Your Top Four Brahms Symphonies

[George]

yeah, this was hard. I found I could only add one option at a time, and I had to save after each one. But they're all there now. And the data will be absolutely meaningless, as they are in all good polls. I have a feeling if we graph the results, it will be a flat line.   

Or rather, that will be my final result if I see one more list thread. 

[Joe Barron]

I can easily identify the top 3 ....... But I'm having difficulty with the 4th spot ........

[jochanaan]

I'd vote, but my preferences change every time I listen to one of them!   So, my final answer: The one I played or heard last.

[mahlertitan]

anyone wants to start and put all 362880 combinations on Beethoven's top 9 symphonies thread?

[bwv 1080]

Joe, can you post a similar thread for Mozart of Haydn symphonies?

Maybe you could start with Beethoven, that poll would only have 362,880 choices

[Maciek]

yeah, this was hard. I found I could only add one option at a time, and I had to save after each one. But they're all there now.

Joe, you're my hero!

I vote to name this The Perfect GMG Thread!

[Maciek]

Ha, after voting I see that my option is not as popular as I expected... At least not yet.

[Novi]

4 3 1 2

[Maciek]

That's it, Novitiate, we're going in the right direction.

[Novi]

That's it, Novitiate, we're going in the right direction.

Cool! Great minds and all that ...

#4 will always be at the top for me 0:). In fact it's right up there with my all time favourite pieces. This was the first Brahms I'd ever heard and I was caught from the get go. This was Kleiber's recording and it still holds top place, although Furtwangler's up there too these days.

#3: I had a single disk with Klemperer's 2 and 3, but unfortunately I never really got on with this one. But then I got Walter's ColSO set. And then his NYPO set. Walter's seem a lot tauter, more exciting.

#1: I'm not sure why, but this one took a long time. I first heard it in performance and it wasn't bad, but not on fire. I just wasn't 'getting' it even after listening to it a fair bit. Then one day I just clicked. I like Furtwangler here.

#2: note that this does not mean I dislike #2, but that I prefer the others more .

[Que]

My top four?

Silly, silly question, ALL FOUR of course!

Q

[FideLeo]

Not silly for me! 

The four symphonies are as different from each other as possible, so a ranking among them does reflect on my personality.   

My criteria:

Works in major keys preferrable to those in minor keys.
Scherzi with both serene and bucolic moments intermingled.
Expanisve first movements are great.
Blazing, energetic finales are a treat.
Moody slow movements are good but they ought to be somewhat tuneful and not too sedate.

Hence 2 > 3 > 4 = 1

[Operahaven]

4321, though 3 and 4 keep changing places.

Interesting.... Why do you like the first the least ?

Mine is 1243.

By the way, the first was Karajan's favorite; he found it the most fascinating and he often programmed it last in concert...

Of course they are all  (wonderfully)  different.

[ChamberNut]

My favorites in order:

1,4,3,2

[Hector]

4, Piano Concerto 1 and Piano Qt 1 op25 as orchestrated by Schoenberg and the first serenade is quite symphonyish.

[BachQ]

My criteria:

Works in major keys preferrable to those in minor keys.

My criteria:

Works in minor keys preferrable to those in major keys.


Ergo: 4/1/3/2

[btpaul674]

3421

[Symphonien]

4-3-1-2. Looks like I'm the 2nd most popular...

[Maciek]

We have a most popular GMGer thread?

[BachQ]

What happens if there's a tie as between two or more symphonies?