Top 5 Imaginary Symphonies

[vandermolen]

It definitely exists - there's a photo of the manuscript parts on this page http://www.robinmilfordtrust.org.uk/milfwork.htm

That's very exciting news. I'm sure I read somewhere that Milford had withdrawn it and I wondered if it had been destroyed - but clearly not. Thank you for posting this - maybe we will hear it one day. In the meantime his Violin Concerto and The Darling Thrush (after Thomas Hardy) are both beautiful and memorable works, very much in the English pastoral tradition.

[vandermolen]

[I know nothing about Milford, I'm just indulging in a bit of goggling...]


At first sight it appears you can hear it, too, on this page http://www.robinmilford.co.uk/musrm_orch.htm but I just followed the links and they go nowhere. Nevertheless, it suggests there's a recording somewhere out there, doesn't it?

Odd, though - that page distinguishes between his Symphony no 1 (date unknown) and his First Symphony op 34 from 1933. Any ideas on that?

Also very interesting news. It looks like you can request the parts. Maybe Dutton will record this as they issued The Darkling Thrush recently.

[Symphonic Addict]

Castelnuovo-Tedesco: A symphony inspired by some Biblical topic would have been excellent to hear.

Pierné: A folksy symphony based on Spanish and French melodies.

Ciurlionis: A vast symphony that included wordless chorus depicting some of his thought-provoking paintings.

Ireland: A symphony inspired by some legend à la Mai-Dun or something like that.

Respighi: A late symphony inspired by Da Vinci's paintings.


Bonus track

Haydn: A 105th (or 108th?) symphony just because more than 100 are not enough.   

[Brian]

Haydn: A 105th (or 108th?) symphony just because more than 100 are not enough.   

I'll be more specific: Haydn's Symphony No. 111, composed within mere days after the still-healthy old fella attended a performance of Beethoven's Fifth.

[Symphonic Addict]

I'll be more specific: Haydn's Symphony No. 111, composed within mere days after the still-healthy old fella attended a performance of Beethoven's Fifth.

I'm pretty sure it would be a real hit!

[TheGSMoeller]

Jeffrey Lebowski: Symphony No. 1 "Abide"
Jeffrey Lebowski: Symphony No. 2 "The Caucasian"

Not sure he would've ever found time to compose any more.

[Ten thumbs]

A symphony from Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel.
She did write an overture. Having done so, she performed it at one of her in-house concerts. For that, she must have written out all the parts, gone through a number of rehearsals, etc. After the performance, nothing; because she was barred from publishing and she would not have wanted to fill her concerts with re-runs of her own works. So, imagine all that hard work for such a small reward. She also wrote some choral works with similar results. To write a full symphony would have stretched her limited resources too far: so, if only. . .

[relm1]

I would love to have an opportunity to hear the originally planned Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 with soloists, chorus, and orchestra which would have been a wonderful culmination to the "War Cycle".  I also wouldn't mind a Prokofiev No. 8 (though I love the mysterious and evocative ending to his No. 7) and Rachmaninoff No. 4. 

[ritter]

The symphonies Richard Wagner intended to compose after Parsifal. RW's non-dramatic oeuvre is meagre and, with just a couple of exceptions, not particularly impressive (and his early symphonies are very derivative, a young compsoer trying to emulate Beethoven), but the mature Wagner could have had something intersting to say in the genre. Alas, that was not to be...

[vandermolen]

I've done this before but here goes:

Bruckner's 9th Symphony with the final movement completed by Bruckner

Shostakovich Symphony 16 (at the time of his death there were reports that he was working on a new symphony)

Sibelius No.8

George Butterworth: Symphony

Glazunov: Symphony No.9 (complete - I love the fragment which exists)

[71 dB]

Elgar: Symphony No. 1i
Elgar: Symphony No. 2i
Elgar: Symphony No. 3i
Elgar: Symphony No. 4i
Elgar: Symphony No. 5i

[vandermolen]

Elgar: Symphony No. 1i
Elgar: Symphony No. 2i
Elgar: Symphony No. 3i
Elgar: Symphony No. 4i
Elgar: Symphony No. 5i

Haha