knotslip wrote:... a single piece of classical music that you would consider the most beautiful piece of music you have ever heard, what would that piece be?
Beauty is what drew me to classical music several decades ago, and it is what keeps me an avid listener today. There is so much.
From Allegri's haunting choral work the
Miserere through such works as Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto and Beethoven masterpieces as the opening of the
Moonlight Sonata and the second movement of the Seventh Symphony, the A Major Opus 18 Intermezzo of Brahms, so much of Bach (such as the Siciliano from the Oboe Concerto), the Tchaikowsky Fifth Symphony, Gerald Finzi's Cello Concerto, Samuel Barber's haunting Violin Concerto, Korngold's Violin Concerto and Symphony, William Alwyn's Fourth Symphony (final movement!), Ravel's Concerto in G and String Quartet, Debussy's String Quartet, Alan Hovhaness's
Celestial Gate and [/i]Mysterious Mountain[/i] Symphonies, Rachmaninov's Second Symphony and Second and Third Concerti, Arvo Pärt's
Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony, Sibelius's Second Symphony, the slow movement of Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, Vaughan Williams's Second and Fifth Symphonies ... ah, just so much ....
However, my initial thought upon reading your question hovered towards one work which I have loved dearly for years:
Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 the Romantic. This remains one of my most oft listened to pieces ... and I even enjoy simply reading the score with maybe John Cage's 4'33" playing in the background. You
must hear this Symphony! Must, must, must!
Still ... for absolute sheer beauty of the sublimely profound sort, there is
nothing in my musical listening experience --
nothing! -- that can match
the final pages of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 10, especially as it is performed in Deryck Cooke's version by Wyn Morris and the NPO on a 1976 Philips recording. This is certainly what Longinus meant by "the sublime".
Though the Mahler Tenth was left incomplete by Gustav himself, he did manage to fully orchestrate that sublime string section I refer to. This is pure Mahler, and it provides as close a glimpse of Heaven as I, at least, can imagine ... and I remain a Dante scholar of sorts who has traversed the
Paradiso section of the
Divine Comedy. I know Heaven when I see it ... or hear it!
There is nothing that can follow that Mahler music, which is why I will sit dumb following each playing of the work. And which is also why I keep a copy of Frank Zappa's performance of Cage's 4'33" handy -- 'cause I gotta play
somethin' after the Mahler Tenth. Somethin'!
Though Wyn Morris's traversal of this music remains my favorite, James Levine gets somewhat close in his Philadelphia Orchestra reading. One neat thing about the Mahler Tenth is that it has been completed (or finished) by several different folks, so fresh hearings move beyond mere interpretative differences. Orchestrations differ. Structure differs. Yet, the final pages as scored by Mahler himself generally remain in tact, and provide for music's most sublime moment yet.
This is the Everest. It's what Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner were building towards. Only Schoenberg could follow it. And Schoenberg's mountain is built on a different planet from Mahler's, but that's another story.
Anyhow ... them's my apples. Or my apple.
--
SONNET CLV (currently listening to K. Penderecki's
St. Luke's Passion on a Polskie Nagrania disc from 1989) --
There are others that are real close but this one stands out for me right now.
