Your Top Ten Symphonies

[Bonehelm]

There's a Vaughan Williams thread in the composers page, perhaps you could try and read the discussion there. I cannot say whether he's a difficult composer, as I grew up with his music when still a child, so for me he's one of the most natural voices of them all.

More or less easy listening (that is: much easier than Mahler or Bruckner) is provided by his smaller orchestral pieces, e.g. his English Folk Song Suite, or Dives and Lazarus, or Lark Ascending, or of course the Greensleeves Fantasia.

His symphonies are a different affair. The most accessible is probably the Second ('A London Symphony') and also the Fifth. More 'difficult' will be his Sixth and Ninth, the others are somewhere in between, imo. My personal favourites are the Third (A Pastoral Symphony), Fifth, Sixth, Eight and Ninth.

If you really want to invest in his symphonies, try both no. 5 and no. 6 - a perfect couple, strongly contrasted, representing two almost opposite sides of his highly personal style. But please opt for a good performance: e.g. those conducted by Handley, Boult, or Previn.

Great, thanks.  Do you have any recording in particular that you want to recommend?

[Christo]

Great, thanks.  Do you have any recording in particular that you want to recommend?

Of course, but that's always too personal. The price may play a role too. For the Fifth you are safe with Handley, Previn, Thomson - all fine. For the Sixth my personal favourite is Thomson (Chandos), but I'm one of the few who think so. Generally, people opt for Andrew Davies (budget CD!) or Handley.

An even better option: buy the whole lot in one of the best & inexpensive cycles. For about 20-25 EURO / 25-30 USD, you might find the comple cycle of the 9 symphonies in a 5 or 6 CD set by: Haitink (EMI), Handley (EMI), Previn (RCA/Sony) - all superb and all worth your money.. Second-hand, all of these should do no more than 10-20 EURO.