The Best

[MN Dave]

What is the single most perfect piece of music ever written? The one that makes all the others pale, even if only slightly, in comparison?

[PerfectWagnerite]

Perfect as in it would be sacrilege to change a single note and even the thought of changing a note make you cringe?

I vote for Mozart's Symphony #40, K550.

[jjfan]

Vivaldi 2nd movement of Winter from The Four Seasons.
Maybe tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next year, I'll have a different answer.
But for now, this is the one for me.

[ChamberNut]

Very tough question!   

I like PerfectWagnerite's answer for Mozart's Symphony # 40.  Good choice.

For a complete work, my choice would be either Bach's Mass in B minor, or Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

For a single movement, I'll go with Beethoven's Cavatina from String Quartet No. 13

[tab]

Beethoven's op. 133.

[Todd]

A toss up between Op 111 and Op 132.

[greg]

Mahler 9



(where's Renfield?  ...)

[Great Gable]

For me, there are three pieces where every single note is perfect, where every nuance is such that to change one thing, drama and impact would be lost.

Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 14 ("Moonlight") - the first ovement being the most sublime note-for-note piece of music I have heard.

Beethoven's Ninth symphony - glorious, every second a delight.

And they might be deemed hackneyed and over-popular (whatever that means) but Vivaldi's Concertos Op.8 1-4 "Four Seasons" are perfect in every way. I suspect that one of the reasons that Vivaldi is poorly thought of are these four concerti. They are so perfect that everything else he wrote pales in significance next to them. Well, that and the old "less is more" approach to concertos (again, a matter of opinion).

[greg]

And they might be deemed hackneyed and over-popular (whatever that means) but Vivaldi's Concertos Op.8 1-4 "Four Seasons" are perfect in every way. I suspect that one of the reasons that Vivaldi is poorly thought of are theses four concerti. They are so perfect that everything else he wrote pales in insignificance next to them. Well, that and the old "less is more" approach to concertos (again, a matter of opinion).

i have to say the same thing for Vivaldi..... the Four Seasons concertos are amazing, yet everything else i've heard by him is just watered down mediocre music.

[orbital]

Beethoven Op131 or 132. If hard pressed I'd go with 131.

[Don]

I have a surprising response - Goldberg Variations.

[PSmith08]

It's a three-way tie as far as I am concerned:

Richard Wagner: Parsifal, WWV 111
Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano concerto no. 5, op. 73

[Harry]

I am spoiled for choice.......

[Bonehelm]

Mahler - symphony no.2
Beethoven - symphony no.9
Chopin - all etudes, waltzes, mazurkas, w/e

[Que]

I have a surprising response - Goldberg Variations.

Seconded. 

Q

[not edward]

I have a surprising response - Goldberg Variations.

It's on my shortlist as well. I'll get back to you in 50 years when I've finished the tiebreaking process.

[BachQ]

Bach, Goldberg Variations
LvB, 7th Symphony, 4th PC
Mozart, Piano Concerto no. 24
Brahms, 4th Symphony
Mendelssohn, Overture to MSND
Schubert, Wanderer Fantasy; String Quintet

[greg]

Bach, Goldberg Variations
LvB, 7th Symphony, 4th PC
Mozart, Piano Concerto no. 24
Brahms, 4th Symphony
Mendelssohn, Overture to MSND
Schubert, Wanderer Fantasy; String Quintet

you're trying to be funny, aren't you?

[Don]

you're trying to be funny, aren't you?

What do you find humorous about D Minor's list? 

[greg]

What do you find humorous about D Minor's list? 

you notice he left out something, right?.......

this is about "The Best", and we all know what D Minor's favorite is, unless he's been deceiving us all this time.