Your favourite Vaughan Williams Symphonies?

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Hi,

I'm still pretty new to RVW, but I see quite some people like him. I'm curious about his symphonies and about what people prefer. Which are your favorite ones? You can choose 3 max.
I only 'know' 2, 7 and 8. I like the Antarctica, and the 1st lento of London Symphony...

Best regards
Michael

[karlhenning]

Ach, impossible! I voted for the Pastoral, Fifth & Sixth.

I'd vote for three others tomorrow.

[lukeottevanger]

Ach, impossible! I voted for the Pastoral, Fifth & Sixth.

Yes, 3, 5 and 6 would possibly be my choice, I think (I'm not voting as it's too hard to choose!). But there's no reason not to slot 4 in there, and though 3 makes more comfier listening, 4 is an even better piece, I think. The sequence 4, 5 and 6 is the pinnacle of his symphonic writing, I think, the first two contrasting strongly, the last one (among other thing) a miraculous conflict of these two extremes (to generalise hugely).

[BachQ]

No. 8 in d minor

[Lethevich]

First and foremost: 6.

I can't decide between any others, I very much enjoy 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9.

[Joe Barron]

Hands down, the Pastoral. There's not an uninspired moment in the piece, and the soprano solo stays with one forever. It's like Debussy, only English, and the symphony I would write, if I could write symphonies.

[Don]

Nos. 2, 3 and 9, but I love them all.

[BachQ]

Let me add a plug for the Violin Concerto in d minor -- Concerto Accademico ..........

[johnQpublic]

I'm always deeply moved by the moodiness of the Sixth.

[lukeottevanger]

Just listened to the 5th again - amazed as always by its generosity, eventual optimism and humanity, and also by the almost unique fashion in which its trajectory is carried out and supported by a purely musical set of principles. The transition from modality to diatonicism, and the steps along the way, as well as the lucid, coherent interaction of motives from movement to movement - they all flows so very naturally without the slightest forcing. A miracle, in its own way.

[Daverz]

The only one I don't like is No. 1, but I suppose I could always develop a taste for it eventually.

[not edward]

For me, I don't have to think very hard to choose 3, 4 and above all 6.

[71 dB]

The only one I don't like is No. 1, but I suppose I could always develop a taste for it eventually.

No. 1 is the only one I have heard (once). I was surprised how good it is.

[Ephemerid]

I only voted for No. 5 because its the only symphony of his I've heard so far-- I quite like it.  No. 3 is probably the next RVW work I'll be getting (whenever that might be!).

[gmstudio]

Huh, and here I thought I'd be the lone vote for No. 7.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Just listening again to Sym. No.2, Hickox/LSO, 02 - Lento: It's so mystical. I'm not bri'ish , but this must be something about dark side streets of London...

[drogulus]

     I could make a case for every single one of them, a very happy circumstance. RVW is still my overall favorite composer and has been since I first heard the Sinfonia Antartica in an 8th grade music class in 1962.

[anasazi]

Like Karl, I could probably pick a different one every day.  All are favorites, all kind of different though. I have heard the 8th played live, and still have fond memories of the experience, so that was one of my choices.  If I really had to name just one, it might be the 5th.  I'm simply reduced to quivering jelly by the Romanza movement especially. 

But really, all of them.  Just all of them are gems.

[btpaul674]

The 8th by far. My favorite symphony of any composer of any time, actually.

[hornteacher]

#2 for me.  Not sure why, I just keep coming back to it.