the Loudest Finales in Classical Music

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering if you had any pieces you could recommend a snail to listen to for orchestra, which have very bombastic and loud, triumphant endings at the end of them!! There must be so many but I really want examples of those tremendous fortississississimo kitchen-sink major chords!

Here are some examples from the little I know -- the final movement of Pines of Rome.... Alexander Nevsky entering Pskov....... hope you can help!

Many thanks,

and wishing you the very best for your studies,

*slimy sig*

- Blenching Snail

Finale of Shos 5th. It is so over the top it's almost cynical

Mahler 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8

Shostakovich 7

Anything by Rachmaninov, especially Symphonies 1 and 2 and the Symphonic Dances

Walton Belshazzar's Feast

Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

And the obvious one...Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

The Shostakovich is of course tinged with irony; it's deliberately banal and over-the-top because it's interpreted as the Soviet state forcing people to rejoice on command.

Beethoven 3, 5, 7, 9.

Brahms 2

Tchaikovsky 2, 4, 5, Swan Lake

This may have been said already, I only skimmed the other posts. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

Also stuff by John Mackey. "Aurora Awakes" for instance.

Anything with a finale that could be played loud.

Really, this is impossible to determine, because "loud" is relative, and it depends on the performer(s) interpreting it. For example, the loudest ending I've played was probably the ending of Mvt. III from Gustav Holst's first suite in E-Flat. We played it at least as loud as we'd play the 1812 Overture. However, a different ensemble could very easily have interpreted the dynamics different, and might have played the ending of the Holst softer than the ending of 1812.

Shosty Sym 10 & 11

Respighi Feste Romane

Orff Carmina Burana

Orff Trionfo di Afrodita (with a little pause but is loud)

Prokofiev Scythian Suite

ammmm.....

The end of Barber's Symphony No. 1 is just plain goddamn ridiculous.

Oh my, I always forget my "neighbors" :facepalm:

Revueltas: Noche de los Mayas

Revueltas: Sensemayá

Chaves: Sinfonia India (Indian Symphony)

those 3 have loud and "ethnicaly" boombastic endings.

Oh my, I always forget my "neighbors" :facepalm:

Revueltas: Noche de los Mayas

Revueltas: Sensemayá

Chaves: Sinfonia India (Indian Symphony)

those 3 have loud and "ethnicaly" boombastic endings.

Revueltes! Now there's a name you don't hear often around my neck of the woods, but I'll second both of those pieces.

NO WAY!

Blenching snail is back!

*lols*

The end of Barber's Symphony No. 1 is just plain goddamn ridiculous.

what? barber 1 is nice!

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, 4th and 5th movements;

Berlioz's Rackoczy March from the Damnation of Faust;

Berlioz's Infernal Choir Scene from the Damnation of Faust (although it doesn't really END in a powerful boom, it has a big one right before the "end");

Berlioz's Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, last movement, "Apotheosis";

and my personal favourite, from Berlioz's Requiem, the Lacrimosa.

Although most recordings suck at this awesome piece, I have the perfect one: Chor des NDR Hamburg, Konzertvereinigung ORF-Chor, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, directed by Eliahu Inbal.

And I have testimonies!

“I saw one of his concerts once, and well, being deaf hasn't been easy.”

~ Beethoven on Hector Berlioz

“His Requiem was probably the strongest opponent I ever had to face. Believe me, my ears were bleeding.”

~ Chuck Norris on Hector Berlioz

“I pity the foo' who challenges Berlioz for a loud brass playing contest”

~ Mr. T on Hector Berlioz

Berlioz' Lacrimosa texture is interesting!

... for 4 measures

It's not a finale at all, but... General Dance from Borodin's Polovtsian Dances (WITH choir!!!). It's the part where the tympani comes in and the world explodes :D Performed by a competent orchestra, it is amazingly loud. I agree with Shostakovich 5 and a lot of the Beethoven Symphonies too, for the record.

Oh, and a piece called Niagara Falls that my high school wind ensemble played at a state convention in January. That finale is pretty intense. I encourage anyone who hasn't heard it to look it up on YouTube; though the performances there are not amazing, they're not bad.

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, 4th and 5th movements;

Berlioz's Rackoczy March from the Damnation of Faust;

Berlioz's Infernal Choir Scene from the Damnation of Faust (although it doesn't really END in a powerful boom, it has a big one right before the "end");

Berlioz's Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, last movement, "Apotheosis";

and my personal favourite, from Berlioz's Requiem, the Lacrimosa.

Although most recordings suck at this awesome piece, I have the perfect one: Chor des NDR Hamburg, Konzertvereinigung ORF-Chor, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, directed by Eliahu Inbal.

And I have testimonies!

“I saw one of his concerts once, and well, being deaf hasn't been easy.”

~ Beethoven on Hector Berlioz

“His Requiem was probably the strongest opponent I ever had to face. Believe me, my ears were bleeding.”

~ Chuck Norris on Hector Berlioz

“I pity the foo' who challenges Berlioz for a loud brass playing contest”

~ Mr. T on Hector Berlioz

Would those testimonies by any chance be from Uncyclopedia?

In William Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast"....the Baritone soloist's narrative tells of King Belshazzar's feast coming to a close, but in a quiet, eerie, minimalistic way. At the end of an a capella phrase, he's echoed by the choir.....shouting. "In that night was Belshazzar the King.....slain" "SLAIN!"

Also, in the same piece, there are about 8 final chords. Also ridiculous.

One of the loudest symphonic pieces I ever heard was Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony. I don't remember if it ends loudly though. Probably doesn't. Zemlinsky prefers his loud stuff in the middle.

The loudest ending of a piece I ever heard was one of my own anyways! (Not orchestral though, electronic.) People who were at the performance still look at me reproachfully whenever they remember it :P It was a real eardrum-buster!

All great selections! Gol, that final chord in "Belshazzars Feast" (with full organ) just blows the roof off!

Does opera count? The finale to Beethoven's "Fidelio" is the loudest one I can think of. When I was still testing the waters as an operatic comprimario tenor, I sang Jaquino in a production of this opera (my debut, actually, in 1988), and I couldn't even hear myself for all the racket.

Beethoven: "Fidelio" - No 18 - Finale

This is a great performance (the Met, 2003...particularly the monumental voice of the tenor singing Florestan), despite it being re-set (ughhh...why?) in the 20th Century, and the fact that that pompous donkey Levine had the unmitigated gall to cut two measures from the ending.

Not a finale per se, but the end of the 5th movement of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony is the most apocalyptic section of music I've ever heard:

One of the loudest symphonic pieces I ever heard was Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony. I don't remember if it ends loudly though. Probably doesn't. Zemlinsky prefers his loud stuff in the middle.

The loudest ending of a piece I ever heard was one of my own anyways! (Not orchestral though, electronic.) People who were at the performance still look at me reproachfully whenever they remember it :P It was a real eardrum-buster!

What an underrated piece. While the ending isn't a Mahler stormingly loud ending, the ensemble is huge and there are some really loud parts to it.

Shostakovich 5 is a disgustingly cynically loud ending - very twisted, but extremely loud.

I would also imagine Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder to be deafening at the end of Des Sommerwindes

I don't know if its the loudest, but the end of Threnody (Penderecki) is pretty loud too.

I can't believe nobody has said Vers La Flamme! The dynamic is like fffff.

Another one has to be some versions of Bruckner 9. The version I heard (by William.... T?) is blaring in your ears loud. But in a good way!

I can't believe nobody has said Vers La Flamme! The dynamic is like fffff.

I looked at the score. The highest dynamic is ff.

Vers la flamme is really not much louder than your average piano piece with a climax.

I looked at the score. The highest dynamic is ff.

Well Tokke you didn't have to take all the fun out of my exaggeration :P... but in the score I have, it's ffff at the end. Just sayin'..