Your Top 30 Favorite 20th Century Orchestral Works

Started by Mirror Image, April 28, 2015, 08:19:25 PM

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NJ Joe

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 02, 2015, 06:22:11 AM
I would have loved to include it but since I set a limit of 30, and I also wanted to have one composer per work, I chose Piano Concerto for the left-hand because it's quite simply a magnificent work (not that Daphnis isn't of course) and I've really come under it's spell these last couple of years.

Cool, I love that work as well.  It's just that I know you're a big fan of Daphnis and was surprised not to see it.  I also thought I might see Harmonielehre.  Don't worry they'll both be on my list!

PS- Great list!
"Music can inspire love, religious ecstasy, cathartic release, social bonding, and a glimpse of another dimension. A sense that there is another time, another space and another, better universe."
-David Byrne

Mirror Image

Quote from: NJ Joe on May 02, 2015, 08:25:13 AM
Cool, I love that work as well.  It's just that I know you're a big fan of Daphnis and was surprised not to see it.  I also thought I might see Harmonielehre.  Don't worry they'll both be on my list!

PS- Great list!

Thanks, Joe. I really would have liked to extend my list to 40 or even 50, but that would be just getting a bit out-of-hand. ;) Looking forward to reading your list.

Ken B

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 02, 2015, 06:51:00 PM
Thanks, Joe. I really would have liked to extend my list to 40 or even 50, but that would be just getting a bit out-of-hand. ;) Looking forward to reading your list.

Is that John Luther Adams with a full beard, or is it Samuel Barber with a hat?

Mirror Image

Quote from: Ken B on May 02, 2015, 08:05:57 PM
Is that John Luther Adams with a full beard, or is it Samuel Barber with a hat?

Umm...are you being serious? :-\

amw

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 02, 2015, 08:13:51 PM
Umm...are you being serious? :-\
Don't worry, he's just being silly; he knows it's actually Frederick Delius with a full beard and a hat. I mean, obviously.

Mirror Image

Quote from: amw on May 02, 2015, 08:30:03 PM
Don't worry, he's just being silly; he knows it's actually Frederick Delius with a full beard and a hat. I mean, obviously.

:P

Ken B

Quote from: amw on May 02, 2015, 08:30:03 PM
Don't worry, he's just being silly; he knows it's actually Frederick Delius with a full beard and a hat. I mean, obviously.

That is the funniest thing I read this week!

NJ Joe

Here's my relatively pedestrian list:

Adams - Harmonielehre
Barber - Symphony No. 1
Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Copland - Appalachian Spring
Debussy - Nocturnes, Jeux
Holst - The Planets
Hovhaness - Mysterious Mountain
Ives - Symphony No. 2
Ligeti - Atmospheres
Lutoslawski - Symphony No. 3
Mahler - Symphony No. 6
Nielsen - Symphony No. 4
Part - Tabula Rasa
Piston - Symphony No. 2
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances
Ravel - Daphnis and Chloe, Rapsodie Espagnole
Reich - The Four Sections
Respighi - Pines of Rome
Schuman - Symphony No. 3
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15
Sibelius - Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 7
Stravinsky - The Firebird, The Rite of Spring
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, Sinfonia Antartica (without the narration)

Sorry to leave out works by Cage, Carter, Varese and Webern.

"Music can inspire love, religious ecstasy, cathartic release, social bonding, and a glimpse of another dimension. A sense that there is another time, another space and another, better universe."
-David Byrne

Mirror Image


Ken B

Quote from: NJ Joe on May 03, 2015, 06:23:44 PM
Here's my relatively pedestrian list:

Adams - Harmonielehre
Barber - Symphony No. 1
Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Copland - Appalachian Spring
Debussy - Nocturnes, Jeux
Holst - The Planets
Hovhaness - Mysterious Mountain
Ives - Symphony No. 2
Ligeti - Atmospheres
Lutoslawski - Symphony No. 3
Mahler - Symphony No. 6
Nielsen - Symphony No. 4
Part - Tabula Rasa
Piston - Symphony No. 2
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances
Ravel - Daphnis and Chloe, Rapsodie Espagnole
Reich - The Four Sections
Respighi - Pines of Rome
Schuman - Symphony No. 3
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15
Sibelius - Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 7
Stravinsky - The Firebird, The Rite of Spring
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, Sinfonia Antartica (without the narration)

Sorry to leave out works by Cage, Carter, Varese and Webern.

A very nice list. There's a typo between Hovhaness and Ligeti though.  ;)

My list would have both those Sibelius symphonies, that Barber, and a good whack of Stravinsky.  About half Stravinsky I expect. Gotta have Walton's First as well, and some Minimalism.

vandermolen

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 03, 2015, 06:41:56 PM
Great list, Joe! Love a lot of those works. 8)

Me too. I should have included Barber's 1st Symphony and Essay No.2 on my own list.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

NJ Joe

Thanks, guys.  Ken - I just happened to have been listening to Ives 2 for the first time in quite a while and really enjoying it, hence it's inclusion.  Not familiar with the Walton, but it's on my "to do" list.
"Music can inspire love, religious ecstasy, cathartic release, social bonding, and a glimpse of another dimension. A sense that there is another time, another space and another, better universe."
-David Byrne

Ken B

Quote from: vandermolen on May 04, 2015, 11:44:27 AM
Me too. I should have included Barber's 1st Symphony and Essay No.2 on my own list.

The Essays are great. Too bad Barber only wrote one symphony ....

*runs for cover*

vandermolen

Quote from: Ken B on May 04, 2015, 01:14:13 PM
The Essays are great. Too bad Barber only wrote one symphony ....

*runs for cover*

He wrote two although he withdrew No.2 but it is very good and there are several recordings.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Ken B

Quote from: vandermolen on May 06, 2015, 01:38:18 PM
He wrote two although he withdrew No.2 but it is very good and there are several recordings.

It sounds a lot like Night Flight in places.

(I am just squabbling with John.)

vandermolen

Quote from: Ken B on May 06, 2015, 01:42:44 PM
It sounds a lot like Night Flight in places.

(I am just squabbling with John.)

Oh, I see  :)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

Okay, a list. In chronological order:

1905 Claude Debussy, La Mer
1905 Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 6

1910 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
1912 Maurice Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé
1913 Igor Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps
1915 Sergei Prokofiev, Scythian Suite
1916 Gustav Holst, The Planets
1919 Manuel de Falla, El Sombrero de Tres Picos
1919 Matthijs Vermeulen, Symphony No. 2 `Prélude à la nouvelle journée'

1922 Carl Nielsen, Symphony No. 5
1926 Leoš Janáček, Sinfonietta
1927 Havergal Brian, Symphony No. 1 'Gothic'

1930 Frank Bridge, Oration - concerto elegiaco
1930 Ottorino Respighi, Metamorphoseon Modi XII
1932 Gabriel Pierné, Divertissement sur un thème pastoral
1936 Nikos Skalkottas, Thirty-six Greek Dances
1936 Béla Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

1940 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances
1940 Zoltán Kodály, Concerto for Orchestra
1942 Samuel Barber, Second Essay for orchestra;
1947 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 6
1948 Lennox Berkeley, Concerto for two pianos and orchestra

1951 Joly Braga Santos, Variacoes sobre um tema alentejano
1953 Vagn Holmboe, Symphony No. 8 'Boreale'
1954 Eduard Tubin, Symphony No. 6
1958 Bohuslav Martinů, Podobenství (The Parables)

1971 Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 15
1975 Geirr Tveitt, A Hundred Folk Melodies from Hardanger
1986 Robert Simpson, Symphony No. 9
1997 John Kinsella, Symphony No. 7, for wordless chorus & orchestra
... 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

vandermolen

Quote from: Christo on May 09, 2015, 02:59:52 AM
Okay, a list. In chronological order:

1905 Claude Debussy, La Mer
1905 Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 6

1910 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
1912 Maurice Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé
1913 Igor Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps
1915 Sergei Prokofiev, Scythian Suite
1916 Gustav Holst, The Planets
1919 Manuel de Falla, El Sombrero de Tres Picos
1919 Matthijs Vermeulen, Symphony No. 2 `Prélude à la nouvelle journée'

1922 Carl Nielsen, Symphony No. 5
1926 Leoš Janáček, Sinfonietta
1927 Havergal Brian, Symphony No. 1 'Gothic'

1930 Frank Bridge, Oration - concerto elegiaco
1930 Ottorino Respighi, Metamorphoseon Modi XII
1932 Gabriel Pierné, Divertissement sur un thème pastoral
1936 Nikos Skalkottas, Thirty-six Greek Dances
1936 Béla Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

1940 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances
1940 Zoltán Kodály, Concerto for Orchestra
1942 Samuel Barber, Second Essay for orchestra;
1947 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 6
1948 Lennox Berkeley, Concerto for two pianos and orchestra

1951 Joly Braga Santos, Variacoes sobre um tema alentejano
1953 Vagn Holmboe, Symphony No. 8 'Boreale'
1954 Eduard Tubin, Symphony No. 6
1958 Bohuslav Martinů, Podobenství (The Parables)

1971 Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 15
1975 Geirr Tveitt, A Hundred Folk Melodies from Hardanger
1986 Robert Simpson, Symphony No. 9
1997 John Kinsella, Symphony No. 7, for wordless chorus & orchestra

We have very similar tastes although I do not know all the works. I very much agree now that Kinsella's 7th Symphony is the greatest  (although 3,4 and 6 are also candidates). I'd probably have chosen Tubin's 3rd,4th or 2nd Symphony in preference to No.6.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

Quote from: vandermolen on May 09, 2015, 11:12:39 AMWe have very similar tastes although I do not know all the works. I very much agree now that Kinsella's 7th Symphony is the greatest  (although 3,4 and 6 are also candidates). I'd probably have chosen Tubin's 3rd,4th or 2nd Symphony in preference to No.6.

I know.  :) In composers like Tubin, Vaughan Williams or Barber, I slightly prefer their more 'expressionist' side. In other words: you love Myaskovsky, I prefer Shostakovich.  :)

Should have added 1938 Alan Rawsthorne, Symphonic Studies - about the most impressive first orchestral composition by any composer in any time, IMHO.
... 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

vandermolen

Quote from: Christo on May 11, 2015, 03:47:15 AM
I know.  :) In composers like Tubin, Vaughan Williams or Barber, I slightly prefer their more 'expressionist' side. In other words: you love Myaskovsky, I prefer Shostakovich.  :)

Should have added 1938 Alan Rawsthorne, Symphonic Studies - about the most impressive first orchestral composition by any composer in any time, IMHO.

I'm totally with you on Rawsthorne. When I started to get interested in classical music as a teenager I watched that fine old war film 'The Cruel Sea' and was very impressed by the music and made a careful note of the composer's name.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).