# Last Piece of Music, Take 2



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

What is your favourite last work by a composer? How long before the composer's death was it written? Any other fascinating trivia about last works?

My own favourite in this category is probably Bartok's third piano concerto.

Of course, there is some debate about what exactly counts as a last work, considering how many works, left incomplete, were completed by others, after the composers' demise. But whatever: let the morbid tales roll in...


----------



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

For the umpteenth time on this forum - I am going to name Schubert's B-flat major sonata. Maybe it wasn't technically his last piece, but what the heck.


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

shangoyal said:


> For the umpteenth time on this forum - I am going to name Schubert's B-flat major sonata. Maybe it wasn't technically his last piece, but what the heck.


I get this feeling this topic has been done to death on the forum, but I haven't seen other, similar threads. Anyway, it's so much fun it can do with yet another thread, if only so that new members can see what a cheerful lot we are.


----------



## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Stand-out last works for me.

Rachmaninov saved one of his best till last. The Symphonic Dances are just about perfect.

Mahler's 10th Symphony Adagio is one of the most moving pieces of instrumental music I know. 

Mozart's Requiem obviously
Panufnik's Cello Concerto also


----------



## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I enjoy Bach's _Art of Fugue_, what with the dramatic death of the composer midway through.

I also enjoy Schubert's _Taubenpost_, which is believed to be his last song. There is something quite bittersweet about it; the theme of Sehnsucht/longing is presented in such a cheerful and understated manner.


----------



## The Aesthete (Apr 27, 2014)

Bach's Ascension Oratorio is my favourite piece by him, especially the chorale at the end. Gardiner conducts this and the Easter Oratorio, another favourite of mine, both of which include an interview with Gardiner beforehand that might be interesting to some. Certainly I admire Gardiner and particularly enjoyed his documentary in which he explained how Bach wasn't 'Holier than Thou' and that Bach was a somewhat troubled man with an antagonistic personality.

Ascension Oratorio:






The Easter Oratorio:


----------



## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B minor.


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I haven't listened to the final works of all composers yet, and the few final works I have heard, I have not heard enough to have any favourites, but...

I am especially partial to Shostakovich's _Sonata for Viola and Piano_, Op147 from 1975.


----------



## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Gabriel Fauré's Op. 121, String Quartet in E minor (1923-4).

A stunning piece of music. 

It, simply put, makes me happy. 

It's sweet, it's ethereal. It is ready for death. It has a smile. It is the goodbye from a lovely and beloved man. He wasn't going to write a SQ but got pressure his whole life from her peers and students in the Parisian Goliaths of early-modern music like Debussy and Ravel.


----------

