Favourite symphonies 1,2,3 etc...

[SymphonicAddict]

Concerning Fartein Valen: I became interested in his works some years ago, after reading a review by a music critic whose review of the Valen symphonies was an admission of complete incomprehension.  He wrote that he could not offer a review per se, other than to admit that he had not the slightest grasp of the works.

So I thought: "Okay, I absolutely must hear those works!"   

Not so forbidding at all!

e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/v/Lx7TWogGvFg

To make a bit of contrast, those Valen symphonies are utterly ugly to my ears. All of them sound pretty similar, it's like if Valen had composed the same symphony four times. However, the one I found most interesting was the No. 3, mostly due to its agitated parts.

[vandermolen]

Well I'm fond of 2, 3 and 7. And also 4 in a way, and 5 fascinates me though it also feels completely mad.

I have a CD of 3 on Chandos so will listen to to that next. I did not like No.2 as much as No.1

[vandermolen]

Can I do it this way?

19th-Century List (trying hard not to write BRUCKNER or MAHLER more than once)

Symphony I - Hans Rott 
Symphony II - Rimsky-Korsakov
Symphony III - Schumann
Symphony IV - Dvorak
Symphony V - Tchaikovsky
Symphony VI - Kalliwoda      
Symphony VII - Beethoven
Symphony VIII - Schubert
Symphony IX - Bruckner

20th-Century List

Symphony I - Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
Symphony II - Charles Ives
Symphony III - Prokofiev
Symphony IV - Fartein Valen         
Symphony V - Ernst Toch
Symphony VI - Scriabin (Prefatory Action)  0:)
Symphony VII - Sibelius
Symphony VIII - Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Symphony IX - Mahler
Symphony X - Shostakovich

Great stuff Leo. A thumbs up for Ovchinnikov and Rott from me.

[Madiel]

I have a CD of 3 on Chandos so will listen to to that next. I did not like No.2 as much as No.1

I can't vouch for the Chandos series. Others might.

[vandermolen]

I can't vouch for the Chandos series. Others might.

I prefer the 'Austera' on Chandos to the later recording, good as that is, by the Vienna PO.

[Cato]

To make a bit of contrast, those Valen symphonies are utterly ugly to my ears. All of them sound pretty similar, it's like if Valen had composed the same symphony four times. However, the one I found most interesting was the No. 3, mostly due to its agitated parts.

To be sure, Valen's works are an acquired taste.     To describe them as "thorny" might be an understatement!   0:)    Still, I like going through them now and then!   Try the Toch symphonies!  They tend toward the rosy rather than the thorny.


https://www.youtube.com/v/rwppm1JaD_M

Great stuff Leo. A thumbs up for Ovchinnikov and Rott from me.

Amen!   0:)

[André]

1. Vaughan-Williams
2. Schubert
3. Beethoven
4. Brahms
5. Bruckner
6. Tchaikovsky
7. Sibelius
8. Shostakovich
9. Mahler
Unnumbered: Franck

This is today's list. Tomorrow, as Scarlett O Hara said, is another day 

[André]

To be sure, Valen's works are an acquired taste.     To describe them as "thorny" might be an understatement!   0:)    Still, I like going through them now and then!   Try the Toch symphonies!  They tend toward the rosy rather than the thorny.


https://www.youtube.com/v/rwppm1JaD_M


Amen!   0:)

I'll take Toch over Valen any day !

[Christo]

The slow movement of Symphony 4 has a hauntingly beautiful proto-minimalist section. Thank you for reminding me of it.

YOU ... !!! ..... LISTEN TO ............... VILLA-LOBOS?!!!!!@??>?  *#$@% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#donttellme 

[vandermolen]

YOU ... !!! ..... LISTEN TO ............... VILLA-LOBOS?!!!!!@??>?  *#$@% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#donttellme 

Hahaha. Well, I'm open to change my views and I did enjoy that 'Victory' Symphony although I admit that I have often been disappointed by his music apart from Chorus No.10 (I think).

[vandermolen]

Right, let's have another go at this inspired by entries here.

1: Ovchinnikov
2: Lilburn
3: Harris
4: Hanson
5: Rubbra
6: Vaughan Willliams
7: Moyzes
8: Havergal Brian
9: Glazunov (fragment)
10: Shostakovich

[Papy Oli]

Hahaha. Well, I'm open to change my views and I did enjoy that 'Victory' Symphony although I admit that I have often been disappointed by his music apart from Chorus No.10 (I think).

Jeffrey,
You could try his solo guitar music by Norbert Kraft on Naxos if you haven't already.

[DaveF]

Concerning Fartein Valen: I became interested in his works some years ago, after reading a review by a music critic whose review of the Valen symphonies was an admission of complete incomprehension.  He wrote that he could not offer a review per se, other than to admit that he had not the slightest grasp of the works.

So I thought: "Okay, I absolutely must hear those works!"   

Not so forbidding at all!

Bit of a Valen enthusiast myself, especially for the Violin Concerto, which I love.  I must say I don't find him thorny or ugly at all, but rather gentle and serene, even faintly whimsical, a Second Viennese whose big-city decadence has been blown away by cold bracing northern air.

And while I'm here (and ignoring the difference between cardinal and ordinal, i.e. "Symphony no.1" and First symphony):

1. Hindemith (Mathis der Maler)
2. Stravinsky (Psalms)
3. Davies
4. Shostakovich
5. Bruckner
6. Nielsen
7. Sibelius
8. Dvořák
9. Schubert

[Cato]

Bit of a Valen enthusiast myself, especially for the Violin Concerto, which I love.  I must say I don't find him thorny or ugly at all, but rather gentle and serene, even faintly whimsical, a Second Viennese whose big-city decadence has been blown away by cold bracing northern air.

And while I'm here (and ignoring the difference between cardinal and ordinal, i.e. "Symphony no.1" and First symphony):

1. Hindemith (Mathis der Maler)
2. Stravinsky (Psalms)
3. Davies
4. Shostakovich
5. Bruckner
6. Nielsen
7. Sibelius
8. Dvořák
9. Schubert

Yes, the Violin Concerto of Valen is most excellent!

YouTube offers a documentary + performance!  (They only offer 30 seconds of the modern performance on CD!    )

https://www.youtube.com/v/O2Te8aA7pN0

[North Star]

Listening to the Violin Concerto on Spotify from this recording, it seems I must look into Valen.
[asin]B00158UU60[/asin]

[Iota]

.. those Valen symphonies are utterly ugly ..

I must admit I rather liked the sound of that ... so wandered off to NML, landed on the 2nd symphony where I found much to delight, particularly in the two middle movements, but enjoyed it all. 

Anyway it made me wonder about 'ugly' music, and after a couple of minutes I concluded that I'm not sure I find any music ugly as such, not any that I can currently call to mind anyway. I can find it boring, slightly meaningless, or not quite for me in some not always explicable way, but not ugly. There are I'm sure some pieces that deliberately aim at 'ugly' for expressive purposes, but the means there would probably justify the ends and thus not be ugly in the sense that I understand you to mean ( I hope correctly) here.
At a slight tangent, I can certainly find playing ugly, whether in tone or interpretatively.

Anyway, thanks to Cato for bringing Valein up, not a name I'd heard of, but one I'll certainly be revisiting. And thanks to Symphonic Addict for expressing strident views that prompted me to go and investigate in the first place.

(I'll probably press 'Post' and immediately think of something irredeemably ugly!  )

[SymphonicAddict]

I must admit I rather liked the sound of that ... so wandered off to NML, landed on the 2nd symphony where I found much to delight, particularly in the two middle movements, but enjoyed it all. 

Anyway it made me wonder about 'ugly' music, and after a couple of minutes I concluded that I'm not sure I find any music ugly as such, not any that I can currently call to mind anyway. I can find it boring, slightly meaningless, or not quite for me in some not always explicable way, but not ugly. There are I'm sure some pieces that deliberately aim at 'ugly' for expressive purposes, but the means there would probably justify the ends and thus not be ugly in the sense that I understand you to mean ( I hope correctly) here.
At a slight tangent, I can certainly find playing ugly, whether in tone or interpretatively.

Anyway, thanks to Cato for bringing Valein up, not a name I'd heard of, but one I'll certainly be revisiting. And thanks to Symphonic Addict for expressing strident views that prompted me to go and investigate in the first place.

(I'll probably press 'Post' and immediately think of something irredeemably ugly!  )

Nice you did enjoy them! Interesting how different we perceive this music. Having listened to them some months ago, my conclusion was that those symphonies didn't inspire anything on me. I found them cold, monotonous, with no emotions, thus, 'ugly' or practically nothing attractive to my ears and brain. Fortunately they are rather short. 

[Mirror Image]

Listening to the Violin Concerto on Spotify from this recording, it seems I must look into Valen.
[asin]B00158UU60[/asin]

Valen, to me, is like Schoenberg but without the individuality.

[vandermolen]

Jeffrey,
You could try his solo guitar music by Norbert Kraft on Naxos if you haven't already.

Thanks Olivier - will look out. I'm enjoying the 'War' Symphony at the moment.

[vandermolen]

1. Vaughan-Williams
2. Schubert
3. Beethoven
4. Brahms
5. Bruckner
6. Tchaikovsky
7. Sibelius
8. Shostakovich
9. Mahler
Unnumbered: Franck

This is today's list. Tomorrow, as Scarlett O Hara said, is another day 

But it is a great list André! I found listening to Bruckner's 5th Symphony the other day (Von Beinum) overwhelming. I was chatting to my brother a couple of days ago about it. We both brought each other the Rattle version of Bruckner's 9th Symphony for Christmas when it first came out (). He was saying that he thought that it was a mistake to conclude the unfinished last movement in the style of the eighth symphony and that No.5 would have been a more appropriate model to use.