Which works excite you from their opening notes?

[Mark]

Some works, no matter how many times you hear them, grab you and thrill you from the moment you hear the first few bars. So I thought perhaps we could share those which do this for each of us.

My shortlist (for it's really a long, long list) would include:

Saint-Saens' Third Symphony
Beethoven's Third Symphony
Sibelius' Violin Concerto
Saint-Saens' Second Piano Concerto
Finzi's Cello Concerto
Elgar's Cello Concerto

Each of these just has that certain ... something that makes my spine tingle; those shimmering or haunting strings at the start of the Saint-Saens Third Symphony and Sibelius Violin Concerto (respectively); the hammering two opening chords of Beethoven's 'Eroica'; the ingenious use of that sad, sad theme for piano only at the start of the Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto; the maelstrom of emotion whipped up out of nowhere as the Finzi Cello Concerto begins; and that deeply tragic opening theme from the the Elgar Cello Concerto.

Of course, don't restrict your answers to orchestral works: there are a great many chamber and vocal works that give that same 'tingle factor'. To name an example from each genre, Faure's Piano Quartet No. 1, and the opening of Rachmaninov's All-night Vigil.

So, care to share?

[val]

BEETHOVEN, 5th Symphony

BEETHOVEN: String Quartet opus 95

BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata opus 106

BEETHOVEN: 9th Symphony

BRUCKNER: 3rd Symphony

BRAHMS: 4th Symphony

[val]

BEETHOVEN, 5th Symphony

BEETHOVEN: String Quartet opus 95

BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata opus 106

BEETHOVEN: 9th Symphony

BRUCKNER: 3rd Symphony

BRAHMS: 4th Symphony

[greg]

here's a few

Bruckner 4th
Xenakis Ata, Jonchaies
Mahler 7, 9
Schoenberg Book of Hanging Gardens

[Anne]

The begining of Wagner's Das Rheingold.  Those vibrating low notes represent the moments of existence just starting.  I always imagine my excitement of being at the Met as The Ring commences.

[BachQ]

Brahms PC 1
Tchaik PC 1
Liszt PC 1
Prokofiev PC 1
Schumann PC 1
Grieg PC 1

[greg]

Brahms PC 1
Tchaik PC 1
Liszt PC 1
Prokofiev PC 1
Schumann PC 1
Grieg PC 1

lol

Brahms PC 1
Prokofiev PC 1

of course i can add these to my list

[Mark]

The begining of Wagner's Das Rheingold.  Those vibrating low notes represent the moments of existence just starting.  I always imagine my excitement of being at the Met as The Ring commences.

Yeah, I'll go with that one, too, Anne.

The openings of Smetana's First String Quartet and Dvorak's Serenade for Strings do it for me, as well.

[Lethevich]

Bruckner's 7th - while it starts quiet as with all his works, these first few notes I listen out for with much greater concentration than any of his other symphonies, they are ghostly and beautiful.

[The new erato]

William Schumans Violin Concerto

[mahlertitan]

pretty much all of bruckner's symphonies, but that's too obvious..

Schumann's 4th symphony, i always liked the way it opened.

[Norbeone]

-Bach's D Minor keyboard concerto
-Tchaikovsky's 4th and 5th Symphonies, and 1st now that i think if it.......and 6th!
-Stravinsky's Le Sacre
-Beethoven's 5th Symphony
-Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht
-Ligeti's Chaconne for Harpsichord


There's definately a lot more but I just can't think.

[Mystery]

Bach (almost everything). Mainly B Minor Mass, Matthew Passion, Double Violin Concerto. They are all so divine!

[Novi]

Bach (almost everything). Mainly B Minor Mass, Matthew Passion, Double Violin Concerto. They are all so divine!

Another vote for Matthäus 0:).

Also the Johannes-Passion as well: I love the sense of urgency with the strings, and then the choir's entry, wow! I recently heard for the first time the 1725 version with the 'O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde groß' opening that was later used in the Matthäus-Passion; the 'Herr, Unser Herrscher' is so much better and a lot more dramatic as an opening IMO.

Mahler 6: the 'boom, boom, boom, boom' from the lower strings .

[Anne]

Yeah, I'll go with that one, too, Anne.

[not edward]

To me, the two most haunting openings in the symphonic repertoire are Sibelius 6 and Lutoslawski 4.

[hornteacher]

Dvorak Serenade for Winds
Dvorak Violin Concerto
Dvorak Cello Concerto
Dvorak 9th

Mozart Marriage of Figaro Overture
Mozart Don Giovanni Overture
Mozart Magic Flute Overture
Mozart Clarinet Concerto
Mozart Clarinet Quintet

Beethoven Symphony 1, 3, 5, 6, 9
Beethoven Piano Concerto 4 and 5

Tchaikovsky Symphony 4

Schubert's Trout Quintet

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto

Strauss' Horn Concerto #1

[some guy]

Short answer is, um, practically all of them.

But a few in particular are Michele Bokanowski's L'Etoile d'Absinthe, Schnittke's Concerto Grosso #1, and Jonathan Berger's Meteora.

And of course, the suck you right in immediately opening of Poulenc's piano concerto.

[Mark]

And of course, the suck you right in immediately opening of Poulenc's piano concerto.

Not heard this in a while. Need to reacquaint myself with it. Thanks.

[Drasko]

Scriabin's 5th Sonata
Stravinski's Rite of Spring
Rachmaninov 3rd Concerto