The most intense ending in a piece of music

[Marc]

Monteverdi, Magnificat a sei voci, performed by the Monteverdi Choir & John Eliot Gardiner (with Ian Watson, organ):

http://www.youtube.com/v/nOPQE-rRC-4

The ending starting around 4:57.

[alkan]

One that I've always found electrifying is Britten's Violin Concerto. The way the violin begins to wailingly plea in anguish, only to be left with an orchestra unwilling to resolve the plea while the soloist continues on into silence. This is the best ending to a VC I've heard, and Jansen might be my new favorite interpreter of the Britten.

I agree.     I love the alternation of major/minor in the fade-out ending .... really touching.

My absolute favourite violin concerto ending is that of Prokofiev's first VC.    I am always amazed by the the way that the virtuoso, stormy and  thrilling conflict in the middle of the last movement struggles to its climax, and then floats up to Paradise.  The hullabaloo falls away and the gates open to reveal a peaceful, sunlit landscape, complete with birdsong.   It's so unexpected and sooooo beautiful ....   

Oistrakh is the master here ...

[aquablob]

Can a whole "piece" count, in a "work" that's not meant to be played all the way through? Maybe I'm cheating, but I'll go with Bach, WTC I (i.e., the entire B-minor fugue).

[amw]

My absolute favourite violin concerto ending is that of Prokofiev's first VC. 

My favourite is that of John Adams's violin concerto, because it means the sonic torture of the previous 35 minutes is finally over. 

[alkan]

My favourite is that of John Adams's violin concerto, because it means the sonic torture of the previous 35 minutes is finally over. 

This must be the same work that is renowned for having the most stressful and intimidating beginning (of 35 minutes of sonic torture).

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Probably ending of Götterdämmerung, Parsifal and Brahms's 1st symphony.

[EigenUser]

My favourite is that of John Adams's violin concerto, because it means the sonic torture of the previous 35 minutes is finally over. 

I've never heard it. You're not a fan of Adams, I take it...

I like him reasonably well, but he isn't a favorite at all.

[EigenUser]

What about the ending of Schoenberg's "Chamber Symphony No. 1"? Very exciting. The emphatic E-major chords in the strings augmented with shrill Bb-major triplets always make me . And then the horns have that fragment of theme ending with a held fortissimo C-natural and I feel like . It's like one big, heroic struggle!

[Jay F]

Mahler 6

or

Mahler 2

[Beaumarchais]

There are many endings that one can mention but, although it can be equalled, for me nothing beats the recording of Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's recording of Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 ( The Organ Symphony). It is simply overwhelming and blows the listener away into another dimension. It was an engineering triumph in its day and has remained so.

[Linus]

Mendelssohn, VC, Op. 64/1, starting at 11:55:

Spotify link

[Brian]

Havergal Brian - "Gothic" Symphony - movement V. Judex

No doubt. I've heard this live, surrounded on three sides by about 800 musicians, and it's not only the most intense ending, it might be the single loudest thing I've ever heard. (Of course, its intensity is not all about loudness!)

The only pieces I've seen live, whose endings even come close, are:
Janacek - Sinfonietta
Sibelius - Symphony No. 5
Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique
Mahler - Symphony No. 3 (first and last mvts.)
Ravel - La valse
Borodin - Polovtsian Dances with chorus
Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 11

And of pieces I still wanna see live someday:
Lutoslawski - Concerto for Orchestra
Mahler - Symphony No. 2
G. Lloyd - Symphony No. 5
Roussel - Bacchus et Ariane
Scriabin - Poem of Ecstasy

Also agree with

Coda of 1st mvt of Brahms 4th Symphony

and the people who said La mer.

[Beaumarchais]

Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic's Deutsche Grammophon 1966 recording of Richard Strauss's Tod und Verklärung is amazing throughout but the ending is of such epic proportions that there are no words adequate to the description.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

For me nothing can compare to the last movement of Bruckner's symphony No. 8. That horn solo near the end is like looking into another universe.

[Ten thumbs]

Fortunately intensity is not the only property that can produce a wonderful ending.

[Jo498]

I misread #253 as the ending of the *slow* movement of Bruckner's 8th. I'd much rather have that than the brass-blast at the end of the finale...