin - I'm no prude but that scene from Wozzeck really is quite ridiculous! How the hell is that supposed to be germane? It just reinforces my disdain for the more arty-farty mindset where presenting opera is concerned. Harrumph!


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## Ian Elliott (Nov 15, 2010)

*Scriabin and Sex*

You know, I've listened to many different readings of the Poeme de l'Extase, from Mitropolous and the NY Philharmonic in 1954 (which I have) to the recent one by Boulez, and only Boulez seems to emphasize the sensual in his interpretation. The other versions are faster and more ethereal. If this is the sex act, only Boulez, the quintessential Frenchman, has slowed down sufficiently. But there are other kinds of ecstasy. 'Ek stasis' meant a standing aside in Greek, the experience of being able to observe one's everyday self from a separate viewpoint. So the question arises, which interpretation would have pleased Scriabin? Well, he dismissed Debissy's music as 'too earthy' ('de terre'). That suggests to me that he was not composing a musical feast laced with Spanish fly.


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