Your top 3 symphonists

[Franco]

Beethoven

Brahms

Shostakovich

[abidoful]

                                                                                             s


                                                                                             i


                                                                                             b


                                                                                             e


                                                                                             l


                                                                                             i


                                                                                            u


                                                                                            s



                                                        (just felt that his name was not properly represented here  )

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams

Sibelius

Miaskovsky

(Alternatively Shostakovich/Tubin/Bax)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Vaughan Williams

Sibelius

Miaskovsky

(Alternatively Shostakovich/Tubin/Bax)

Brian


Bruckner


Beethoven


(Scandinavian alternative: Sibelius/Langgaard/Nielsen)


Impossible exercise! Mahler, Schumann, Brahms, RVW, Bax... the list is endless.

[kishnevi]

Proposition: all symphonic roads lead either up to or away from Beethoven and Mahler.

For the third name, however, there are just too many possibilities:  Haydn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Sibelius,  Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov would be the prime contenders in my book.

[abidoful]

a little provocative list;
1. Hans Pfitzner
2. Uuno Klami
3. Karol Szymanowski

[vandermolen]

a little provocative list;
1. Hans Pfitzner
2. Uuno Klami
3. Karol Szymanowski

Interesting! I like Klami's Kalevala Suite etc but never got into the symphonies - I must try again.

[Conor71]

Beethoven
Sibelius
Shostakovich

[jowcol]

Whew.  Not sure of I want to touch that with a ten foot pole.  However,  some other symphonic cycles I like a great deal (and more than some of those listed- I won't say which!)  would include:

Rubbra
Holmboe
Atterberg
Malcolm Arnold
Howard Hanson
Petterson

I'd also be very tempted to put E. J. Moeran up there, if though he only wrote one!  But what a great one....

[abidoful]

Interesting! I like Klami's Kalevala Suite etc but never got into the symphonies - I must try again.

Yeah Klami is great. Especially his PSALMUS!! But i am not sure of his symphonies (actually i dont even know them so well) that was my "provocative"-list since i dont consider those three essentially great symphonists...(interesting works though)

[Guido]

Ives
Sibelius
Hartmann

I'd like to say Brian too.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'd like to say Brian too.

No problem. 

[Xenophanes]

In the long run, these three:

F. J. Haydn
W. A. Mozart
L. van Beethoven

[WI Dan]

1.  Beethoven
2.  Mozart
3.  Sibelius

[DavidW]

Beethoven
Haydn
Brahms

[Lethevich]

At the mo' it's:

Martinů
Haydn
Brian

The latter two in particular are always a fixture. It's hard to tire of such diffuse and multi-faceted collections.

[kentel]

Sibelius
Maxwell-Davies
Nørgård

I love Arnold's and Nielsen's symphonies too; quite a difficult choice...

It looks like I should listen to Brian's symphonies. Have all of them been recorded ?

--Gilles

[alkan]

What a question !!    Of all the symphonic masterpieces that have been written, we are asked to pick just 3 composers .... 

OK .... I tried to ask myself who made a revolutionary contribution to the symphonic form and came up with the following

1. Haydn : The inventor, but also the creator of a seemingly endless stream of witty, exciting, beautiful and entertaining symphonies, culminating in the London's.

2. Beethoven : Starting where Haydn left off, with the Eroica he shattered the mould and then produced a string of contrasting and revolutionary works.

3. Mahler : Took the symphony to the pinnacle of its emotional and orchestral possibilities. 


It's tough to leave out such favourites as Sibelius, Elgar, Nielsen, Mozart, Brahms, Bruckner, ....etc,   but the three above for me represent the three major plateaux of symphonic music. 


By the way, I just realized that my choice is 100% Austro-Germanic ...... this was not at all deliberate.    Certainly, central Europe clearly left a massive cultural legacy to the world ......

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams

Miaskovsky

Sibelius

[Lethevich]

It looks like I should listen to Brian's symphonies. Have all of them been recorded ?

They were being recorded in a complete edition by Marco Polo, which Naxos either implied or said it would complete but broke its promise to do so. Naxos has been reissuing the Marco Polo recordings once every blue moon, but has essentially shown very low commitment to the composer, as evidenced by how many recordings languish expensive and not yet reissued. As a result, quite a few are not commercially recorded, but there are a few decent quality bootlegs of some of them (especially fine is the no.27 with Mackerras) available - GMG poster Jezetha should be able to help you out with these.

Such a unique composer doesn't really deserve such shabby treatment, but there's nothing that can be done about it. And I do strongly recommend this composer, as would many others. As much as I love many 20th century symphony cycles, I find much of them small-fry in terms of sheer interest and cranky uniqueness next to Brian.