Mark Shanks wrote:

>I hope that other list members have some favorites they'd like to
>recommend.

Hard to resist to such an invitation.

Among (not already mentioned) unfinished (last) works, I'd like to point
out these four:

Bartok: Viola concerto
Falla: Atlantis
Haydn: Quartet opus 103
Martinu: Isaiah's Prophecy

Among final (but finished) works with a "special message" (even if not
always intended by the composer):

Faure: String quartet (last work of a famous but isolated composer -
because of his deafness)
Franck: Three organ chorals
Magnard: Symphony Nr.4 (the composer died a short time after finishing
this symphony, defending his house against the German in 1914; the
manuscript was sent just a week before in Paris and therefore
miraculously escaped the fire)
Zimmermann: Ekklesiastische Aktion (the composer committed suicide a few
days after finishing this work)
Duparc: La vie anterieure (the composer died... 49 years later)

Simon Corley
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