Your Top Five Op. 1 Works

[Florestan]

My list, in no particular order

Brahms - Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1
Beethoven -  Piano Trio No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 1 No. 1
Schumann - ABEGG Variations, Op. 1
Tchaikovsky - Scherzo a la Russe, Op. 1

[Gurn Blanston]

Here's one which will end up on any list I eventually make:

Mendelssohn Piano Quartet #1 Opus 1

[Florestan]

Mendelssohn Piano Quartet #1 Opus 1

Splendid!

[ritter]

Alban Berg's Piano sonata, op, 1

[Cato]

Alban Berg's Piano sonata, op, 1

Amen!   

How about Mahler's Das Klagende Lied?

Schoenberg's Zwei Gesaenge:

https://www.youtube.com/v/nPkZZBDv8Ps

[North Star]

Alban Berg's Piano sonata, op, 1

Bach's Partitas BWV 825–830
Schubert's Erlkönig
Beethoven's Piano Trios Op. 1

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Bach's Partitas BWV 825–830

I was just thinking the same thing!

[Gurn Blanston]

Schubert's Erlkönig

I never followed Schubert's opus numbers; was that really his Op 1?

[North Star]

I never followed Schubert's opus numbers; was that really his Op 1?

Yes - but the op. numbers really are quite useless.

[bhodges]

Happy to sign on as a fan of the Mendelssohn and Berg, and also this one:

Webern: Passacagalia, Op. 1 (1908)

This version is with Giulini and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, from March 29, 1974. (I actually didn't know they recorded it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5sVtO3ygXE

--Bruce

[Jo498]

The opus numbers are useless with Schubert but unlike the Bach partitas Erlkönig is a reasonably early work although not Schubert's first but both early and important enough to serve as some kind of landmark.
Beethoven has quite a few Pre-op.1 pieces as well (actually some with later opus numbers were probably composed before op.1, e.g. op.3)

[Florestan]

Good choices.

How about Berlioz´s Waverley Overture?

https://www.youtube.com/v/sqi5utCshJM

[Cato]

Webern: Passacagalia, Op. 1 (1908)

This version is with Giulini and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, from March 29, 1974. (I actually didn't know they recorded it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5sVtO3ygXE

--Bruce

I ran out of time above to make my Neue Wiener Schule list complete!  Yes, this is an excellent version.  The Cleveland Orchestra has a great performance of it with Christoph von Dohnanyi.

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes - but the op. numbers really are quite useless.

Which is why I never followed them.   I am pretty handy with the Deutsch numbers though.

In fact, Opus numbers in general are pretty useless before the turn of the 19th century. I think there are at least 3 Mozart Opus 1's, and on the opposite side there are some Haydn works with 4 or 5 different opus numbers! 

[Gurn Blanston]

The opus numbers are useless with Schubert but unlike the Bach partitas Erlkönig is a reasonably early work although not Schubert's first but both early and important enough to serve as some kind of landmark.
Beethoven has quite a few Pre-op.1 pieces as well (actually some with later opus numbers were probably composed before op.1, e.g. op.3)

Yes, I actually think it could be a very legitimate Opus 1 anyway, certainly it was his breakthrough hit which led to his outstandingly obscure career during his lifetime... and his equally opposite fate after his death.

Beethoven's Op 1 piano trios are listed in Biamonti's catalog as Bia 62, which is a fairly accurate idea of their status in his total oeuvre. Biamonti was written in 1968, and he is dead now, it is a damned shame someone hasn't stepped up to update it with all the research which gets done on Beethoven every year. Even at that, it is better than Kinsky-Halm or Hess...

[The new erato]

Nielsen Liten Suite (suite for strings).

[vandermolen]

Rachmaninov's PC No.1

[PerfectWagnerite]

How about something not from this list?

http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/302807,ten-opus-1s-of-the-great-composers.aspx

[North Star]

How about something not from this list?

http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/302807,ten-opus-1s-of-the-great-composers.aspx

Feel at liberty.

[Sergeant Rock]

How about something not from this list?

ATTERBERG Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
DVORAK String Quintet No.1 A minor
ELGAR The Wand of Youth
KORNGOLD Piano Trio D major
SCHREKER   Symphony A Minor


Sarge