10 Most Favouritest Scherzi (with or without Trios)

[amw]

Includes all works and movements titled scherzo, as well as movements that fulfil that role within a cycle that are not explicitly called scherzo (but not movements that are titled minuet, waltz, etc).


My list:






















Apart from bonus #11, I've gone one per composer. The scherzo is often my favourite movement in a cycle, so I've got too many waiting in the wings to double up.

[Sergeant Rock]

My bonus choice might not qualify as a Scherzo (not fast enough? too lyrical?) but it occupies the place of a Scherzo in the Romantic symphony.

Havergal Brian Symphony No.1/III Vivace
Bruckner Symphony No.7/III Scherzo: Sehr schnell
Rott Symphony No.1/III Frisch und lebhaft
Vaughan Williams Symphony No.8/II Scherzo alla marcia
Mahler Symphony No.2/III In ruhig fließender Bewegung
Sibelius Symphony No.4/II Allegro molto vivace
Prokofiev Classical Symphony/III Gavotta: Non troppo allegro
Shostakovich Symphony No.8/III Allegro non troppo
Nielsen Symphony No.3/III Allegretto un poco
Beethoven Symphony No.3/III Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Brahms Symphony No.3/III Poco allegretto

Sarge

[Brian]

Schubert - Quintet D. 956, III.
Schubert - Sonata D. 960, III.
Beethoven - Quartet Op. 127, III.
(2) Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 - second AND third movements
Lalo - Scherzo in D minor (I don't know why the YouTube image is anime)
Chopin - Scherzo No. 2

But you know who was the absolute best at writing scherzos?

SPECIAL DVORAK SECTION
Quintet Op. 77 - II.
Symphony No. 8 - III.
Sextet - III. "Furiant"
Symphony No. 4 - III.
String Quartet Op. 106 - III.

[Jo498]

Trying to decipher amw's list first

1 Beethoven op.127
2 ?
3 Mahler 5
4 Bruckner 9
5 ?
6 Chopin Scherzo #2 b flat minor
7 Dvorak, Scherzo Capriccioso
8 Tchaikovsky, 6th symphony
9 ?
10 Schubert String Quintet
11 Beethoven op.69

[Sergeant Rock]

But you know who was the absolute best at writing scherzos?

You mean after Bruckner ...but yeah, Dvorak is a co-reigning King of the Scherzo, and I cannot believe I didn't include a single one of his on my list 

Sarge

[(poco) Sforzando]

Trying to decipher amw's list first

1 Beethoven op.127
2 ?
3 Mahler 5
4 Bruckner 9
5 ?
6 Chopin Scherzo #2 b flat minor
7 Dvorak, Scherzo Capriccioso
8 Tchaikovsky, 6th symphony
9 ?
10 Schubert String Quintet
11 Beethoven op.69

Ha. The ones you can't get are also the ones I can't get, except for 5, which I'm sure is from a chamber work of Brahms I've heard lately. But until I check through my scores (I have a nice 1-volume collection of all the chamber music), I can't make a positive ID.

[Jo498]

wild guess for #5: Brahms Horn Trio? I have the feeling I should know 2 as well...

[(poco) Sforzando]

wild guess for #5: Brahms Horn Trio? I have the feeling I should know 2 as well...

No, not the trio (a work whose finale is almost more of a scherzo than the actual scherzo). It's the F minor piano quintet.

[The new erato]

The Beethoven op 130 Presto is the mother of all scherzos in my opinion (even if not called scherzo). I also rate some Haydn quartets Minuets very highly in that regard. As for a list? I'm hopeless at lists.

[jochanaan]

Of course Beethoven, who more or less invented the scherzo, is a master at it. I am also very fond of Shostakovich's scherzi, particularly in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth (where we get two for the "price" of one!), Ninth and Tenth symphonies.  The one from the Tenth, with its relentless intensity, is my particular favorite.  (It's marked Allegro, but at 176 to the quarter note, it might as well be Presto furioso! )

[vandermolen]

Bruckner Symphony 8
Miaskovsky Symphony 6 ( the trio section)
Shostakovich Symphony 10
Vaughan Williams Symphony 6
Rubbra Symphony 5

Er, that's it.....

[(poco) Sforzando]

Of course Beethoven, who more or less invented the scherzo, is a master at it. I am also very fond of Shostakovich's scherzi, particularly in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth (where we get two for the "price" of one!), Ninth and Tenth symphonies.  The one from the Tenth, with its relentless intensity, is my particular favorite.  (It's marked Allegro, but at 176 to the quarter note, it might as well be Presto furioso! )

I agree about the 10th, one reason for its great effectiveness being its incredible brevity following the huge first movement.

I'm not going to try to list ten, but some favorites of mine include:
- Beethoven from the quartet 59/1, which has variously been described as scherzo-trio and sonata form. Well, if the form is that ambiguous, it suggests that it has elements of either but is more truly a form sui generis of its own, a kaleidoscopic hybrid that juggles 6-7 themes in the air and doesn't resemble any other scherzo Beethoven ever wrote. One thing that fascinates me is that it touches every key center, except the simple, basic subdominant.
- The E major scherzo from op. 131.
- Berlioz's superb Queen Mab.
- The Mahler 2, both with and without the overlays Berio supplied in his Sinfonia.
- The tiny scherzo from the Webern piano variations.
- Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice, a great piece both with and without Mickey Mouse.
- The scherzos from Bartok quartets 3, 4, and 5.
- The Bruckner 8th, which someone once described as "the mountains dancing."

Well, guess what, that's 10.

[Sergeant Rock]

- The Bruckner 8th, which someone once described as "the mountains dancing."

A critic in the 60s described Szell's performance as the Engine of Heaven (and I've always considered the Ninth's Scherzo to be the Engine of Hell  ) However it's described, a truly remarkable scherzo.

Sarge

[Brahmsian]

Of course Beethoven, who more or less invented the scherzo, is a master at it. I am also very fond of Shostakovich's scherzi, particularly in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth (where we get two for the "price" of one!), Ninth and Tenth symphonies.  The one from the Tenth, with its relentless intensity, is my particular favorite.  (It's marked Allegro, but at 176 to the quarter note, it might as well be Presto furioso! )

It is insane that Shostakovich marked it as Allegro.    I agree, it might as well be Presto Furioso.  Shostakovich was pretty vague with his tempi markings.

Allegro, Allegretto and Adagio.  That was it for the most part. 

[Karl Henning]

[...] Shostakovich was pretty vague poker-faced with his tempi markings.

FTFY   

[Brahmsian]

FTFY   

[Jo498]

In no particular order:

Bruckner 9th (clearly my favorite Bruckner scherzo, I have to admit that I am not so fond of the "generic" Bruckner scherzo but this one is brilliant)

Brahms: piano concerto #2 (I am not always fond of the intermezzo/allegretto movements Brahms often prefers to faster scherzi, this is my favorite scherzo movement from his orchestral works)

Mendelssohn: Octet (he wrote several of that type but this is the first and most famous one)

Haydn: op.33,3 (because this is actually called scherzo, although the ones in op.77 are closer in character to the scherzi of later composers)

Chopin, 2nd movement of b flat minor sonata (the 4 solo scherzi are on a larger scale but the trio of this one is to die for)

Schubert: piano trio E flat major (the one from the string quintet is my favorite, but I want to mention some new ones and this is also great)

Beethoven: many great ones have been mentioned and there are many good ones left; I'd name the (not so called) second movement of op.109. Than there is playful one with the manic trio of op.135, or the gruff and angry one already in the first quartet op.18/1, of course the 3rd, 5th and 9th symphony...

Dvorak string quartet G major op.106 (again, there are many good ones: the ones from the "American" quartet and the piano quintet are even more famous)

Schumann: 2nd movement of the piano quartet. Also the one from the 2nd symphony, one of the few ostentatiously brilliant orchestral movements of Schumann.

Tchaikovsky: the pizzicato from the 4th symphony

[Jay F]

Not 10, but...

Mahler 2

Shostakovich SQ 11

Bruckner 8

Beethoven PS 18

Beethoven Symphony No. 3

Bruckner 7

Schubert String Quintet 956

Beethoven SQ 4

[amw]

But you know who was the absolute best at writing scherzos?

The third movement of Symphony No. 8 was my original bonus, but I somewhat unjustly decided it's more of a waltz and anyway Beethoven should get precedence as populariser of the form (not its inventor, which I suppose is Monteverdi or something)

The one from the Tenth, with its relentless intensity, is my particular favorite.  (It's marked Allegro, but at 176 to the quarter note, it might as well be Presto furioso! )

It's actually 176 to the half note—the metronome mark gets a bit smudged on the old Muzgiz scores, but is very clear in the new critical edition.

Which is terrifyingly fast and not even the man himself (with Mieczysław Weinberg on second piano) can keep up—perhaps it was a typo and he did mean a quarter note, but he plays faster than that... (Shostakovich has of course done things like mark a movement "Largo, quarter note = 144", so he may have just been prone to overestimating in that regard. The tempo marking is still helpful in that it indicates that Shostakovich meant the movement to be conducted "in 1")

(ChamberNut: And don't forget Moderato!)

- Berlioz's superb Queen Mab.

Brilliant choice!

[Jo498]

So will you divulge what 2 (Weber?) and 9 are?

If Berlioz had written a "real" symphony with his Romeo&Juliet material this would have been his best orchestral work, I think. (Whereas I am not sure if that strange hybrid it actually is, really works.)
The 4 movements that are often played as some kind of instrumental suite are about as good or better than the respective ones from the Fantastique but of course they do not really hang together so well and lack a real finale. The Mab scherzo is far better than the march from Fantastique, the love scene is better than the scene aux champs and I also prefer the Dance at the Capulets to "un bal".