Vote for your absolute favourite Mahler Symphony!

[madaboutmahler]

You may place one vote for your absolute favourite Mahler symphony! Get voting!

To start the voting off, I am voting for no.6 which  never ceases to amaze me with it's power, excitment and beauty.

Looking forward to seeing the results!

Daniel

[PaulSC]

Got to go with Symphony 4. For me it's the most magical in its blend of Viennese decadence and bucolic innocence.

[DavidW]

No 9 for me, it is a great, dark work.

[Brahmsian]

6

[Renfield]

Unsurprisingly, the 9th - and of course Das Lied can be counted as a symphony, in so far as Mahler himself counted it as one!

[Lisztianwagner]

I vote for Mahler No.1, it's so passionate and thrilling! Definitely my favourite Mahler's symphony along with No.6 

Ilaria

[DavidRoss]

To my ear there is greatness in each of them.  Number four has long been most consistently among my faves, ever since my first hearing of it nearly 40 years ago.  Each of the others has at times joined it (except .  But Der Abschied from DLVDE is one of the most beautiful, perfect, and moving bits of art ever to exist, and thus wins my heart ... and my vote.

[eyeresist]

BANANA!

I just can't narrow my favourites down to one. Symphonies 2, 6 and 7 are all equally beloved by me.

[ibanezmonster]

Why haven't I thought of this poll? 
(or did we do this so long ago that I've forgotten all about it?) 

9.

And it is currently leading. After that, 6 and 2.

[Daverz]

9 is too emotionally intense to listen to very often (and that goes double for 6), so I seem to be the sole vote for 3.

2 is too longwinded in the final movement.  3 is longer, but better proportioned.  I've worn 5 out, and perhaps 1 and 4 as well, though they are not as interesting.  7 is still a difficult one.  8: only when I'm in the mood, and I never seem to be in the mood.

[eyeresist]

2 is too longwinded in the final movement.

Maybe you just haven't heard a good performance? The tempo relations are tricky, and most conductors screw it up. I recommend Bertini.

[Daverz]

Maybe you just haven't heard a good performance?

No, that's not it. I have:

Bernstein I
Ivan Fischer
Kaplan/LSO
Klemperer/Philharmonia
Klemperer/BRSO
Mehta/VPO
Neumann/CzPO (not sure if I've listened to this one yet.)
Tennstedt (live from 1989)
Walter/NYP

All of these have things to recommend them, but I find myself losing patience in the last movement in all of them that I recall.

The tempo relations are tricky, and most conductors screw it up. I recommend Bertini.

I have the Bertini, but I can't recall listening to it.  Anyway, I think I've listened to this work more than enough times in more than enough well-regarded recordings to make a judgement on whether it works for me (on record at least).

[kishnevi]

I can't vote.  My favorite Mahler symphony is whichever one I've listened to most recently.

Thinking--I suppose my favorite favorites are 2 and 9; I have close to 20  recordings, including those in the complete sets, of each one.

Davrerz--if you can--Library copies perhaps--Tilson Thomas and Bernstein DG for 2.  But I like that symphony so much I've only found one performance I didn't like (Norrington) and I plan on giving it a second chance to make sure it just wasn't my mood at the time I listened to it.

[eyeresist]

Bernstein I
Ivan Fischer
Kaplan/LSO
Klemperer/Philharmonia
Klemperer/BRSO
Mehta/VPO
Neumann/CzPO (not sure if I've listened to this one yet.)
Tennstedt (live from 1989)
Walter/NYP

Well, there's your problem - these all suck 

[DavidRoss]

Tilson Thomas and Bernstein DG for 2.

[TheGSMoeller]

It's always a tie with No.3 & No.9, but my vote here went to No.3.

This was the first Mahler symphony that truly rattled me, it may be a little uneven in its structure, but when the final chord fades away (a 12-second final chord for Bernstein/NYP on DG  ) I felt as if I traveled across the universe.

Plus, how could you not love the Bimm-Bamm?

[kishnevi]

Plus, how could you not love the Bimm-Bamm?

Ask Scarpia.  As I recall, he had a particular detestation for that movement.

And you can probably add the person responsible for paying the contralto, whose total singing time amounts to perhaps two minutes out of the hundred or so the entire symphony takes to perform; the other ninety eight minutes she simply gets to stand there and look pretty.

[Roberto]

9 is too emotionally intense to listen to very often (and that goes double for 6)
2 is too longwinded in the final movement.

I agree. Every time I am listening to 6th I think in the last movement I would made cuts.
My favorite is the 2nd but the last movement was too long for me also until I haven't heard Mehta.

[Marc]

4

[MDL]

2, 6 and 9 are my particular faves. Normally, I'd rate 6 highest, and I think it's his best symphony. But I've been listening to 2 quite a bit recently, and it's the symphony that introduced me to Mahler, so today, it's 2.