The most intense ending in a piece of music

[BachQ]

*** Brian flings the music back into the home key of D minor with a cadence of astonishing boldness:

Back in D minor the music rises to a pinnacle of grandeur before all the instruments hammer home the chord of D, fortissimo, only to be shut out with heart-stopping suddeness.

Nice .........

[Kullervo]

Sibelius's 7th, when all strings play a unison C.

[johnQpublic]

Respighi - Pines
Mahler - 2nd

[Sergeant Rock]

Nice .........

I knew you'd appreciate it 

Sarge

[Mark]

The closing part of the third movement of Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra. Utterly, intensely exhilarating.

Sorry for quoting myself here, but having just listened again to the part of Tippett's work to which I earlier referred, I felt I had to share it with you all. (Apologies, too, for the low bitrate - had to get it under the 500Kb attachment limit.)

Enjoy!

[12tone.]

The quiet ending to Mahler's 9th.  I have Abbado's 2000 9th and the crowd is silent after the last note for a good 30 seconds or so...they they start clapping.  Wow.

[mahlertitan]

Mahler's 6th

[Bogey]

Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings Op. 48

and

Rossini William Tell Overture

[PaulR]

Shostakovich 14

[Iago]

For simple joy, exultation and regality, I pick:
The Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms.
Especially as performed by Leonard Bernstein conducting  the Vienna Philharmonic.

[Symphonien]

Another vote for Mahler's 6th.

[Harry Collier]

Another vote for Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, and for the depressing end of Schubert's Winterreise.

[lukeottevanger]

The most intense ending of a piece of music I've ever heard is the conclusion of the third movement (Vivace), Part I, of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony (the First, in D minor)....

Fine choice; actually I'd say all the movement endings in that piece offer something special, and the last five or six minutes of the final movement are quite kaleidoscopically overwhelming as Brian switches faster and faster between sonic extremes. I was already going to add the end of Brian's Ninth to the list; it has one of those spectacular endings that just keeps on getting bigger, like the climax of Szymanowsky's Third Symphony or the end of Scriabin's Prometheus or Poem of Ecstasy (and add those to the list too, as they certainly qualify!)

[Christo]

Honegger, final measures of his Fifth Symphony 'Di tre re'
Shostakovich, final measures of his Fifteenth Symphony
Nielsen, final measures of his Sixth Symphony
Peteris Vasks, final 8 minutes from his Second Symphony (in one movement)
Samuel Barber, final measures of his 'Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance' and also of his Second Essay for Orchestra
Tubin, Sixth Symphony
Holst, The Planets (Neptune)

[BachQ]

I knew you'd appreciate it 

Sarge

Fine choice; actually I'd say all the movement endings in that piece offer something special, and the last five or six minutes of the final movement are quite kaleidoscopically overwhelming as Brian switches faster and faster between sonic extremes. I was already going to add the end of Brian's Ninth to the list; it has one of those spectacular endings that just keeps on getting bigger, like the climax of Szymanowsky's Third Symphony or the end of Scriabin's Prometheus or Poem of Ecstasy (and add those to the list too, as they certainly qualify!)

Good work, gentlemen! ........ 

[rach]

Mahler 6 and Sibelius no 2

[BachQ]

Sibelius no 2

Whoa ......... good one ........

[Nunc Dimittis]

The end of the first movement of Bax's symphony No. 1.

[Novi]

The ending of Wozzeck.

There's this almost unbearable tension and sense of menace in the last few scenes that never ease up. Then the orchestral interlude before the final scene builds up, and pow, kids chanting ring-a-ring-a-rosie . Whoa! Totally unheimlich, as the Captain says.

I always feel emotionally drained when I listen to this. I'm not sure what kind of 'intense' this would be - psychological, perhaps?

[Tsaraslondon]

Having just come back from a performance of Fidelio at Covent Garden (not the greatest production in the world, but musically excellent), I'd nominate the last scene of the opera. After the sublimely beautiful and moving music for Leonore's severing of Florestan's chains, it moves into one of the most uplifting and joyous moments in all opera.