Your Top Four Brahms Symphonies

Started by Joe Barron, June 21, 2007, 03:16:03 PM

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OK, pick your favorites, in order

1-2-3-4
0 (0%)
1-2-4-3
2 (2.7%)
1-3-2-4
1 (1.4%)
1-3-4-2
2 (2.7%)
1-4-2-3
4 (5.4%)
1-4-3-2
3 (4.1%)
2-1-3-4
2 (2.7%)
2-1-4-3
2 (2.7%)
2-3-1-4
2 (2.7%)
2-3-4-1
3 (4.1%)
2-4-1-3
1 (1.4%)
2-4-3-1
2 (2.7%)
3-1-2-4
1 (1.4%)
3-1-4-2
2 (2.7%)
3-2-1-4
2 (2.7%)
3-2-4-1
1 (1.4%)
3-4-1-2
2 (2.7%)
3-4-2-1
8 (10.8%)
4-1-2-3
6 (8.1%)
4-1-3-2
5 (6.8%)
4-2-1-3
2 (2.7%)
4-2-3-1
2 (2.7%)
4-3-1-2
7 (9.5%)
4-3-2-1
12 (16.2%)

Total Members Voted: 64

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Joe Barron

June 21, 2007, 03:16:03 PM
I'd have to go with

Three
One
Four
Two ...

What are your picks, in order?

cx

#1
June 21, 2007, 03:18:15 PM
2413. That's changed a few times.

-CS

bhodges

#2
June 21, 2007, 03:29:55 PM
I will probably place the Fourth at the top forever.  (It was the first one I heard, thanks to Bruno Walter's recording.)  Its opening gentleness, the fascinating chord progressions, the gorgeous string writing -- I am enchanted every time I hear it.  (Not that the other three don't have many of the same delights, of course.)

After that, I honestly like the other three about equally.  :D

--Bruce

not edward

#3
June 21, 2007, 03:51:24 PM
4321, though 3 and 4 keep changing places.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

Maciek

#4
June 21, 2007, 03:56:02 PM
Difficult choice but once I had the list, ordering it was easy: 4312. Wow, I chose the same four as (almost?) everyone else in this thread! :o

Gurn Blanston

#5
June 21, 2007, 04:03:13 PM
Quote from: Joe Barron on June 21, 2007, 03:16:03 PM
I'd have to go with

Three
One
Four
Two ...

What are your picks, in order?

Exactly the same as yours. I love the opening movement of #3!  :)

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Larry Rinkel

#6
June 21, 2007, 04:11:55 PM Last Edit: June 21, 2007, 04:25:58 PM by Larry Rinkel
I like 3 and 1 distinctly less than 2 and 4. The slow movement of 3 is the most boring thing for me in the symphonies.

Bonehelm

#7
June 21, 2007, 04:12:37 PM
I have a hard time appreciating Brahms. Mahler though, on the other hand...was easier.  :o

Larry Rinkel

#8
June 21, 2007, 04:27:13 PM
Quote from: Bonehelm on June 21, 2007, 04:12:37 PM
I have a hard time appreciating Brahms. Mahler though, on the other hand...was easier.  :o

Yes, but unlike Elgar, I think you'll find many people are passionately devoted to Brahms.

Steve

#9
June 21, 2007, 04:36:44 PM
Another difficult question...

I'd go 4, 3, 1, 2.  ;)

PerfectWagnerite

#10
June 21, 2007, 04:50:24 PM
I think 1 and 4 are absolute masterpieces. 2 is okay but I don't like the lazy opening movement. 3 is my least favorite, I never thought it was a great work and feel that had it been written by anybody else not named Brahms it would have not even made the fringe of the standard repertoire. The melodic material is weak and the orchestration, especially the beginning, is extremely busy.

Xenophanes

#11
June 21, 2007, 04:50:49 PM
Well, he only wrote 4 symphonies, so I guess those are the top four. :o

Oh, you want me to put them in order of preference:

4-Reiner/RPO
1-Walter/Columbia SO
2-Walter-same
3-Walter-same

Or maybe

1, 4, 2, and 3

Josquin des Prez

#12
June 21, 2007, 04:53:09 PM
4321.

Christo

#13
June 21, 2007, 05:00:25 PM
I spent a long Christmas (last year, last Christmas) with them, to learn once again: that there's nothing special about them (not for me, that's to say). So my first choice would be:

0 0 0 0 (no Brahms symphonies - they're simply not really worth mentioning)

A second option:
4 3 2 1 (rather provincial as they are, the Fourth is the best, like a Raff or Stanford, Parry or Elgar symphony - almost)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Heather Harrison

#14
June 21, 2007, 05:10:31 PM
This is a bit of a tough one - possibly 4, 1, 2, 3 - but that could change.  I like Nos. 4 and 1 about equally.  However, although I like his symphonies, my true preference is for his chamber music.

One must not forget his two orchestral serenades which, if Brahms had chosen to call them "symphonies", might be more popular today.  I heard No. 2 in concert some time ago and loved it.  This thread just reminded me that I had intended to get a CD of the serenades, but for some reason never got around to it.  I think I'll have to take care of this soon.

Heather

George

#15
June 21, 2007, 08:48:10 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 21, 2007, 04:03:13 PM
Exactly the same as yours. I love the opening movement of #3!  :)

8)

Absolutely!!

3
2
1
4

8)

rubio

#16
June 21, 2007, 09:16:55 PM
For me it's 3-4-1-2.
"One good thing about music, when it hits- you feel no pain" Bob Marley

Mozart

#17
June 21, 2007, 09:58:29 PM
You all have it wrong its 1 3 4 2.

springrite

#18
June 21, 2007, 10:04:46 PM Last Edit: June 21, 2007, 10:07:41 PM by springrite
A tie between 4, 2, and 1.

Followed by 3, by a thin margin.

(Heck, why didn't I just make it a four-way tie?)







PS: If push comes to shove, I'd go 4, 1, 2, 3.

val

#19
June 21, 2007, 11:13:20 PM
4 3 2 1
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