Six great endings in music.

[not edward]

I never posted on this thread the first time around, so time to cheat!

Ravel: La valse. After all the buildup of dissonance and tension, the change of time signature for the final bar is a stroke of genius.
Stravinsky: Requiem Canticles. The bell-like Postlude is an amazing way to end a composing career.
Beethoven: op 111. Needs no explanation.
Prokofiev: 7th symphony. The perfect ending to a bittersweet, emotionally ambiguous work. The flourish he was bullied into adding at the end is an abomination, and any conductor who plays it in this day and age should have their license revoked on the spot. :-)
Scriabin: Vers la flamme. We have liftoff!
Honegger: Symphonie liturgique. And in the ruins of Europe, birds still sing.

[vandermolen]

My thoughts today:

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 9 (those harps)
Delius: Requiem
Bax: Symphony No 5 (wonderful sense of 'homecoming')
Arnold: Symphony 9
Arnell Symphony 5

[pjme]

What! No mention of Bolero? Concerto for the left hand? Daphnis and Chloé? l'Enfant et les sortilèges? Ravel was a master in great endings!

And:

for sheer power : Pijper symphony nr 2 ( organ, 3 piano's, 8 horns...)
unsuspected: Honegger's pianoconcertino
Pompous & crazy : Respighi's Feste Romane
Frank Martin : Petite symphonie concertante
Dutilleux : pianosonata
Ligeti : Requiem

[Beetzart]

Beethoven: Egmont and Leonore overture no.3

Rimsky Korsakov: scheherazade

Ravel: Bolero

[jowcol]

Scriabin: Vers la flamme. We have liftoff!

Great call. This may be the greatest ending to a piano work I've ever heard.

[karlhenning]

Le sacre, of course.

Both Shostakovich's Fourth & Eighth, an especially impressive coup, as the latter is in some ways modeled upon the former.

The ending of Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet always gives me chills, and not just as a result of following the story.

Hindemith's Opus 49 Konzertmusik (piano, brass, two harps) has an especially satisfying, inventive ending.

[Xenophanes]

J. S. Bach, Passacaglia in C

Mozart, Symphony No. 35 "Haffner"

Beethoven, Symphony No. 9

Mussorgsky-Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition

Sibelius, Symphony No. 5

Ippolitov-Ivanov, Caucasian Sketches, first series (Procession of the Sirdar)

Deems Taylor, Through the Looking Glass

[vandermolen]

My next thread will be '6 great symphonic middle bits' - so get thinking 

[jowcol]

My next thread will be '6 great symphonic middle bits' - so get thinking 

Even more likely great slow. elegaic middle movements!

[aporia]

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring-- the rising flute / silence / cataclysm!  Speechless.

Beethoven: the hymn-like ending of Symphony No. 6 brings me to tears every time. 

Sibelius: The broad plagal numinous ending of Tapiola-- what a swan song for Sibelius!

Takemitsu: The haunting, forlorn, almost perverse oboe solo trailing off at the end of Tree-Line.

Bach: The Art of Fugue --if you can call it an ending!  Its still such a shock to me to hear this.

Debussy: La Mer-- absolutely stirring and tumultuous, like the sea itself.

[vandermolen]

Even more likely great slow. elegaic middle movements!

How true 

[Ten thumbs]

Bach: The Art of Fugue --if you can call it an ending!  Its still such a shock to me to hear this.

Are you referring to the fact that Bach died before finishing it?

Debussy: La Mer-- absolutely stirring and tumultuous, like the sea itself.

I quite agree but I've been castigated for this opinion.

[pjme]

Janacek's Glagolitic Mass ends with a triumphant ...Intrada!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36leeTGjF4

[schweitzeralan]

My next thread will be '6 great symphonic middle bits' - so get thinking 

Just finished listening to the Butterworth 4th.  I've commented on it before.  Just wanted to  state That the ending in the last movemen t is intensely dramatic.  Quite a finale!

[madaboutmahler]

The ending of Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet always gives me chills, and not just as a result of following the story.

Completely agree with Karl.

So my 6 (fine I cheated and included 8!! ) favourite endings are:
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet - So hauntingly beautiful, I always feel like weeping when I hear that beautiful C Major chord enter with the Juliet theme in the winds accompanied by the beautiful chords on strings and piano!
Elgar Symphony no.2 - Such a magical ending... perfection!
Respighi Feste Romane/Pini di Roma For the festivals, such a thrilling ending with mindblowing orchestration and jollity! For the pines, such a powerful, glorious finish!
Bruckner Symphony no.5 So powerful! After all those fugal episodes, the brass chorale theme bursts through, absolutely glorious!
Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini Absolutely thrilling!
Mahler Symphony no.8/9 Such powerful endings, in such different ways. The glory of the final movement of no.8 makes me shiver with the immense power! The serenity and beauty of the end of no.9 always leaves me with a tear in my eye. Mahler wrote his death through music in these final passages, and it is just like I am actually weeping for him when I am listening to it...

[Christo]

Arnold Cooke, Fourth Symphony from 1974. One of those discoveries I made on the Unsung Composers forum.

[snyprrr]

What! No mention of Bolero? Concerto for the left hand? Daphnis and Chloé? l'Enfant et les sortilèges? Ravel was a master in great endings!

And:

for sheer power : Pijper symphony nr 2 ( organ, 3 piano's, 8 horns...)
unsuspected: Honegger's pianoconcertino
Pompous & crazy : Respighi's Feste Romane
Frank Martin : Petite symphonie concertante
Dutilleux : pianosonata
Ligeti : Requiem

I'll second Honegger's tendency to poke fun at endings. I love that humorous piece.

Harris Symphony 3- three tragic chords

Stravinsky- Sym in C- oh, that ending... those strings... the very last chord (only Stravinsky/Sony)

[North Star]

Totally agree with Sergei Sergeyevich's Romeo & Juliet (The piano piece set's ending, too!), Sibelius Tapiola, Stravinsky Rite
Others:

Stravinsky's Firebird
Schubert's Death & Maiden quartet, 21st piano sonata,  D.960
Schumann: violin sonata no.1, no.2, too
Beethoven: 5th Symphony, from the transition from 3rd movement, SQ Op.59 No. 1, SQ No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131 – VII. Allegro, SQ No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 – V. Allegro appassionato, PS's No. 14, Hammerklavier, Appassionata, Waldstein, Pathetique, Der Sturm
Chopin: 24 Prelludes - No. 24
Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6
Debussy: Khamma


Bach: Ciaconna from Partita No. 2 for solo violin

[vandermolen]

I thought that this looked like an interesting thread - and then realised that I'd started it myself - which is a bit worrying 

Still, today's list:

Stanley Bate Symphony No 4 (hopeless defience - right up my street)

Honegger Symphony 5 (The Three Ds) - just sort of peters away - oddly moving

Vaughan Williams 'Hodie' ('Ring out ye crystal spheres') - one of the most inspiriting endings I know of.

Walton Symphony No 1: Very exciting jagged explosions - influenced by the ending of Sibelius's Symphony No 5.

William Schuman: Symphony No 6 - visionary and darkly moving - I think that it's his greatest work.

Shostakovich: Symphony No 15 - movingly brings back the tick-tock percussion pattern from his 4th Symphony (a final defiant gesture?)

[Christo]

I thought that this looked like an interesting thread - and then realised that I'd started it myself - which is a bit worrying 

Still, today's list:

Stanley Bate Symphony No 4 (hopeless defience - right up my street)

Honegger Symphony 5 (The Three Ds) - just sort of peters away - oddly moving

Vaughan Williams 'Hodie' ('Ring out ye crystal spheres') - one of the most inspiriting endings I know of.

Walton Symphony No 1: Very exciting jagged explosions - influenced by the ending of Sibelius's Symphony No 5.

William Schuman: Symphony No 6 - visionary and darkly moving - I think that it's his greatest work.

Shostakovich: Symphony No 15 - movingly brings back the tick-tock percussion pattern from his 4th Symphony (a final defiant gesture?)

Great list. And yes: the endings of Honegger's Fifth and Shosta's Fifteenth are comparable expressions of a `nearing death awareness'. The same applies to Nielsen's Sixth, perhaps even as a whole but also its finale. These three symphonies are clearly valedictory,  perhaps intuitively, and therefore very moving. They end as if the heart stops pounding.