# Your favourite loudest/most bombastic pieces of all time



## Goddess Yuja Wang (Aug 8, 2017)

Hello.

During next seek, I will have to finish unpacking all my boxes, and the only music that will help me feel like doing it would be some very loud, bombastic, high-octane and disonant pieces. Great climaxes. You know, with masterful brass and percussion writing (a la Shostakovich symphonies, which I LOVE).

What are some of your favourite pieces with those characteristics that you could rcommend?
They do not have to be only orchestral... They can be any period you like.

A short description on why you like the piece and YouTube links would be appreciated, so I can start building my great high-energy "box-unpacking" music!

Thank you.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Hindemith's symphony in E flat, but only the first movement really.


----------



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Keqrops- Xenakis

Naive and Sentimental Music- Adams.

Rite of Spring- Stravinsky

Ports of Call- Ibert (Parts of it).

Many, many others of course.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

At the moment I'm listening to Prokofiev's _Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution_, Op 74 - it's on BBC Radio 3 from the Proms. It's quite boisterous and would make me unpack quickly; if only to get it done and switch off the music (actually that's a joke. I don't normally favour vocal music, but this is quite good).


----------



## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

eugeneonagain said:


> At the moment I'm listening to Prokofiev's _Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution_, Op 74 - it's on BBC Radio 3 from the Proms. It's quite boisterous and would make me unpack quickly; if only to get it done and switch off the music (actually that's a joke. I don't normally favour vocal music, but this is quite good).


The Mark Elder recording is quite something...


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

It annoyed me that Katie Derham (Proms presenter) showed her personal bias by remarking that the work was great despite its 'repulsive texts' (from Marx & Engels).


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

eugeneonagain said:


> It annoyed me that Katie Derham (Proms presenter) showed her personal bias by remarking that the work was great despite its 'repulsive texts' (from Marx & Engels).


Ha! Try Elgar's "Crown of India," the full masque and not the extracted suite. The most polite thing I can say is, times change.


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Russian music! Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Schnittke. They rock


----------



## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Has to be Tchaikovsky 1812 overture. Everything in it including cannons. Can"t get much louder!!


----------



## premont (May 7, 2015)

Cannot answer, as I do not favor bombastic music. :cheers:


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

^^^Me neither. The quieter the better. Good luck!!


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Judith said:


> Has to be Tchaikovsky 1812 overture. Everything in it including cannons. Can"t get much louder!!


Yes you can - Beethoven's _Wellington's Victory_!

Beyond that, Respighi's _Belkis, Queen of Sheba_. A critic described it as "This is all rather like a cross between an updated Scheherazade and music for a Hollywood Biblical epic."


----------



## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

Here's a few you may want to include in your unpacking playlist:


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Herewith the Mother of All Head-Clearers: Mosolov's _Iron Foundry_. You gotta Mosolov it!






The Prokofiev 3rd on the same album will also clear those blocked sinuses.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Wonderfully 'bombastic'. Vive la France!


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Bartok's suite from The Miraculous Mandarin


----------



## malvinrisan (Feb 17, 2017)

Imaginary Landscape by John Cage


----------



## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Verdi's requiem out of those I've heard live: you can only really appreciate the loudness that way.


----------



## Goddess Yuja Wang (Aug 8, 2017)

Wow! 
So many great recommendations! Thank you all.

I'm already compiling a playlist with all this music in Safari, but I won't start listening to it until tomorrow morning when I begin. Some of the pieces I've never heard seem very intriguing.

I think you might have saved me from my wife kicking me out of the house with my unpacked boxes... It's been 3 weeks already and I kept finding excuses not to do it. 
But now, with all this music companions you've suggested, it might even turn pleasurable doing it!

Please keep them comming. It will be a loooong week


----------



## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Final movement of Copland's 3rd.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Any of Bruckner's symphonies are seriously bombastic. If you prefer any modern sounds/atonal music, then try Schnittke's symphonies too.


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Holst: Mars, The Bringer of War from The Planets.


----------



## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Not really bombastic, but certainly loud: Vaughan Williams 4
Mahler 2 or 8
Shostakovich 11


----------



## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

Ingélou said:


> Wonderfully 'bombastic'. Vive la France!


bravo Ingelou! bombastic from Baroque! love it too


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Aaand once again, one of the most intensive pieces of them all...
*Aram Khachaturian - Symphony No. 3*


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Judith said:


> Has to be Tchaikovsky 1812 overture. Everything in it including cannons. Can"t get much louder!!


_Yes_, this one on Telarc, brings the ceiling down. :trp:


----------



## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

Bizet l'Arlesienne suite especially Farandole starting at 29.12. Carmen suite as well.






Tchaikovsky Marche Slave. Capriccio Italien would be also my choice.






Rameau - Dance des Sauvages






Can also try - Gluck - Dance of the Furies played by Il Giardino Armonico


----------



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

I forgot to add Prokofiev's wonderful Scythian Suite to my list.


----------



## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

whole symphony is great


----------



## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

William Fry's 1854 "Niagara Symphony" features eleven timpani!


----------



## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

I think these ones haven't been mentioned yet:

Respighi: Vetrate di Chiesa, Pini di Roma, Feste Romane
Walton: Symphony 1
Glière: Symphony 3 _Ilya Murometz_
Casella: Symphony 2
Berlioz: Requiem, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Zdravitsa
Martinu: Czech Rhapsody (for baritone, chorus, organ and orchestra)
Novák: De Profundis, Toman and the Wood Nymph
Strauss: An Alpine Symphony, Also sprach Zarathustra
Klami: Kalevala Suite
Shostakovich: Symphony 7, The Forest Song
Khachaturian: Symphony 2
Arnold: Tam O' Shanter, Symphony 4
Mahler: Symphony 6
Janácek: Sinfonietta
Leifs: Hekla, Saga Symphony (really loud!)
McEwen: Gray Galloway (it's more chivalrous)
Adams: Harmonielehre
Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite, Niagara Falls Suite, Death Valley Suite
Villa-Lobos: Symphony 3 _A Guerra_
Pettersson: Symphony 8
Bax: London Pageant, Paean, Symphony 4
Tubin: Symphony 2, 3, 5, 6
Bloch: Symphony in C sharp minor
Schreker: Fantastische Ouvertüre
Bantock: A Pagan Symphony, A Hebriden Symphony, Thalaba the Destroyer, Dante and Beatrice
Holmboe: Symphony 4
Langgaard: Symphony 1
Lyatoshinsky: Grazhyna
Wolf: Penthesilea


----------



## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Dvorak Symphony 7, just listened to Gunzenhauser/Slovak Orchestra Naxos version which is an excellent bargain - it sounded "light and right". Maybe a bit too light for your bombastic demands? Kubelik/BPO is a bit more dissonant and high powered...






Another invigorating find has been Kovacevich's bargain Warner box of Beethoven sonatas. This is as "loud, bombastic, high-octane and dissonant" as you are going to find in Beethoven's piano works! Great stuff!


----------



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Prokofiev 3
Shostakovich 7, 12
Adams Harmonielehre, movement 1


----------



## Dumbo (Sep 3, 2017)

Hehe, you beat me to Iron Foundry!

The Planets by Holst.

Mahler Symphony #6.

I once said on another blog that Mahler's Sixth could be subtitled "Music to Conquer Poland By" and I was bombarded with angry posts.

Anything by Bruckner.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)




----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I think the word bombastic is being misused or misunderstood (or not made clear).
Definition: Something or someone that (or who) is high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated, grandiloquent.

Therefore, with that said, Bruckner's music (I've seen mentioned here), does not qualify; it is not bombastic or one-dimensionally loud, but it is uplifting, sublime, solid, architectural, spiritual. There are many pieces listed here that are loud, but not necessarily bombastic (or lacking in meaning). Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture comes to mind (there's Russian history behind it) or Gliere's Ilya Muromets (based on legend).


----------



## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Shostakovich Festive overture
Liszt les preludes
Any Bruckner Symphony
Beethoven 9
Dvorak A Hero's Song
Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra, alpine Symphony, ein heldenleben
Nielsen Symphony 4
Saint Saens Symphony 3
William Schuman Symphonies 3,4, 10
Stravinsky Rite of Spring


----------



## Goddess Yuja Wang (Aug 8, 2017)

Orfeo said:


> I think the word bombastic is being misused or misunderstood (or not made clear).
> Definition: Something or someone that (or who) is high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated, grandiloquent.


If that's the accepted definition, then I partially misunderstood it. So please let me clarify>
What I meant by bombastic, would be more like this:
_"Something or someone that (or who) is high-sounding, loud, daring, epic, showy, virtuosistic, i.e. with great brass and percussion writing; inflated, grandiloquent, but NOT banal."_

Perhaps, then, bombastic was not the best choice of word, but that's what I meant by it, and I must say, you guys simply nailed it and BLEW ME AWAY with your suggestions!

Really. My expectations were greatly exceeded.

I listened to almost ALL of your suggestions (I'm still working on the ones I haven't, because I want to hear them all). I will be commenting on my favourites so far as soon as I finish writing the post.



Orfeo said:


> Therefore, with that said, Bruckner's music (I've seen mentioned here), does not qualify; it is not bombastic or one-dimensionally loud, but it is uplifting, sublime, solid, architectural, spiritual. There are many pieces listed here that are loud, but not necessarily bombastic (or lacking in meaning). Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture comes to mind (there's Russian history behind it) or Gliere's Ilya Muromets (based on legend).


I have the whole set of Bruckner, but I have listened to it only once, long ago, so I can't really comment on him. But I'll keep your observation in mind when I get to him. 
He is definitely on my Make-Sure-I-Listen-To list.


----------



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Attack and Fall - from Philip Glass's _Akhnaten_


----------



## Dumbo (Sep 3, 2017)

I think the word bombastic allows for a spectrum from less to more bombastic. Given that, and while also agreeingwith everything you said in defense of Bruckner, Bruckner is comparatively bombastic. I might also generalize further and say late Romantic, post-Romantic music is bombastic. Which would include Bruckner, Mahler, Wagner, early Schoenberg, etc. I love music from that period, but gotta admit, it's pretty bombastic stuff compared to Classical or Baroque or early Romantic. Maybe it was in part because of the evolution of the orchestra, and the temptation to composers to turn it up to eleven.


----------



## markmarkmark (Sep 8, 2017)

I'm desperate to find the name of a piece I heard a long time ago. It is mostly loud, bombastic, definitely high-octane, and maybe a little dissonant. I only remember a few minutes of it, and I don't know if it was the beginning, middle, or end of the piece. This section had an orchestra with a wild and crazy piano banging over the top of it. The best way to describe it would be if you took the opening of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" and replaced the xylophone and woodwinds playing all the eighth notes with a drunk Little Richard playing the piano part to "Good Golly, Miss Molly." That's what it sounded like.

I don't know if this would help with the unpacking unless you wanted to put everything in the wrong place.


----------



## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Hovhanness Sym. No. 50, "Mount St. Helens", lll. Volcano:


----------



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Toscanini & Karajan know how to march with contempt for everything else in the universe.


----------



## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

"Hello.

During next seek, I will have to finish unpacking all my boxes, and the only music that will help me feel like doing it would be some very loud, bombastic, high-octane and disonant pieces. Great climaxes. You know, with masterful brass and percussion writing (a la Shostakovich symphonies, which I LOVE)."

Sounds like Carl Ruggles' Suntreader will work.


----------



## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Alfacharger said:


> "Hello.
> 
> During next seek, I will have to finish unpacking all my boxes, and the only music that will help me feel like doing it would be some very loud, bombastic, high-octane and disonant pieces. Great climaxes. You know, with masterful brass and percussion writing (a la Shostakovich symphonies, which I LOVE)."
> 
> Sounds like Carl Ruggles' Suntreader will work.


I need to check it out. I've heard 'loud' commentaries about it. Thanks for your alert.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I grew up with this piece and moved beyond it, as bombastic pieces don't do it for me anymore, but

The Pines of Rome by Respighi has it, if you seek it.


----------



## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Liszt's orchestrated Mazeppa always gets my adrenalin flowing. Although not dissonant at all, quite some brass but it's really the string section that takes care of the drive

If you want more brass and dissonance Prokofievs 3th symphony might be more your thing. Dissonance, interesting melodies, very alienating passages and lots more


----------



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Just about the loudest and most bombastic piece I can think of has to be 'Hekla' by Jon Leifs.
This Segerstam/Helsinki PO recording is probably the best and most outrageous


----------



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Re the Prokofiev October Cantata:



> The Mark Elder recording is quite something...


Not if you listen to the Neeme Jarvi recording - that really is quite something  So is the original Kondrashin recording (which has a different final section to the Jarvi and Elder versions, repeating the 'Philosophers' section heard near the start), especially the wild central; section with the machine guns and accordian band.


----------

