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What are some themes that are most dear to you? What themes do you find most beautiful, touching, and sweet? What themes are so touching for you, that they keep you rapt in awe when you hear them? Maybe the context in which you heard them for the first time made them very special for you.

My votes go toward:
- Theme from Beethoven's Waldstein 3rd mov
- Opening theme from Mozart's K331 1st mov
- Chopin Etude Op 25 no 1
- The sempre rubato; dolce con grazia section appearing about 1/4 through Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no 12
- And of course Chopin Etude Op 10 no 3, when played over zealously under-tempo

There are many, but the one that stands out for me is Schubert late A-major sonata last movement main theme.

Which question are you asking?

+1

They are not the same thing.

Both.

Which one did you answer?

No individual theme is close to me. Entire works are.

Yes, much of the greatness of a theme is dependent on the greatness of its development.

For me, the themes that are most dear to me are the same themes that I find most touching; so I suppose I answered both since they yield the same set of themes (maybe the former question has one or two more legs up on the latter though).

They are definitely different questions. Look at the Arietta of the Beethoven 111 sonata. "Sweet" and "pretty" are not the first words that come to mind. Yet who can deny its greatness?

I'd rather credit the piece Schubert stole it from, Beethoven's Opus 26 sonata.

I'm not sure if it classifies as a 'theme', but my favorite is the Cadenza from the 1st movement of Rachmaninoff piano concerto no. 3. Oh, how i wish that i had the technical abilities to play it...

beet31425 and svenno didn't have any problem interpreting the questions. You're overthinking it. Anyone is free to answer as they wish without degenerating this into a nit picking debate.

Sure! I suppose I'm not just asking for "themes", but any sequence of tones in general

Also +1 for that cadenza.

I don't see it as nitpicking. To my mind, the questions are very distinct and it does not make sense to pretend that every great theme or work is "pretty."

Which part of the cadenza?

That's fine...I'm not trying to impose some kind of interpretation of the questions on you...

That's right. What is the "Ode to Joy" theme without the rest of the movement, or indeed the symphony? What is the Diabelli theme without the variations? It takes a master composer to extract every ounce of potential and more, even from a banal theme.

The whole cadenza, for me, is probably the most beautiful and epic theme i've ever heard. But i especially love the part where it all leads up to - the 'a tempo' section with the 'fff' chords. Simply amazing, so powerful.

Agreed. I wouldn't say that the end of Chopin Op. 62/1 is wonderful by itself. It's merely pretty. But when placed at the end of everything that came before it, it is one of the most profound things ever written.