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"Scarbo" from Gaspard de la Nuit, my recording's from the Pascal Roge Ravel set.
Absolute, suggestive, full, all of it.
Also the other main reason I started this thread was to find out if anyone can tell me the pitches that make up the first chord of Bartok String Quartet 3?

From bottom up: C#, D, E, D#. The first violin then joins in with an A# as the first note of the melody.

among the greatest opening chords:
1. Beethoven: Eroica Symphony -- E-flat sonic whiplashes signalling a lengthy rhythmic battle between the forces of 3 and the forces of 2
2. Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610, first choral entrance -- a stunning proclamation of the new era of tonal harmony (also found at the beginning of his Orfeo of 1607)
3. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: first full chord is the famous Tristan chord, signalling troubled times ahead for tonal harmony
4. Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms: e-minor chords octaves apart, an unmistakable sonority
5. Ligeti: Atmospheres -- a massive pianissimo tone cluster but luxuriously beautiful (especially if heard live)
6. Beethoven 9th Symphony -- tremolo open 5ths of ambiguous tonality -- high tension and tonal potential combined
7: Wagner: Gotterdammerung -- somehow from the very first chord (actually, the first several), you can sense that the Ring cycle is approaching its climax and that the complex plot lines are about to be resolved

--Sixtus

Beethoven 1, obviously.
Bach's Widerstehe doch der Sünde.

KGill thanks that was bugging the crap out of me, perlnerd666 thanks for being original