# Which were the instant great hits in the history of classical music?



## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

Some works are notorious for causing a riot when they were first performed, e.g. Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps. I've learned that some works got the opposite reaction as they were instant hits: they got e.g. an hour of standing ovation when they were first performed and/or were performed almost daily in big halls because they were people's favorite in those days. Usually it is not hard to understand why: the music is full of nice catchy melodies yet often slightly exotic and with an aura of novelty at the same time. But it is not easy finding out which were the instant great hits in their own time so I would like to hear of some if you know any. I can add two works to start with, together with a source of the high praise for them by their contemporaries:

*Rossini: Stabat Mater*
"Rossini's name was shouted out amid the applause. The entire work transported the audience; the triumph was complete. Three numbers had to be repeated...and the audience left the theater moved and seized by an admiration that quickly won all Paris.[2] (...)
The enthusiasm is impossible to describe. Even at the final rehearsal, which Rossini attended, in the middle of the day, he was accompanied to his home to the shouting of more than 500 persons. The same thing the first night, under his window, since he did not appear in the hall.[3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabat_Mater_(Rossini)

*Gounod: Faust*
"For decades, it has stood firmly at the top of the operatic hit parade. There was such a craze for this opera, in fact, that one English critic sourly observed in 1863: "Faust, Faust, Faust, nothing but Faust. Faust on Saturday, Wednesday and Thursday; to be repeated tonight, and on every night until further notice."
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19981011&slug=2776929


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

A lot of Verdi entered the Itaian opera repertoire almost instantly. He was so perturbed by some of his best numbers getting out even before the opening, that he withheld Rigoletto's "La donna e mobile" from the rehearsals entirely until the day of Opening Night. Conversely, a lot of instant hits died soon thereafter and have failed to enter the repertoire ever.


----------



## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Dvorak's 9th symphony



> And the first performance itself? The New York Herald observed: "It saw a large audience of usually tranquil Americans enthusiastic to the point of frenzy over a musical work and applauding like the most excitable 'Italianissimi' in the world."


https://musicwithvision.medici.tv/c...-premiere-of-dvoraks-new-world-symphony-1893/


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Beethoven's Ninth. Here is Wikipedia:

"When the audience applauded—testimonies differ over whether at the end of the scherzo or symphony—Beethoven was several measures off and still conducting. Because of that, the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and turned Beethoven around to accept the audience's cheers and applause. According to the critic for the Theater-Zeitung, "the public received the musical hero with the utmost respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them." The audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, raised hands, so that Beethoven, who could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations."


----------



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

Many of Offenbach's operettas were immediate successes, but only three or four have really endured. There are a whole host of operas and other stage works from the 18th and 19th centuries which were the talk of Paris, Vienna, Venice and wherever else one minute then yesterday's news the next - it was a crowded field.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Two linked works come to mind. Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony was a hit before it had been heard. But that was because it represented resistance to Nazi invasion. At the same time, Bartok was not a popular composer in USA (where he had to live after leaving Hungary) but after some popular misfires his Concerto For Orchestra was very well received and certainly did much to establish him as a major composer.


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Orff: Carmina Burana


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> Two linked works come to mind. Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony was a hit before it had been heard. But that was because it represented resistance to Nazi invasion. At the same time, Bartok was not a popular composer in USA (where he had to live after leaving Hungary) but after some popular misfires his Concerto For Orchestra was very well received and certainly did much to establish him as a major composer.


Of course he was dying of leukemia at the time.  "Trying to help Bartok" was a major (and majorly unsuccessful) concern of the musical world at the time -- he was proud and stubborn -- and Koussevitsy's commissioning of the Cto for Orchestra was one of the few attempts that worked.


----------



## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

Wagners Ring was a sensation without parallel.



The Magic Flute.


----------



## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

This is actually the exact opposite of that which was requested by the OP and please accept my apologies for having misread the intent of the thread but rather than leave "Deleted" as a response I thought that the link to the article would be of interest to some...

This is what posting on 3 hours of sleep looks like...

*10 of the best: Musical riots*

https://www.theguardian.com/music/t...p-ten-classical-music-riots-protests-stushies


----------



## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

Once again this is the exact opposite of that which was requested by the OP and please once again accept my apologies for having misread the intent of the thread but rather than yet again leaving "Deleted" as a response I thought that the link to the article may be of interest to some...

This is what posting on 3 hours of sleep looks like... and this is why I should probably stop, eh? 

*List of classical music concerts with an unruly audience response*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_concerts_with_an_unruly_audience_response


----------



## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I can remember Verdi's Aida and Tschaikowkys Swan Lake (or Nutcracker...) Many Bellini's Operas had also instant success!


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I'm sure that Swan Lake and Nutcracker were not instant hits. Swan Lake took a beating, some additions by other composers, some cuts etc and even then took a long time to become a hit. Wiki: The première was not well-received. Though there were a few critics who recognised the virtues of the score, most considered it to be far too complicated for ballet. It was labelled, "too noisy, too 'Wagnerian' and too symphonic."

The suite from Nutcracker was a hit from day one - several of the sections had to be repeated. But the whole ballet took nearly 70 years to become the annual, traditional popular hit it did.


----------



## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Virelai, virelai, I say unto you, this was number one with a bullet on the Burgundian charts:


----------



## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

*Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freischütz*



Woodduck said:


> The first musical icon of true German Romanticism was Weber's _Der Freishutz,_ premiered in 1821. It created a sensation, and Wagner writes amusingly of how its tunes were being sung and played by everyone in homes and in the streets.


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

‘Ravel’s Boléro was a sensational success when it was premiered at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928.’


----------



## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Mahler 8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_(Mahler)#Premiere


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

"Mendelssohn's _Italian Symphony_ was finished in Berlin on 13 March 1833, in response to an invitation for a symphony from the London (now Royal) Philharmonic Society; he conducted the first performance himself in London on 13 May 1833 at a London Philharmonic Society concert. The symphony's success, and Mendelssohn's popularity, influenced the course of British music for the rest of the century." I consider this one of the most sparkling and effervescent symphonies ever written and to my ears it has remained eternally fresh, yet the composer was never entirely satisfied with it despite its popularity.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Many of Beethoven’s works were immediate best-sellers, and as a result publishers vied for his scores and paid premiums. There were two odd exceptions, both treasured today, that kind of disappeared after their premiers and were later revived by Felix Mendelssohn, staying firmly in the repertoire thereafter:

- Piano Concerto No. 4, premiered in 1807 and revived 29 years later in 1836.
- Violin Concerto, premiered in 1806 and revived 38 years later in 1844 (with the 12-year old Joseph Joachim playing the violin).


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I guess the Rite of Spring was a big success even though (or because) it caused a riot.


----------



## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Handel's Messiah, although it had a rather modest first performance, was instantly liked by audiences and quickly became very popular.


----------



## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Robert le Diable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_le_diable


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Fould's World Requiem was a great success but contains much that I think most of us would find embarrassing now.


----------



## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Berlioz's Harold in Italy:



> Paganini did not hear the work he had commissioned until 16 December 1838; then he was so overwhelmed by it that, following the performance, he dragged Berlioz onto the stage and there knelt and kissed his hand before a wildly cheering audience and applauding musicians. A few days later he sent Berlioz a letter of congratulations, enclosing a bank draft for 20,000 francs.


Not bad.


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Handel’s “Water Music”:

‘The first performance of the Water Music is recorded in The Daily Courant, the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 July 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing. Another barge, provided by the City of London, contained about 50 musicians who performed Handel's music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert. According to The Courant, "the whole River in a manner was covered" with boats and barges. On arriving at Chelsea, the king left his barge, then returned to it at about 11 p.m. for the return trip. The king was so pleased with the Water Music that he ordered it to be repeated at least three times, both on the trip upstream to Chelsea and on the return, until he landed again at Whitehall.’

Had Variety magazine been covering the premiere, they might have said something like, “Handel’s Water Music Makes A Big Splash.”
.”


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, January 13, 1945. Big hit then in USSR, quickly recorded by Koussevitzky in the USA, most popular Proko symphony since.


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Mollie John said:


> This is actually the exact opposite of that which was requested by the OP and please accept my apologies for having misread the intent of the thread but rather than leave "Deleted" as a response I thought that the link to the article would be of interest to some...
> 
> This is what posting on 3 hours of sleep looks like...
> 
> ...


"The exact opposite of what was requested by the OP?" In the Paris of 1913 a riot was the best possible outcome. It showed that people cared.

Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto was an instant hit, as was his Prelude in C# minor. The latter was so successful that Rachmaninoff had to play it as an encore for most of his life. Once asked his definition of heaven he responded: "Anywhere the C# minor prelude isn't."


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

EdwardBast said:


> "The exact opposite of what was requested by the OP?" In the Paris of 1913 a riot was the best possible outcome. It showed that people cared.


So true. Any musical event where Saint-Saëns storms out, Debussy sits there looking puzzled, and Ravel keeps shouting 'Genius!" over and over again is sure to be a hit.


----------



## Guest (May 11, 2019)

*Beethoven's* 7th Symphony (especially the slow movement)
*Bruckner's* 7th Symphony (also a favourite of Hitler's, apparently).


----------



## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

Potiphera said:


> Wagners Ring was a sensation without parallel.
> 
> The Magic Flute.


 Or was it the Parsifal Prelude, which stunned the youths Ravel and Debussy, neither slept for one week.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

EdwardBast said:


> "The exact opposite of what was requested by the OP?" In the Paris of 1913 a riot was the best possible outcome. It showed that people cared.


In Paris, riots quickly became _de rigueur_. Richard Rhodes wrote of a concert in the late 1920s where the riot was filmed by cameras and operators placed in advance. At the conclusion of the action, the director asked that more rioting take place so that he could get shots from different angles and some close-ups. The audience happily complied.


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

“Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" for piano and orchestra, Op. 2, was written in 1827, when he was aged 17. "Là ci darem la mano" is a duet sung by Don Giovanni and Zerlina in Act I of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, and Chopin's adaptation inspired Robert Schumann's famous exclamation, Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!”

“The work was premiered on 11 August 1829 at the Vienna Kärntnertortheater, with Chopin as the soloist. It received very positive audience and critical acclaim. Writing to his parents in Warsaw about his success, he said that "everyone clapped so loudly after each variation that I had difficulty hearing the orchestral tutti."


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

paulbest said:


> Or was it the Parsifal Prelude, which stunned the youths Ravel and Debussy, neither slept for one week.


Don't know about the prelude, which Wagner conducted at a private concert for Ludwig II prior to the premiere of the opera, but the Bayreuth opening was a triumph only slightly marred by the fact that the stage machinery malfunctioned and necessitated a few extra bars of music which Wagner asked his assistant, the young Engelbert Humperdinck, to compose for temporary use. Mahler, Weingartner, Wolf, Reger, Sibelius and innumerable other prominent musical figures attended early performances and were duly overwhelmed.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Ravel is reported to have wept upon hearing the prelude to Tristan (according to Ricardo Vines who was in attendance with him). Debussy went through a big Wagner phase, seeing all the performances he could for a while, and as a composer felt plagued by the "Tristan problem" (what to do after Tristan?) But I've never heard the story of them not sleeping for a week - it sounds a little far-fetched frankly.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Brahms _Triumphlied_ written to celebrate the German victory in the Franco-Prussian war was an instant and smashing success, though now the work is rather unknown, while many of his works that we consider his best today premiered to mixed reviews.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

tdc said:


> Brahms _Triumphlied_ written to celebrate the German victory in the Franco-Prussian war was an instant and smashing success, though now the work is rather unknown, while many of his works that we consider his best today premiered to mixed reviews.


I guess _Wellington's Victory_ falls in the same category. Beethoven remained quite fond of it, even when some critics reviled it in his later years; perhaps it was the warm memories of all the money it made him.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Grand galop chromatique in E-flat major, S.219 is a bravura piece by Franz Liszt, composed in 1838. This gallop was one of Liszt's favorite encores which he considered a "rouser."


----------



## caters (Aug 2, 2018)

I'm surprised that only 1 of Mozart's works was mentioned here. Weren't most of Mozart's works instant hits, from his operas to his piano concertos, to his string quartets, to his symphonies, and even his sonatas?


----------



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Strange Magic said:


> Beethoven's Ninth. Here is Wikipedia:
> 
> "When the audience applauded-testimonies differ over whether at the end of the scherzo or symphony-Beethoven was several measures off and still conducting. Because of that, the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and turned Beethoven around to accept the audience's cheers and applause. According to the critic for the Theater-Zeitung, "the public received the musical hero with the utmost respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them." The audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, raised hands, so that Beethoven, who could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations."


I wonder if this information is accurate. Perhaps the premiere was a success, but if I'm not mistaken the piece had to be championed by people like Berlioz and Wagner to remain in the canon. Here's what I just read in the book "Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind and His Music", page 22:

"The works of Beethoven's final period were looked upon by most _[in 1829]_ as the lamentable result of deafness. In fact, what first drew Richard to the Ninth Symphony was the popular and rather Hoffmannesque view of it as a vast, fantastic, and unfathomable aberration of a deaf and perhaps mad genius - a judgment reinforced by the chaotic performances it generally received. _(...)_ He not only copied the score of the symphony but also reduced it to a piano version, which he twice offered to the house of Schott, the Mainz music publishers. The arrangement was not issued, for there was insufficient interest in the supposed eccentric work."


----------

