Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Reminds me of childhood experiences very, very long ago. Lying in bed, hearing the grownups talk late into the night. Barber and Agee just get to me every time.
Glad I’m not alone on Mahler 2. On the rare occasions when I can devote 75 uninterrupted minutes to a single piece, this one moves me in a powerful way. It’s amazing how a piece can keep you on the edge of your seat for so long and leave you a weeping mess, feeling simultaneously exhausted and rejuvenated.
A personal favorite is the 2nd movement of Rachmaninov's 1st piano concerto. The rest of the concerto I do not particularly like very much, but very frequently I listen to the second movement as a stand-alone piece. The harmonic progressions, the eternaly ascending piano lines in the unexpected emotional eruption in the second half, the strings, the flute, everything is perfect. Not bad for an Opus 1.
the endless melody following the cataclysmic dissonant scream chord in the finale of Mahler 10. Completely otherworldly to me, overwhelming and devastatingly beautiful, especially given what has come before.
The 3rd movement (Largo) from the 5th Symphony of Shostakovich is one that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. My mind becomes filled with memories of tragic events and personal loss whenever I listen to it.
"Pathetique" is devastating for me, particularly Monteux's early stereo RCA recording from 1955. The final movement is so heart-wrenching; I hear him give up on life...and the music fades into the tape hiss. Extraordinary. In the "tears from the beauty of it all" my pick has to be Janet Baker's singing with Barbirolli on Elgar's "Sea Pictures." It's sublimely beautiful and makes me teary every time.
The third movement of Beethoven 9th; it is simple and not ground breaking, but it shakes the hell of my foundations every listening. Also, Beethoven’6th symphony makes me a fountain of tears just for its beauty. The slow movement of Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony also deserves some precious tears.
Listened to Appalachian Spring during a summer in Aspen. The afternoon sun, slight breeze, leaves rustling, distant dogs barking. One of the rare times in life where everything right happened in the right place.
Emotionally for me it is entirely of a piece. Mahler 9th BUT only when I hear it alone and the soft endings can melt into metaphysical silence. Hearing it live made me realize that applause breaks the magic moment. Bach - St Matthew Passion Wagner - Tristan ünd Isölde
At a CSO concert of the Missa Solemnis, during the Benedictus, my wife noticed that I was tearing up and thought it was because of sadness. I said, “Not sadness at all. It’s just so beautiful, and so heartfelt.” That’s the only time it’s happened at a live concert. In listening to recordings, I resonate with many of the entries in these two programs.
Great topic, Dave. Being an opera fanatic (and retired tenor), I have a few vocal pieces that can bring me to tears. Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesprae Solenne; Morgen by Strauss; Marietta's Lied from Die Tote Stadt by Korngold; and Lauritsen's Lux Eterna.
Such a wonderful video, and such great suggestions to complement Dave's thought-provoking original ideas. Personally, the song "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from Mahler's Rückert-Lieder always makes me well up - it's so transparently tugging at the heartstrings, but there's no shame in that. A bit of sentimentality (and ultra-ripe orchestration) never did anybody any harm. However, the suggestion of "Appalachian Spring" absolutely blindsided me - I hadn't been thinking along those lines at all, but it's such a brilliant choice. Copland was a master of that kind of matter-of-fact, unsentimental serenity - he knew how to find the beauty in everyday things, and that's something that can really enrich our lives. That got me thinking about another Copland work - a 10-minute piece of incidental music called "Quiet City", originally written for a play, which does a very similar thing to "Appalachian Spring", but set in an urban environment, evoking the way a frenetic city slows down and rests during the night, and finding beauty in that semi-sleep. As a city-dweller myself and a lover of big cities, there's just something about that little piece which touches me really deeply - without fail, it always makes me well up.
Great to see Elgar getting his due here (especially for that exquisite Gerontius "Farewell"). I'm always amazed that so many folks have been content to write him off as a robust & swaggering purveyor of Edwardian pomp and vigor, not recognizing that along with the bluster and high spirits there is always this enormous strain of melancholy that destabilizes it all--it erupts everywhere and accounts for his strange but characteristic power to move listeners to tears. Not for nothing did he append Shelley's line to his 2nd Symphony: "Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight." Yeats observed that there was a "heroic melancholy" in Elgar, and that's always struck me as a pretty good description, capturing both elements of his musical character but also making clear that this deep brooding sadness was of epic proportions and thoroughly suffused his work.
I didn't find time to post my comments on this topic, but Elgar's "The Apostles" contains 2 or 3 sure-fire moments: "At the Sepulcher" and the Angels' "What are these wounds in Thine hands" (near the end) are passages of such sincere, honest, profoundly emotional beauty that my feelings about them might be best kept to myself. LR
@@HassoBenSoba I know what you mean. There are passages that have exactly that effect. In the early oratorio "The Light of Life," there is a magical moment in the baritone aria "I am the good shepherd" when, after singing "thy word is truth," one of those noble Elgarian melodies swells up and just opens your heart. I catch my breath every time.
I can remember four instances of music that made me cry. All of them were live performances. 1. Debussy - La Mer. About halfway through the third movement, when the music suddenly stops and the violins begin a long, slow passage with high harmonics above the woodwinds. 2. Berlioz - Harold in Italy. When the viola first enters with the Harold them. 3. Sibelius - Symphony No. 2, Movement III. The second theme. 4. Mahler - Symphony No. 6. The very end of the symphony. The first three have something in common; they are all very peaceful, calm episodes immediately after a noisy, almost chaotic sections. The Mahler is unique. That final minor chord crash after such an emotional journey is too much to take without weeping.
Back in 1998, I was walking home from teaching an English class in Prague on a snowy night and heard someone singing Rusalka. I thought it was a recording. It turned out to be a woman in a wheelchair singing under a streetlamp for money. It's one of those indelible memories, so now that song has a double beauty for me.
Let me share my probably quite surprising pick: the Diabelli variations. I know that it's not the most loved work (neither with listeners nor with pianists) but it's such amazingly constructed. I feel that it just goes through the whole man's (musical) life. After the tumultous fugue explodes into those diminished chord arpeggios, a truly magical modulation leads into a minuet of utmost simplicity (Beethoven looking back at the old times). I start crying during the coda.
I am always intensely moved by Peter Grimes first aria in Act one during the storm when Grimes bursts in to Aunties pub and sings " And now the great bear and pliodies are drawing up the sounds of human grief " and ends with his desperate cry " who can turn skies back and begin again ?"..It always cracks me up.. Yes I agree Dave Ravel's Mother Goose is a real tear jerker !! Magical in its purity and innocence. Many thanks for your wonderful chats. Rob
Three for me- the Adagio from Bruckner 8, first movement Rachmaninov 3rd Symphony, and, of course, the Four Last Songs. Some of these choices I have yet to hear.
For a piece that makes me cry Dave it had to be the final scene from Strauss’s die frau ohne schatten because I heard it on a live metropolitan opera broadcast last month. And it gets me every time although without the sung text in the symphonic fantasy it’s perfect
There are three pieces that have moved me to tears while I was playing them: Borodin's 2nd Symphony (the slow movement) and Nielsen's 4th Symphony (third movement, and again at the end of the finale), and the Schubert cello quintet. Others, when listening: Brahms German Requiem, Dvorak cello concerto, Strauss Four Last Songs, Elgar Symphony No. 1, the finale from Sibelius Symphony No. 2, the Prelude from Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, the slow movement of Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1, the slow movement of the Schumann piano quartet, the first movement of the Brahms horn trio, the first movement of Brahms Piano Trio No. 1.
Didn't get a chance to comment on the original video before this came out... Totally agree with Job, Mahler 2 and Mother Goose from the original list. I didn't know Jenufa before watching a different video about it and I wholeheartedly agree about it being number one. Additionally, agree with the slow movement of Mahler6. VW - agree about the 5th Symphony romanza and I always have a lump in my throat listening to the Five Variants, it just gets me. I also have such an emotional attachment to Tchai6 especially the 1st movement recapitulation and obviously the final movement. On the topic of unpredictably crying, I remember having a tear in my eye at a Prom once where an aging Claudio Abbado was conducting the Good Friday Music from Parsifal - never expected to get emotional with Wagner but it was so beautifully played, it was wonderful.
Thank you, Dave, for this great sequel. I want to thank you specifically for an observation you made in the first episode that I have not stopped pondering it: that tears are not just a response to minor-key sadness but can also be a statement of love in all its fullness and intensity which can be expressed in a major key. Thanks as always for how you get me to think and reflect.
Beautiful choices in both videos. I am surprised that Dido's Lament by Purcell did not make it on either list. Makes me cry every time I listen. On occasion Tchaikovsky 6th symphony will also bring tears.
The Ring and Mahler 8. I feel they really tried their best to compose these two works showing the theme of grandness, of what a single person could do in the eternal universe and are deeply touching. Especially Mahler 8 because it doesn’t contain particular sad and tear-jerking moments as the Ring. It’s really unbelievable consideration and composing skill.
I finished listening to the listed on 11/24 and this video (finally 😀). Some, I have not heard for a long time. So, thank you for the journey you gave us. Your comments are very heart warming and honest. Something about music that connects us all. Appreciated.
Oh my God yes Ave Verum Corpus gets me every single time 🥲 I love singing it, I love listening to it, I just want to swim in it all the time it's so beautiful
Brilliant! My favorite choices on the list have to be Song to the Moon, Ave verum corpus and final trio of Rosenkavalier... which reminded me of another operatic finale that although not sad, the music is just sublime, and so beautifully conceived and arranged it also brings a tear... the "count's apology" at the end of Mozart's Figaro
A great list, but like you David I am just not moved by Elgar's Cello Concerto - and I easily tear up. My adds are the first two movements of Barber's Violin Concerto, and of course Sibelius 5 which a good performance just makes me weep with awe.
Britten's War Requiem, the Fauré Requiem, and the Agnus Dei from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis can all bring a tear to my eyes. The 3rd mvmts of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony and Bartók's 2nd quartet, for me, are full of loneliness and emotional desolation. Elgar's violin concerto, Mahler's 9th, Schubert's Winterreise, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante are always very emotional. The Mozart, in particular, was one of the pieces that got me past the extraordinary surface perfection of his music to the great depth and humanity underneath. When I need a emotional lift: Beethoven's 6th Symphony or Brahms's 2nd Symphony.
I'm not an overly emotional guy, and I rarely cry. But with a few musical pieces, I come pretty close to doing it. And these pieces never fail to give me goose bumps. 😉 - Samuel Barber: "Agnus dei" - Francis Poulenc: The final scene from "Dialoques des Carmélites" (that one always gives me the chills) - Vaughan-Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis ... and, of course: - Mozart: "Ave verum corpus"
I know it’s operatic, but I find Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas deeply moving. The version with Anthony Lewis and Janet Baker, but there are other good ones too.
I usually need to be scraped off the floor after the last movement of Sibelius' Fifth. However, sometimes it's the confluence of the piece and the occasion. Fresh from two months in hospital and newly (finally) sober, following a near-death experience with cirrhosis of the liver, the first live music event I attended was the Toronto Symphony doing Beethoven's Ninth. Yeah, that got pretty soggy pretty fast.
Sometimes it's a particular moment that catches me. There's a cello solo line twoards the end of the last movement of Stenhammar's first symphony that always gets me, for instance. I'd also mention the slow movement of Schumann's violin concerto, and indeed a lot of late Schumann.
Thanks for a giving an alternative explanation of why some music may bring tears to one's eyes. I didn't reply the first time round because there's some where I had a hard time explaining. For example, in Kleiber's Figaro from 1955, when Figaro (Cesare Siepi) notes "Ecco la Marcia… andiam[o]". To be sure, Kleiber conducts the tightest yet bounciest and most perfect march I may ever have heard, but why would that make me shed tears of joy? It's the wait (let's be honest, even if one did not know the libretto or didn't speak Italian, there's no doubt in one's mind there's going to be happy ending to all the trials and tribulations), the way the (contrived) "worries" resolve in a moment of serene simplicity. Sometimes the reasons may or may not be purely musical, but partly personal, such as in Wagner's Walküre Act 3, Scene 3, "War es so schmählich" (again, it probably helps if one speaks/understands German) where a loving child is awaiting a loving father's wrath and punishment having done what's right, acted in accordance with his true intentions, hence disobeyed his orders that are the consequence of him being a coward who's the Father of the Gods and still nothing more than a hen-pecked husband, reducing us all to misunderstood children who've been trying their best (truly heart-wrenching by Varnay/Hotter/Keilberth or Nilsson/Hotter/Ludwig). There may be yet more trivial non-musical reasons such as each time I hear Maria Callas sing "La Mamma morta", Act 3 from Giordano's Andrea Chénier, I can't help being reminded of Tom Hanks dancing with his infusion stand. In a similar vein, I'm never quite sure that moment when John Williams' Star Wars film score to the Double Sunset on Tatooine makes me so emotional just when it seems to be citing Dvořák's Cello Concerto. Needless to say, I agree with all the ones of your and viewers' choices that I know, and am planning to check those that I don't. Jenúfa, for example, sounds like one heartwrenching story, good gracious…
Great choices. I also find the Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 deeply affecting - it really resonated during a difficult time in my early adulthood. Here’s my top 10 list of works (or parts thereof) that have elicited tears: 1. Nicola Matteis - Diverse bizzarie su Sarabanda o Ciaccona 2. Johann Phillip Krieger - “Einsamkeit, du Qual des Hertzen” 3. Handel, Duet from Sosarme “Per le porte del tormento” 4. J.S. Bach, St Matthew Passion, “Mache dich, mein herze, rein” 5. Gluck, Orphee et Eurydice, “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” 6. Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5, Adagio un poco mosso 7. Donizetti, L’elisir d’amore, “Una furtive lagrima” 8. Elgar - Enigma Variations, Nimrod 9. Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5, Romanza 10. Strauss - Four Last Songs, Im Abendrot
Anything played by Gary Karr on Double Bass. Special mention…. his album Adagio D’Albinoni. Having stayed on topic, I’ll now stray and say THANK YOU for this channel and all you do. I thought Robert Greenberg would forever be my best and only option for all things classical. You’re going to keep me busy the next few months. Lots of catching up to do. Best to you.
Aaron Copland's "The Promise of Living," which is the quintet which closes Act 1 of his opera The Tender Land. 18th variation of Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations. 2nd movement of Rachmaninoff's 2nd. Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana. Ravel's "Pavane pour une Infante Defunte." The hymn tune "Eventide" (aka "Abide with me") "Ain't it a Pretty Night" from Carlisle Floyd's opera "Susannah."
I was rather nervous of adding my suggestion amongst all these splendid ones, but mine is Walton's Battle in The Air. For me it's painfully raw, desperate music evoking the terror and confusion of combat like few have. There is no triumphalism here only the sadness of sensless destruction. By it's end I'm usually numb, tears in my eye.
Korngold's Opera Die Tote Stadt. Dead wives, crazy widowers, stalking look a likes etc. What's not to weep about. The aria 'Glück, das mir verblieb(Marietta's Lied) that appears in snippets throughout and is reprised at the end.
The responses of the listeners fully vindicate your endeavors - congratulations! - I forgot to mention that I once attended a live performance of Mahler 2 together with a young Serbian composer whom I had just met. When Elisabeth Kulman came in with the first note of "Oh Röschen rot!", both of us instantaneously and simultaneously dissolved into sobs!
I'm coming late to this conversation, but Mahler's 2nd is definitely on my list. It's my favorite piece of music in any case. But, Summer 2015 I went to a performance by the Oregon Bach Festival and a conductor I'd never heard of and whose name I can't remember...and it was incredible. Best concert I've ever been to. And, somewhat unexpectedly, the performance brought me memories of the now-decesased friend and mentor who introduced me to this music...and that brought the tears...
I've been deeply affected by Appalachian Spring ever since my father brought home "The Copland Album" double LP by Leonard Bernstein and the NY Phil in the early '70s. As a young teen at the time, I played that album over and over. Because of Dave's recommendations on this channel, I've only recently discovered the chamber version--both the Orpheus recording and the Copland recording mentioned in this video--and find them even more affecting than the full orchestral versions I've always loved. There's something about the spareness and intimacy of the chamber version that, for me at least, makes the piece even more poignant. Thank you, Dave, for those and many other recommendations here and on Classics Today that have influenced (determined?) so much of my classical music collecting and listening.
These two videos have surprised me as well because of just how many of the same pieces I'd have chosen. 'Appalachian Spring' was one of the first pieces that hooked me on classical music., along with Holst's 'Planets'. It's just so beautiful. With the Schubert String Quintet it's the trio section of the scherzo that gets me most. It's so full of sadness. Opera does produce real tears though. I'm a One Fine Day blubber. Plus bits of Wagner, even weird ones like when Hagen greets Siegfried to the 'curse motif'. Vaughan Williams is very special to me. I love 'Job' and so much else, including 'The Fifth', and several climaxes in the 'London Symphony' always chokes me up. I was playing Trivial Pursuits one Christmas with my late dad and we had Classic FM on and they played the full 'London Symphony' and my dad - not one to take to pieces of classical music he'd never heard before - said this was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. My most recent tear-jerking find was Handel's 'Waft her angels through the skies' from 'Jephtha'. That's one of those 'they are just so beautiful you have to cry' ones.
I'll add another Vaughan Williams work to the list, my favourite of his; the 'Concerto Accademico' (violin concerto), especially the intense dance finale. Also the scherzo and trio of Dvorak's Symphony No5 in F Major - joyously childlike, with gorgeous tunes. And one more; the quiet beauty of Franck's 'Cantabile' for organ.
What a fantastic series of videos and these are great choices from yourself and commenters. I agree with so many of these, especially the Tallis Fantasia and Pastoral Symphony of VW, and I would just humbly add the entrance of Mater Gloriosa in Mahler 8, "Komm! Hebe dich zu höhern Sphären," as well as the second movement of Beethoven 7. Both never fail! A more recent contender is Yoshimatsu's piano concerto "Memo Flora," which usually has this effect by the middle of the second movement.
Dave, I have to mention Shostakovich's Passacaglia from the Violin Concerto. From the first time I heard it, I was so struck by its noble beauty and hope in bad times. Especially when the violin first rises up. My wife's choice would be Solveig's Song from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite 2 which always makes her tear up.
I tend to cry at the end of Elektra because after all the screaming and dancing it's the story of the destruction of a family. And Orest's troubles aren't over by a long shot. Vaughan Williams' Four Last Songs aren't well known, everyone always thinks of that other guy's four last songs, but two of those are very moving (the other two aren't as great): Tired and Menelaus.
Yes to all these selections . Add to my list Faure Requiem, either Agnus Dei or Libera me. explode or confirm a rumor: Vaughn Williams' music has never been programmed on a Royal Concertgebouw orchestra program. Sounds crazy to me.
Bach’s Erbarme Dich;last scenes of La Boheme and Madama Butterfly both bring me to tears; last movement of Sibelius 5th gives me a complex feeling which makes me cry.
Good list. Can't really argue with any of the ones selected. If you ever do a part 2, let me add one to the possibilities and tell you why it reduces me to mush: That would be the finale of Suk's Asrael Symphony. The point where the motif of the angel of death returns, but instead of the fearsome and horrifying specter of annihilation that thunders in the first movement, it's played on muted brass here at the end, in a major key, signifying some kind of acceptance and even, perhaps, welcome. Suk was writing this work when his wife, Olyetka, died at only 27 years old. The english horn obbligato at this point is sublime and may even represent her in the beyond.
1) Ives Symphony No 2 - the entire slow movement and the slow tune from the finale - and Copland Long Time Ago from the old American songs. Dave’s eloquent remarks about how Appalachian Spring called up the longing for home applies to these as well. 2) The closing section of Ives 4th Symphony: Nearer, My God, to Thee, another of the old hymns that Ives and I grew up with, leading us out into a mystical eternity.
I thought it was only me....until I watched the final scene of Richard Wagner's Die Walkure where Wotan bids farewell to Brunnhilde a few months ago on the French-German TV channel ARTE featuring Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin/Thelemann/Michael Volle/Anja Kampe. Kampe was so much into the music that she had a total break down and cried like a baby for at least 10 minutes. I don't know how she managed to complete the last singing parts....
Posthorn solo from Mahler 3, especially with Bud Herseth playing it. Chicago Levine. Also the finale of Mahler 3. Plus, I am surprised Nimrod was not on the list.
Thanks for these two videos, all of this music is wonderfully affecting and eloquent. One striking thing to me about the list is that although the early 20th century is well represented, nothing on either list was written after 1950. Based on the lists, it almost seems that the invention of modernism overlapped the end of Romanticism by about 50 years. Is it possible to get a list of post-1950 pieces that make you cry? I am sure the answer is yes, but I am curious to know what you would pick. Presumably some post 1950s favorites like Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Bernstein, Barber, Britten, Poulenc, Part, Rautavarra and others might score entries, but I also find myself drifting toward movie music, things like John Williams's Schindler's List violin concerto. If you need a topic for a follow-up video on this, I would definitely be curious. I'm guessing that Milton Babbitt's string quartet No. 2 probably still would not make it.
This may have been suggested already...the thread for these two videos would take half a day to peruse...but how about a video on the pieces that make you genuinely happy? Not so much in a tears of joy kind of way, but works that can actually lift ones spirits out of the doldrums and brighten your day. For example: Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks Haydn: Symphony 104 finale Mozart: Symphony 41 finale Beethoven: EGMONT OVERTURE!!! (plus the finale of all his symphonies) Mendelssohn: Symphony 4 1st mvt Schumann: Symphony 1 1st mvt Brahms: Symphony 1 finale Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto 1st mvt Dvorak: Symphony 5 1st mvt The lists could go on and on...just a thought!
Nimrod from Enigma makes me cry. Much more than Gerontius. I'm afraid that whenever I hear the latter and the tenor's "Take me away!" , Beecham's story of a performance of it springs to mind where stagehands came on immediately after he'd sung the line and started moving the percussion off the platform.
I can’t say I actually cried, but the 1st movement of Sibelius’s Kullervo made me feel like crying. I have teared up listening to his 5th a few times. Yes, the Song to the Moon affects me like that too. Pavane for a Dead Princess, Faure’s Pavan, to mention two of others that have likewise moved me. I’d be remiss to not mention the Andante of Bruckner’s 2nd.
Dave, the choices made by you and your contributors provoked me to consider the music that, if it does not completely move me to tears. it literally takes my breath away. One of those is the Hymn To The Sun, the opening to Mascagni's opera, "Iris." I don't remember how I discovered it, but, think it was an add on either to a CD or LP in my collection, My only real familiarity with Mascagni was, at that time, Cavalleria Rusticana, which also opens the ducts. The Hymn To The Sun keeps building and building and encompasses the myriad forces of the orchestra plus a chorus. After hearing it, I knew I wanted to hear the whole opera. I bought the only complete version with Domingo conducted by Giiussepe Patanè, who was unfamiliar to me. Unfortunately, the rest of the opera opinion neither touches nor surpasses that opening. But what an opening!. If I were ever fortunate enough to put together a concert of classical music for chorus and orchestra, it would be BOTH the opening and closing selection.
Bravo, bravi! Great insights into music I am mostly familiar with but now have the advantage of hearing with some else's ears, especially Appalachian Spring, which I listen to as a ballet. Now I'll play Spring again, but this time I'll try to feel with someone else's soul rather than with the soles of my feet.
What astonishes me about all these choices...I don't see Barber's Adagio for Strings anywhere in here. Huh? Please say why Dave, I don't get it. Is it that it is too...what? I don't know.
Why should it be there just because you think it should? I'm simply reflecting viewers choices. Several included the Adagio, but there were other choices that appeared more frequently.
Would it be possible for you to do a "ideal Rossini opera list", the way we saw with Verdi and Wagner ? Talking about emotions...no other composer can put me in a joyous mood quicker than Rossini but recently I started with some of his tragedies (Ermione,...) and they are amazing, yet with so many works left to explore, I w ould love some guidance in this. Thank you for all your time and work.
My hypothesis would be that human voice first, and then strings (especially violin) have that "crying ability". It is then essentially a matter of musical timbre and has little to do with musical quality. To be discussed !
A late entry: The Field of the Dead from Alexander Nevsky, particularly as sung by Galina Vishnevskaya. PS. The Dumky is my favourite chamber work. It literally takes you through the most moods of any piece I know, and it’s devastatingly gorgeous. I love chamber music so it’s not a glib choice.
Great lists and such a great idea for a subject. Sometimes I wonder exactly what has made me cry. I'm really interested to find that others do share the pieces which do it to me but in several cases not the same part of the piece. Maybe the composer has created an overall feeling in the work and which bit tips you over the edge depends on you.
I'm a little late to the party. Loads of options for Mahler (from the Resurrection Symphony I would single out Urlicht) and I prefer Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen to the adagietto from the 5th, but the andante from the 6th would be my pick as it evokes childhood memories of a family holiday in Wales when I played it every day as we drove through the mountains. For Elgar I would pick the adagio from the piano quintet. The composer reportedly listened to a recording of this whilst on his deathbed. Above even these I would pick Introit by Finzi, the first Finzi that I ever heard (always great to discover a "new" composer).
I've so loved this thread. Can we find a way to extend it? for instance, break it down into: 1) Renaissance and Baroque music which makes you cry 2) Classical and Romantic music which makes you cry 3) 20th and 21st Century music which makes you cry.
If you do a third one, Rachmaninov. The first elegiac piano trio is my first choice. The one part of an opera that gets me is Mussorgsky, "The Departure of Golitsin" from "Khovanshchina", It is actually exile and it sounds it.
The music that touches me always is Villa Lobos Bachiana Brasileiras 4 (prelude). Both versions, piano or instrumental. When I do hear that music, I don't know if I am happy or sad, but it is a strange feeling.
I already reacted to the first 'Cry video' 😊 but Mozart's sung version of Maurerische Trausermusik in C minor (Herreweghe) goes straight to my heart. As you say with other music 'it is simple but so effective'. Allegri's Miserere (Preston) doesn't turn me into a puddle but silences my thoughts and heart.(fortunately I don't understand Latin so the words don't bother me); Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine the power of male voices with organ, just devastating; Monteverdi's Poppea Pur ti miro gives me chills and leaves me utterly sad; Schubert's Schwanengesang: Am Meer...
Algunas piezas musicales traen este tipo de emociones, cuando el momento o escena lo amerita. Por ejemplo, la novena de Beethoven (Wand), la segunda de Mahler (Fischer) y la octava de Mahler (Bertini, por motivos incidentales). Mi cuaderno de la alergia, consuelo y la tranquilidad.
When I was a teenager I discovered a late Romantic string quartet(?) that had a slow movenent in D-flat major. It had a very emotional climax where the volins played a descending scale. I would like to listen to it again bur I just can't remember the name of the piece or whether it actually was a string quartet or a piece for a larger string ensemble.
I'm a beginner, currently listening to all of Verdi's operas for the first time. After listening to 8 of them so far, I'm enjoying it so much, I might just get stuck in Verdiland and never return to my corporate drone life. Lol. I wish. Anyhow, I just watched Don Carlos for the first time yesterday - so I'm of course biased towards my most recent listening experience! Haha. But I suspect no one would be surprised that "Ella giammai m’amò" had me in tears... it's just so miserable and pathetic, and such a counterpoint to the character portrait in the preceding and subsequent scenes(i.e. underneath it all, it's his powerlessness and lack of contol that cause him to cling even more desperately to what little power he has left). I think what impresses me about it as well as so many other Verdi characters is that it adds a complexity and humanity to a character who is otherwise irredeemable. I believe it's a song that might very well have fit nicely into an opera about King Lear, too. Another part I found quite moving was the tender BFF duet between Rodrigo and Don Carlo. It's a breath of fresh air to see that type of unabashed affection and loyalty between two men, although I realize it's not atypical for the time. But it's another expression of something that's uplifting and endearing in humanity. Finally, there's the scene in which Elizabeth bids her servant farewell- it's sweet and dignified. That's the thing about Verdi that I really love- in his music there's a warmth and generosity towards human beings, which makes one feel a humanizing effect in the best sense of the word. Even when it's miserable, it's warm to the touch.
Yes, Don Carlo is full of such moving moments. For me it’s the final Carlo/Elisabetta duet, “Ma lassu”-in the right hands (say, Corelli & Janowitz, live from Vienna) its sheer beauty, and the power of the sentiments they’re expressing, can undo you.
Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Reminds me of childhood experiences very, very long ago. Lying in bed, hearing the grownups talk late into the night. Barber and Agee just get to me every time.
Yes. Beautiful words and music both. And I've never seen the word aestival anywhere else.
Glad I’m not alone on Mahler 2. On the rare occasions when I can devote 75 uninterrupted minutes to a single piece, this one moves me in a powerful way. It’s amazing how a piece can keep you on the edge of your seat for so long and leave you a weeping mess, feeling simultaneously exhausted and rejuvenated.
I appreciate how hard you work to have a positive and constructive community on UA-cam
Thank you.
Bach : „Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben“ (Matthäus-Passion)
Brahms : Intermezzo op.117 nr.1
Schubert : Impromptu in G-flat major, op.90 nr.3
Tchaikovsky : Symphonie nr.1, slow movement
Mahler : Symphonie nr.6, Andante & Symphonie nr.9, Finale
Bruch : Violin Concerto, Adagio
Beethoven : Piano Concerto nr.5, slow movement
Fauré : Requiem (all of it!)
Dvorak : Symphonie nr.9, Largo
Mozart : Sinfonia Concertante K.364, slow movement
Bruckner : Symphonie nr.7, 2nd movement
Schumann : Symphonie nr.2, Adagio
Verdi : Aida, final duet
Poulenc : Litanies a la Vierge Noire
A personal favorite is the 2nd movement of Rachmaninov's 1st piano concerto. The rest of the concerto I do not particularly like very much, but very frequently I listen to the second movement as a stand-alone piece. The harmonic progressions, the eternaly ascending piano lines in the unexpected emotional eruption in the second half, the strings, the flute, everything is perfect. Not bad for an Opus 1.
I’m late to this party, but the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s Op. 109 piano sonata always does it for me. It’s so perfect, I just can’t stand it. Tears.
the endless melody following the cataclysmic dissonant scream chord in the finale of Mahler 10. Completely otherworldly to me, overwhelming and devastatingly beautiful, especially given what has come before.
👍
Agree! And don't forget that incredible flute solo at the start of the finale.
The 3rd movement (Largo) from the 5th Symphony of Shostakovich is one that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. My mind becomes filled with memories of tragic events and personal loss whenever I listen to it.
"Pathetique" is devastating for me, particularly Monteux's early stereo RCA recording from 1955. The final movement is so heart-wrenching; I hear him give up on life...and the music fades into the tape hiss. Extraordinary. In the "tears from the beauty of it all" my pick has to be Janet Baker's singing with Barbirolli on Elgar's "Sea Pictures." It's sublimely beautiful and makes me teary every time.
So totally agree with the Pathetique" finale............it just rips me apart and like listening to death!
The third movement of Beethoven 9th; it is simple and not ground breaking, but it shakes the hell of my foundations every listening. Also, Beethoven’6th symphony makes me a fountain of tears just for its beauty. The slow movement of Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony also deserves some precious tears.
we are the same
beethoven 15th string quartet movement 3 played by the quartetto italiano also levels me
I love Beethoven's Sixth as well, my favorite of his symphonies, but I don't recall ever weeping outright from listening to it.
Listened to Appalachian Spring during a summer in Aspen. The afternoon sun, slight breeze, leaves rustling, distant dogs barking. One of the rare times in life where everything right happened in the right place.
Yeah I can picture that very nice.
That reminds me of listening to Vaughan Williams 'Serenade to Music' outdoors under the stars on hot night. Ravishing.
Bach's Cantata 140 hits me harder than any other work. Every movement moves me, and I never get tired of it.
Emotionally for me it is entirely of a piece.
Mahler 9th BUT only when I hear it alone and the soft endings can melt into metaphysical silence. Hearing it live made me realize that applause breaks the magic moment.
Bach - St Matthew Passion
Wagner - Tristan ünd Isölde
At a CSO concert of the Missa Solemnis, during the Benedictus, my wife noticed that I was tearing up and thought it was because of sadness. I said, “Not sadness at all. It’s just so beautiful, and so heartfelt.”
That’s the only time it’s happened at a live concert. In listening to recordings, I resonate with many of the entries in these two programs.
Slow movements of Shostakovich piano concerto 1, and Ravel piano concerto (not the left hand).
For me, the 2nd movement of Elgar's 2nd Symphony never fails.
Great topic, Dave. Being an opera fanatic (and retired tenor), I have a few vocal pieces that can bring me to tears. Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesprae Solenne; Morgen by Strauss; Marietta's Lied from Die Tote Stadt by Korngold; and Lauritsen's Lux Eterna.
Such a wonderful video, and such great suggestions to complement Dave's thought-provoking original ideas. Personally, the song "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from Mahler's Rückert-Lieder always makes me well up - it's so transparently tugging at the heartstrings, but there's no shame in that. A bit of sentimentality (and ultra-ripe orchestration) never did anybody any harm.
However, the suggestion of "Appalachian Spring" absolutely blindsided me - I hadn't been thinking along those lines at all, but it's such a brilliant choice. Copland was a master of that kind of matter-of-fact, unsentimental serenity - he knew how to find the beauty in everyday things, and that's something that can really enrich our lives.
That got me thinking about another Copland work - a 10-minute piece of incidental music called "Quiet City", originally written for a play, which does a very similar thing to "Appalachian Spring", but set in an urban environment, evoking the way a frenetic city slows down and rests during the night, and finding beauty in that semi-sleep. As a city-dweller myself and a lover of big cities, there's just something about that little piece which touches me really deeply - without fail, it always makes me well up.
Great to see Elgar getting his due here (especially for that exquisite Gerontius "Farewell"). I'm always amazed that so many folks have been content to write him off as a robust & swaggering purveyor of Edwardian pomp and vigor, not recognizing that along with the bluster and high spirits there is always this enormous strain of melancholy that destabilizes it all--it erupts everywhere and accounts for his strange but characteristic power to move listeners to tears. Not for nothing did he append Shelley's line to his 2nd Symphony: "Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight." Yeats observed that there was a "heroic melancholy" in Elgar, and that's always struck me as a pretty good description, capturing both elements of his musical character but also making clear that this deep brooding sadness was of epic proportions and thoroughly suffused his work.
For some of us the Elgar 2nd is one of the greatest of all symphonies.
I didn't find time to post my comments on this topic, but Elgar's "The Apostles" contains 2 or 3 sure-fire moments: "At the Sepulcher" and the Angels' "What are these wounds in Thine hands" (near the end) are passages of such sincere, honest, profoundly emotional beauty that my feelings about them might be best kept to myself. LR
@@HassoBenSoba I know what you mean. There are passages that have exactly that effect. In the early oratorio "The Light of Life," there is a magical moment in the baritone aria "I am the good shepherd" when, after singing "thy word is truth," one of those noble Elgarian melodies swells up and just opens your heart. I catch my breath every time.
I can remember four instances of music that made me cry. All of them were live performances.
1. Debussy - La Mer. About halfway through the third movement, when the music suddenly stops and the violins begin a long, slow passage with high harmonics above the woodwinds.
2. Berlioz - Harold in Italy. When the viola first enters with the Harold them.
3. Sibelius - Symphony No. 2, Movement III. The second theme.
4. Mahler - Symphony No. 6. The very end of the symphony.
The first three have something in common; they are all very peaceful, calm episodes immediately after a noisy, almost chaotic sections. The Mahler is unique. That final minor chord crash after such an emotional journey is too much to take without weeping.
Back in 1998, I was walking home from teaching an English class in Prague on a snowy night and heard someone singing Rusalka. I thought it was a recording. It turned out to be a woman in a wheelchair singing under a streetlamp for money. It's one of those indelible memories, so now that song has a double beauty for me.
Let me share my probably quite surprising pick: the Diabelli variations. I know that it's not the most loved work (neither with listeners nor with pianists) but it's such amazingly constructed. I feel that it just goes through the whole man's (musical) life. After the tumultous fugue explodes into those diminished chord arpeggios, a truly magical modulation leads into a minuet of utmost simplicity (Beethoven looking back at the old times). I start crying during the coda.
I am always intensely moved by Peter Grimes first aria in Act one during the storm when Grimes bursts in to Aunties pub and sings " And now the great bear and pliodies are drawing up the sounds of human grief " and ends with his desperate cry " who can turn skies back and begin again ?"..It always cracks me up.. Yes I agree Dave Ravel's Mother Goose is a real tear jerker !! Magical in its purity and innocence. Many thanks for your wonderful chats. Rob
Three for me- the Adagio from Bruckner 8, first movement Rachmaninov 3rd Symphony, and, of course, the Four Last Songs. Some of these choices I have yet to hear.
For a piece that makes me cry Dave it had to be the final scene from Strauss’s die frau ohne schatten because I heard it on a live metropolitan opera broadcast last month. And it gets me every time although without the sung text in the symphonic fantasy it’s perfect
There are three pieces that have moved me to tears while I was playing them: Borodin's 2nd Symphony (the slow movement) and Nielsen's 4th Symphony (third movement, and again at the end of the finale), and the Schubert cello quintet.
Others, when listening: Brahms German Requiem, Dvorak cello concerto, Strauss Four Last Songs, Elgar Symphony No. 1, the finale from Sibelius Symphony No. 2, the Prelude from Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, the slow movement of Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1, the slow movement of the Schumann piano quartet, the first movement of the Brahms horn trio, the first movement of Brahms Piano Trio No. 1.
The slow movement from Mahler's 5th Symphony is what I want played at my funeral
I guess I'm late to the party.. But Strauss' Four last songs, in particular, Beim Schlafengehen results in a guaranteed puddle of tears for me..
Didn't get a chance to comment on the original video before this came out...
Totally agree with Job, Mahler 2 and Mother Goose from the original list. I didn't know Jenufa before watching a different video about it and I wholeheartedly agree about it being number one.
Additionally, agree with the slow movement of Mahler6. VW - agree about the 5th Symphony romanza and I always have a lump in my throat listening to the Five Variants, it just gets me.
I also have such an emotional attachment to Tchai6 especially the 1st movement recapitulation and obviously the final movement.
On the topic of unpredictably crying, I remember having a tear in my eye at a Prom once where an aging Claudio Abbado was conducting the Good Friday Music from Parsifal - never expected to get emotional with Wagner but it was so beautifully played, it was wonderful.
Slip of the tongue there. 'Mir ist so wunderbar', is the (equally moving quartet) from Fidelio.
I know. It was the first German thing that came to mind.
I'm sure Beethoven thanks you for the product placement ^^
Thank you, Dave, for this great sequel. I want to thank you specifically for an observation you made in the first episode that I have not stopped pondering it: that tears are not just a response to minor-key sadness but can also be a statement of love in all its fullness and intensity which can be expressed in a major key. Thanks as always for how you get me to think and reflect.
Beautiful choices in both videos. I am surprised that Dido's Lament by Purcell did not make it on either list. Makes me cry every time I listen. On occasion Tchaikovsky 6th symphony will also bring tears.
I agree with a lot of these. and also, what made me cry today, was the worship group at church playing and singing "it is well with my soul"
And speaking of 'Faerie Gardens', did anyone memtion 'Make our garden grow' the finale of Candide? It gets me going every time.
The Ring and Mahler 8. I feel they really tried their best to compose these two works showing the theme of grandness, of what a single person could do in the eternal universe and are deeply touching. Especially Mahler 8 because it doesn’t contain particular sad and tear-jerking moments as the Ring. It’s really unbelievable consideration and composing skill.
Missed my chance to praise so many scenes in Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, the emotional highs and the devastating lows. Empathy! Empathy! Empathy!
I finished listening to the listed on 11/24 and this video (finally 😀). Some, I have not heard for a long time. So, thank you for the journey you gave us. Your comments are very heart warming and honest. Something about music that connects us all. Appreciated.
Oh my God yes Ave Verum Corpus gets me every single time 🥲 I love singing it, I love listening to it, I just want to swim in it all the time it's so beautiful
Brilliant! My favorite choices on the list have to be Song to the Moon, Ave verum corpus and final trio of Rosenkavalier... which reminded me of another operatic finale that although not sad, the music is just sublime, and so beautifully conceived and arranged it also brings a tear... the "count's apology" at the end of Mozart's Figaro
A great list, but like you David I am just not moved by Elgar's Cello Concerto - and I easily tear up. My adds are the first two movements of Barber's Violin Concerto, and of course Sibelius 5 which a good performance just makes me weep with awe.
Britten's War Requiem, the Fauré Requiem, and the Agnus Dei from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis can all bring a tear to my eyes.
The 3rd mvmts of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony and Bartók's 2nd quartet, for me, are full of loneliness and emotional desolation.
Elgar's violin concerto, Mahler's 9th, Schubert's Winterreise, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante are always very emotional. The Mozart, in particular, was one of the pieces that got me past the extraordinary surface perfection of his music to the great depth and humanity underneath.
When I need a emotional lift: Beethoven's 6th Symphony or Brahms's 2nd Symphony.
I'm not an overly emotional guy, and I rarely cry. But with a few musical pieces, I come pretty close to doing it. And these pieces never fail to give me goose bumps. 😉
- Samuel Barber: "Agnus dei"
- Francis Poulenc: The final scene from "Dialoques des Carmélites" (that one always gives me the chills)
- Vaughan-Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis ... and, of course:
- Mozart: "Ave verum corpus"
Brangäne's Warning! It cracks me up every time I hear it. Like a voice from outer space. I get that choking feeling in my throat.
Bach - Italian Concerto
Beethoven - 9° Symphony
Bruckner - 9° Symphony
Brahms - 4° Symphony and Double Concerto
Mozart - Ave Verum Corpus
Tchaikovsky - 6° Symphony
Wagner - Lohengrin (Prelude)
Puccini - La Boheme (Act Three)
Verdi - Rigoletto (Quartetto "Bella figlia dell'amore")
Barber's Adagio; VW's Serenade to Music (Made Rachmaninoff cry too); Grieg's Death of Ase and the Last Spring; hmmm too many to name.
I know it’s operatic, but I find Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas deeply moving. The version with Anthony Lewis and Janet Baker, but there are other good ones too.
I usually need to be scraped off the floor after the last movement of Sibelius' Fifth.
However, sometimes it's the confluence of the piece and the occasion. Fresh from two months in hospital and newly (finally) sober, following a near-death experience with cirrhosis of the liver, the first live music event I attended was the Toronto Symphony doing Beethoven's Ninth. Yeah, that got pretty soggy pretty fast.
Sometimes it's a particular moment that catches me. There's a cello solo line twoards the end of the last movement of Stenhammar's first symphony that always gets me, for instance. I'd also mention the slow movement of Schumann's violin concerto, and indeed a lot of late Schumann.
My weepie is the William Alwyn LYRA ANGELICA - Tissues? Yes. please!! So beautiful.
Thanks for a giving an alternative explanation of why some music may bring tears to one's eyes. I didn't reply the first time round because there's some where I had a hard time explaining. For example, in Kleiber's Figaro from 1955, when Figaro (Cesare Siepi) notes "Ecco la Marcia… andiam[o]". To be sure, Kleiber conducts the tightest yet bounciest and most perfect march I may ever have heard, but why would that make me shed tears of joy? It's the wait (let's be honest, even if one did not know the libretto or didn't speak Italian, there's no doubt in one's mind there's going to be happy ending to all the trials and tribulations), the way the (contrived) "worries" resolve in a moment of serene simplicity. Sometimes the reasons may or may not be purely musical, but partly personal, such as in Wagner's Walküre Act 3, Scene 3, "War es so schmählich" (again, it probably helps if one speaks/understands German) where a loving child is awaiting a loving father's wrath and punishment having done what's right, acted in accordance with his true intentions, hence disobeyed his orders that are the consequence of him being a coward who's the Father of the Gods and still nothing more than a hen-pecked husband, reducing us all to misunderstood children who've been trying their best (truly heart-wrenching by Varnay/Hotter/Keilberth or Nilsson/Hotter/Ludwig). There may be yet more trivial non-musical reasons such as each time I hear Maria Callas sing "La Mamma morta", Act 3 from Giordano's Andrea Chénier, I can't help being reminded of Tom Hanks dancing with his infusion stand. In a similar vein, I'm never quite sure that moment when John Williams' Star Wars film score to the Double Sunset on Tatooine makes me so emotional just when it seems to be citing Dvořák's Cello Concerto. Needless to say, I agree with all the ones of your and viewers' choices that I know, and am planning to check those that I don't. Jenúfa, for example, sounds like one heartwrenching story, good gracious…
Great choices. I also find the Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 deeply affecting - it really resonated during a difficult time in my early adulthood. Here’s my top 10 list of works (or parts thereof) that have elicited tears:
1. Nicola Matteis - Diverse bizzarie su Sarabanda o Ciaccona
2. Johann Phillip Krieger - “Einsamkeit, du Qual des Hertzen”
3. Handel, Duet from Sosarme “Per le porte del tormento”
4. J.S. Bach, St Matthew Passion, “Mache dich, mein herze, rein”
5. Gluck, Orphee et Eurydice, “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice”
6. Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5, Adagio un poco mosso
7. Donizetti, L’elisir d’amore, “Una furtive lagrima”
8. Elgar - Enigma Variations, Nimrod
9. Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5, Romanza
10. Strauss - Four Last Songs, Im Abendrot
Anything played by Gary Karr on Double Bass. Special mention…. his album Adagio D’Albinoni. Having stayed on topic, I’ll now stray and say THANK YOU for this channel and all you do. I thought Robert Greenberg would forever be my best and only option for all things classical. You’re going to keep me busy the next few months. Lots of catching up to do. Best to you.
Aaron Copland's "The Promise of Living," which is the quintet which closes Act 1 of his opera The Tender Land.
18th variation of Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations.
2nd movement of Rachmaninoff's 2nd.
Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana.
Ravel's "Pavane pour une Infante Defunte."
The hymn tune "Eventide" (aka "Abide with me")
"Ain't it a Pretty Night" from Carlisle Floyd's opera "Susannah."
I was rather nervous of adding my suggestion amongst all these splendid ones, but mine is Walton's Battle in The Air. For me it's painfully raw, desperate music evoking the terror and confusion of combat like few have. There is no triumphalism here only the sadness of sensless destruction. By it's end I'm usually numb, tears in my eye.
I can't explain it but I once lost it listening to Spitfire, Prelude & Fugue. Actually, I think I'd recently seen Dunkirk.
Korngold's Opera Die Tote Stadt. Dead wives, crazy widowers, stalking look a likes etc. What's not to weep about.
The aria 'Glück, das mir verblieb(Marietta's Lied) that appears in snippets throughout and is reprised at the end.
Yes, and “Pierrot’s” Lied from the same Korngold opera I find just as moving.
Oh. I missed the oportunity here. I totally agree with the list. But Arvo Pärt: Cantus. In memory of Benjamin Britten. Is on my list...
The responses of the listeners fully vindicate your endeavors - congratulations! - I forgot to mention that I once attended a live performance of Mahler 2 together with a young Serbian composer whom I had just met. When Elisabeth Kulman came in with the first note of "Oh Röschen rot!", both of us instantaneously and simultaneously dissolved into sobs!
Brahms’ double concerto. Andante second movement. So gorgeous it melts my heart.
Oh yes!! I'm ashamed I didn't think of it.
Absolutely at the top of my own personal list!
A great piece! Any particular recording(s) you prefer over the others?
I'm coming late to this conversation, but Mahler's 2nd is definitely on my list. It's my favorite piece of music in any case. But, Summer 2015 I went to a performance by the Oregon Bach Festival and a conductor I'd never heard of and whose name I can't remember...and it was incredible. Best concert I've ever been to. And, somewhat unexpectedly, the performance brought me memories of the now-decesased friend and mentor who introduced me to this music...and that brought the tears...
I've been deeply affected by Appalachian Spring ever since my father brought home "The Copland Album" double LP by Leonard Bernstein and the NY Phil in the early '70s. As a young teen at the time, I played that album over and over. Because of Dave's recommendations on this channel, I've only recently discovered the chamber version--both the Orpheus recording and the Copland recording mentioned in this video--and find them even more affecting than the full orchestral versions I've always loved. There's something about the spareness and intimacy of the chamber version that, for me at least, makes the piece even more poignant. Thank you, Dave, for those and many other recommendations here and on Classics Today that have influenced (determined?) so much of my classical music collecting and listening.
These two videos have surprised me as well because of just how many of the same pieces I'd have chosen. 'Appalachian Spring' was one of the first pieces that hooked me on classical music., along with Holst's 'Planets'. It's just so beautiful. With the Schubert String Quintet it's the trio section of the scherzo that gets me most. It's so full of sadness. Opera does produce real tears though. I'm a One Fine Day blubber. Plus bits of Wagner, even weird ones like when Hagen greets Siegfried to the 'curse motif'. Vaughan Williams is very special to me. I love 'Job' and so much else, including 'The Fifth', and several climaxes in the 'London Symphony' always chokes me up. I was playing Trivial Pursuits one Christmas with my late dad and we had Classic FM on and they played the full 'London Symphony' and my dad - not one to take to pieces of classical music he'd never heard before - said this was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. My most recent tear-jerking find was Handel's 'Waft her angels through the skies' from 'Jephtha'. That's one of those 'they are just so beautiful you have to cry' ones.
I'll add another Vaughan Williams work to the list, my favourite of his; the 'Concerto Accademico' (violin concerto), especially the intense dance finale. Also the scherzo and trio of Dvorak's Symphony No5 in F Major - joyously childlike, with gorgeous tunes. And one more; the quiet beauty of Franck's 'Cantabile' for organ.
What a fantastic series of videos and these are great choices from yourself and commenters. I agree with so many of these, especially the Tallis Fantasia and Pastoral Symphony of VW, and I would just humbly add the entrance of Mater Gloriosa in Mahler 8, "Komm! Hebe dich zu höhern Sphären," as well as the second movement of Beethoven 7. Both never fail! A more recent contender is Yoshimatsu's piano concerto "Memo Flora," which usually has this effect by the middle of the second movement.
Dave, I have to mention Shostakovich's Passacaglia from the Violin Concerto. From the first time I heard it, I was so struck by its noble beauty and hope in bad times. Especially when the violin first rises up. My wife's choice would be Solveig's Song from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite 2 which always makes her tear up.
I tend to cry at the end of Elektra because after all the screaming and dancing it's the story of the destruction of a family. And Orest's troubles aren't over by a long shot. Vaughan Williams' Four Last Songs aren't well known, everyone always thinks of that other guy's four last songs, but two of those are very moving (the other two aren't as great): Tired and Menelaus.
One piece that does it for me is Borodin's Notturno from his second string quartet.
Me too! "Steppes of Central Asia" gets me teary-eyed, too, because it's so full of longing and beauty.
Yes to all these selections . Add to my list Faure Requiem, either Agnus Dei or Libera me.
explode or confirm a rumor: Vaughn Williams' music has never been programmed on a Royal Concertgebouw orchestra program. Sounds crazy to me.
Bach’s Erbarme Dich;last scenes of La Boheme and Madama Butterfly both bring me to tears; last movement of Sibelius 5th gives me a complex feeling which makes me cry.
Good list. Can't really argue with any of the ones selected. If you ever do a part 2, let me add one to the possibilities and tell you why it reduces me to mush:
That would be the finale of Suk's Asrael Symphony. The point where the motif of the angel of death returns, but instead of the fearsome and horrifying specter of annihilation that thunders in the first movement, it's played on muted brass here at the end, in a major key, signifying some kind of acceptance and even, perhaps, welcome. Suk was writing this work when his wife, Olyetka, died at only 27 years old. The english horn obbligato at this point is sublime and may even represent her in the beyond.
Didn't notice this and know it's over. But I'm emotionally stirred by Sir Hamilton Harty's With the Wild Geese
It's never over. Chime in anytime.
Perhaps John Williams' famous violin piece from Schindler's list?
1) Ives Symphony No 2 - the entire slow movement and the slow tune from the finale - and Copland Long Time Ago from the old American songs. Dave’s eloquent remarks about how Appalachian Spring called up the longing for home applies to these as well. 2) The closing section of Ives 4th Symphony: Nearer, My God, to Thee, another of the old hymns that Ives and I grew up with, leading us out into a mystical eternity.
One of my favorite performances of Nearer, My God, to Thee is on the Griffin recording, Favourite Hymns from Oxford - Amazing Grace GCCD 4047
I thought it was only me....until I watched the final scene of Richard Wagner's Die Walkure where Wotan bids farewell to Brunnhilde a few months ago on the French-German TV channel ARTE featuring Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin/Thelemann/Michael Volle/Anja Kampe. Kampe was so much into the music that she had a total break down and cried like a baby for at least 10 minutes. I don't know how she managed to complete the last singing parts....
Koppangen on Christmas Carols by Anne Sophie Von Otter - almost unbearably beautiful 🥲
Posthorn solo from Mahler 3, especially with Bud Herseth playing it. Chicago Levine. Also the finale of Mahler 3. Plus, I am surprised Nimrod was not on the list.
Last scene of Berg‘s Wozzeck and the last bars of Shostakovich 13. Just thinking about this music makes me cry.
Thanks for these two videos, all of this music is wonderfully affecting and eloquent. One striking thing to me about the list is that although the early 20th century is well represented, nothing on either list was written after 1950. Based on the lists, it almost seems that the invention of modernism overlapped the end of Romanticism by about 50 years.
Is it possible to get a list of post-1950 pieces that make you cry? I am sure the answer is yes, but I am curious to know what you would pick. Presumably some post 1950s favorites like Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Bernstein, Barber, Britten, Poulenc, Part, Rautavarra and others might score entries, but I also find myself drifting toward movie music, things like John Williams's Schindler's List violin concerto. If you need a topic for a follow-up video on this, I would definitely be curious. I'm guessing that Milton Babbitt's string quartet No. 2 probably still would not make it.
This may have been suggested already...the thread for these two videos would take half a day to peruse...but how about a video on the pieces that make you genuinely happy? Not so much in a tears of joy kind of way, but works that can actually lift ones spirits out of the doldrums and brighten your day. For example:
Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks
Haydn: Symphony 104 finale
Mozart: Symphony 41 finale
Beethoven: EGMONT OVERTURE!!! (plus the finale of all his symphonies)
Mendelssohn: Symphony 4 1st mvt
Schumann: Symphony 1 1st mvt
Brahms: Symphony 1 finale
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto 1st mvt
Dvorak: Symphony 5 1st mvt
The lists could go on and on...just a thought!
Nimrod from Enigma makes me cry. Much more than Gerontius. I'm afraid that whenever I hear the latter and the tenor's "Take me away!" , Beecham's story of a performance of it springs to mind where stagehands came on immediately after he'd sung the line and started moving the percussion off the platform.
This was fun. Thanks Dave for all your videos.
I can’t say I actually cried, but the 1st movement of Sibelius’s Kullervo made me feel like crying. I have teared up listening to his 5th a few times. Yes, the Song to the Moon affects me like that too. Pavane for a Dead Princess, Faure’s Pavan, to mention two of others that have likewise moved me. I’d be remiss to not mention the Andante of Bruckner’s 2nd.
Dave, the choices made by you and your contributors provoked me to consider the music that, if it does not completely move me to tears. it literally takes my breath away. One of those is the Hymn To The Sun, the opening to Mascagni's opera, "Iris." I don't remember how I discovered it, but, think it was an add on either to a CD or LP in my collection, My only real familiarity with Mascagni was, at that time, Cavalleria Rusticana, which also opens the ducts. The Hymn To The Sun keeps building and building and encompasses the myriad forces of the orchestra plus a chorus. After hearing it, I knew I wanted to hear the whole opera. I bought the only complete version with Domingo conducted by Giiussepe Patanè, who was unfamiliar to me. Unfortunately, the rest of the opera opinion neither touches nor surpasses that opening. But what an opening!. If I were ever fortunate enough to put together a concert of classical music for chorus and orchestra, it would be BOTH the opening and closing selection.
I was expecting to see the Villa-Lobos bachianas 5 in this list. Some notes can really touch profoundly. Tks
Bravo, bravi! Great insights into music I am mostly familiar with but now have the advantage of hearing with some else's ears, especially Appalachian Spring, which I listen to as a ballet. Now I'll play Spring again, but this time I'll try to feel with someone else's soul rather than with the soles of my feet.
Great turn of phrase, that!
What astonishes me about all these choices...I don't see Barber's Adagio for Strings anywhere in here. Huh? Please say why Dave, I don't get it. Is it that it is too...what? I don't know.
Why should it be there just because you think it should? I'm simply reflecting viewers choices. Several included the Adagio, but there were other choices that appeared more frequently.
@@DavesClassicalGuide So be it.
Would it be possible for you to do a "ideal Rossini opera list", the way we saw with Verdi and Wagner ? Talking about emotions...no other composer can put me in a joyous mood quicker than Rossini but recently I started with some of his tragedies (Ermione,...) and they are amazing, yet with so many works left to explore, I w ould love some guidance in this. Thank you for all your time and work.
Mose (French version, Moise et Pharaon) is fantastic. Maometto II is stirring and moving.
I agree, Rossini is pure joy as nobody else, not even Mozart
My hypothesis would be that human voice first, and then strings (especially violin) have that "crying ability". It is then essentially a matter of musical timbre and has little to do with musical quality. To be discussed !
A late entry: The Field of the Dead from Alexander Nevsky, particularly as sung by Galina Vishnevskaya.
PS. The Dumky is my favourite chamber work. It literally takes you through the most moods of any piece I know, and it’s devastatingly gorgeous. I love chamber music so it’s not a glib choice.
What if you only love glib chamber music?
@@DavesClassicalGuide Haha! Touché! Then I would say that the Dumky trio would be the exception that proves the glib rule.
Check out performance by Polish mezzo Ewa Podles
@@martinhair8180 Amazing voice. Thank you!
Great lists and such a great idea for a subject. Sometimes I wonder exactly what has made me cry. I'm really interested to find that others do share the pieces which do it to me but in several cases not the same part of the piece. Maybe the composer has created an overall feeling in the work and which bit tips you over the edge depends on you.
For me the finale of Bruckner 5
I have an image of the Rohirrim arriving at Helms deep at the crack of dawn
I'm a little late to the party. Loads of options for Mahler (from the Resurrection Symphony I would single out Urlicht) and I prefer Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen to the adagietto from the 5th, but the andante from the 6th would be my pick as it evokes childhood memories of a family holiday in Wales when I played it every day as we drove through the mountains. For Elgar I would pick the adagio from the piano quintet. The composer reportedly listened to a recording of this whilst on his deathbed. Above even these I would pick Introit by Finzi, the first Finzi that I ever heard (always great to discover a "new" composer).
Nocturne from Borodin’s Second String Quartet. That ending 🥹
I've so loved this thread. Can we find a way to extend it? for instance, break it down into: 1) Renaissance and Baroque music which makes you cry 2) Classical and Romantic music which makes you cry 3) 20th and 21st Century music which makes you cry.
Sometimes, I think, less is more, and this is one of those cases.
If you do a third one, Rachmaninov. The first elegiac piano trio is my first choice. The one part of an opera that gets me is Mussorgsky, "The Departure of Golitsin" from "Khovanshchina", It is actually exile and it sounds it.
The music that touches me always is Villa Lobos Bachiana Brasileiras 4 (prelude). Both versions, piano or instrumental. When I do hear that music, I don't know if I am happy or sad, but it is a strange feeling.
I played that piece in concert and it was very deeply moving.
A little contribution: Vissi d'arte from Tosca
I already reacted to the first 'Cry video' 😊 but Mozart's sung version of Maurerische Trausermusik in C minor (Herreweghe) goes straight to my heart. As you say with other music 'it is simple but so effective'.
Allegri's Miserere (Preston) doesn't turn me into a puddle but silences my thoughts and heart.(fortunately I don't understand Latin so the words don't bother me);
Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine the power of male voices with organ, just devastating;
Monteverdi's Poppea Pur ti miro gives me chills and leaves me utterly sad;
Schubert's Schwanengesang: Am Meer...
Algunas piezas musicales traen este tipo de emociones, cuando el momento o escena lo amerita.
Por ejemplo, la novena de Beethoven (Wand), la segunda de Mahler (Fischer) y la octava de Mahler (Bertini, por motivos incidentales).
Mi cuaderno de la alergia, consuelo y la tranquilidad.
When I was a teenager I discovered a late Romantic string quartet(?) that had a slow movenent in D-flat major. It had a very emotional climax where the volins played a descending scale. I would like to listen to it again bur I just can't remember the name of the piece or whether it actually was a string quartet or a piece for a larger string ensemble.
Dohnanyi has a quartet in D-flat. Maybe the first mvt of that?
...also Marteau has a one with some descending scale patterns (in D-flat Maj :)
I'm a beginner, currently listening to all of Verdi's operas for the first time. After listening to 8 of them so far, I'm enjoying it so much, I might just get stuck in Verdiland and never return to my corporate drone life. Lol. I wish. Anyhow, I just watched Don Carlos for the first time yesterday - so I'm of course biased towards my most recent listening experience! Haha. But I suspect no one would be surprised that "Ella giammai m’amò" had me in tears... it's just so miserable and pathetic, and such a counterpoint to the character portrait in the preceding and subsequent scenes(i.e. underneath it all, it's his powerlessness and lack of contol that cause him to cling even more desperately to what little power he has left). I think what impresses me about it as well as so many other Verdi characters is that it adds a complexity and humanity to a character who is otherwise irredeemable. I believe it's a song that might very well have fit nicely into an opera about King Lear, too. Another part I found quite moving was the tender BFF duet between Rodrigo and Don Carlo. It's a breath of fresh air to see that type of unabashed affection and loyalty between two men, although I realize it's not atypical for the time. But it's another expression of something that's uplifting and endearing in humanity. Finally, there's the scene in which Elizabeth bids her servant farewell- it's sweet and dignified. That's the thing about Verdi that I really love- in his music there's a warmth and generosity towards human beings, which makes one feel a humanizing effect in the best sense of the word. Even when it's miserable, it's warm to the touch.
Yes, Don Carlo is full of such moving moments. For me it’s the final Carlo/Elisabetta duet, “Ma lassu”-in the right hands (say, Corelli & Janowitz, live from Vienna) its sheer beauty, and the power of the sentiments they’re expressing, can undo you.
@@Tom-wf6ym oh yes, that's another great one! Thanks!