Your top 3 symphonists

[Franco]

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.

Interesting.  Havergal Brian is a composer whose music is completely unknown to me, but your post has piqued my interest.  Just now checking Amazon, I saw a recording containing his Symphony #31 - how many did he write?

[Lethevich]

Interesting.  Havergal Brian is a composer whose music is completely unknown to me, but your post has piqued my interest.  Just now checking Amazon, I saw a recording containing his Symphony #31 - how many did he write?

32, but his symphonies - especially the later ones - are much shorter than the standard template (sometimes single movements), meaning that as a cycle it's not huge. Only his first four could be described as lengthy.

Jezetha's Mediafire Brian folder would be a good introduction if anybody has the url, as I realise Brian is kind of controversial and has his detractors as well as supporters. I love the doggedness of the music most of all, the composer giving that Byronic impression of overcoming everything thrown at him by sheer bloody-mindedness

There's a nice thread on him in the composer index if I recall correctly.

[Franco]

I realise Brian is kind of controversial and has his detractors as well as supporters.

Why is he controversial?

[Lethevich]

Why is he controversial?

His symphonies to some are on the surface short, seemingly irrelevent tonal musings. Underneath it's rather complex, making most performances of it less than ideal which gives an impression of crumminess where simply it requires more rehearsal than the label could afford. The "what is underneath" factor is what draws me into the music, very tightly constructed, almost pig-headedly unwilling to milk themes, making sharp or abrupt transitions to new ideas quite rapidly.

The controversy comes in when you get people disliking the music for entirely different reasons, either for being nowhere near as "difficult" as they had anticipated, and finding it rather uninteresting as a result, or for the difficulty making the pieces seem devoid of interest, simply tumult for the sake of it. The style walks a fine line between the obnoxious and the sublime, which I guess is why his fans are so... fanatical about the music, as it "clicks" for them, and the find something wonderful with all the cranky, sometimes poorly performed and recorded works.

[Franco]

Thanks, I found the Brian thread and was reading some - I get it now.  BTW, Sarge posted a link to the music web forum I think you were referring to - but it appears to be broken.

I'm still interested and will no doubt invest a some modest amount of $ and time into getting to know this music.  Who knows, I may be a HBS candidate.  Is hazing involved?

[kentel]

His symphonies to some are on the surface short, seemingly irrelevent tonal musings. Underneath it's rather complex, making most performances of it less than ideal which gives an impression of crumminess where simply it requires more rehearsal than the label could afford. The "what is underneath" factor is what draws me into the music, very tightly constructed, almost pig-headedly unwilling to milk themes, making sharp or abrupt transitions to new ideas quite rapidly.

The controversy comes in when you get people disliking the music for entirely different reasons, either for being nowhere near as "difficult" as they had anticipated, and finding it rather uninteresting as a result, or for the difficulty making the pieces seem devoid of interest, simply tumult for the sake of it. The style walks a fine line between the obnoxious and the sublime, which I guess is why his fans are so... fanatical about the music, as it "clicks" for them, and the find something wonderful with all the cranky, sometimes poorly performed and recorded works.

Thank you very much for all these informations ! That sounds promising.  I could find (only) 8 symphonies on the NML (Marco Polo all of them, as you said). I'll listen to them as soon as I can

--Gilles

[Christo]

Three favourites of mine:

Vaughan Williams
Tubin
Holmboe

They still are. At the moment I'd add Nielsen or Brian perhaps. For me, Nielsen and Holmboe are equals in many respects - except that Holmboe was even much more prolific. 

I would certainly advocate the case of Havergal Brian too - a handful of new recordings would be very helpful. 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'd like to thank Sarah (Lethe) for answering the questions concerning Brian. Yes, I am a great admirer of Brian's work. I listen to him every day (I have most of his symphonies as mp3s on my player). I discovered Brian in 1977 just through reading about him. A year later I got hold of his Eighth and Ninth and was sold. My fascination has never gone during these past 33 years, and my love and understanding of the music have remained constant. Anyone wanting to get to know Brian could do worse than listen to these few symphonies (and please report back...):


Havergal Brian Symphony No. 6 (1948). London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Myer Fredman. Commercial recording.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/wijgqyozmjm/Brian Symphony No. 6 LPO Myer Fredman.mp3


Havergal Brian, Symphony No 8 in Bb minor. Written in 1949. Performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves (commercial recording, EMI, June 1978)


http://www.mediafire.com/file/0jf2yvnm2tj/Brian 8.mp3


Havergal Brian, Symphony No. 10 (1954) Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra - James Loughran - 1972. Commercial recording.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/xztyigy2wjz/Brian 10.mp3


Havergal Brian - Symphony No. 16 (1960). The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Myer Fredman. Commercial recording.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/i0uuiz32kjd/Brian Symphony No. 16 LPO Myer Fredman.mp3

[jhar26]

-1 Beethoven
-2 Haydn
-3 Mozart

[arkiv]

Also the baroque symphonies (overtures, sinfonias)?

[Henri]

1. Brcukner

2. Shostakovich

3. Beethoven / Mahler

[WeRoica]

Beethoven
Mahler
A. Pettersson

[starrynight]

The bolded (emboldened?) quote is something I'm certainly in favour of. Beethoven's 6th is mostly about feelings rather than a sequence of concrete events, but the 9th admittedly prefigures Mahler, especially his 'Resurrection'.

Beethoven didn't really prefigure people, he couldn't forecast the future.  Mahler was greatly influenced by Beethoven with his 2nd, not surprising as Beethoven had been one of the most acclaimed composers through the 19th century.

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 ......

Two of those you list are from the classical period.  The centre of classical music then was Vienna.  Other periods surely have just as much influence (or more influence even) from other places.

Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven

Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven

I'll go along with these two lists.  I don't see the top 2 being displaced any time soon. 

[Saul]

Mendessohn - No.4 Italian
Mozart - No.40
Beethoven - No.5

Wonderfully constructed, harmonically balanced, beautiful and innovative melodies, moving works, touching and inspiring.

[drogulus]

      A good place to start with Brian would be No. 7, which is not extremely long or short. It has many of the characteristics Brian is known for but also has a wonderfully extrovert quality. This is approachable Brian, which is not to say Brian is forbiddingly difficult. Perhaps the best way to put it is that this one is "fun" from the first listen on. I realize fun is a quasi-naughty concept in aesthetics, but it seems appropriate here since the composer appears to be having fun himself.

[monafam]

Dvorak

Mahler

Bruckner / Vaughn Williams

[schweitzeralan]

In the heat of the "Your top...." trend...

1.LvB
2. Mahler
3. Tchaikovsky

Sorry, only allowed 3...

Tchaikovsky
Sibelius
Mahler

[greg]

Three completely different styles but all equally brilliant:

Beethoven
Mahler
Sibelius

After reading the first two pages, these seem to be the three most common.

[Mirror Image]

My top 3 symphonists?

1. Bruckner
2. Mahler
3. Vaughan Williams

[RJR]

The bolded (emboldened?) quote is something I'm certainly in favour of. Beethoven's 6th is mostly about feelings rather than a sequence of concrete events, but the 9th admittedly prefigures Mahler, especially his 'Resurrection'.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony didn't prefigure Mahler's Second, Mahler's Second was influenced by Beethoven's Ninth. Beethoven's Ninth also highly influenced Wagner. Irving Kolodin wrote an interesting book title 'The Continuity of Music'. In it you will be taken on a musical journey, from early music to the 20th Century.