First and Last

[aeolium]

I thought it might be worth having a thread on composers' first and last completed works, i.e. the ones shown as first and last in the published catalogues (op 1, D1 or whatever) and ignoring those incomplete on the composer's death or works outside the main catalogue (e.g. Beethoven's WoO works). Which first or last work of any composer has particularly impressed you and for what reasons?

[Pianorak]

I'd have to give this some more thought; but just off the top of my head: Szymanowsky's 9 Preludes Op. 1. Memories of Chopin yet nothing tentative about them, and just incredibly attractive pieces.

[Serial_Apologist]

Alban Berg, Piano Sonata Op 1 (1908)

I first heard this at a recital while still at school; it introduced me to the work of the Second Viennese School, and I asked my piano teacher to get me the score. Having found the work not to be beyond my Grade 5 capabilities, the first thing that impressed me - and still does - was the tightness of the thematic workout in what is essentially a one-movement sonata form piece, and the manner in which this tightness informs the work's emotional content, imparting a sense of urgency, while simultaneously breaking the received Brahmsian harmonic language apart in ways which look forward.

Berg had previously only composed lyrical songs rather after the manner of Wolf's, to my knowledge, and in that light the move under Schoenberg's tutelage to a more elaborative form of considerable complexity for its time was bold. I've read that Berg was unsure about proceeding with further movements, and that Schoenberg advised him that the work was of sufficient adequacy not to need adding to.

S-A

[Roehre]

Alban Berg, Piano Sonata Op 1 (1908)

Berg had previously only composed lyrical songs rather after the manner of Wolf's, to my knowledge, and in that light the move under Schoenberg's tutelage to a more elaborative form of considerable complexity for its time was bold. I've read that Berg was unsure about proceeding with further movements, and that Schoenberg advised him that the work was of sufficient adequacy not to need adding to.
S-A

Not quite. Around the same time as this sonata opus 1 Berg worked in 1907 and 1908 on more than a handful very similar piano sonatas and "Klavierstücke" , which he himself even numbered, plus a set of variations on an own theme. All but two of these sonatas/pieces were ultimately completed, opus 1 the only one which was published.

[Don Petter]

The first one that comes to my mind is in fact three! Cesar Franck's first three Piano Trios (Opp. 1/1 to 1/3).

Well worth hearing if you're anything of a Franckian, but not often recorded. (I would think even less often performed in concert!)

[Serial_Apologist]

Not quite. Around the same time as this sonata opus 1 Berg worked in 1907 and 1908 on more than a handful very similar piano sonatas and "Klavierstücke" , which he himself even numbered, plus a set of variations on an own theme. All but two of these sonatas/pieces were ultimately completed, opus 1 the only one which was published.

[aeolium]

The first one that comes to my mind is in fact three! Cesar Franck's first three Piano Trios (Opp. 1/1 to 1/3).

Were those composed as a kind of homage to Beethoven's three op 1 piano trios, Don?

The Webern op 1 Passacaglia, though not by any means his first work, is one of the most impressive op 1s for me, the orchestra being used at times like a chamber ensemble, but also at times with great power, the music both jagged and lyrical with an expressive, quiet ending. I also like the Corelli op 1 trio sonatas, which already show the distinctive character of his writing for the violin, which was so influential on his contemporaries.

[EdgeleyRob]

Funny you should ask as I've just been listening to the piano quartet Op 1 by Josef Suk.
A very assured Op 1 this, apparently Dvorak was impressed too.

[Don Petter]

[ref: Cesar Franck. Piano Trios, Opp. 1/1-3]

Were those composed as a kind of homage to Beethoven's three op 1 piano trios, Don?

I hadn't thought of that. A number of young composers start off with a piano trio, I seem to remember. Perhaps the form is relatively easy to handle, and certainly it's more likely to achieve an actual performance than a more elaborate work (if only by a group of his friends).

So I headed for Cobbett, who has this to say in his introduction to the entry for Franck:

'... Beethoven, having laid down the principle of cyclic composition in his Opus 13, a principle so characteristic of the sonatas and quartets of his last period, was followed in this path neither by Weber, Schubert nor Spohr, nor by the other German composers who followed him. It was left to a young French artist of nineteen to attempt the revival of this principle in his first chamber work, more than ten years after the death of the composer ...'

and, in the analysis of the First Trio, Opus 1/1:

'... with its budding genius, the trio marks an epoch in the history of musical evolution.

Was it intentional? Was it caused merely by a keen instinct for novelty? This can never be decided with certainty, but the fact is that there to prove to us that, alone at this period, the young composer ventured to plan his first important work according to data which Beethoven did little more than indicate in the last years of his life.'

So it seems that Franck was more influenced by the later works, rather than the Opp. 1/1-3 of the earlier composer. Perhaps the choice of form was either coincidence or because of relative simplicity, as I suggested earlier.

Cobbett rates the first Piano Trio much more highly than the next two (all three were composed in 1840). There was also a fourth Piano Trio, from 1842, but I would agree that it is the first which is quite a stunner for a young composer.

The two recordings which I have on CD (by the Henry Trio on Adda, and Sarbu and members of the Academica Quartet on Dynamic) both give all four trios, so anyone who is interested and can find the recordings can make up their own minds. I think there is a later set with the Bekova Sisters on Chandos which I've not heard. When searching, you need to avoid both Richard Franck amd Eduard Franck, both of whom also wrote piano trios!

[Pabmusic]

Although I can't add a 'first and last', I can point to a 'first-but-one' and 'last-but-one-two-and-three'. Saint-Saens' op. 2 (1853) is his first symphony, an excellent mid-century piece that keeps the attention throughout. His opp. 166-168 (of 169) from 1921, shortly before his death, are the sonatas for clarinet, oboe & bassoon, repertoire pieces today.

[makropulos]

Some great suggestions so far about "first" works - or rather works called Op. 1.

I'd add a personal favourite: Dohnányi's C minor Piano Quintet Op. 1.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Some great suggestions so far about "first" works - or rather works called Op. 1.

Yes; rather fewer Last Works - although both Webern and Berg wrote magnificent final works (and all the ones in between are pretty good, too! )

Another composer whose first and last works reveal an astonishing, life-long quest to seek repeatedly new means of expression is Xenakis. Metastasis is so completely different from everything else written at the time, and the appropriately-named O-mega is a defiant refusal to submit to the composer's encroaching Altzheimer's and poduce an "Autumnal", reflective last song. This is Music that rages against the dying of the light in ways Dylan could never have imagined: a two-fingered jeer against increasing frailty.

[aeolium]

Haydn's last completed work, the Harmoniemesse (not counting the unfinished string quartet op 103), is a wonderful final statement by a composer in failing health and certainly my favourite of the sequence of great Masses he composed in his last years. In that work more than any of the other Masses he seemed to revel in the use of woodwind and especially clarinets, to which he had come late in his composing career, and here the lyricism and serenity contrast with the anguish and tempestuousness of some of the earlier Masses like the Nelson and the Missa in Tempore Belli, like calm after a stormy sea.

[JFLL]

This may be cheating a bit. Elgar's two Wand of Youth suites are his op. 1A and 1B, but they're really works of the mature Elgar concocted on the basis of sketches written years before. But aren't we grateful he went back to them?

[Pabmusic]

This may be cheating a bit. Elgar's two Wand of Youth suites are his op. 1A and 1B, but they're really works of the mature Elgar concocted on the basis of sketches written years before. But aren't we grateful he went back to them?

Yes, surely we are. But Elgar was actually quite disingenuous, because most of both suites dated from no earlier than about 1900, though he did use some themes that were from his youth. His true op. 1 is the Romance for Violin & Piano from 1878.