Your 10 or top favourite symphonists

Started by Symphonic Addict, January 05, 2022, 07:33:38 PM

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Symphonic Addict

Especially when composers who wrote a significant number of symphonies are concerned, and that you can identify each symphony very well.

For me, they are (I say 10):

Nielsen
Prokofiev
Tubin
Holmboe
Langgaard
Shostakovich
Mahler
Sibelius
Vaughan Williams
Beethoven
The current annihilation of a people on this planet (you know which one it is) is the most documented and at the same time the most preposterously denied.

Mirror Image


springrite

#2
Beethoven
Mahler
Brahms
Pettersson
Nielsen
Bruckner
Veinberg
Rubbra
Brian
Shostakovich


Bonus Entry: Bax

Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Brian

Chronologically-ish:

Haydn
Beethoven
Kalliwoda
Dvorak
Tchaikovsky
Sibelius
Nielsen
Shostakovich
Vaughan Williams
Rouse

Florestan

Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2022, 09:42:37 AM
Haydn

This violates rule #2 of the OP, namely that you can identify each symphony very well. 

Quick, what's the difference between Haydn's 17 and 34? Or his 26 and 52?  :laugh:
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

amw

Quote from: Florestan on January 06, 2022, 09:48:54 AM
This violates rule #2 of the OP, namely that you can identify each symphony very well. 

Quick, what's the difference between Haydn's 17 and 34? Or his 26 and 52?  :laugh:
26, 34 and 52 are all fairly memorable minor-key symphonies with easily recogniseable thematic ideas, so this probably wasn't the best choice of random numbers.

Florestan

Quote from: amw on January 06, 2022, 09:54:12 AM
26, 34 and 52 are all fairly memorable minor-key symphonies with easily recogniseable thematic ideas, so this probably wasn't the best choice of random numbers.

The risk of randomization... Okay, how about 11 and 25?   ;D
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

amw

No. 11 starts with a beautiful slow movement vaguely reminiscent of Mozart's piano sonata K282, while No. 25 does not, although I remember not much else about the latter except that it was written earlier than its number suggests.

For me it's definitely harder to distinguish the first ~20 Mozart symphonies from one another than the first ~30 Haydn ones.

Brian

Quote from: Florestan on January 06, 2022, 09:48:54 AM
This violates rule #2 of the OP, namely that you can identify each symphony very well. 

Quick, what's the difference between Haydn's 17 and 34? Or his 26 and 52?  :laugh:
Defining "best symphonists" to deliberately exclude Haydn is like defining "best tennis players" to deliberately exclude Federer!

(Agreed with amw on the early Mozart vs. Haydn, by the way.)

Florestan

Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2022, 10:09:06 AM
Defining "best symphonists" to deliberately exclude Haydn is like defining "best tennis players" to deliberately exclude Federer Novak Djokovic!

Fixed.  ;D
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

Florestan

Quote from: amw on January 06, 2022, 10:03:17 AM
No. 11 starts with a beautiful slow movement vaguely reminiscent of Mozart's piano sonata K282, while No. 25 does not, although I remember not much else about the latter except that it was written earlier than its number suggests.

I bow to your excellent memory.

As for myself, I can say with a fairly highh degree of accuracy that "this is a Haydn symphony" when I hear one, but except maybe ten of them, I can't name which one it is.
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

Florestan

Okay, here's my list:

Haydn
Boccherini
Mozart
Schubert
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Dvorak
Tchaikovsky
Mahler
Rachmaninoff
Sibelius








"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

Brahmsian

In alphabetical order:

Bruckner
Dvořák
Mahler
Nielsen
Schubert
Schumann
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Taneyev
Tchaikovsky

Jo498

Beethoven
Haydn
Mahler
Brahms
Bruckner
Mozart
Dvorak
Nielsen
Schumann
Sibelius
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Brian


Florestan

Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2022, 12:43:50 PM
;D ;D

To be fair, he excluded himself.

I beg to differ but let's just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

Sergeant Rock

Havergal Brian
George Lloyd
Haydn
Bruckner
Mahler
Sibelius
Elgar
Dvorak
Vaughan Williams
Beethoven
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

springrite

Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Mirror Image

I guess I'll thrown my picks into the ring:

In order:

1. Mahler
2. Sibelius
3. Bruckner
4. Shostakovich
5. Tchaikovsky
6. Dvořák
7. Vaughan Williams
8. Nielsen
9. Martinů
10. Ives

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 05, 2022, 08:12:02 PM
Hasn't this been done before?

With the aforementioned first indications, it hasn't!  ;) ;D

And thanks for participating!
The current annihilation of a people on this planet (you know which one it is) is the most documented and at the same time the most preposterously denied.