Your Favorite Symphonies

[USMC1960s]

Favorite 1, 5, 10, whatever number you choose. I am trying to explore other composers besides Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky et al, but please include them if your favorite symphonies include their works. Thank you, again, in advance. I appreciate all the recommendations I can get.

[Karl Henning]

Well, of course Mozart, Bach, Beethoven & Tchaikovsky are among my favorites.  But in the spirit of your query:

Berlioz, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale
Copland, Symphony for Organ and Orchestra
Schnittke, Symphony № 1
Bernstein, Symphony № 2, The Age of Anxiety (a kind of piano concerto, actually)
Prokofiev, Symphony № 2 in d minor
Nielsen, Symphony № 3, Sinfonia espansiva
Shostakovich, Symphony № 4 in c minor
Vaughan Williams, Symphony № 5
Mennin, Symphony № 7, Variation-Symphony
Schuman, Symphony № 9, Le fosse Ardeatine

That will do for a start.

[Sergeant Rock]

A Top 10 (leaving out the Eroica)

Havergal Brian 1 "Gothic"
Mahler 6
Bruckner 3
Sibelius 5
Nielsen 3
Vaughan Williams 4
Brahms 4
Shostakovich 15
Haydn 99
Ives 2

[Sergeant Rock]

Nielsen, Symphony № 3, Sinfonia espansiva

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

Favorite symphonies? Oh boy....this might turn into a larger list than expected (in no particular order):

Nielsen: Symphonies 3-6 (all of them really)
Sibelius: Symphonies 4-7 (all of them really)
Shostakovich: Symphonies 4-11, 15
Prokofiev: Symphonies 2, 5-7
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 3, 5, 6, 8
Elgar: both of them
Martinu: all six of them
Bruckner: Symphonies 5-9
Ives: all five of them
Copland: Short Symphony (No. 2), Symphony No. 3, Symphony for Organ and Orchestra
Barber: Symphony No. 2
Diamond: Symphonies 3 & 4
Schuman: Symphonies 3 & 6
Honegger: Symphonies 2 & 3
Schnittke: Symphonies 3-5, 8
Miaskovsky: Symphonies 24 & 25
Rachmaninov: Symphonies 1-3
Chavez: Symphonies 1, 2, 4
Silvestrov: Symphonies 4 & 5
Part: Symphony No. 3
Casella: Sinfonia (No. 3)
Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Szymanowski: Symphonies 3 & 4
Arnold: Symphony No. 9
Atterberg: Symphony No. 3, "West Coast Pictures"
Nystroem: Sinfonia del Mare (esp. the Svetlanov performance!)
Pettersson: Symphony No. 7
Langgaard: Symphony No. 6, "The Heaven-Rendering
Dvorak: Symphonies 4, 7-9
Brahms: all four of them
Mahler: Symphonies 4, 5, 7
Braga Santos: Symphonies 2 & 4
Tubin: Symphonies 1, 4, & 7
Scriabin: Symphony No. 3, "The Divine Poem"

[Christo]

Another favoured ten in the same (brotherly ) spirit:

Vaughan Williams 6
(Havergal) Brian 1 'Gothic'
Nielsen 5
Tubin 6
Shostakovich 15
Barber 2
Holmboe 8
(Stanley) Bate 3 (played it again today and was impressed, again)
Braga Santos 3
Arnold 9
Mahler 6

[Brian]

in chrono, very roughly

Mozart 38, 39, 41
Haydn 45, 80, 82, 92, 93, 104
Beethoven 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
Schubert 4, 8 (Great C Major)
Berlioz fantastique
Kalliwoda 3, 5
Dvorak 3, 7, 8
Brahms 4
Bruckner 6, 7
Tchaikovsky 4, 5, 6
Mahler 1, 3
Rachmaninov 2
Sibelius 3, 5, 7
Nielsen 3
Szymanowski 4 (like Karl's Bernstein pick, a secret piano concerto)
Vaughan Williams 3, 5
Shostakovich 6, 9, 10
Martinu 2, 3, 4
Atterberg 8
Prokofiev 7
Lloyd 5
Rautavaara 7
Aho 9

EDIT: Wow, I picked 47. I'll try and think of 3 more to make it 50!
EDIT 2: Added Haydn 104, Schubert 4, Lloyd 5 to make it 50.

[USMC1960s]

Of the several threads I've started, this is the most helpful to me, as I had never heard of some of these composers listed. So it helps me branch out into what looks to me like the endless depths of classical music.

[amw]

Almost the same! These are only off-the-top-of-my-head symphonies. Hopefully I didn't leave any out.

Haydn 44, 46, 47, 67, 78, 83, 84, 86, 88, 92-104
Mozart 38, 39, 40
Beethoven 1-9
Schubert 7 & 8
Berlioz 1-3
Berwald 2-4
Schumann 2, 4 (1841 version)
Mendelssohn 4
Bruckner 6, 8
Brahms 1-4
Dvořák 1-8
Borodin 2
Tchaikovsky 1, 2, 6
Nielsen 3, 5, 6
Schoenberg 1 (Op. 9 not 9b)
Webern
Ives 4
Martinů 1-6
Szymanowski 3 & 4
Dutilleux 1 & 2
Stravinsky of Wind Instruments & in C
Shostakovich 14
Gerhard 3
Lutosławski 3 & 4
Tippett 1 & 2
Schnittke 8
Dhomont Frankenstein
Malec Triola
Berio
Arnold 7

[Brian]

Schumann 4 (1841 version)

I knew you had good taste.

Also I feel like a total doof for forgetting Borodin 2. Borodin is one of those composers whom I forget for months at a time, then remember him and listen to all his music fresh and love all of it and vow to listen more, and then the cycle repeats.

[vandermolen]

Very much agree with the choices of Mirror Image and Christo but here goes. I have limited myself to one by each composer:

Bruckner: Symphony 9
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 6
Miaskovsky: Symphony 6
Bax: Symphony 3
Walton: Symphony 1
Shostakovich: Symphony 4
Egge: Symphony 1
Rootham: Symphony 1
Kabalevsky: Symphony 4
Nielsen: Symphony 5 (heard it live recently - terrific)
Tubin: Symphony 2 'Legendary'
Harris: Symphony 3
Braga Santos: Symphony 4
Havergal Brian: Symphony 8
Gliere: Symphony 3 'Ilya Murometz'
Diamond: Symphony 3
Arnold: Symphony 1
Atterberg: Symphony 3 'West Coast Pictures'
Nystroem: Symphonie Del Mare
Norgard: Symphony 1
Mahler: Symphony 3
Lilburn: Symphony 1
Rosenberg: Symphony 3
Pettersson: Symphony 7
Copland: Symphony 3
Bernstein: Symphony 1 'Jeremiah'
Rubbra: Symphony 5
Bate: Symphony 3
Kinsella: Symphony 3
Damase: Symphonie
Honegger: Symphony 3 'Liturgique'

Sorry, didn't know when to stop. 

[Cato]

   



There are tooooo many!!!  0:)

Okay, let me just make a list of favorite composers who only produced One symphony: at random...

Hans Rott

Bernard Herrmann

Ernst Chausson

Georges Bizet

Richard Wagner

Louis Vierne

Erich Korngold

Irving Fine

[Brian]

Irving Fine

The Irving Fine and Harold Shapero symphonies are being presented together at Carnegie Hall this November by Leon Botstein and the American SO, in case you need a bit of a vacation!

[(poco) Sforzando]

The Irving Fine and Harold Shapero symphonies are being presented together at Carnegie Hall this November by Leon Botstein and the American SO, in case you need a bit of a vacation!

Now that I want to see!

[Cato]

The Irving Fine and Harold Shapero symphonies are being presented together at Carnegie Hall this November by Leon Botstein and the American SO, in case you need a bit of a vacation!

WOW!  Leon Botstein is doing an excellent job in pushing the "unknown" yet worthy repertoire.  He brought Taneyev's opera The Oresteia to life a few years ago with the same orchestra.

[Christo]

WOW!  Leon Botstein is doing an excellent job in pushing the "unknown" yet worthy repertoire.  He brought Taneyev's opera The Oresteia to life a few years ago with the same orchestra.

Another gem - only to be heard on Spotify - is his performance with the same orchestra of Paul Ben-Haim's Second Symphony (1945); by far that composer's most inspired composition AFAIK them and a wonderful performance (Botstein shouting "cover your mouth!!" after the third movement's final bars at someone in the audience coughing). 

[Cato]

Another gem - only to be heard on Spotify - is his performance with the same orchestra of Paul Ben-Haim's Second Symphony (1945); by far that composer's most inspired composition AFAIK them and a wonderful performance (Botstein shouting "cover your mouth!!" after the third movement's final bars at someone in the audience coughing). 

  Many thanks for the recommendation!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

A small number of favourites:

Messiaen Turangalila
Berio Sinfonia
Carter Symphonia
Coates no. 14
Henze no. 7
Eisler Deutsch Symphonie
Mahler no. 7
Sibelius no. 7
Ives no. 4
Honegger no. 1
Schoenberg no. 1
Schnittke no. 1

[Daverz]

Some great lists.  Ask for a drink of water and get handed a firehose.  Looks like most of the territory has been farmed out, so I'll add only a few more items:

CPE Bach: Symphonies Wq. 183
Haydn 31
Vorisek: Symphony
Gade: Symphony No. 1
Kalinnikov: Symphony No. 1
Balakirev: Symphony No. 1
Bliss: A Colour Symphony

And second some others to sip from the firehose, keeping it down to one per composer:

Sibelius 5
Shostakovich 10
Nielsen 5
Bruckner 7
Vaughan Williams 5
Walton 1
Tchaikovsky 6
Brahms 3
Dvorak 9
Borodin 2
Mendelssohn 4

[amw]

To be fair if I gave a top 5 it would be one of those boring average lists OP didn't want.

Beethoven 3
Mozart 38
Brahms 3
Dvořák 7
Webern

Webern is the only outside choice and even then, still the best known and highest regarded symphony of the 20th century in compositional and musicological circles.

So instead I listed like 590 symphonies so someone who didn't know some of them could find out more. >_>