Your Top 20 Favorite 20th Century Orchestral Works

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

1897 could be considered a year within a stylistic movement that can certainly be described as post-romantic, but it depends on the piece. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is certainly something composed in a style that can be considered post-romantic, but belonging to the 'wrong' century. Pieces by Elgar, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Puccini, Strauss etc. might have more in common stylistically with late 19th century Romantic tendencies than they do with the defining movements of 20th century composition.

[Maestro267]

Let's skip the foreplay and get to the main course!

I don't even understand why the suite exists when the ballet itself is only c. 35 minutes long.

[vandermolen]

Ok 20 short pieces:

Sainton: Nadir
Novak: In the Tatra Mountains
Bliss: Hymn to Apollo
VW: Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus
Lavry: Emek
Glazunov: Finnish Fantasy
Alwyn: The Magic Island
Lo Presti: The Masks
Prokofiev: Russian Overture
Bax: Festival Overture
Miaskovsky: Two Pieces for Strings
Ives: The Unanswered Question
Sibelius: Tapiola
Copland: Danzon Cubano
Shostakovich: Festival Overture
Gershwin: Variations on I've got Rhythm
Pingoud: Prophet
Honegger: Pastoral d'Ete
Ireland: The Forgotten Rite
Elgar: Sospiri

[Christo]

Ok 20 short pieces:

I kept them all 'less than ten minutes'; don't know some of yours, great set and a world to win, still. 

[vandermolen]

I kept them all 'less then ten minutes'; don't know some of yours, great set and a world to win, still. 

Thanks.
They won't all be under 10 minutes. I should have included William Schuman's 'Prayer in Time of War' (1943) which I have recently discovered - fine work but 15 minutes.
I'm curious about the Vagn Holmboe Dolphin work in your list and agree with many of your selections such as VW, Revueltas, Moeran and Nielsen.

[Christo]

I think that I should have included Rawsthorne's 'Symphonic Studies'.

Most remarkable first orchestral composition by any composer that I know.

[SymphonicAddict]

I need to refresh this list:

Symphonies:

Glière: Symphony 3 Ilya Murometz
Tubin: Symphony 3
Khachaturian: Symphony 2 The Bells
Nielsen: Symphony 5
Mahler: Symphony 6 Tragic
Schmidt: Symphony 4
Walton: Symphony 1
Respighi: Sinfonia Drammatica
Casella: Symphony 2
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 4
Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie 
Arnold: Symphony 5
Bantock: A Celtic Symphony
Shostakovich: Symphony 11 The Year 1905
Prokofiev: Symphony 5
Langgaard: Symphony 4 Løvfald
Holmboe: Symphony 6
Rachmaninov: Symphony Колокола, for soloists, chorus and orchestra
Sibelius: Symphony 5
Braga Santos; Symphony 4


I'd have liked to include these ones:

Copland 3, Hanson 2, Stenhammar 2, Atterberg 3, Kabalevsky 4, Melartin 3, Peterson-Berger 3, Merikanto 2, Miaskovsky 17, Martinu 3, Moeran, Hindemith Symphony in E-flat, Yoshimatsy 2, Korngold, Herrmann, Madetoja 2, Barber 1, Hovhaness 50, Magnard 4, Villa-Lobos 10,, Zemlinsky 2, Lloyd 4, Ivanovs 4, Pettersson 6, Alwyn 4, Rubbra 1, Ben-Haim 2, Bax 1, Bliss A Colour Symphony, Stravinsky Symphony in 3 movements, Malipiero 1, Alfvén 4 Fran Havsbandet, Scriabin Symphony 4 Le Poème de l'extase, Elgar Symphony 2, Lilburn 2, Englund 2, Suk Asrael, Bloch Symphony in C sharp.


Excluding symphonies (I mean, whatever that includes orchestra):

Janácek Glagolitc Mass
Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem
Langgaard: The End of the Times
Respighi: Church Windows
Tippett: Fantasia concertante on a theme by Corelli
Tubin: Sinfonietta on Estonian motifs
Schnittke: Cello concerto 1
Penderecki: Polymorphia
Szymanowski: Harnasie
Bartók: Music for strings, percussion and celesta
Nielsen: Flute concerto
Alwyn: Odd Man Out Suite
Shostakovich: Violin concerto no. 1
Prokofiev: Zdravitsa!
Pärt: Tabula Rasa
Villa-Lobos: Chôros
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Lyatoshinsky: Grazhyna
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez

I'd have liked to include these ones:

Poulenc Organ concerto, Martinu Les Frescoes de Piero della Francesca, Novák Toman and the Wood Nymph, Strauss Metamorphosen, Klami Kalevala Suite, McEwen Gray Galloway from Three Border Ballads, Janácek Tarás Bulba, Grofé Grand Canyon Suite, Kodály Dances of Galanta, Debussy La Mer, Bridge Enter Spring, Roussel Bacchus et Ariane, Shostakovich The Execution of Stepan Razin...

[musicrom]

I'm sure I forgot some, but these were the first 20 that I came up with:

1901, Scriabin - Symphony No. 2
1902, Sibelius - Symphony No. 2
1902, Mahler, Symphony No. 5
1904, Sibelius - Violin Concerto
1905, Rimsky-Korsakov - Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (Suite)
1907, Sibelius - Symphony No. 3
1907, Rimsky-Korsakov - Le coq d'or (Suite)
1909, Mahler - Symphony No. 9
1910, Stravinsky - Firebird Suite
1911, Sibelius - Symphony No. 4
1913, Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
1919, Sibelius - Symphony No. 5
1919, Elgar - Cello Concerto
1924, Poulenc - Les biches
1929, Walton - Viola Concerto
1937, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5
1945, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 9
1951, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10
1971, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15
1974, Schnittke - Symphony No. 1

Decided to sort it by year. Looks heavily biased towards first half of the century. Would be interesting to see what my list would be for second half.

[vandermolen]

I need to refresh this list:

Symphonies:

Glière: Symphony 3 Ilya Murometz
Tubin: Symphony 3
Khachaturian: Symphony 2 The Bells
Nielsen: Symphony 5
Mahler: Symphony 6 Tragic
Schmidt: Symphony 4
Walton: Symphony 1
Respighi: Sinfonia Drammatica
Casella: Symphony 2
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 4
Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie 
Arnold: Symphony 5
Bantock: A Celtic Symphony
Shostakovich: Symphony 11 The Year 1905
Prokofiev: Symphony 5
Langgaard: Symphony 4 Løvfald
Holmboe: Symphony 6
Rachmaninov: Symphony Колокола, for soloists, chorus and orchestra
Sibelius: Symphony 5
Braga Santos; Symphony 4


I'd have liked to include these ones:

Copland 3, Hanson 2, Stenhammar 2, Atterberg 3, Kabalevsky 4, Melartin 3, Peterson-Berger 3, Merikanto 2, Miaskovsky 17, Martinu 3, Moeran, Hindemith Symphony in E-flat, Yoshimatsy 2, Korngold, Herrmann, Madetoja 2, Barber 1, Hovhaness 50, Magnard 4, Villa-Lobos 10,, Zemlinsky 2, Lloyd 4, Ivanovs 4, Pettersson 6, Alwyn 4, Rubbra 1, Ben-Haim 2, Bax 1, Bliss A Colour Symphony, Stravinsky Symphony in 3 movements, Malipiero 1, Alfvén 4 Fran Havsbandet, Scriabin Symphony 4 Le Poème de l'extase, Elgar Symphony 2, Lilburn 2, Englund 2, Suk Asrael, Bloch Symphony in C sharp.


Excluding symphonies (I mean, whatever that includes orchestra):

Janácek Glagolitc Mass
Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem
Langgaard: The End of the Times
Respighi: Church Windows
Tippett: Fantasia concertante on a theme by Corelli
Tubin: Sinfonietta on Estonian motifs
Schnittke: Cello concerto 1
Penderecki: Polymorphia
Szymanowski: Harnasie
Bartók: Music for strings, percussion and celesta
Nielsen: Flute concerto
Alwyn: Odd Man Out Suite
Shostakovich: Violin concerto no. 1
Prokofiev: Zdravitsa!
Pärt: Tabula Rasa
Villa-Lobos: Chôros
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Lyatoshinsky: Grazhyna
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez

I'd have liked to include these ones:

Poulenc Organ concerto, Martinu Les Frescoes de Piero della Francesca, Novák Toman and the Wood Nymph, Strauss Metamorphosen, Klami Kalevala Suite, McEwen Gray Galloway from Three Border Ballads, Janácek Tarás Bulba, Grofé Grand Canyon Suite, Kodály Dances of Galanta, Debussy La Mer, Bridge Enter Spring, Roussel Bacchus et Ariane, Shostakovich The Execution of Stepan Razin...

Your lists are so similar to my own tastes that I find it almost uncanny - apart from R.Strauss and I haven't got my head round Respighi's Drammatica Symphony yet although I like his work generally. I'm looking forward to hearing Shostakovich's 11th Symphony in London in a couple of weeks.

[Christo]

Your lists are so similar to my own tastes that I find it almost uncanny

Same here. Come in our arms! 

[Mirror Image]

I'm sure I forgot some, but these were the first 20 that I came up with:

1901, Scriabin - Symphony No. 2
1902, Sibelius - Symphony No. 2
1902, Mahler, Symphony No. 5
1904, Sibelius - Violin Concerto
1905, Rimsky-Korsakov - Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (Suite)
1907, Sibelius - Symphony No. 3
1907, Rimsky-Korsakov - Le coq d'or (Suite)
1909, Mahler - Symphony No. 9
1910, Stravinsky - Firebird Suite
1911, Sibelius - Symphony No. 4
1913, Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
1919, Sibelius - Symphony No. 5
1919, Elgar - Cello Concerto
1924, Poulenc - Les biches
1929, Walton - Viola Concerto
1937, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5
1945, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 9
1951, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10
1971, Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15
1974, Schnittke - Symphony No. 1

Decided to sort it by year. Looks heavily biased towards first half of the century. Would be interesting to see what my list would be for second half.

A great list. I love many of these works. I'm digging all of the Shostakovich you listed. Just go ahead and make another list so you can name his other symphonies.

[Wanderer]

Not in order:

Scriabin: Prométhée, le poème du feu
Sibelius: Symphony No.7
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Mahler: Symphony No.8
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Stravinsky: Les noces
Nielsen: Sympnony No.4
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.2
Ravel: Piano Concerto in D (for the left hand)
Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
Tüür: Sow the Wind...
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Skalkottas: Piano Concerto No.2
Debussy: La mer
Janáček: Tarás Bulba
Schreker: Kammersymphonie
Medtner: Piano Concerto No.1
Schmidt: Symphony No.2
R.Strauss: Symphonia domestica
Berg: Drei Orchesterstücke

[Karl Henning]

A most interesting R. Strauss choice, Tasos!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[musicrom]

A great list. I love many of these works. I'm digging all of the Shostakovich you listed. Just go ahead and make another list so you can name his other symphonies.

Hehe, indeed I could. There's secretly more Sibelius in my list, but it's spread out so it's harder to tell.

[Mirror Image]

Hehe, indeed I could. There's secretly more Sibelius in my list, but it's spread out so it's harder to tell.

Sibelius is a favorite, too, so you're definitely in good company.

[TheGSMoeller]

Already began tallying up the points, although I would like to get at least 25 lists before I start revealing them. I think we are up to 16 lists so far.

Thank you to everyone participating! This is a series I may continue when this is over, thinking of Greatest Concertos, Greatest Chamber Works, Greatest Sacred Works, etc...

 

[vandermolen]

New List

Braga Santos: Symphony 4
Tubin: Symphony 3
Freitas Branco: Symphony 4
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 6
Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (1913 version)
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 9
Bax: Symphony 3
Moeran: Symphony
Gliere: Symphony 3
Shostakovich: Symphony 10
Rubbra: Symphony 5
Williamson: Symphony 1
Walton: Symphony 1
Miaskovsky: Symphony 21
Egge: Symphony 1
Bernstein: 'Jeremiah Symphony'
Sibelius: Tapiola
Sainton: Nadir
Rosenberg: Symphony 3
Kinsella: Symphony 3

[vandermolen]

Already began tallying up the points, although I would like to get at least 25 lists before I start revealing them. I think we are up to 16 lists so far.

Thank you to everyone participating! This is a series I may continue when this is over, thinking of Greatest Concertos, Greatest Chamber Works, Greatest Sacred Works, etc...

Are you on the wrong thread 'Favourites' rather than 'Greatest'?

[TheGSMoeller]

Are you on the wrong thread 'Favourites' rather than 'Greatest'?

Oh Shit! I did post on the wrong thread.   

I though this was the one I created the other day. I'm losing track of which thread is which. Anyway, thanks!!!! 

[vandermolen]

Oh Shit! I did post on the wrong thread.   

I though this was the one I created the other day. I'm losing track of which thread is which. Anyway, thanks!!!! 

Easily done - they have similar titles.