What's the saddest piece of classical music? We've got some suggestions for the biggest classical tear-jerkers of all time...
1. Giacomo Puccini - Sono andati? (from La Boheme)
Because this is an opera, someone has to die. Unfortunately for poor Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme,
it's her. Not only is she separated from her true love, riven with
consumption and hacking into her hanky like an audience member in Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire?, she's also decided that Rodolfo is her one
true love - here, the two of them reminisce as Mimi meets her tragic
end…
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem Mass in D minor
It'd be nice to think that the rather more dramatic scene depicted in Amadeus , where Mozart
on his death bed blurts out his last ever composition to an eagerly
transcribing Salieri, was exactly how it happened. However, it's widely
accepted now that it was a rather more sedate affair - Mozart slipped
away in the night, and a fellow composer, Franz Sussmayr, assembled the
broken fragments and finished it off (in fact, he actually did most of
the work on the piece).
3. Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
You might know this one from some of the key scenes in Oliver Stone's less-than-cheery Vietnam epic Platoon . You might also know it from how it makes you want to curl up on the kitchen floor and sob into a dishcloth.
4. Tomaso Albinoni - Adagio in G minor
It's a staple here at Classic FM, but to do justice to Albinoni's
Adagio you really do have to put your headphones in, imagine life in
sepia and think back to that time the family pet was put down.
5. Johann Sebastian Bach - Come, Sweet Death
With a title like that, it's unlikely that you'll be skipping down the
street with this pumping from your iPod. No, we recommend some dark
clothing, a stiff drink and possibly some more gentle sobbing. Good
luck, everybody.
6. Edward Elgar - 2nd Movement, Serenade for Strings
Even if it doesn't, this belter of a second movement is premium
lip-wobbler material. Watch out for the tingly high strings in the
middle. Hankies at the ready...
7. Henryk Gorecki - Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
If any piece deserves the label 'modern classic', it's this. Gorecki
used the words etched into the walls of a Gestapo prison by an 18 year
old girl during the Second World War as his inspiration, and the results
are as chilling as they are moving.
8. Henry Purcell - Dido's Lament (When I Am Laid In Earth, from Dido and Aeneas)
No, it's not an account of the popular late-90s singer's descent into obscurity, it's actually one of Henry Purcell's most poignant compositions. Taken from his opera Dido and Aeneas, it comes as Dido (not that one) is preparing to face her imminent death.
9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6, 4th movement
Almost everything Tchaikovsky wrote has an element of sadness to it,
but this one really takes the biscuit. Dedicated to his nephew, with
whom he was controversially in a secret relationship, it is shot through
with regret, sadness and loneliness. Listen to the heart-wrenching 4th
movement below the pic of Tchaikovsky and his nephew.
10. Giuseppe Verdi - V'ho ingannato (from Rigoletto)
Right - to bring you up to speed, Rigoletto's daughter has been
stabbed and placed in a bag. Rigoletto has been given said sack thinking
it contains the body of his nemesis, The Duke of Mantua. He opens the
bag to discover his dying daughter dressed as a man (don't ask) instead,
and they sing this heartbreaking duet together as she dies. Blimey.
(C) Classic FM Digital Radio 2013/2015
