Top 10 Favorite Symphony Finales

[kyjo]

There has doubtlessly already been a thread or poll on this before, but......

What are your top 10 favorite symphony finales? This is a tough one for me, but here goes (in somewhat of an order):

1. Mahler 2
2. Tchaikovsky 5
3. Mahler 1
4. Rachmaninov 2
5. Shostakovich 5
6. Bruckner 5
7. Sibelius 2
8. Bruckner 9
9. Sibelius 5
10. Braga Santos 4/Scriabin 2/Saint-Saens 3 (can't choose!)

List away!

[david johnson]

shosty 5
Prokofiev 5
Tchaikovsky 4
Mendelssohn
Ives 1
Mahler 1
Kalinnikov 1
Schubert 9
Vaughn-Williams 4
Bruckner 8
Beethoven 5

[North Star]

One per composer
Mozart 41
Beethoven 9
Schumann 4
Dvorak 9
Tchaikovsky 6
Bruckner 8
Mahler 9
Sibelius 5
Nielsen 4
Shostakovich 15

And apparently 7/10 of these are the last completed finales by the composers.

[TheGSMoeller]

Haydn: 45
Haydn: 98
Berlioz: symphonie fantastique
Brahms: 3
Bruckner: 5
Elgar: 2
Prokofiev: 6
Ives: 4
DSCH: 15
Glass: 5 (or 8, coin flip)
Górecki: 3

Crap, had to replace DSCH with Ives 4. I know we've done this type of thread before because I remember forgetting Ives then also. 

[Sergeant Rock]

Restricting myself to one per composer (otherwise it might end up Mahler 1-10 or Bruckner 0-9)

1. Sibelius 5
2. Vaughan Williams 4
3. Mahler 6
4. Dvorak 7
5. Brahms 4
6. Bruckner 8
7. Elgar 1
8. Ives 2
9. Haydn 73
10. Atterberg 5


Sarge

[mc ukrneal]

By finale do you mean the end of the last movement or the whole last movement?

[DavidW]

I like that quiet feeling of acceptance in Shostakovich's 8th symphony.

[springrite]

Mahler 7
Mahler 9
Mahler 2
Mahler 1
Sibelius 5
Shostakovich 5
Pettersson 7
Franck d minor
Brian 10
Mozart 41

[kyjo]

By finale do you mean the end of the last movement or the whole last movement?

The whole last movement.

[Brahmsian]

Just off the top of my head (and in no particular order), these are some of my favourites:

*Bruckner 8 (what a coda!) 

*Mahler 2, 6, 7, 9

*Beethoven 3, 5

*Shostakovich 5 (unbelievable - this may be my absolute favourite)  The coda for this one feels like it's 7 to 10 minutes long.  Love it! 

*Tchaikovsky 2, 3, 4, 6

[DavidW]

I like that quiet feeling of acceptance in Shostakovich's 8th symphony.

Resignation might be a better word than acceptance.

[AdamFromWashington]

Shostakovich's 5th

Ives' 2nd

Nørgård's 3rd

Nielsen's 4th

Beethoven's 9th

Beethoven's 7th

Brahms' 1st

Aho's 12th

Shostakovich's 15th

And can I include the end of John Adam's Harmonielehre?

[kyjo]

Shostakovich's 5th

Ives' 2nd

Nørgård's 3rd

Nielsen's 4th

Beethoven's 9th

Beethoven's 7th

Brahms' 1st

Aho's 12th

Shostakovich's 15th

And can I include the end of John Adam's Harmonielehre?

Nice to see some contemporary composers on your list (Norgard, Aho and Adams). Taking a glance at my list, one might assume that I only like late-romantic music, which is, of course, not the case. But I just couldn't help it! Those late-romantics really knew how to get my "air baton" going in their symphonic finales!

[DavidW]

I was reminded last night of the awesomeness of the Brahms 3 finale.

[TheGSMoeller]

I was reminded last night of the awesomeness of the Brahms 3 finale.

Yes, amazing. In fact the whole symphony is amazing, the best structured of his 4.

[Klaze]

Bruckner 5
Shostakovich 15
Sibelius 5
Bax 3
Beethoven 9
Mahler 6
Brahms 4
Vaughan Williams 8
Bruckner 8
Prokofiev 1 

[Sergeant Rock]

Vaughan Williams 8

I was torn between 4 & 8, the only two that end with bang instead of a whimper. Went with 4 but I'm glad to see someone listing 8  "...all the 'phones and 'spiels known to the composer" 

Sarge

[kyjo]

Wonder why John (Mirror Image) hasn't gave us his top ten yet......

[Mirror Image]

Wonder why John (Mirror Image) hasn't gave us his top ten yet......

Because lists like these wear me out now...

[dyn]

Shostakovich's 4th...
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(not to scale)

Vaughan Williams's 6th, or perhaps 5th
Tippett's 1st
Rubbra's 5th? Prokofiev's 6th?

Can we extend it to finales in general? I'd have a much better list then, e.g. Schnittke's Piano Quintet, Schubert's Gaststeiner-Sonate, Beethoven's Op. 135, Messiaen's Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus, Janáček's 1st quartet, Shostakovich's 3rd quartet, the part with the shō in Lachenmann's Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelholzern et cetera.