Classical Music: Your 10 most fierce "start-offs"*

Sandy Bull does a rendition on banjo. And it works! Something I would not have thought possible.

 

Brahms' Concerto No.1 for Piano and Orchestra features some freakin' fierce just at the first note, but still his first symphony opening stands in another league for sure, imo.

I find particularly interesting the varied scope of influences that I find to different extents reflected in Brahms works, from Mozart to Beethoven to Wagner to Schumann, amongst others! Well, needless to say that getting inspiration from admired predecessors was a commonplace among artists and composers of the 19th century.

Here is an historical performance, I'm looking forward to collecting interpretations like these as they feel almost always literally entracing to me, albeit the somehow compromising sound quality that sometimes inevitably occurs. This one have the plus of featuring the great Vladimir Horowitz and one of the greatest interpreters ever in my book - Arturo Toscanini:


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Harrison's Concerto for Violin with Percussion is my favorite work of his. I didn't initially post it because it's the third movement that really brings the pyrotechnics, but the whole thing is phenomenal and deliciously exotic.

 

If you like that Harrison, try Alan Hovhaness.

 

Yeah beautiful, and liked that kind of atmospheric exoticism it felt to me too. Well, I think this is an unique aspect that is historically found in many American music too - just thinking now of African-American musical forms like blues, jazz and spirituals, but also Aaron Copeland springs to mind, just to name one from other American Classical composers.

 

I know the Requiem & Kyrie is a beautiful first movement but...

 

This one couldn't miss here, to me it's another winner:



Surprised no one mentioned it... Mozart is a well-known master also in Church Organ Sonatas.

 

Now, I'd suggest you folks take a load of this different approach, although it misses out quite a bit of the Organ roaring bombast element, this performance gives a really unique interpretation of that strong and intense Mozart piece in my opinion. It's performed by the Conoro Quintet, at the Small Hall of the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory.


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A Camerata Bern production of Mozart's
dur K.247 Allegro, 1989
Think I titled it correctly, I had to up this.

 

Bump!!

This gorgeous Chopin's piece is fittingly taking "Louis Moreau Gottschalk - Grande Fantasie Triumphale" out from my list.

 

As itt seems, all this music is NOT the one to put for yet another time on SH members' freakin' music equipments ha ha , anyways I'm afraid I can't help with that but puting it on repeat these days

 

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Incredible! Nobody remembered that one...

 

Fanfare to
Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)

 

Good call, but it doesn't start off that memorable Richard Strauss' Symphony.

 

Au contraire, it's the opening of the tone poem (not symphony). Here's Wikipedia:

The initial fanfare – titled "Sunrise" in the composer's program notes – became well-known after its use in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey...

The piece is divided into nine sections played with only three definite pauses. Strauss named the sections after selected chapters of Friedrich Nietzsche's novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra:

Einleitung, oder Sonnenaufgang} (Introduction, or Sunrise)
Von den Hinterweltlern (Of Those in Backwaters)
Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing)
Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of Joys and Passions)
Das Grablied (The Song of the Grave)
Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science and Learning)
Der Genesende (The Convalescent)
Das Tanzlied (The Dance Song)
Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer)

 

^Yeah! And thanks for promptly reminding me of one of the superb Strauss' Tone Poems
I just didn't realise my mistake until reading it again, sorry. And your point was also good for acknowledging people of who was the composer of that excerpt which is perhaps still commonly recognised only as part of that Kubrick's film soundtrack.

 

I don't know if this qualifies -- because (I think) the semi-bombastic effect comes primarily from 1) the speed of the initial figure, and 2) how quickly the sense of momentum seems to develop. In fact, I fully admit that the first 15-20 seconds are arguably delicate (even), though still bursting with GREAT energy (imho).

But seeing the thread topic, I simply must offer this example -- if only because it was the very first thing I thought of...

Stravinsky - Symphony in C: 1. Moderato alla breve

 

As what you pointed out pretty accurately about that intro, Stravinsky's really unique approach is carried out through the whole first movement too, imo, let alone his pretty more "economic" use of say those bombast elements that make for this thread subject.
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Couldn’t resist...

 

Thks

Thanks again chemguy
Anyway, yeah never mind your incontinence

 

To me, one of the most honourable cross-connections in contemporary musical culture is the virtuosity and emotional extremity that bind classical and metal together. And it's pretty much one of the reasons I started this thread.

So, in spite of some attempt at derailing it, big Rick strikes again with yet another chapter haha haaaa ha...
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Yeah let us forget that ugly moment, and well done Admin! Now please, would you be kind again to delete also my reply to it and this quote here of mine, if you really prime for a fair and equal treat on this forum?

Thks

 

To my ears, besides Beethoven's 5th and 8th, Shostakovich's 5th and 7th are clearly amongst the all time winners on here:


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And btw, the first movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (written during the desperate time of the Siege of Leningrad) is all about bombastic sound and fury. The rousing opening theme and later the repeating invasion theme rising to climax over 22 bars makes the movement unbearably intense!


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Indeed. But, as much as this excerpt, (IMO) that Requiem's other more bombastic sections can also be about as epic as it gets!