Great endings: triumphant, hushed and memorable

My next class, Sunday, is all about endings: triumphant, hushed, sarcastic, unfinished, funny.  

But here’s the thing about endings. We remember openings better than closings. Think of the beginning to Bach’s thundering Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, or Grieg’s Piano Concerto, or Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”

Same in literature: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” — “A Tale of Two Cities.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” — “Pride and Prejudice.”

“Four score and seven years ago…” — The Gettysburg Address.

On Sunday, I explore great endings that will linger in the memory long after the music stops: Mahler’s First Symphony, where the French horn players stand for the heroic finale; the thrilling close of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, when the pianist rivals the entire orchestra for sound and glory; the hushed benediction of old age in Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs”: “Oh further, silent peace! So profound at sunset.”

We’ll have fun starting at the end. Please join us!

4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, $20, payable at the door. Classic Pianos, 3003 S.E. Milwaukie Ave. in southeast Portland, next to the Aladdin Theater at the corner of Milwaukie and Powell Blvd.

Parking: You may park in the store's parking lot behind the store or in the unreserved spaces in the Brooklyn Pharmacy parking lot. You may also park on 11th Ave., the one-way street behind the store, accessed from Powell Blvd. And you can find ample neighborhood parking on Franklin, as well as 10th Ave.

Store contact: Peggie Zackery: 503-546-5622; [email protected]
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Web site: davidstabler.net