Music that touches you deeply

smitty1931 · Post by **smitty1931** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:32 am

What piece of music touches you to the point of tears? For me it is the trio and off stage chorus in the last act of Gounod's Faust.

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:18 am

Three of the pieces I'd take to a desert island:

Barber: Knoxville Summer of 1915
Schoenberg: Verklaerte Nacht.
Bruckner: Symphony No 8, Adagio

then:
Butterworth: Rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad
Honegger: Pastorale d'Eté*
Beethoven: Quartet Op131 in C# minor, first movement.
Berg: Parts of Lulu. In particular the Countesss Geschwitz air at the close of Act 3.
Beethoven: Symphony 9, third movement Adagio*

a few others.

*not tears so much as a warmth.

There's plenty of music that makes me cry for a different reason, I'm sure you don't want to know that.

Werner · Post by **Werner** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:52 am

Beethoven: op. 111 - second movement
Schubert: Piano Sonata in G D 894 - first movement

My list today!

Steinway · Post by **Steinway** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:43 am

Mefistofele..the overture and choral music in the first act are overwhelming.

Mahler..Adagietto from Symphony # 5

Verdi Requiem..the tenor solo Ingemisto

Shostakovich 5th..slow movement

Bach Mass in B Minor..tenor aria Benedictus

Bach Mass in B Minor..Donna Nobis Pacem

John F · Post by **John F** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:03 am

Lots. What comes to mind just now is the close of Act 1 of "Der Rosenkavalier," and not just because of the music.

Heck148 · Post by **Heck148** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:10 am

there are many such passages - and it depends alot upon what your mood is, what the listening conditions are, etc.

OTTOMH:

the final aria from Bach's b minor Mass - "Agnus Dei"

again Bach - the closing chorus to the St. Matthew Passion - "In deepest grief.."

"Libera me" - Verdi Requiem

finale -Mahler - Sym #9

"Love duet" from Merry Mount - Hanson -

Jared · Post by **Jared** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:44 pm

smitty1931 wrote:What piece of music touches you to the point of tears? For me it is the trio and off stage chorus in the last act of Gounod's Faust.

George Butterworth: Is My Team Ploughing?

it gets me every time...

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:01 pm

Lots of great performances do that for me.

Szell/Cleveland Bruckner VIII Adagio
Szell/Cleveland Mahler IV: Adagio
Soile Isokoski: Strauss song : Befreit
Beethoven/Bernstein: String Quartet Op. 135: Lento
Maggini Quartet: Elgar Piano Quintet Op. 84: Adagio
Suk: String Serenade (Czech Philh.): Adagio
Plasson/Toulouse: Magnard, Chant funebre
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto II: Adagio
Rostropovich: Miaskovsky Cello Concerto

I guess that's enough for now.

Enjoy!

James · Post by **James** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:40 pm

see desert island disc thread & i'll add a few others that come to mind...

Johann Sebastian Bach
BWV 654, BWV 659 & BWV 662
From the "Great 18", 3 of the greatest organ chorales. Subdued, reflective and there is absolutely no artificial additives or cheap surface emotion, but yet they are capable of invoking the greatest possible emotional response.
Michel Chapuis (Valois)

Gabriel Fauré
Requiem
Of the great Requiems of the 19th century, Verdi's sounds as if it was written for the opera house & Brahm's for the concert hall - Fauré's alone has the odour of incense, doubtless thanks to his career as an organist & his familiarity with church music. This is a work to comfort and reassure the faithful in the face of death, rather than overwhelm them with the finality of judgement. It has an overwhelming impression of peace & serenity which is transformed into an almost joyous resignation (like in the Agnus Dei). Pass the Kleenex.
La Chapelle Royale, Ensemble Musique Oblique, Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi)

Richard Strauss
Four Last Songs
Profound & deeply moving songs.
Soile Isokoski, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Janowski (Ondine)

pizza · Post by **pizza** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 2:04 pm

Mahler Symphony 10
Bruckner Symphony 6, Adagio
Dvorak Symphony 9
Harris Symphony 3
Copland Symphony 3
Ives 2nd Orchestral Set
Ives Second Piano Sonata

ChrisX · Post by **ChrisX** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:22 pm

Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia
Maurice Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (both the piano and the orchestral version as well the electronic / synth rendition by Isao Tomita)

Jared · Post by **Jared** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:27 pm

ChrisX wrote:Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia
Maurice Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (both the piano and the orchestral version as well the electronic / synth rendition by Isao Tomita)

great to see you back, Chris!

I agree wholeheartedly with the first, but as far as I can understand, the second could have been entitled 'Pavane for a dead Donkey' and I'd have been none the wiser..

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:30 pm

Mahler 5 HvK/BPO: in my humble opinion it is one of the greatest recordings ever made.
Mahler 1 Kubelik/BRSO
Mahler 4 Szell/Cleveland Orchestra
Bizet Carmen Solti/CSO

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:33 pm

ChrisX wrote:Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia
Maurice Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (both the piano and the orchestral version as well the electronic / synth rendition by Isao Tomita)

Welcome back Chris.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:05 pm

The third movement of Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra (just as long as it's not conducted by those two icebergs, Boulez & Reiner).

stenka razin · Post by **stenka razin** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:50 pm

Seán wrote:
ChrisX wrote:Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia
Maurice Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (both the piano and the orchestral version as well the electronic / synth rendition by Isao Tomita)
Welcome back Chris.

I second Sean's statement about Chris and agree about the V-W Tallis Fanatsia, but not about the Tomita. Not my cup of tea.

Heck148 · Post by **Heck148** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:11 pm

Wallingford wrote:The third movement of Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra (just as long as it's not conducted by those two icebergs, Boulez & Reiner).

Reiner an "iceberg"??

what an odd thing to say...
well, I suppose then that Toscanini, Bernstein, Solti, Mravinsky all conduct from the "frigid zone" as well??

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:14 pm

Well, Boulez.....? Easy to understand his being called an iceberg and in the cold unyielding sense IMHO, he's a bit of an orchestral "piano roll". The sounds come out but they're without life, without spirit.

gfweis · Post by **gfweis** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:16 pm

I'm deeply touched by many pieces of music, lots of Mozart and Brahms especially. But I'll mention one other that really gets to me: roughly the first half of the third movement of the Shostakovich VC No. 1 (the passacaglia proper, played andante, prior to the long cadenza), especially with either Tretyakov or Vengerov. But you are asking specifically about tears. Right now I can only think of one piece of music that inevitably make me tear up, and that is the adagio of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. Again, it's a certain style of playing this movement that turns on the faucet, viz. Swarowsky or Dutoit. I've known about the Swarowsky recording for years. I can tell you that I never expected to find a finer one; but of all the shocking discoveries (I'm not a Dutoit fan), Dutoit absolutely nails this symphony for me, and his adagio has the perfect combination of deep feeling and a kind of holding back, a reserve, that I just think is perfect.

gfweis · Post by **gfweis** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:21 pm

I should clarify: Swarowsky's S-S Sym. No. 3 with Franz Eibner on the organ. He made another recording with a different organist which I have not heard.

Heck148 · Post by **Heck148** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:59 pm

absinthe wrote:Well, Boulez.....? Easy to understand his being called an iceberg and in the cold unyielding sense IMHO, he's a bit of an orchestral "piano roll". The sounds come out but they're without life, without spirit.

Hmmm....I'm not quite so willing to write Boulez off as a cold-blooded academic...I've heard some very fine, gutsy, visceral performances from him, both live and on recording...

Heck148 · Post by **Heck148** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:18 pm

I have to add a few more:

Mozart - late symphony inner mvts -

Sym #38 - mvt II
Sym #39 mvts II, III
Sym #40 - II, III
Sym #41 - mvts II, III

the slow mvts esp, express a poignancy, a wistfulness that is most effective. it is for good reason that these works are held in such high regard, and are such standards of the symphonic repertoire.

moving ahead -

Wagner -Die Walkure - Act III/scene 3 - Wotan's farwewell to Brunnhilde
" - Siegfried - Act III/scene 3 - Sigfried/Brunnhilde
" Die Gotterdammerung - Siegfried's Death

Bruckner Sym #7 - Adagio
Mahler - Sym #3 - finale -Adagio

lennygoran · Post by **lennygoran** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:33 am

>What piece of music touches you to the point of tears?<

La Traviata--the ending. Which reminds me I'm also in tears over the Met's dropping some of the Zeffirelli opera productions including that one--read this in a 2008 NY Times article:

"Gelb plans to start replacing Zeffirelli’s productions. “They must preserve some of my productions, which are really masterpieces,” Zeffirelli says. “I shouldn’t say that, but people say that, and I have been convinced they are right.” He wants at least his Falstaff and Tosca to remain, though he’s willing to part with La Traviata. “My grandfather said, ‘Before destroying, you must know what you are going to build,’ ” Zeffirelli says. “I imagine the Met must present masterpieces with a different approach, but who is going to give a better approach than what I did?” But while his Bohème and Turandot are staying, a new Tosca and a new Carmen are set for the 2009–10 season, and a new Traviata for the following season. "

Regards, Len [g]

barney · Post by **barney** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:09 am

I'm with Heck. Little surpasses Mozart slow movements, though I turn especially to the piano concertos. Soave s'il vento from Cosi is very famous. Beethoven adagios, esp. the Emperor and the violin concerto and the slow movement of the piano quartet. Above all, perhaps, the slow movement of the Schubert C major quintet. Ig I'm in the mood, some of the Chopin nocturnes. And that's just scratched the surface....

barney · Post by **barney** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:17 am

And lots of opera. Traviata, certainly. Parigi O cara springs to mind as well as the end. Boheme. The sheer perfection of Figaro, the greatest story ever sung. Especially when the count sings "perdono, perdono".

The sleep scene from Hansel and Gretel. Tosca, vissi d'arte. So poignant, especially by Callas. Masses of Richard Strauss, especially Rosenkavalier, but also Capriccio and Arabella and more. Masses of bel canto, eg Norma, casta diva. In fact I'm just a sentimental slut. Lots of music brings tears to my eyes. When it comes to music, my emotions are very near the surface.

THEHORN · Post by **THEHORN** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:21 am

There are many classical works which can be profoundly moving . I know of nothing more moving than this in opera :
The Met premiere of Janacek's great final opera "From the House of the Dead " is this Thursday . This is a grim but inspiring story of the terrible life of prisoners in a Siberian prison camp in the 19th century , and is based on a novel by Dostoyevsky .
It has no real plot as such , but shows the daily life of the pathetic prisoners , their petty squabbles and hatreds , their recollections of the murders which landed them in Siberia, and the brutality of the guards.
In the final scene, the political prisoner Gorianchikov , who has befrineded a young Tatar prisoner from Daghestan (near Chechnya) ,
and taught him how to read and right , is suddenly granted his freedom because of clemency by the Tsar .
He bids a fond farewell to the young Tatar, and leaves, after the drunken commandant apologizes for having had him nearly beaten to death merely because he was a political prisoner and having the guards remove his chains .
An eagle with a broken wing which had been tended by the prisoners is released and is considered a symbol of freedom by all. But the guards force the prisoners back to work, and life returns to normal as the curtain falls .
This is one of the most gut-wrenchingly powerful moments in all opera , in my opinion . I am sure that the Met audiences will
feel this way at the premiere and subsequent performances .
Esa-Pekka Salonen makes his Met debut this Thursday conducting this unforgettable operatic masterpiece .

John F · Post by **John F** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:48 am

lennygoran wrote:>What piece of music touches you to the point of tears?<

La Traviata--the ending. Which reminds me I'm also in tears over the Met's dropping some of the Zeffirelli opera productions including that one

I'm sure most opera-goers with any long experience have favorite productions they wish might last forever. Certainly I do, though nearly all of them are long gone. But live theatre isn't like that, and while opera is theatrically more conservative than spoken drama, it too is subject to renewal and the changing esthetics of the time.

Besides, many leading opera singers just aren't interested in being plugged into an aged production with a couple of weeks' rehearsal, being given their instructions by a staff director from the prompt book, and going through motions devised at an earlier time for other singer-actors. They want to develop their own characterizations, working with top-flight directors during the longer rehearsal period that new productions are allotted. These are often the singers that opera houses most want to attract, and if that requires mounting new productions or even new repertory for them, so be it.

Zeffirelli may believe that his productions are masterpieces (his false-modest half-disclaimer aside), but I don't. What he's about is spectacle, the "wow" factor, sometimes at the service of the opera but sometimes at its expense. He certainly gives the audience an eyeful, and they often applaud the scenery as the curtain rises, but the hordes of people and the animals on the stage can diminish the main action and characters, and even distract from the music. And since nearly all of the Met's Zeffirelli productions have been telecast and published on DVD, people can look at them pretty much forever, even after they've been replaced in the house.

Incidentally, the production of "From the House of the Dead" just mentioned by THEHORN has been staged by Patrice Chéreau, who pretty much cut his operatic teeth with the notorious Bayreuth 1976 Ring cycle. I've seen a clip from the Vienna performances of this production and it looks faithful to the work as well as dramatically effective. If the rest measures up to the bit I've seen, score one for Peter Gelb's campaign to move the Met's operatic productions into the 21st century.

Post by **Lance** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:32 pm

If I had to choose just ONE composition, it is Franz Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 100.

Steinway · Post by **Steinway** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:46 pm

THEHORN wrote:There are many classical works which can be profoundly moving . I know of nothing more moving than this in opera :
The Met premiere of Janacek's great final opera "From the House of the Dead " is this Thursday . This is a grim but inspiring story of the terrible life of prisoners in a Siberian prison camp in the 19th century , and is based on a novel by Dostoyevsky .
It has no real plot as such , but shows the daily life of the pathetic prisoners , their petty squabbles and hatreds , their recollections of the murders which landed them in Siberia, and the brutality of the guards.
In the final scene, the political prisoner Gorianchikov , who has befrineded a young Tatar prisoner from Daghestan (near Chechnya) ,
and taught him how to read and right , is suddenly granted his freedom because of clemency by the Tsar .
He bids a fond farewell to the young Tatar, and leaves, after the drunken commandant apologizes for having had him nearly beaten to death merely because he was a political prisoner and having the guards remove his chains .
An eagle with a broken wing which had been tended by the prisoners is released and is considered a symbol of freedom by all. But the guards force the prisoners back to work, and life returns to normal as the curtain falls .
This is one of the most gut-wrenchingly powerful moments in all opera , in my opinion . I am sure that the Met audiences will
feel this way at the premiere and subsequent performances .
Esa-Pekka Salonen makes his Met debut this Thursday conducting this unforgettable operatic masterpiece .

Robert..

We're seeing the Met performance On Dec.2nd and after your comments, it looks like a splendid experience to look forward to.

lennygoran · Post by **lennygoran** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:05 pm

>The Met premiere of Janacek's great final opera "From the House of the Dead " is this Thursday .<

Thanks for this summary--my wife and I see it Wed Dec 2. Regards, Len

lennygoran · Post by **lennygoran** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:17 pm

>And since nearly all of the Met's Zeffirelli productions have been telecast and published on DVD, people can look at them pretty much forever, even after they've been replaced in the house.<

John unfortunately too many of the new productions change the story--fortunately Tosca kept that to a minimum but IMO it was not a production I'd be that proud of--the end of Act 2 change was a big mistake in my opinion. We saw it at a movie and will see it live next April hopefully with Terfel as Scarpia. I didn't
like the dummy at the end but we'll see how it looks at the Met live.

The Met's last Grimes was awfully ugly but didn't seem to change the story--the Met's Barber was a step down from Zeffirelli for me--okay but not great. The Somnabula was an absolute disgrace IMO. I'm not that happy with the Met but every once in a while you get an absolutely magical experience like the last Die Walkure we saw. Regards, Len

John F · Post by **John F** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:50 pm

You're certainly entitled to your taste, and if you consider Zeffirelli the gold standard of opera production, he would agree with you.

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:05 pm

Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen by Gustav Mahler transports me out of this world.

barney · Post by **barney** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:30 am

Lance wrote:If I had to choose just ONE composition, it is Franz Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 100.

Well said, that's right up there for me too.

vavaseur · Post by **vavaseur** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:56 am

There are many pieces of music that touch me deeply, and not necessarily classical (e.g., The Beatles "She's Leaving Home" and "Here, There and Everywhere". Of the many classical pieces that get me teary eyed though, I would have to say that number one is the second movement of Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2. It is simply gorgeous, so delicate that one almost dare not breath lest it break!

Cheers,
vavaseur

Donaldopato · Post by **Donaldopato** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:29 am

Mahler Symphony # 10 (not just the glorious music here, but the thoughts of what might have been if Mahler had completed it.)

Schubert Sonata in Bflat D.960 (for me the Andante is simply the most incredible and emotionally complex 10 minutes in music.)

Vaughn Williams Serenade to Music (the title says it all)

Auntie Lynn · Post by **Auntie Lynn** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:42 am

How Deep is Your Love
Deep River
Ain't No River Deep Enough
Deep in the Heart of Texas
How Deep is the Ocean
Deep in My Heart, Dear
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Deep in a Dream

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:46 am

Allegro appassionato, Op. 92 by Robert Schumann

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:48 am

vavaseur wrote:There are many pieces of music that touch me deeply, and not necessarily classical (e.g., The Beatles "She's Leaving Home" and "Here, There and Everywhere". Of the many classical pieces that get me teary eyed though, I would have to say that number one is the second movement of Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2. It is simply gorgeous, so delicate that one almost dare not breath lest it break!

Cheers,
vavaseur

vavaseur,

First of all, welcome to CMG. I do not think that I have had the chance to talk to you before. I just wanted to say that I am entirely with you with the three pieces that you selected. All excellent choices.

Cyril Ignatius · Post by **Cyril Ignatius** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:51 am

Some scattered example I offer would be a variety of Puccini's dramatic aria scenes; other Italian Opera arias; Sospiri and Elegy and the 1st Symphony Adagio from Edward Elgar, certain Bruckner Adagios from #4-9; soprano solo songs within Mahler's # 2 and 3; ..."Morning" from Richard Strauss..........to name a few.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:46 pm

A couple of things by Brahms come close to hitting me in this fashion: the slow movement of the First Piano Concerto & the finale of the German Requiem.

Also: Percy Grainger's The Power Of Love.

AND, the last few minutes of Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges.

barney · Post by **barney** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:51 pm

vavaseur wrote:There are many pieces of music that touch me deeply, and not necessarily classical (e.g., The Beatles "She's Leaving Home" and "Here, There and Everywhere". Of the many classical pieces that get me teary eyed though, I would have to say that number one is the second movement of Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2. It is simply gorgeous, so delicate that one almost dare not breath lest it break!

Cheers,
vavaseur

You send me back to listen again. Not a work I know well, though I have heard it.

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