First and Last

[Hornspieler]

I'm sure that a look through the BBC Proms catalogues over the past five years will reveal quite a number of BBC commisions, the performance of which will indeed turn out to be both their first and last performances.

HS

[Pabmusic]

...will indeed turn out to be both their first and last performances

Which reminded me of Josef Strauss, who resisted joining the family business until forced to take over the orchestra for a number of concerts in 1853, when Johann fell sick. Told he was expected to introduce new music, he wrote his op. 1, 'Die Ersten und Letzten' - The First and Last.

Of course it wasn't, for Johann 'took a sickie' again the next year, so Josef produced 'Die Ersten nach den Letzten' - The First After the Last.

[JFLL]

Yes, surely we are. But Elgar was actually quite disingenuous, because most of both suites dated from no earlier than about 1900 ....

OK, I'll have another shot:

Bach's cantata Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1
Schumann Abegg Variations, op. 1

(Both established works, not oddities or rarities. The Bach's admittedly an accident of cataloguing, but it's such an absolute gem that I couldn't resist it.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bach's cantata Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1 ... admittedly an accident of cataloguing, but it's such an absolute gem that I couldn't resist it.)

Skip forward 1127 official pieces and you get another gem; the Chorale Fantasia in G for Organ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJrEvArDByg

[Serial_Apologist]

Can we class Britten's Simple Symphony as his "first work"?

[EdgeleyRob]

Mendelssohn 1st piano quartet.
Quite an op 1 this when you consider he was only 13 or something when he wrote it !

[3rd Viennese School]

Maybe not a first work but you can see the difference in Stravinsky Symphony no.1 in E flat major (I think he numbered it no.1) and Requiem Canticles, his last major work!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Maybe not a first work but you can see the difference in Stravinsky Symphony no.1 in E flat major (I think he numbered it no.1) and Requiem Canticles, his last major work!

Both worth hearing, 3VS; the first a Glazunov-style piece of juvenilia, the other one of the greatest pieces of Music ever written.