"Major to minor" works/pieces

[Lento]

Sorry, but that wonderful trio's first movement begins and ends in A minor and its second begins in E major and ends with an allegro section that opens in A major and ends in A minor - so it would be "cheating" only to the extent that it's just the finale that begins in the major and ends in the minor!

Really sorry to confuse the issue: I meant Tchaik Piano Concerto!

[Lento]

It is reasonably common for the finale to be in the parallel minor but it usually switches to major at the end

That's something I wouldn't have expected, even with a late switch to parallel major. Thanks for the interesting reply, btw.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

a minor chord was viewed as dissonant in the classical era.

This was more of a baroque convention, based upon the fact that the 5th harmonic was a major 3rd. By classical times, minor key movements generally ended with minor chords.

[kea]

That's something I wouldn't have expected, even with a late switch to parallel major. Thanks for the interesting reply, btw.

Offhand examples -
Mozart "Alla turca" sonata already mentioned
Brahms Symphony No. 3
Haydn Quartets Op 76/1 and 76/3
Arensky Piano Quintet
Bruckner Symphony No. 6 and String Quintet
Berwald Sinfonie singulière
Shostakovich Symphony No. 15
one of the Bach cantatas
etc

Barber Violin Concerto is an interesting example—G major -> A minor. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, after an introduction in D-flat major, then switches to B-flat minor for the main body of the movement, which proceeds to end in B-flat major. This pattern is subsequently repeated: slow movement in D-flat major, leads directly into finale in B-flat minor which ends in B-flat major.

Another interesting example is the finale of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 6, which starts in E-flat major but seems to be about to end in E-flat minor (the tonality of the first movement). At the very last chord the brass switch back to E-flat major, but too late to give the movement a "happy" ending and dispel the sense of foreboding. The Shostakovich example is similar; though the very last note is a C-sharp (establishing A major rather than A minor, which most of the movement has been in) the previous few minutes of ticking and rattling don't give us the sense that this is much of a resolution. 20th century composers liked this sort of ambiguity of course.

[mercia]

when people say parallel major, is that what I used to call tonic major ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

when people say parallel major, is that what I used to call tonic major ?

Me, too (I did earlier on) - "parallel major" is obviously a well-known convention, but I can't recall encountering it before, and I did think it was an alternative for "relative major". Live and learn.

[ahinton]

Elgar: Symphony No. 3. It's described as being "in C minor", yet its first movement begins in C major before establishing C minor as its principal tonality within just a few measures (although it also ends in C major) and its finale begins in C major and ends in C minor.