Favourite symphonic cycles: symphonists whose symphonies you find all excellent

[Christo]

To start with my take, in numerical order:
1. Ludvig Irgens Jensen
Arthur Benjamin
Alf Hurum
Zoltán Kodály
Czesław Marek
2. Eugene Goossens
Samuel Barber
Ernest John Moeran
Arthur Bliss
Eivind Groven
Henri Dutilleux
William Walton
Volkmar Andreae
Willem van Otterloo
3. Levi Madetoja
Douglas Lilburn
Igor Stravinsky
Pēteris Vasks
Alan Rawsthorne
Willem Pijper
Henryk Górecki
4. Lennox Berkeley
Stanley Bate
Franz Schmidt
Michael Tippett
Karol Szymanowski
Witold Lutosławski
Albert Roussel
Kaljo Raid
Arnold Cooke
Léon Orthel
Erkki Melartin
Gösta Nystroem
Lepo Sumera
5. Arthur Honegger
Herman Koppel
Ruth Gipps
Ahmet Adnan Saygun
William Alwyn
Hendrik Andriessen
William Grant Still
Joonas Kokkonen
Camille Saint-Saëns
Georges Enescu
6. Joly Braga Santos
Carl Nielsen
7. Camargo Guarnieri
Richard Arnell
Matthijs Vermeulen
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
Johan Willem Wilms
8, alas. Einar Englund
Charles Tournemire
9. Ralph Vaughan Willams
Malcolm Arnold
Ludwig van Beethoven
Antonín Dvořák
Anton Bruckner
Bohuslav Martinů (three late three-movement 'fantasies' included)
10. Gustav Mahler
Eduard Tubin
11. John Kinsella
Edmund Rubbra
13. Vagn Holmboe 
15. Dmitri Shostakovich
32. Havergal Brian

[DavidW]

I find Mahler, Bruckner, Brahms, Beethoven, Haydn, Martinu, Nielsen, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, and Pettersson to be consistent. Not standards of equal greatness, just consistently good. As in, I could pop in any symphony when I'm in the mood for that composer and not be disappointed. I also mean Elgar, but he only wrote two symphonies!

I don't know if consistency is the greatest virtue. Arnold's first six symphonies are good and consistent, but the last three being staggeringly great means well more than matching the consistency of the first six.

[dhibbard]

Sibelius  all

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

A difficult question, because no composer who wrote many symphonies is completely without fault or some misstep, but for me I'd say Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams have the most consistently excellent symphonic cycles.

[hopefullytrusting]

Wojtek Blecharz (3 symphonies that I have heard so far - all perfect), but I also think that it is unlikely that your music will be of low quality if you can get professionals to perform it without having to pay them.

[Brian]

I see you are omitting Stravinsky's "in E flat" and "of Wind Instruments" 

[Florestan]

Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Tchaikovsky

[Lisztianwagner]

I would say Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Brahms, Nielsen and Elgar; with a bonus for Schönberg, if his Chamber Symphonies can be considered.

[(poco) Sforzando]

To start with my take, in numerical order:
1. Ludvig Irgens Jensen
Arthur Benjamin
Alf Hurum
Zoltán Kodály
Czesław Marek
2. Eugene Goossens
Samuel Barber
Ernest John Moeran
Arthur Bliss
Eivind Groven
Henri Dutilleux
William Walton
Volkmar Andreae
Willem van Otterloo
3. Levi Madetoja
Douglas Lilburn
Igor Stravinsky
Pēteris Vasks
Alan Rawsthorne
Willem Pijper
Henryk Górecki
4. Lennox Berkeley
Stanley Bate
Franz Schmidt
Michael Tippett
Karol Szymanowski
Witold Lutosławski
Albert Roussel
Kaljo Raid
Arnold Cooke
Léon Orthel
Erkki Melartin
Gösta Nystroem
Lepo Sumera
5. Arthur Honegger
Herman Koppel
Ruth Gipps
Ahmet Adnan Saygun
William Alwyn
Hendrik Andriessen
William Grant Still
Joonas Kokkonen
Camille Saint-Saëns
Georges Enescu
6. Joly Braga Santos
Carl Nielsen
7. Camargo Guarnieri
Richard Arnell
Matthijs Vermeulen
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
Johan Willem Wilms
8, alas. Einar Englund
Charles Tournemire
9. Ralph Vaughan Willams
Malcolm Arnold
Ludwig van Beethoven
Antonín Dvořák
Anton Bruckner
Bohuslav Martinů (three late three-movement 'fantasies' included)
10. Gustav Mahler
Eduard Tubin
11. John Kinsella
Edmund Rubbra
13. Vagn Holmboe 
15. Dmitri Shostakovich
32. Havergal Brian

Is there anyone not on your list?

[Karl Henning]

Is there anyone not on your list?

Brian?...

[foxandpeng]

A difficult question, because no composer who wrote many symphonies is completely without fault or some misstep, but for me I'd say Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams have the most consistently excellent symphonic cycles.

This is a helpful way of putting this, for me. On this basis I would have to say...

RVW, Vasks, Tabakov, Holmboe, Tubin, Sibelius, Petterson, and possibly Sawyers.

Not all obvious, maybe, but for me at least, all home runs.

[foxandpeng]

This is a helpful way of putting this, for me. On this basis I would have to say...

RVW, Vasks, Tabakov, Holmboe, Tubin, Sibelius, Petterson, and possibly Sawyers.

Not all obvious, maybe, but for me at least, all home runs.

Barber, because of the small number - but that opens the door to other composers of small numbers.

Nørgård?

Beethoven, obviously.

[Karl Henning]

This is a helpful way of putting this, for me.

Yes.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Brian?...

Brian is on the list! (not our Brian, but that other one.)

But I do see no mention of Alberic Magnard (4), Serge Prokofiev (7), Wolfgang Mozart (41? 47?) or Josef Haydn (104). One has to wonder, are these omissions intentional? Seems to me these composers have as much right of place as some of the worthies mentioned. And what, pray, about Alan Hovhaness (who wrote a lot) and Leif Segerstam (too many to count)?

[Florestan]

I do see no mention of Alberic Magnard (4), Serge Prokofiev (7), Wolfgang Mozart (41? 47?) or Josef Haydn (104).

Ahem!...

Reply #6.

[Karl Henning]

Ahem!...

Reply #6.

Larry meant absent from a certain seemingly exhaustive list.

[DavidW]

But I do see no mention of Alberic Magnard (4), Serge Prokofiev (7), Wolfgang Mozart (41? 47?) or Josef Haydn (104). One has to wonder, are these omissions intentional? Seems to me these composers have as much right of place as some of the worthies mentioned. And what, pray, about Alan Hovhaness (who wrote a lot) and Leif Segerstam (too many to count)?

I don't think Mozart belongs on the list. When he was young, he wrote a multitude of mildly interesting symphonies, and then his mature output consists of a handful of absolute masterpieces. That is not terribly consistent.

You also mentioned Prokofiev, and while this forum demonstrates enthusiasm for his entire symphonic output, I personally think that the 1st, 5th, and 6th stand in a higher tier than the rest of his symphonies.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Ahem!...

Reply #6.

But no mention on the original list, which also credited Tchaikovsky with 7. So ahem to your ahem . . .

[Brian]

But no mention on the original list, which also credited Tchaikovsky with 7. So ahem to your ahem . . .

A few months ago I listened to Tchaikovsky's "Seventh" as completed by some Soviet and recorded by Ormandy. Thoroughly hated it.

But perhaps they mean Manfred?

[Florestan]

Larry meant absent from a certain seemingly exhaustive list.

But no mention on the original list, which also credited Tchaikovsky with 7. So ahem to your ahem . . .

Oh, my bad then.

And I have a question: how does one symphony only qualify as a symphonic cycle?