# The last work of a composer



## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

how about in this thread we post the last work done by your favorite composer, for me I would start with Johan Sebastian Bach






always brings tears to my eyes, tears of bliss.... of course!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

When posting embedded YouTube videos, please add at least composer and composition title. YouTube video links tend to get deleted over time and threads like these become useless as a result if no information is posted.

The video linked to in the OP is J.S. Bach - BWV 668 - Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Mozart :Requiem in D Minor, K 626
Fantastic.


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## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

Tchaikovsky’s final opus (non-posthumous that is) was the Pathetique Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74. What a sublime and spectacular way to end! Although he composed some other things after, he committed suicide (I believe) before anything else was published, making it seem like a career choice ending.


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## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

Scherzi Cat said:


> Tchaikovsky’s final opus (non-posthumous that is) was the Pathetique Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74. What a sublime and spectacular way to end! Although he composed some other things after, he committed suicide (I believe) before anything else was published, making it seem like a career choice ending.



I LOVE the way how Gergrieve conducted it.


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## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

Tarneem said:


> I LOVE the way how Gergrieve conducted it.


Yes! Me too. It is my favorite.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

MH837 - expresses dark, agitated (but controlled) passions and serenity in its harmonies, imv. This is Haydn's last _completed_ opus; the last work being the unfinished requiem, MH838, btw.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

The last work of a composer, finished or not, certainly holds a certain morbid fascination.


Mahler's 10th symphony. After the valedictory 9th, the work seems to open new horizons, both thematically and stylistically. And where the 9th is perfectly clear in its meaning, the 10th is full of riddles and secrets.
Bruckner's 9th symphony. The finale was written after Bruckner had received the last sacraments, so even more than the adagio it seems to be music from beyond the realm of the living.
Beethoven's last String Quartet, that strange and multi-interpretable work. If the preceding quartet (in c-sharp minor) is the definitive summary and conclusion of his oeuvre, the last quartet, like Mahler's 10th, searches fro a new future, and even mocks all that came before.
Mendelssohn's last String Quartet in f minor, an uncharacteristically angry and violent work, a rage against the dying of the light.
Brahms' Chorale Preludes for organ, the last one "O Welt, Ich muss dich lassen" having the iconic dynamic marking at the beginning, Brahms' musical motto: "forte ma dolce".


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

Beethoven Opus 135 string quartet no 16 in F (last living work)
Higher opus's published posthumously


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Scherzi Cat said:


> Tchaikovsky’s final opus (non-posthumous that is) was the Pathetique Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74. What a sublime and spectacular way to end! Although he composed some other things after, he committed suicide (I believe) before anything else was published, making it seem like a career choice ending.


The _Pathétique_ is actually his penultimate completed work; the last is the Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 75, a hidden gem in his oeuvre, full of pathos. I remember been so addicted to it in the day I discovered it that I listened to this concerto no less than seven times in a row back then. It was the Pletnev/Fedoseyev/PO performance, to my ears the best I know of this work.

"Tchaikovsky's first mention of using the sketches of his abandoned Symphony in E-flat as the basis for a piano concerto came early in April 1893. He began work on July 5, completing the first movement eight days later. Though he worked quickly, Tchaikovsky did not find the job a pleasant one—a note on the manuscript reads, 'The end, God be thanked!' He did not score this movement until autumn.

In June Tchaikovsky was in London to conduct a performance of his Fourth Symphony. There he ran into his friend, the French pianist Louis Diémer, whom he had met in Paris five years earlier during a festival of Tchaikovsky's chamber works. Diémer had performed Tchaikovsky's Concert Fantasia, in a two-piano arrangement with the composer at the second piano. Diémer was one of the major French pianists of his time. Sometime during their reacquaintance, Tchaikovsky might have mentioned the concerto upon which he had been working. Regardless, he decided to dedicate the work to Diémer. 

After finishing the Pathétique symphony, Tchaikovsky turned once again to the concerto, only to experience another wave of doubt. He confided to pianist Alexander Siloti, 'As music it hasn’t come out badly—but it's pretty ungrateful.' He wrote to Polish pianist and composer Zygmunt Stojowski on October 6, 1893, 'As I wrote to you, my new Symphony is finished. I am now working on the scoring of my new (third) concerto for our dear Diémer. When you see him, please tell him that when I proceeded to work on it, I realized that this concerto is of depressing and threatening length. Consequently I decided to leave only part one which in itself will constitute an entire concerto. The work will only improve the more since the last two parts were not worth very much.' 

The choice of a single-movement Allegro de concert or Concertstück would have been in line with French piano-and-orchestra works of the period such as Gabriel Fauré's Ballade, César Franck's symphonic poem Les Djinns and Symphonic Variations—several of these works premiered by Diémer. There was also a growing trend toward similar works by Russian composers. This included Mily Balakirev's First Piano Concerto, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's sole foray into this genre, and currently lesser-known works as the Allegro de concert in A major by Felix Blumenfeld and the Fantasie russe in B minor by Eduard Nápravník. Tchaikovsky was especially fond of the Nápravník piece and even conducted it. Siloti and Taneyev also performed it. 

Once Tchaikovsky finished scoring the Allegro brillante in October 1893, he asked Taneyev to look it over. Taneyev, on whom Tchaikovsky relied for technical pianistic advice, found the solo part lacking in virtuosity. Tchaikovsky had told Siloti that if Taneyev shared his low opinion of the concerto, he would destroy it. The composer did not carry out this threat, however. Tchaikovsky's brother Modest assured Siloti that while Tchaikovsky in no way questioned Taneyev’s verdict, he also had promised the concerto to Diémer and wanted to show the score to him. In fact, on what would be his final visit to Moscow in October 1893, Tchaikovsky showed the concerto once again to Taneyev and still intended to show the work to Diémer. 

Less than a month later, Tchaikovsky was dead. 

Taneyev gave the first performance of the concerto in Saint Petersburg on January 7, 1895, conducted by Eduard Nápravník." - Source: wikipedia.

*Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 75 - Pletnev/Fedoseyev/PO:*


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

bagpipers said:


> Beethoven Opus 135 string quartet no 16 in F (last living work)
> Higher opus's published posthumously


Funny enough, I thought his last living work was the alternate, light-hearted ending to the quartet 13, which was a replacement for the Grosse Fuge.

Certainly an oddly anti-climactic conclusion to such a massive artist, but life just is that way sometimes.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Bellini - opera I Puritani. I dislike this one. He had big plans after it, but died young and unexpectedly.


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

Dmitri Shostakovich - Sonata for Viola and Piano op.147 (1975). Just about completed before ill-health finally got the better of him. Often in pain while composing it, it's as if he knew that the viola sonata was to be his tombstone.


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

fbjim said:


> Funny enough, I thought his last living work was the alternate, light-hearted ending to the quartet 13, which was a replacement for the Grosse Fuge.
> 
> Certainly an oddly anti-climactic conclusion to such a massive artist, but life just is that way sometimes.


The last quartets were composed in such a disorganized way it's hard to really say for sure what was actually written last.But the F major was the last living official opus ,whether it was last composed who knows.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Rouse)



The *Symphony No. 6* is a symphony for orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and was completed in the composer's Baltimore home on June 6, 2019. It was first performed in Cincinnati Music Hall by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Louis Langrée on October 18, 2019. Written as a personal epitaph, the symphony was Rouse's last completed work before his death in September 2019

Rouse, who knew he was dying after an eight-year bout of renal cancer, composed the work as a personal epitaph. Referring to a set of compositions known as his "Death Cycle," he wrote from hospice in a pre-performance statement, "One final time my subject is death, though in this event it is my own of which I write."


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## RandallPeterListens (Feb 9, 2012)

I always thought (perhaps incorrectly) that JS Bach continued to be working on The Art of Fugue up to the time of his death. No?
Edward Elgar was working on his Third Symphony right up to his death. The completion/recreation of that symphony by Anthony Payne shows that it could have been a very good work.
Of course, there's Mozart and the Requiem Mass.
But a last work doesn't necessarily have to be a deathbed act. Sibelius wrote his 7th Symphony (a real stunner) in 1924 and Tapiola in 1926 and nothing else until his death in 1957.


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## feierlich (3 mo ago)

Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 is his last work but his last _complete_ work is _Helgoland_, which is rarely performed or recorded but really a remarkable piece (as is any other piece by Bruckner).


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## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

S


Vasks said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Rouse)
> 
> 
> 
> The *Symphony No. 6* is a symphony for orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse.



unfortunately Rouse's 6th symphony is not available in you tube. I listened to his 5th and WOW! the piece is so easy to listen yet so hard to grasp. I am super interested about this composer. thank you so much for introducing him to me


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## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

feierlich said:


> Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 is his last work but his last _complete_ work is _Helgoland._


the piece is EPIC.... may the lord bless Bruckner's soul


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

RandallPeterListens said:


> I always thought (perhaps incorrectly) that JS Bach continued to be working on The Art of Fugue up to the time of his death. No?


No. I believe he stopped working on it in 1742. Classical Notes - Classical Classics - Bach's Art of the Fugue, by Peter Gutmann


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata - has to be about the saddest piece of music out there


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. The way the Dies irae is finally obliterated in the last movement after haunting his music throughout his career.


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