The most perfect single movement in music

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Anyway, Schubert D. 887—best recording—Hagen Quartet on DG, currently only available as a CD-R from Arkiv. (The ASIN for picture got deleted from my clipboard, cba to find again) Hopefully Newton Classics will get their hands on it eventually since I doubt DG themselves will reissue. Listen to it if you can find it, you will not regret.

The Hagen's Schubert is fantastic but I thought that Newton had gone belly-up?

[Chaszz]

My current favorite perfect single movement is the first movement of Brahms Symphony No. 1.  My God, it bowls me over!

Yes, a mighty achievement. Been listening to this symphony over and over again this year. And the fourth movement is pretty incredible also, if you overlook the slight corniness of the Ode to Joy-like theme. That theme doesn't dominate the movement the way its model does in the Beethoven Ninth final movement. Leaving nice spaces for the Swiss mountain horn theme, which listening to I nearly ran my car off the road the other day, it is so beautiful and moving, even after hearing it a thousand times. And the way this guy writes variations that unfold logicallv but at the same time with startling turns, and goes from dark to light and back again, and throws up a mountain of rhythms from a tiny scrap of a melodic idea. and quiets down again, and slows down, and all of a sudden we are in the saddle galloping again to the conclusion...yet it's all completely inevitable....in a way he's really utterly unique.

[Chaszz]

Ah, how didn't I think of that? I could have said the entire opera instead of one act... well, from acts in siegried act 2 is still my favorite so my point still stands.

If the Ring, I would have to go with Die Walkure, the whole first act, not least because it works so well as drama, which Wagner often didn't achieve. Plus the finale, with that incredibly moving farewell music.
 
But how about Tristan, which tortures us with an unresolved theme all the way through, finally resolving in the last minute?  Because of this, it also could be considered one movement.

By the way, it was Richard's 201st birthday yesterday, but I have to say he doesn't look a day over 198.

[Chaszz]

Well, I thought maybe I put up a clunker with this thread; coming back after a space of weeks I'm glad to see so many replies. And some of them certainly make for a good syllabus of things I haven't yet heard but obviously should seek out. 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

If the Ring, I would have to go with Die Walkure, the whole first act, not least because it works so well as drama
 
But how about Tristan, which tortures us with an unresolved theme all the way through, finally resolving in the last minute?  Because of this, it also could be considered one movement.

Now I am going to get a lot of hate for this but first act of die walküre is actually my least favorite ring act. I love it, no doubt, but it's still my least favorite. The ending of act 3 is of course unbeliavable. And agreed that Tristan could be seen as one single movement.

[Holden]

Schubert's chamber music features three perfect second movements: ......... Piano Trio D929. The Piano Trio is one of the few pieces I bought before I was "into" classical (yes, I heard it in Barry Lyndon).

This would have been my second choice after the Ravel

[ClassicFan]

This nube will introduce some cheese into this thread 

Today: III. Adagio, Serenade No. 10 for winds in B flat major, K. 361/370a - W. A. Mozart

Last week: I. Allegro,  Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478 - W. A. Mozart

It will most likely change again by next week.

I'll proudly admit that I'm on a Mozart kick these days.....

[johnshade]

Well I don't know what the single 'most perfect' movement is, but I do know that my favorite is the finale (4th movement) of Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta".

GOOD CHOICE

[EigenUser]

GOOD CHOICE

Thank you! At least someone acknowledges it!

[mszczuj]

Grosse Fuge, may be piano version.

[Ten thumbs]

I'm pleased to see that Schubert has a good following and I'm going to follow that trend. I'm not quite sure what perfect means: it is often said that perfection is improved by one tiny flaw. The movement turn to most in times of stress is the finale of Schubert's G major Sonata Op.78 (D. 894). I suppose I have to concentrate because it is very tricky - Allegretto, but two in a bar, so it goes at a fair pace but in among, as a climax, comes that heavenly melody, and finally, the music trickles away into quiet repose, putting ones mind at peace.

[Sergeant Rock]

Fauré Sicilienne in G minor (allegro molto moderato) from the Pelléas et Mélisande Suite.


Sarge

[zamyrabyrd]

The andante movement in Mahler's Sixth.

If Mahler's andante gets three votes, does he win? Count me in and also see Reply No. 7.

Also "Ave Verum Corpus" by Mozart, concise but powerful.

ZB

[liuzerus87]

For me, the Bach Chaconne from the second violin partita.  It has everything.

[mn dave]

*head explodes*

[Karl Henning]

*head explodes*

Quite right!

[gutstrings]

Wells Hively "Icarus"... never heard anything like it, a perfect gem.

[Jay F]

If Mahler's andante gets three votes, does he win? Count me in and also see Reply No. 7.

I wonder if anyone's keeping score.

Here's one by Abbado, with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUt84yLQwco

[Ten thumbs]

I don't know about perfect but Medtner's 1st Piano Concerto is perhaps one of the most complete and inclusive movements, with the development providing both slow and scherzo-like sections, and the coda could almost be a movement in itself.

[TheGSMoeller]

Alpine Symphony!