(Your) final music performance

[49410enrique]

i got the idea for this thread from a photography book, where the question, what would you want for your final meal (in life) to be?, was posed to many great chefs, and their answers chronicled in pictures.

so my question to myself, and to the other pianists, what would you want to perform/play, as your final piece in this life, that is, what would you want your musical farewell to be?

assumptions, you know when you'll 'depart', no limit on your technicial or interpretive skills, anything goes.

[49410enrique]

i hope to answer this soon. i'm still thinking this one over, it's a harder question to me than i thought it would be.

[perfect_pitch]

For me - I'll say Rachmaninoffs 3rd Piano concerto... and that's NOT because of the movie 'Shine'.

It's a remarkable piece - maybe overplayed, but I definitely want to play it.

[pianoplayjl]

I want to play Chopin's Funeral march from sonata in b flat minor.

[drkilroy]

Schumann's Carnival op. 9 I think, but his Faschingsschwank aus Wien or Gershwin's Concerto in F would do, too.

Best regards, Dr

[philb]

There is actually an interesting story about a Pianist named Alexander Kelberine.

"Russian-born Alexander Kelberine (1903-1940) studied with Busoni, Leo Sirota and Alexander Siloti. Kelberine was married to Jeanne Behrend (1911-1988) who was a student of Josef Hofmann, Rosario Scalero and Abram Chasins. They formed a duo-piano team and recorded together on the Victor label. Their 1936 set of Bach transcriptions (all by Kelberine) for solo and duo performance is a collectors item today. According to Nicolas Slonimsky, Kelberine was a victim of acute depression. He programmed his last recital for pieces in minor keys and of funeral connotations, concluding with Liszt's Totentanz, after which he went home and took an overdose of sleeping pills."

interesting way to end a career...

[pianoplayjl]

Weird story!

[49410enrique]

Giving this some thought I was tempted to say something like Liszt Funerailles but I decided something sweeter sounding would make a more appropriate farewell to life, more of a 'thanks for a good time, i'll see you later...'  vs. "goodbye cruel cruel world..."

this one always speaks to me : Lecuona - Ante El Escorial

[pianoplayjl]

If I'm so good I want to play Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd PC too! and more besides.

[dafnis]

Let's go with a bang... the Finale of Beethoven's 5th in Liszt's piano transcription.

[b_nghiem]

For Concertos:
The 2nd mov of Ravel's G major Concerto is the way to go, with your last breath going with the end of the trill.
I also wouldn't mind the 1st mov of Beethoven's 4 ,
the 2nd mov of Rach 2 or
the 2nd mov of Chopin's 2 ... hmmm lots of E major.
For Solo:
hard to choose, but definitely one of them would be
Beethoven's transcendental piano sonata op 111.

Hopefully this is 70+ years in advance so I don't have to rush.

[stoudemirestat]

Liszt piano sonata. Not only my favourite piece, but it seems to fit here. After going through basically the entire scope of human emotions throughout the piece (life), at the end the high chords to me signify a rise to the heavens, and then that dark, gloomy, 'finishing' last note signifies the end...Like it's over. It's gone. I'm not alive anymore.