# What is the greatest ending to a piece of music, ever?



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

I've just listened to Sib's 5th and that ending is something special. I suppose I am asking for people's favourite and not another attempt at trying to answer anything objectively. 

Others that spring to mind are:

Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony
Beethoven's 3rd, 5th and 9th Symphonies
The last variation of the Diabelli set
Bruckners's 9th and 5th 
Beethoven's 14th String Quartet


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

My choice(s) would depend on how extensively you mean "ending". The last "movement"? Or just the last section of development? Somewhere in between?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The final coda of the Schumann Symphony No. 2 ESPECIALLY in the performance by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan.


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

The shimmering ending to Shostakovich 15; the quiet church bells and hymn at the end of Ives' Symphony No. 3; Haydn's Symphony No. 82 ends in a spectacular way, and has one of his playful false endings. Really there are so many. I second Tchaikovsky 6 and Beethoven 5, too. Oh, might also add the heavenly ending of Gubaidulina's Offertorium now I think of it. And the ending of Dvorak 8 is a real whirlwind.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

The final movement of Mahler's 3rd Symphony.


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## gprengel (Dec 21, 2015)

Also the ending of Beethovens 7th, Tschaikowsky's 5th and his Manfred symphony, also Brahms' 2nd symphony are fantastic climaxes...


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In any other piece, the explosive repetition might seem overdone. But it works perfectly in the Fifth, because all the accumulated tension requires an extended coda in order to be fully discharged.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Beethoven's 7th, Dvorak's 8th & 9th, Tchaikovsky's 6th off the top of my head.


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## Daniel Atkinson (Dec 31, 2016)

The first ten seconds of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony




Daniel


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Thor's mighty hammer blows at the end of Sibelius 5


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

I agree with the mentions of Beethoven's 5th & 7th, Sibelius 5th, Tchaikovsky 6th.

I'd add Tchaikovsky's 3rd, Saint-Saens PC 2, Ravel's La Valse, and the end of Wagner's Ring.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The endings of Brahms Variations and Fugue by Handel and the Schumann Symphonic Etudes, both large scale concert piano works, are pretty special. Monumental!!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

One of my favorites is the end of Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and Strings. The piano plays the tone row from which two of the work's themes derive, pianissimo, with strings sustaining each of the pitches until all twelve tones hang in the air. The piano repeats and dies away on a main motive over this cloud of sound. Desolate and magical.


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## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

The ending of Mahler 2 is glorious. It tends to leave me emotionally drained. I also very much like the very, very end of Schoenberg's piano concerto.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

The last few minutes of Shostakovich 5th gets me every time.

Also the last minute or so of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

For a vocal choice I'll toss in the finale to Act II of the Marriage of Figaro.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

If an opera is a "piece of music," the endings of _Die Walkure, Gotterdammerung, Tristan,_ and _Parsifal_ are tremendous, being true climaxes and resolutions of complex works as well as inherently powerful and inspired music.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> If an opera is a "piece of music," the endings of _Die Walkure, Gotterdammerung, Tristan,_ and _Parsifal_ are tremendous, being true climaxes and resolutions of complex works as well as inherently powerful and inspired music.


And Rheingold


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The final moments at the end of Handel's Messiah-the"Amen"- pretty overwhelming, ESPECIALLY in the Trevor Pinnock led performance.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

For symphonic: Mahler symphonies 2 and 8
For opera; Don Carlo last act and Traviata's last act.
Honourable mention: La Boheme.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The final coda to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is a whirlwind created by a one in a billion mega-genius. Unforgettable!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Just as fine as the ending to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is the practically drunken stupor that is the ending of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony-one of music's greatest movements and codas. Always leaves me exhausted and limp.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

AfterHours said:


> My choice(s) would depend on how extensively you mean "ending". The last "movement"? Or just the last section of development? Somewhere in between?


I think, the final coda.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Mahler third would also be very high on my ranking, as the farewell aria from Anna Bolena by Donizetti .


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Just as fine as the ending to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is the practically drunken stupor that is the ending of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony-one of music's greatest movements and codas. Always leaves me exhausted and limp.


Once again, I agree with you about Tchaikovsky's 4th. Well, I don't agree with the limp statement (that sounds like a personal problem ), but otherwise it's quite true! :lol:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Klassik said:


> Once again, I agree with you about Tchaikovsky's 4th. Well, I don't agree with the limp statement (that sounds like a personal problem ), but otherwise it's quite true! :lol:


Heh. Heh. That's not what I meant!!


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

beetzart said:


> I've just listened to Sib's 5th and that ending is something special. I suppose I am asking for people's favourite and not another attempt at trying to answer anything objectively.
> 
> Others that spring to mind are:
> 
> ...


Bruckner's 9th??? What do you mean??? I hope you don't mean the ending of the third movement, because that is by no means an ending.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

Dedalus said:


> The ending of Mahler 2 is glorious. It tends to leave me emotionally drained. I also very much like the very, very end of Schoenberg's piano concerto.


Totally agree with the first statement. I saw it live recently, and felt totally transfigured.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

I'm going to skew in a different Mahler direction and call it for the Sixth.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Not, I think, the coda of the last movement of Beethoven's 5th. It's far too short! :lol:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bruckner 9 (unfinished version)
Mahler 9
Mahler Kindertotenlieder

and above all

Mahler Das Lied on der Erde


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

People seem to be choosing long glorious endings like sib 5 etc.

how about something short and snappy like k491.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The overture A Midsummer Nights Dream by Mendelssohn.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Dedalus said:


> The ending of Mahler 2 is glorious. It tends to leave me emotionally drained. I also very much like the very, very end of Schoenberg's piano concerto.


I feel the same way about Mahler's second. The ending is truly one of the greatest, as is the symphony as a whole.

Now, long and glorious endings tend to my favorites as well. Swan Lake, The Firebird, Belshazzar's Feast, Beethoven's 9th, The Poem of Ecstasy, the Organ Symphony...these immediately come to my mind as some of the greatest.

That said, I also enjoy endings that are a bit more "fun" and whimsical than glorious. Beethoven's Choral Fantasy comes to mind, so does Egmont Overture, Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, the Rach 3, etc.

I do seem to have a thing for endings in a major key, but minor endings work too, like Sleeping Beauty or the first movement of the Manfred Symphony. Sometimes unconventional endings like Shostakovich's 14th or The Planets get my attention too.

I'm kind of an ending junkie


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

There are a few examples that impressed me. I can not favor one way over another.

Culminating the piece by combining multiple previously stated and developed materials together, like putting the puzzles together, or summing up the points:
Mozart symphony 41-IV, Bruckner symphony 8-IV, Wagner the last 3 minutes of the Ring.

Returning to the very beginning of the entire work with a different feeling:
Bach Goldberg variations, Wagner the flying dutchman, Rimsky-Korsakov Scherherazade, Tchaikovsky piano trio, Richard Strauss Alphen symphony.

A massive coda that continues to process the materials, supplementing the previous development to create a greater picture.
Beethoven likes this, e.x. his symphony 3-I, 5-I. Brahms symphony 4-IV (coda may not be big enough).

A meaningful surprise
Smetana string quartet 1-IV, Mahler symphony 6-IV.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Posted my favorites in the recent topic about last movements. Anyway, today I'll go for Sibelius 7.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

How about a great little ending to a small piece?
Chopin Etude Op 10 No 9


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

Madama Butterfly, when Pinkerton yells out Butterfly and that dramatic pentatonic chord sequence is played


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

The last five minutes of 4' 33"

More seriously, the final twenty minutes of Tannhäuser. The final ten minutes of Mahler's Eighth. The liebestod. Usw, usw.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Stravinsky's ending to the Firebird
Ravel's ending to Daphnis et Chloe
Orff's ending (also beginning) to Carmina Burana


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## rhubarbsuburb (Apr 21, 2017)

On this day in particular -- 1812 Overture, especially when performed outdoors with church bells and cannon, finishing with a flourish of fireworks. Goosebumps.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The final coda of the Mahler Fifth Symphony always leaves me exhilarated.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

QuietGuy said:


> Stravinsky's ending to the Firebird
> Ravel's ending to Daphnis et Chloe
> Orff's ending (also beginning) to Carmina Burana


I do think this beginning is the most famous piece with the opening of Beethoven 5th.


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

One of the greatest endings, for me, occurs in Chopin's Etude Nbr. 12 of Op. 10 (nicknamed the 'Revolutionary'): those four last chords are four blows with clenched fist, striking straight to the heart.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

Dedalus said:


> The ending of Mahler 2 is glorious. It tends to leave me emotionally drained. I also very much like the very, very end of Schoenberg's piano concerto.


Came here to say this. From when the chorus enters to the end of the final movement is just incredibly beautiful and overwhelming. I hestitate to say that anything is the "greatest", but this is what I'm especially loving right now.

Edited to add: I don't know if this is going to make sense, but I feel like I have to be very careful to sort of "stay with" the ending of Mahler's second symphony. I think it walks a fine line between being an earnest expression of grandeur and glory, and being just over-the-top and excessive. Sometimes I feel like I could go either way. But if I give myself up to it without reservation or cyncism, it's just overpowering and one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

Barbebleu said:


> The last five minutes of 4' 33"


I guess this joke never, ever gets old


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Mahler 8th, especially THIS recording:






Also the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto, Beethoven 7th symphony, Brahms 1st symphony, and of course the Beethoven 9th.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The final coda of the Brahms First Symphony is memorable. Brilliant!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto ending is beyond believe .


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Tchaikovsky 6th symphony (Pathetique) gets me when the music justs fades and dies.

What about Tchaikovsky 1st piano concerto? The ending in the last movement also beautiful!


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Pugg said:


> Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto ending is beyond believe .


It's pretty great  I love watching Olga Kern play it:


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Also one of the greatest and most glorious endings is the finale to Scriabin's 1st symphony. Hearing it live was simply overwhelming, especially the choral part.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Mahler's 2nd, without doubt.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

The ending to Clementi's Piano Sonata in D minor Op. 50 No. 2 Final movement. The 48 bars are supreme for a composer that can only attract little attention these days. The first 9 bars of the 48 are just sublime and the dominant chord he plants at bar nine gives a feeling of the intense pressure to come for the final flurry. Some of the finest sonata composing of the era from a nearly forgotten man.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Just to be different, how about the end of Chopin's Prelude in Dm, op28/24? All that surging drama ends with a precipitous run down the keyboard and a bottom D hammered out three times. That's how to end an Opus!

Come to think of it, Part's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten has quite an ending, with a single bell-toll fading out.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

And the last part (Gloria) to Handel's Dixit Dominus is stupendous as well, once you've heard a proper recording. I listened to everything I could find and found most to be lacking compared to 2 or 3 great renditions.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

apricissimus said:


> I guess this joke never, ever gets old


Guess not!:lol:


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

All this epic and glorious finales, how's this for a change:

Beethoven string quartet opus 135: the last 10 seconds of the vivace (2nd movement)


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

hpowders said:


> The final coda of the Mahler Fifth Symphony always leaves me exhilarated.


Well, it's supposed to, innit? I have a weird feeling about this ending, difficult to put into words: has anyone _ever_ written an ending so _obviously_ and _specifically designed_ to _force_ an _immediate, sustained_ roar and standing ovation from the audience as Mahler does here?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Peter Maxwell Davies - _An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise_

Of the Mahler symphonies, the 8th.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Brahmsianhorn said:


> Mahler 8th...


It is fantastic. But Mahler's 9th is even better. It goes on and on, rising in delicious climaxes and then ever-so-gently dying away, singing through the silences.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

"One Day More" from Les Miserables

If that is not quite classical enough, I will say the end of the Grieg piano concerto and Mozart's 41st symphony.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Tristan last 10 minutes - greatest ending to any piece ever

also the only part of Tristan worth listening to.


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## gprengel (Dec 21, 2015)

stomanek said:


> Tristan last 10 minutes - greatest ending to any piece ever
> 
> also the only part of Tristan worth listening to.


I agree regarding your second remark ... truely a great ending afters hours of boredom ... ;-)

another awesome ending: Mendelssohn 3rd symphony and very fascinating the end of the 1st mov. of Mendelssohn's unfinished 3rd piano concerto :




 (from 9:30)


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Thinking it over, the end of Sibelius' tone poem Pohjola's Daughter is quite something, the strings wandering off pianissimo and leaving the home key behind. Lovely sense of unresolved mystery.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

It doesn't seem to be much liked around here, but the ending to Mendelssohn's 2nd symphony is also mighty impressive to these ears.

But I just love choral endings.





 (starts at 1:07:52)


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Beethoven 9, Mendelssohn 2, Mahler 2, Mahler 8, Scriabin 1, Van Hausegger Nature symphony. 
All fantastic choral endings to symphonies, I love 'm all, just about equally.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

DeepR said:


> Van Hausegger Nature symphony.







Starts at 45:44. Give it a chance. It grows on you. After 5 times or so I was used to it. It seems chaotic at first, but it isn't. It's different, it's wonderful. The final moments almost rival Mahler 8 in grandiosity. I said almost. A warning: there are some cymbal crashes (I don't mind).


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Mahler third would also be very high on my ranking, as the farewell aria from Anna Bolena by Donizetti .


Some very good ones mentioned here -

Das Rheingold
Mahler Sym #3
Beethoven Sym #7

Beethoven Sym#5, #9, Brahms Sym#2, Siegfried are also worth consideration.


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

stomanek said:


> also the only part of Tristan worth listening to.


Right -- time to throw out all my copies of Tristan then. What on earth was I thinking. :lol:

I love the endings to several Wagner operas precisely because they are such fulfilling conclusions to everything that's come before, both musically and dramatically.

The ending of Bach's Matthew Passion is also quite profound, like the most soothing lullaby, part resignation part hope. In a similar vein I always tear up at the end of Schubert's Die shone Mullerin, as the river sings a lullaby and soothes the pain of the journeyman.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

WildThing said:


> Right -- time to throw out all my copies of Tristan then. What on earth was I thinking. :lol:
> 
> I love the endings to several Wagner operas precisely because they are such fulfilling conclusions to everything that's come before, both musically and dramatically.
> .


I like the endings of Wagner's operas, too. Possibly not for the same reasons....


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Probably the ending of Ives Sym #2 should be mentioned!! 

one of the great jokes - the "Reveille" Bugle call sounds just before the final "chord"....but it isn't a chord - it's a tone cluster, played _fortissimo_, containing every pitch except the correct resolving tonic pitch ["F", IIRC] - one of the best musical "raspberries" ever...


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

stomanek said:


> *Tristan last 10 minutes *- greatest ending to any piece ever
> 
> also the only part of Tristan worth listening to.


Definitely.

It is just too deep.

First, it demonstrates how the Tristan chord, which first baffled the listeners many hours ago in the Prelude, would resolve harmonically. The chord has already tried to resolve itself many times during the course of the opera but was interrupted by some dramatic actions.

Second, it seems to signify the Schopenhauerian influence on Wagner at that time: that sexual desire is insatiable, and can only by extinguished by death.

In his final opera, Parsifal, when his philosophy had evolved even further from Tristan, he penned another breathtaking and transcending ending. But that it is another story...

Although I feel more connected with the philosophy in Parsifal rather than Tristan, I still need to give this one to Tristan, because of the irresistible music of the Liebestod.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

silentio said:


> Second, it seems to signify the Schopenhauerian influence on Wagner at that time: that sexual desire is insatiable, and can only by extinguished by death.


I think in both Tristan and Parsifal the influence of Schopenhauer is a prevailing current, however I'm not so sure it's the focal point. I believe this is idea of sexual desire being extinguished in death is only a piece of what Wagner was getting at with the ending, and indeed the opera as a whole.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

why are people going for fireworks - big bang romantic pieces - sweeping slushy tunes that take 10 minutes to resolve

some of my favourite endings are mozart's concertos or chamber pieces that end in a quiet phrase - the first of the haydn set of qts for example - or the 5th violin concerto k219.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

The ending of Gurre Lieder by Arnold Schönberg is really beautiful.

Also the ending of Mascagni's opera Iris.


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

Ives Symphony no. 2, final chord
Rite of Spring, final chord/statement


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

stomanek said:


> why are people going for fireworks - big bang romantic pieces - sweeping slushy tunes that take 10 minutes to resolve
> 
> some of my favourite endings are mozart's concertos or chamber pieces that end in a quiet phrase - the first of the haydn set of qts for example - or the 5th violin concerto k219.


Because they like fireworks ending perhaps?


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

The conclusion of Mahler Sym #8 is certainly impressive.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I've never grown tired of the ending of Dvorak's New World Symphony. It builds and builds and builds and the violin bowing creates such excitement. I still find it thrilling though it's one of the all-time warhorses. Hear, hear!


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Tough to beat the last few minutes of Scriabin's Le Poème de l'extase....


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

The last minute or so of Beethoven's Harp quartet 1st movement approaches extreme rapture. Especially 8:27 to 9:08


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