10 Works That End Gorgeously With A "Big Tune"
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Ten Works That End Gorgeously With A “Big Tune”
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Englund: Piano Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Elgar: Symphony No. 1
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Dvorak: Symphony No. 4
Have to say the end of the Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony is a tremendously exciting and unexpected big tune. Love it...
That’s the first one that came to my mind…
That's the first one that came to my mind too. Such a great melody and a remarkable way to end the symphony.
@@edelmantos Indeed!
Yes, I can never forget how stunned I was 50 years ago when I first heard that grand, majestic tune appear out of nowhere. I was just a kid without much musical knowledge, but I knew right away that ending a symphony like that (almost a whole 5th movement!) was certainly not the standard symphonic procedure of its time. And yes, the majestic-er the better -- not whipped up too fast like it's sometimes done.
About my same experience-and in years too!@@GBearcat
I love Brahms' Academic Festival Overture ending with the glorious "Gaudeamus igitur"
The finale of Martinu’s Symphony #1 culminates in a Big Tune as lovely as any I can recall.
Most of the examples chosen by Dave and other commentators consist of a tune we have already heard previously somewhere in the work, now expanded and glorified with bells and whistles. But take Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra, where the final big tune is one we haven't heard before, and yet acts as a completely satisfying apotheosis, constructed as it is from elements of previously heard thematic material.
You got there before me! It's a great tune and sounds as if it ought to be an English folk song, but as far as I know it's Tippett's own invention. So let me suggest Mahler's Seventh instead. Isn't this the last great apotheosis in C major? At any rate it must be the only one with cow bells.
I am breaking the habit of a lifetime in adding something here which you don't mention, but to this video, I cannot resist - my favourite work which (almost) ends with a good tune, because it is such a good tune - Prokofiev 7.
I hope this qualifies: Mendelssohn Symphony #3.
I think so.
Great video, Dave. One of the tunes that shine in a glorious way at the end (with a few hours between) is the "Oh hehrstes Wunder " melody from Die Walküre that reappears in the most lyrical way at the very end of the Ring and tells us that love conquers all ...
Wagner also brought back the "big tune" in Tannhäuser, ending with the Pilgrim's Chorus. Both in the overture and at the end of the opera.
One case where it happens but doesn't make much sense or with any internal logic is bringing back the tenor's aria at the end of Tosca. I don't think Puccini ever did it again (Turandot probably doesn't count since he was dead.)
I think it is the poem that turned many people against the Strauss Death and Transfiguration...but on purely musical terms, I think it is the most effective and moving of all of his great tone poems
A work that comes to my mind is Atterberg's Third Symphony. The finale does take a while to get going and it stops and start a lot, but that long tune blasted on the brass at the coda is just glorious!
My favourite example from Atterberg is the 8th symphony, where the lyrical main theme from the first movement comes back at the end of the finale.
Two symphonies that immediately come to mind are the 3rd and 4th of Braga Santos. They both have endearing and life-affirming endings with an anthem-like big tune that would bring any audience to its feet!
First thing that came to mind is Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane (either complete or Suite No. 2). Love that big tune!
Don't forget Arthur Bliss' 13 Meditations on a theme by John Blow. Glorious!
Ives Symphony no. 2 -- glorious tune at the end!
And the Bronx cheer!
Turangalîla-Symphonie - you wait for ten movements for that peroration. It's worth the wait.
Bruckner Symphony No. 5 - the raison d'etre for the whole piece is the polyphonic coda with the chorale theme as the big tune.
Elgar Symphony No. 1 - yes please! And the accompaniment at the big tune climax sounds like a firework display. So much so, I think it must be deliberate - twirling rockets, random bangs - it's striking.
Gershwin Concerto in F - the motto theme gets the Rachmaninoff treatment.
And the end of the Khatchaturian concerto gets the Gershwin treatment.
Fascinating talk indeed! I've always been very fond of the ending of Dvorák's 4th. I always picture a big sunrise, for some reason. And people who trash the finale should hear the way Thomas Hengelbrock does it, it's exciting as hell.
I think Dvorák's 4th deserves a dedicated talk!
I, too, am thrilled he gave a shout out to Dvořák's 4th Symphony. I think it's one of the most underrated works by a major composer. I love the whole symphony!
Three come immediately to mind: Brahms Academic Festival Overture, whose big tune hasn’t been heard before; Arnold 5th Symphony, where we are led to believe we are getting the same ending to the big tune that we heard in the second movement, only to have the rug pulled from under our feet; and finally (and this one often gets my tear ducts going) the very end of Haydn’s Symphony No.104.
The final minutes of Lloyd's 11th Symphony. Never fails to send shivers down my spine.
Finale of Sibelius’s Symphony #1. It leads into a big climax and the big finale tune comes in. It feels like it is modelled after Tchaikovsky.
That’s the first one that came to my mind too!
And Sibelius's #2 has one of the very ultimate Big Tune 4th movements -- though it certainly doesn't wait until the end to play it, it plays it in full twice before the grandiose ending.
Yep, me too!
For sure!
This is such a wonderful topic! Peter Maxwell Davies’s “An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise” comes to mind as well! I don’t know if the ending of Shostakovich’s 7th symphony counts, when the theme of the first movement emerges. Tchaikovsky must have loved this device, Swan Lake ends with *the* tune before the coda. Panufnik’s Sinfonia Sacra ends also with the great fanfare of the opening movement… which would lead in Janacek’s Sinfonietta as well. In chamber music I think one of the greatest examples is Taneyev’s Piano Quintet, the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio, Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 2. Thank you again for such a great topic!
Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta was actually the first piece that I remembered when I read the title. The ending was so surprising, when I listened to it the first time!
Another terrific Dvorak end is the sudden transition to the major in the last seconds of his 7th Symphony sounding like a brilliant shaft of sunlight breaking through the dark clouds. But the very top of my list would be the very last, utterly magnificent, ending of Jamacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen
Your singing of the opening melody of the Bartok gave me goose bumps.
When I saw the title of the blog I immediately thought of Nielsen's no 3. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I realised it wasn't included. And I can see I wasn't the only one, well there you go.
The finale doesn't end with a big tune. It starts with one. You could argue No. 4, though.
Agreed. And: I see what you did there (pardner)!
Kalinnikov's first symphony brings back the slow movement theme at the end to magnificent effect - at least in the version conducted by Friedmann. Everyone else rushes through it like it's nothing important. (Sadly, Friedmann's recording is not available on RUclips.)
David, you have helped me appreciate great music for years. Thank you! Scriabin’s Piano Concerto has a great big tune in the third movement. Great stuff.
Here's one that's so obvious that I totally missed it - Ives's Second Symphony with Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean finally heard in its entirety at the end.
Ah yes! How could anyone remain in a down mood with the final reprise of Ives "signature" tune?
Do we detect a bit of thumbing of the nose at Wagner along the way?
This is the only symphony I know that ends with what for all the world sounds like a "Bronx cheer".
A successful man of business with a wry sense of humor, Mr Ives.
Great call!
The two that immediately come to mind are Brahms 1st Symphony where the chorale from the beginning of the finale comes back in it's full glory at the end, and Dvorak 9 which uses the chord progression (admittedly not a "tune" as such, but, at least to my mind, close enough) from the opening of the 2nd movement to glorious effect just before the final switch to the major.
I think both cases are too much of a push.
MGV by Michael Nyman end with a terrific outpouring of melody.
You are so entertaining!!
I would vote for Schumann's 2nd symphony ending. The triumphant theme is as big as you can ask and the work was completed when Schumann was in deep mental anguish. The major fifth haunts this work from beginning to the very end and it haunted RS's existence until he succumbed to it.
OK, so I'll try another. A late romantic symphony where the music pauses and a splendid new melody comes in and carries us triumphantly through to the end. Parry's no 4.
I absolutely so much love this video, sort of requested this video in my subconscious without bringing it into my consciousness! This also reminds me of your previous video on the 10 Most Amazing Symphonic Endings; actually I was about to recommend Dvorak's 8th Symphonies ending for this video but I then recalled you had it there which I now think makes more sense too.
For the above list though, do the works also have to be orchestral? If not, I think the ending of the Franck Violin Sonata can very well match the second type of such Big Tunes you mentioned too (i.e. the second subject coming back as a "glorious lyrical apotheosis" in the end); it's a bit too brief so maybe it's more like that Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto's ending you mentioned, but I thought I put it out there since I feel like the Franck Sonata is structurally like a symphony.
On a separate note, may I suggest another similar series? Perhaps a list on the greatest surprising but memorable undeveloped beginnings and/or endings that sound like they came out of nowhere! And some examples of what I mean by that are the beginning of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as the ending of the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto (the A major Cello solo); they both never get to develop in either work yet they are both so prominent and memorable to everyone who hears them for the first time.
Love your singing and acting of the Tchaikovsky piano octaves before the big tune :) Some others are Rach PC3 (but you had 2 anyway), Gershwin PC in F, Turangalila Symphony, Howard Hanson Romantic Symphony...I'm sure there are many more!
I like the finale of Janacek's Taras Bulba, and the way it emerges, hesitantly, neurotically, but then flows with superb confidence.
Great talk.
I would mention Ives' violin sonata no. 3, which is sort of a big chorale fantasia on the gospel hymn tune "I need Thee every hour", which appears throughout the piece in fragments until we get to the end when it is heard in its entirety, which I find very moving. Ives wrote a good bit about this work and how he didn't think much of it (too easy on the ears), but methinks he protesteth too much. For one thing, it wasn't some potboiler, he had worked on it a number of years, as he often did. I think as a crusty old New Englander he was loathe to admit to a softer side, but I think this sonata shows it was there.
Fourth piano concerto of Saint-Saëns? Everything builds towards that amazing chorale in the second movement, cleverly adumbrated right at the beginning.
Very nice talk, thanks. Now, I have to hear Englund's Piano Concerto! 😉
I would also nominate Moszkowski piano concerto no. 2 for this list, where the very opening of the concerto returns triumphantly at the close.
Fun topic! I'd have to nominate: Neilsen's Symphony No. 3 -- one of very few examples of a "triumphant" 20th century ending -- that really works! He could really write tunes: fairly sure there are plenty of other examples from the Dane. Stravinsky's Firebird also springs to mind (apart from the final apotheosis, of course -- so maybe that rules it out).
No, Nielsen 3rd doesn't do that at all. It merely has a "big tune" as the main theme of the finale.
Nielsen's Symphony No. 3 is one of my favorite "Big Tune" finales in the tradition of Brahms 1st. And like Englund, John Adams did a parody of the "Big Tune" in his Grand Pianola Music but he actually did come up with a decent one.
But it doesn't end with the big tune. It starts with it--a very different proposition.
@DavesClassicalGuide Yes, the final movement begins immediately with the tune, but doesn't it return at the end,maybe not the very end but sort of the way Elgar 1closes out with the march tune and then some final measures to top it off?
Grieg's Piano Concerto, the finale closes with the movement's second subject in a glorious blaze of chords. Much like Tchaik 1!
Like I said.
Of the old warhorses of classical FM radio, there's the finale of the Dvorak 9th (I see below you think it's a push :) ) and the Sibelius 2nd. And Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's "The Great Gate of Kiev" and the end of Pictures.
Can I include Mardi Gras from Grofé's Mississippi Suite? The return of the big theme, later to be reworked as ''Daybreak'' by several bands, always gives me goose bumps.
Yes, I agree Kalinnikov's First Symphony is one of the best examples.
I love your videos Dave, a great break from the august heat. Ill give one a try, Bruckners 3rd symphony finale. Where after the fanfare announcing the coda, the trumpet theme from the first measures of the first movement reappears, transformed to a gloriously sounding benediction or triumph. Where it was either mysterious or awe sounding before is now made triumphant. The slight pause knappertsbusch gives right before its final appearance has always stayed with me.
Paul G
Yes, already mentioned.
And also Bruckner’s Fourth and Sixth. Think of Bohm’s recording of the Fourth where he has those Vienna horns pealing out like church bells while the rest of the orchestra plays the big opening theme.
Two that I was thinking about were the last minute of both Sibelius 2 and Bruckner 8. Wonderful brass choirs introducing new themes right at the end of the symphony.
No, that isn't true. There are no new themes at the end of either symphony.
Dave, when I saw the theme of the video, I thought, Cesar Franck's sonata for violin and piano; but all your examples are wonderful
Three faves of mine: Schmidt - Symphony No. 2
Bax - Symphony No. 5
And the most unique
"reveal" of them all: D'Indy - Istar Variations All-Gorgeous! LR
Yes the Istar variations are so good and underrated...I wish it was programmed more
I disagree about D'Indy. I hear what it does, but the problem is that the variations are all far more interesting than the tune when it finally arrives.
@DavesClassicalGuide You do have a point there...after the amazing variation treatments, the culmination is a bit anticlimactic, but it's still a gem as a whole to me
I agree that the "BIG tune" we've all been waiting for is somewhat anti-climatic..like, "Is that IT?" But it's the CLOSING passage , as the music returns to full, gorgeous F-Major to the end, that provides a truly glorious resolution..PROVIDED that the conductor doesn't blow thought it, as so many have done. (there's a really good performance on YT [with analysis], plus I have a live MARTINON/Chicago performance from January, '67 that is wonderful). LR
I love these discussions! Could I add that the effect of some of these great ending tunes is a "triumph over tragedy" inner drama. I would argue that could certainly be said about the Tchaikovsky 5th. The Beethoven 5th has that same sort of nature.
Brahms gets my vote for one of the most interesting in this category. The first piano trio actually begins in B Major and concludes in B Minor. I don't know any other work in the standard repertoire that does this.
Though it was common during the 19th century to begin in a minor key and end in a major key, Brahms commonly stayed in the minor mode as in his 4th Symphony. While he did end in a major key in the double concerto, it wasn't a huge, triumphant conclusion.
However, in his first symphony, I would submit that Brahms was more personal than in any other symphony. Few opening movements seem to be wrought with such anguish and no other work of Brahms has such a triumphal conclusion. Just my n.s.h.o.
Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony begins in the major and ends in the minor.
@@DavesClassicalGuide - Ah! You're absolutely right!! I hadn't thought of that one before!
Love the videos, Dave. My immediate reaction to this video may not actually fit into this category, but...I'm one of those 'opera nuts' and a couple of opera finales jumped to mind. The final scenes of Mefistofole by Boito and the final chorus of Rossini's William Tell. I've seen these works and the finales gets the crowd screaming uncontrollably (especially the Boito). Just thought I'd get it off my chest. Thanks.
Although not placed at the end of a work, per se, but I would argue that the first movement ending of Vaughn Williams' Sixth Symphony ends with as Big a Tune, relative to what precedes it, as one could imagine.
First thing that came to mind for me was the Gershwin Piano Concerto, grandioso.
Happy Thanksgiving! Love your show. But you missed one the most glorious, Unexpected moments in standard orchestral literature.
It is when the somewhat stodgy Brahms launches into Gaudeamus at the end of Academic Overture. Even when I know it's coming I stop the car, pull over to listen to an absolutely, Unexpected Moment that the work has been preparing us to welcome.❤
Next time!
Hindemith, Die Harmonie der Welt, when the opening theme of the first movement returns at the end of the third movement, repeating in successively higher keys, first in the horns, then the trombones join, then the trumpets, then the percussion. All the while, the strings are creeping upwards in polyrhythmic scales and the woodwinds are going nuts throwing trills left and right. Makes you feel like drinking the solar system from a diamond cup.
Honourable mention: Wagner's Die Götterdämmerung.
Mendelssohn Symphony #5 "The Reformation" ends with the powerful Bach chuch cantata "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" (A mighty fortress is our God).
Amlways great Videos.. I am an absolute fan. I was hopping to hear Carmina Burana, alpin Symphony, the firebird! Wouldn't they also qualify?
Thanks so much anyway for all your critical gems.
Sibelius 2nd Symphony & Shostakovich 7th Symphony, I don't know if they fit the exact definition of "Big Tune" in the end but I feel they do, just tell me...
in Shostakovich's case there are 2 tunes in the end, the simple repeated one that is going louder and louder till it reaches the other one which was in the start of the Symphony
Can we get a list of 10 symphonies with cyclical form? My favorite symphonic device
Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra! Also Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra does it, though Bartok is quite a lot less ostentatious about it.
Bartok does not do it. Britten, sure.
Orchestral variations sometimes do this, too. I’m thinking of Brahms Haydn Variations. Elgar’s Enigma, and Britten’s Young Person’s Guide, as examples. I don’t know if these qualify based on your criteria.
The finale of Mahler's 3rd Symphony is my choice
What about Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra - starting with that wonderful Brass peroration towards the end of the final movement. Great tune
Not at all.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Oh well 😀
The Shaker theme at the end of Appalachian Spring?
Could the 4th symphony by Braga Santos be included? (I'm not saying it should. Just asking if it could.)
Sure.
Well, it's not a BIG tune, but an irresistibly cheeky little one: Mozart Pf. Cto. 17, last mvt, right at the end. Suddenly, 'mitten drinnen' (as we say in musical circles), the strings start a phrase, then toss it to the brass; the strings repeat their half, then toss it to the winds; the piano joins in, they toss it back and forth, and then it's over, and everyone's grinning.
The first Dvorak work that came to my mind was the Fifth Symphony. The tune is not grand, nor is it complete, but the arpeggiated opening returns at the end.
That's not the point at all.
Tchaikovsky Symphony #3, Bruckner Symphony #5
The finale of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's violin concerto is variations on a theme he wrote for the Errol Flynn movie The Prince And The Pauper. The last full statement is kind of an apotheosis, with a humorous wink at the very end.
I don't think so. It's quite different.
Prokofiev symphony no. 7
If only Schubert would have crowned his Great symphony with the apotheosis of the introduction theme to make it even greater.
Rhapsody in Blue
Nope, although the tunes are great.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I guess my memory of that is glitching. The version in my head is mostly from Fantasia 2000, which I watched a billion times with my toddler daughter when it came out on DVD.
How about 'The Great Gate of Kiev' in 'Pictures'?
No.
Oh yes!
You really like the word "apotheosis"
Doesn't everyone?
Malcolm Arnold's John field fantasy
Yes, excellent example!
First two I thought of were the finale of Debussy's La Mer and the final section of Sibelius 5 (the swan motif) - though the swans don't close out the 5th, technically, so maybe that doesn't count?
Two symphonies that end with the Big Tune blazin' away that always (or should) raise the adrenaline: Sibelius 2nd and Bruckner 3rd.
Bruckner, yes, Sibelius, no.
The first piece that sprung to my mind were Hindemith's "Symphonic metamorphoses...", but on further thought, it's probably more of a soccer supporter song..?
Yes, it's a march, but a great tune nonetheless.
Otello. The same Kiss theme that ends Act One
Rimsky-Korsakov Russian Easter Overture