# Specific parts of classical works which have moved you to tears_Part II



## WeThotUWasAToad (Mar 17, 2015)

_Note: This thread refers to the following:
https://www.talkclassical.com/58554-specific-parts-classical-works.html_

Hello,

I posted the above thread a couple of years ago which asked:

*What are some specific segments of classical works which have moved you to tears?*

Responses to that thread were great and resulted in my being introduced to several exquisitely beautiful pieces of music which I otherwise may never have known. After just listening to one of them again this morning, I decided to return for a 2nd helping so please be generous with your comments and recommendations.

I will begin with four works which continue to evoke tears each time I hear them:

• Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, 2nd Movement - specifically the 2nd solo theme (at about 2:20 with the bassoon* or clarinet in the background)





• Mendelssohn Elijah, Part 1, 9th Movement: "Blessed are they who fear the Lord"





• Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11





• Giulio Caccini : Ave Maria for Cello and Strings - Julian Lloyd Webber





Thanks

PS The above four works are also included in the first thread but I felt compelled to post them again here because I just want everyone to hear them.

*If anyone knows which of the two instruments is correct, please let me know.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

WeThotUWasAToad said:


> Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, 2nd Movement - specifically the 2nd solo theme (at about 2:20 with the bassoon* or clarinet in the background)


Music + film sheds the most tears for me.

Chopin


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

some tear jerkers

Hahn - L'Heure exquise
Canteloube - Chants' d'Auvergne: Baïlèro
Richard Wagner - Tristan & Isolde - Isoldes Liebestod
Elgar - Nimrod
Vitali - Chaconne in G Minor
Rachmaninov - "18th Variation" from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Beethoven - 2nd Movement from "Sonata Pathétique"
Puccini - "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot
Massenet - "Meditation" from Thaïs
Strauss - Metamorphosen
Pergolesi - Stabat Mater

PS: I am not actually moved to tears by any music, or only very rarely (a couple of times during my whole life at most)


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

WeThotUWasAToad said:


> • Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, 2nd Movement - specifically the 2nd solo theme (at about 2:20 with the bassoon* or clarinet in the background)


I wonder how much "help" Chopin got from his colleagues in orchestrating this stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Chopin)
Chopin's fellow composers and Prof. Elsner's former students, Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (1807-1867) and Tomasz Nidecki (1807-1852), are believed to have helped him orchestrate his piano concertos. This gave an excuse for other musicians to make slight alterations in the score.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Some of my favorite works are due to the composers themselves but orchestrated by others. I guess they're great works because the composers purposefully aren't focused on all the the meaningless details, but the overall motives, the pacing and feeling.


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## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

Final mvt. of Mahler 3
2nd mvt of Brahms PC1
Eroica funeral march
Slow interlude in the finale of the Grieg Piano Concerto
First mvt. of the Saint Saens PC2
Slow "mvt." of the Barber 1st Symphony and the middle mvt. of his Violin Concerto.
2nd mvt. of the Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2
First movement of the Elgar Cello Concerto 
Adagio of Bruckner 8
I could go on, but...I'll get weepy.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)




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## TMHeimer (Dec 19, 2019)

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2--
2nd mvmt.: Flute solo followed by clarinet solo then solo piano accompanied by 1st & 2nd clarinets taking turns.
3rd movement: the build up to the end, including the forte orchestra part.
(I played this in an orchestra in the mid '70s--was the 2nd clarinetist. Every time I hear this piece I think back to that experience and those musicians. The pianist was a teacher, freind, and neighbour of mine)


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

The Dona nobis pacem (identical to the Gratias, actually...which are both identical to the opening chorus of Cantata 29) from Bach's B Minor Mass.

The Ricercar á 6 from Musical Offering, especially if actually playing it. Ditto the closing measures of Fugue 9 from WTC II.

(edit)the return of the Aria at the end of the Goldberg Variations, again especially if playing it. Metaphorical or spiritual tears though, I guess. I'm not continually crying.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

Ludolf Nielsen's 3rd Symphony. Probably the only time a more obscure name (maybe he's more well known than I realize) has actually made me teary eyed, which is some nice motivation to try new composers. For the rest I'll have to stick with big names though. 




A piece in a similar spirit with an equally moving opening, Copland's Appalachian Spring. 




Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau. Aldo Ciccolini's Debussy is awesome btw. 




Handel's Ye Men of Gaza is one of his top 3 moments of genius in his vast catalogue. 




Some more brilliant Handel. May no rash intruder disturb their soft hours, from Solomon. 




There's lots of things that have moved me equally, but these are the most recent to actually get some literal water in my eyes.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I am going to look at the pols / games whats the most popular, will report back.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

TMHeimer said:


> Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2--
> 2nd mvmt.: Flute solo followed by clarinet solo then solo piano accompanied by 1st & 2nd clarinets taking turns.







Rach's 3rd piano concerto 1st movement is also finely written


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Can I have the Mozart edition of this thread, @hammeredklavier?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Ethereality said:


> Can I have the Mozart edition of this thread, @hammeredklavier?


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## DLOinQUEENS (Nov 22, 2018)

I just recently listened to the Robert Shaw English language version the Brahms German Requiem for the first time, and when I heard the glorious explosion of, “But the word of the Lord endures for eternity” in the second movement, it was a decidedly spiritual moment, and I definitely teared up, thinking of those I’ve lost, those I will lose, and my own fragile existence.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

1. The arrival of the closing fugue in Britten's _A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra_. Every damn time 
2. The Andante of Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto
3. The explorers from Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 1


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> 1. The arrival of the closing fugue in Britten's _A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra_. Every damn time
> 2. The Andante of Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto
> 3. The explorers from Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 1


AB, we do have some very similar tastes.
Your no.1 gets me when the Purcell comes in at the climax of the fugue. Admittedly not tears but an awareness of the sheer power of music. Your no.3 gets me on the words "Oh daring joy, but safe, are they not all the seas of God", especially when the soprano manages a beautiful high B flat.

I'll admit to being a soppy fool when Rachmaninov is on. The Vocalise is a killer. The slow mvt. of RVW's 5th also blows me away.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

WeThotUWasAToad said:


> • Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, 2nd Movement - specifically the 2nd solo theme (at about 2:20 with the bassoon* or clarinet in the background)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's a bassoon.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

mikeh375 said:


> The slow mvt. of RVW's 5th also blows me away.


...it absolutely destroys me.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

janxharris said:


> ...it absolutely destroys me.


Utter swines, both of you.  You made me go listen. And yes, it turns out it has that effect on me too. I'd forgotten. It's a glorious tune, at Un pochino più movimento (bar 51ish).


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## VitellioScarpia (Aug 27, 2017)

I learned to play Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor (WoO 80) many years ago. When playing I had to get a grip on myself as quite unexpectedly one day when starting variation VII I started to cry. By the time I had reached variation VII, I was sobbing. As a listener, the last few variations of Op.111 get to me when the piano descends from heaven to earth.


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## EmperorOfIceCream (Jan 3, 2020)

The main one I would like to direct you to which is lesser known is _Correspondances_ by Henri Dutilleux. To me, the most beautiful, tearful part is in Mvt. 5 when the words are "J'ai un besoin terrible de religion. Alors, je vais la nuit, dehors, pour peindre les étoiles. Sentir les étoiles et l'infini, en faut, clairement, alors, la vie est tout de même presque enchantée." (I have a terrible need of religion. So, I go in the night, to paint the stars. Feeling the stars and infinity, much needed, clearly, so that life is all the same almost enchanted." This is from the letters of Van Gogh. Also in Mvt. 3 when "Alia et moi" is sung in reference to Solzhenitzyn's exile. I don't know why this work isn't more popular, to me it is one of the most beautiful things ever written and deserves to be spoken of like the symphonic songs of Strauss and Mahler.

Others:
Das lied von der erde
Dutilleux Shadows of Time, Mvt. 3 (but also 5) when the children start singing "Pourquoi nous?" (Why us?) in memory of the concentration camps 
End of Mahler 9
Mvt. 2 of Beethoven Emperor
Vier letzte lieder
Rautavaara Piano Concerto 1, esp. Mvt 1 (Not really seemingly sad, but just the sheer ecstasy and sense of life makes me cry)


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

I don't know, it might be an unemotional Northern European nature, but pure music almost never moves me to tears, no matter how much I'd like it to. I can get chills and goosebumps but very rarely tears. Some opera scenes still do it for me - the ending of _Lohengrin_ for example.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

3:50 - 5:05 ...If this is what feeling in love sounds like...






1:40 - 3:05, exposition at 6:20 - 7:15 ...If this is what feeling in love sounds like...






13:20 - 15:00 ...If this is what feeling in love sounds like...






Then this is what losing love sounds like.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Message deleted.


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