Goosebump moments

[mathias broucek]

Which key moments in favourite pieces never fail to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up?

I'll get things starting with the coda of the first movement of Schubert's Great C major. From about 90-60 seconds before the end of the movement.

We have a clear resolution onto the home key of C major (trumpet fanfares, bars 608-611). It then seems as if we're going around a similar loop to the one we've just been around when Schubert suddenly veers off in the "wrong" direction taking us through a series of unexpected harmonies before magically getting us back in the right place via a slightly shocking diminished 7th (bar 632).

(Have tried to avoid technical language but that's not always possible!)

What are your favourite moments? I've tried to limit myself to one or I'll get no work done today.

[Tony Halstead]

What are your favourite moments? I've tried to limit myself to one or I'll get no work done today.

The return of the main theme on the oboe in the Coda of Delius' ' Brigg Fair'.

[JFLL]

Lots of them – most pleasurable if you’ve had the reaction before, but have forgotten, and the moment comes upon you by stealth, as it were. For me, these moments are ten-a-penny in the later Mozart, e.g. the start of the wonderful variation for flute and bassoon about two-thirds of the way through the slow movement of his Piano Concerto no. 22, K. 482.

[Nick Armstrong]

Lots of them – most pleasurable if you’ve had the reaction before, but have forgotten, and the moment comes upon you by stealth, as it were. For me, these moments are ten-a-penny in the later Mozart, e.g. the start of the wonderful variation for flute and oboe about two-thirds of the way through the slow movement of his Piano Concerto no. 22, K. 482.

Totally agreed.

Mozart Piano concertos are full of them. There are harmonic sideslips in the first movement of No 17 which get me every time.

Benjamin Britten setting light to "Praise to the Holiest" in his recording of Gerontius is another...

Oh, and the final return near the end of the last movement of the main opening theme in Elgar 1...

U.S.W.....

[Mr Pee]

That moment near the beginning of the Tristan prelude- about the 9th bar I think- where, after the woodwind and violins have alternated with the rising chromatic step motif, the full orchestra pile in with it, and then on the next bar it goes up a third to the B above the stave, and then the cellos come in with the main motif of the prelude. The first time I heard that it knocked my socks off, and it still does, every time.

[Tapiola]

Ooh, so many...

The tutti orchestral chord at the climax of the gathering of the gold in Scene 4 of Rheingold.

The huge A flat minor chord in the Adagio of Mahler 10 gets me every time, more so than the 9-note pile-up which follows.

Balstrode saying "Goodbye" to Grimes.

The held Neopolitan chord towards the end of the fugue in Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.

The opening viola solo of Berio's Folk Songs (Black is the colour of my true love's hair).

The frenetic return of the opening theme of Janacek's 1st Quartet near the very end of the work.

The heartbreaking second theme of Schubert's D960, 2nd movement.

[Nick Armstrong]

A few there wherewith to (re-)acquaint myself, Taps!

Long time no see... Thanks in advance for the shivered timbers!

[Pabmusic]

The last faint chorus entry of Finzi's In Terra Pax.
The quiet entry of strings against flute and harp in the Green Bushes section of The Banks of Green Willow.
The very last climax and winding-down of the Siegfried Idyll.
The last section (from 104) of the slow mvt of Elgar's 1st.
The sudden reflective section near the end of RVW's oboe concerto, and the entire Romanza of the 5th Symphony.
The end of the slow movement (from the cello reprise of the main theme) of Dvorak's American string Quartet.
The last ecstatic climax of Salome.
The central section of Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music.
The end of the first movement of Holst's First Suite in E-flat.
The last reprise of the opening music of Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915.

Ten is enough for now. Only two loud pieces among them

[Richard Tarleton]

The closing bars of Dvorak's cello concerto - the first time I experienced this was watching Paul Tortelier playing it.

[Pabmusic]

The closing bars of Dvorak's cello concerto - the first time I experienced this was watching Paul Tortelier playing it.

[Zucchini]

Sieglinde's 'O hehrstes Wunder', Walkure Act 3 sung & acted incomparably by the great Waltraud Meier. An unforgettable tear-jerker lasting little more than 30secs.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes, loads and loads: but MrPee has reminded me that, no matter how many times I hear it, whether it follows a brilliant performance or ends a rotten one, the return of the "O hehrstes Wunder!" leitmotif at the very end of Götterdämmerung gets me every time.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Zucchini: almost SNAP!

[Mandryka]

From Die Walkure:

From the line ....'Er frieie als ich, der Gott.....to the end of the orchestral climax that follows it. First head on my walkman while heading up the High Street in Leicester in the morning rush hour. I had to stop for a few moments, just to take it in: some music demands total attention.

[Tapiola]

A few there wherewith to (re-)acquaint myself, Taps!

Long time no see... Thanks in advance for the shivered timbers!

Yes, mein Host, it's been a while (and congrats on your new role here). I'll be good. Promise.

Just remembered another Janacek moment: the climax of the last piece of Book 2 of On An Overgrown Path. It always reminds me - in an anachronistic way - of the story of J, near the end of his life, searching for the young boy in the woods. Spinetingling.