# Favourite Final Opus



## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

A post by TC member Bach in Beethoven's guestbook thread, gave me an idea for yet another pseudo-poll. 

What is your (*one*) favourite last work? By any (*dead*) composer. Any Genre. *It must be a published work and chronologically the last to be composed.* And works that were left incomplete by the composer, but completed and published by someone else, are accepted.

In my case, it's tough to decide between Mozart's Requiem and Bach's The Art of Fugue. I haven't heard the latter in full, so till that happens, I choose the Requiem.


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

Requiem or Mahler 10. If 10 isn't considered a last piece because I didn't finish it. 9?

Don't make me choose, because I can't.


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

Well, I might preempt Chi by voting for Wagner's *Parsifal*, so I'll also vote for Schubert's final three sonatas.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

There are a lot of choices... the most famous examples are, of course, Mozart's Requiem (popularized immensely by the movie _Amadeus_) and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony "Pathetique" (fueled by the controversy over how Tchaikovsky died no more than nine days after its premiere).

I think mine would have to be either the aforementioned Pathetique or Mahler's ninth (the tenth, unfinished, I don't feel I should put here, because various performing editions are not pure Mahler (yes, I'm agreeing with Bernstein)).


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

BuddhaBandit said:


> so I'll also vote for Schubert's final three sonatas.


Nope, you can't do that.  You can choose only D.960 for Schubert. I'm trying to make this a one-to-one correspondence between composer and work.


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

Yagan Kiely said:


> Don't make me choose, because I can't.


See that's why I stay out of most polls and lists.


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

opus67 said:


> Nope, you can't do that.  You can choose only D.960 for Schubert. I'm trying to make this a one-to-one correspondence between composer and work.


Whoa! Talk about a totalitarian thread! *opens up his copy of Paine's Common Sense* 

OK, Schubert's D.960 is my vote... I'll leave Parsifal for Chi.


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

> I think mine would have to be either the aforementioned Pathetique or Mahler's ninth (the tenth, unfinished, I don't feel I should put here, because various performing editions are not pure Mahler (yes, I'm agreeing with Bernstein))


Have you listened to it?

Personally I don't care who wrote it, as long as the music is good.

And probably around 90% of the notes (as in pitch) are Mahler's.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Yagan Kiely said:


> Have you listened to it?
> 
> Personally I don't care who wrote it, as long as the music is good.
> 
> And probably around 90% of the notes (as in pitch) are Mahler's.


In fact, I have; Simon Rattle/Berlin Philharmonic playing Cooke's performing edition was my first Mahler recording period, and it's very different in my opinion from much of his other music... the first movement is okay, though: Mahler actually finished that one. It just seems to me that "finishing" the tenth (for that it can't really be called) would be introducing a sort of "range" to Mahler's music. Deryck Cooke admitted himself that he could not finish it, nor could anyone else but Mahler.

Also, Mahler revised his symphonies extensively from draft (in which the last 3 or 4 movements now are) to performance level (as is the first movement and the rest of the symphonies). He would change around movement orders, play around with motifs, etc.

Besides, we already have nine symphonies, three song-cycles, and Das Lied... why try to make yet another? It just doesn't make much sense.

In this case, though, I think I might have the *first movement of the Tenth Symphony* as my favorite final opus and take out Tchaikovsky entirely; that first movement is one of my favorites.


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

Just made changes to the rules. Updated in the first post.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I'm still keeping to the first movement of Mahler's 10th, without the rest, because it's the only one he finished and Mahler can be unpredictable in his revisions. That's all I'm saying. No Deryck Cooke for me.


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## Rachovsky (Jan 5, 2008)

I would typically choose Mozart's Requiem, but I will go out of the loop and say:

*Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Op. 43*
_Sergei Rachmaninoff_


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

What about the symphonic dances?


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## Rachovsky (Jan 5, 2008)

Oh were they after that? Pfft.. Nevermind, lol


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## R-F (Feb 12, 2008)

Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony "Pathetique", unless I think of something else!


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

BuddhaBandit said:


> Well, I might preempt Chi by voting for Wagner's *Parsifal*


Yeah... my first thought was for this work, which happens to be in a 5-way tie for my all-time favorite opera.

If it's allowed, a close second is _Mahler's Symphony #9_. If not allowed, then a more distant second would be _Bruckner's Symphony #9_.


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

Chi_town/Philly said:


> then a more distant second would be _Bruckner's Symphony #9_.


This would've been my third choice. My only issue with choosing the 9th is that Bruckner's Fifth and Seventh are both superior to it, and I have a few qualms about choosing a "favorite final opus" that's not one of the composer's best works. Hence my choice of Schubert's D960 (and Parsifal).


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

> Besides, we already have nine symphonies, three song-cycles, and Das Lied... why try to make yet another? It just doesn't make much sense.


Because the music in it is superb. And I disagree that the music is that different. The orchestration maybe - slightly.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Probably Berg's Violin Concerto/Lulu.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45.  An excellent final work.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Last work? Beethoven's new finale to the Op. 130 string quartet.

Last opus? The Op. 135 string quartet, of course!


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Tristan said:


> Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45.  An excellent final work.


I didn't know this was his last opus. Indeed an excellent piece.


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## JasonBrenkert (Aug 13, 2013)

I have to go with Tchaikovsky's 6th. I was one of first works that truly captured my soul and pulled me into classical music. It still touches me deeply.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Parsifal_, my favorite opera. I want the last thing Wagner wrote to be the last thing I hear, preferably wafting through the window of my vacation villa above a canal in Venice.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Brahms' Four Serious Songs.


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

Opera: Berg's Lulu
Orchestral: Bruckner's 9th
Instrumental: Bach's Art of Fugue
Chamber: Shostakovich's Sonata for Viola and Piano
Choral: Hindemith's Mass for a unaccompanied choir (sorry, but I can't include Mozart's Requiem as so much of it wasn't written by him)
Vocal: not sure


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Schubert's D 960 is hard to beat. (Shouldn't Winterreise get some consideration as the last work he completed?) 

Berg's violin concerto comes close, but doesn't get the job done. Schoenberg's string trio puts in a good fight. 

I just want to mention Honegger's A Christmas Cantata. 

Shostakovich's viola sonata beats them all. 

But Bach's Mass in B minor, if it counts, is the winner. 

Thank you


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Mozart - requiem


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

science said:


> Berg's violin concerto comes close, but doesn't get the job done. Schoenberg's string trio puts in a good fight.


Schoenberg's last opus was actually op. 50, a, b, and the unfinished c, which are choral works. The last is an intriguing fragment that is good enough to perform even without a real ending (it cuts off about as abruptly as Art of Fugue).


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## SilenceIsGolden (May 5, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Last work? Beethoven's new finale to the Op. 130 string quartet.
> 
> Last opus? The Op. 135 string quartet, of course!


Yes. Some of the most transcendent and other worldly music ever written.

Ditto for _Parsifal_.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Tupac - Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory

Only joking, of course


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

I vote for Schubert's B-flat sonata. Beautiful music, and it has that feel of a goodbye to it.


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## AdmiralSilver (Sep 28, 2013)

Bartok's 3rd piano concerto


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

The last two works of Dvorak are Russalka and Armida, both Opera. Sadly Opera isn't my most favorite sub-genre in classic music.

I can't think of anything special. What about J.Strauss II's Cinderella? 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aschenbrödel

and off course, his father's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radetzky_March!


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