Your Favorite 15 (sequential) Symphonies

[Wanderer]

Tough one.

1 Elgar (Langgaard? Vaughan Williams? Haydn? Brahms? Liszt's Faust?)
2 Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette, Symphonie dramatique, op.17 (Schumann? Mendelssohn? Mahler? Brahms? Sibelius? Liszt's Dante?)
3 Beethoven
4 Brahms
5 Nielsen (Bruckner? Sibelius?)
6 Vaughan Williams
7 Sibelius
8 Mahler
9 Bruckner
10 Shostakovich
11 Haydn

[Mirror Image]

I'll do 1-11 -

1. Walton, Brian, Langgaard, Enescu
2. Prokofiev, Borodin, Elgar
3. Honegger, Roussel, Szymanowski, W. Schuman, Scriabin, Casella, Alwyn
4. Schmidt, Braga Santos, Brahms, Diamond, Magnard
5. RVW, Nielsen, Parry
6. Sibelius, Milhaud
7. Mahler, Rautavaara, Pettersson, Tubin
8. Shostakovich
9. Bruckner, Dvorak
10.
11.

Left 10 and 11 blank since I can't reuse any composers.

[mc ukrneal]

1 Brahms
2 Rachmaninov (though Elgar is tough to leave off)
3 Copland (Saint-Saens is also wonderful, but Copland is a long-time favorite)
4 Schumann
5 Tchaikovsky
6 Beethoven
7 Mahler
8 Dvorak
9 Bruckner
10 Rubbra (stuck on this one - perhaps Michael Haydn instead)
11 Richter (stretching it a bit I suppose, but not so familiar wth 11s)
12 Mendelssohn (string Symphiny No 12 - again, perhaps stretching it)
13 Shostakovich (probably not my favorite Shostakovich, but having only recently become familiar with this, have come to love it)
14 Langgaard
15 Rontgen

Of course, with some of the names I've left off, I could start a second list through #8:
1 Arensky
2 Elgar
3 Saint-Saens
4 Stanford
5 Prokofiev
6 Vaughan-Williams
7 Sibelius
8 Schubert

[val]

1 - Schumann
2 - Schumann
3 - Beethoven
4 - Brahms
5 - Bruckner
6 - Mahler
7 - Beethoven
8 - Bruckner
9 - Bruckner
10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15  Shostakovitch

[Fafner]

1 - Schumann
2 - Schumann
3 - Beethoven
4 - Brahms
5 - Bruckner
6 - Mahler
7 - Beethoven
8 - Bruckner
9 - Bruckner
10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15  Shostakovitch

Yes, I'll take that. 

[vandermolen]

Fun thread.

1 Walton
2 Vaughan Williams (1913 version)
3 Bax
4 Shostakovich
5 Nielsen
6 Vaughan Williams
7 Pettersson
8 Havergal Brian
9 Bruckner
10 Rubbra
11Ivanovs
12 Miaskovsky
13 Shostakovich
14 Hovhaness
15 Miaskovsky

[Opus106]

Merit badge in bronze to: vandermolen

*cough-2-4-6-12-13-15-cough*

[Karl Henning]

Hm, still a work-in-progress . . .

1. Schnittke
2. Rakhmaninov
3. Sinfonia espansiva Nielsen
4. Beethoven
5. Vaughan Williams
6. Sibelius
7. Dvořák
8. Mennin
9. Le fosse ardeatine Wm Schuman
10. Holmboe
11.
12.
13. Undertro (Belief in Wonders) Langgaard
14. Shostakovich
15. Haydn

[Sergeant Rock]

Fun thread.

1 Walton
2 Vaughan Williams (1913 version)
3 Bax
4 Shostakovich
5 Nielsen
6 Vaughan Williams
7 Pettersson
8 Havergal Brian
9 Bruckner
10 Rubbra
11Ivanovs
12 Miaskovsky
13 Shostakovich
14 Hovhaness
15 Miaskovsky

Jeffery, you violated the rule: "Your favorite 15 Symphonies... but they have to be 1 through 15 and one symphony per composer, only."

[Karl Henning]

Therein lieth the challenge, what, Sarge?

[Sergeant Rock]

Some of these cycles are beginning to look like "Check-out-how-refined-and-obscure-my-musical-tastes-are Cycles".

In understand omitting Schumann... possibly even Brahms. But Beethoven? Or Mahler (which I would also understand - but in a cycle that includes Schostakovich's 4th and Bax and Rubbra? Really?)

Jens, if you hung out in the GMG threads where Jeffrey can be found, you would understand he's being completely honest. Those really are some of his favorite composers. I'm just surprised he didn't include Braga Santos.

Sarge

[Brian]

Jens, if you hung out in the GMG threads where Jeffrey can be found, you would understand he's being completely honest. Those really are some of his favorite composers. I'm just surprised he didn't include Braga Santos.

Sarge

Braga Santos' Fourth is almost enough to make me drop-kick Brahms out of my list. But I won't.

[Brahmsian]

I am going to 'attempt' this, but surely it is going to be quite difficult (up to 11 and only 1 symphony allowed per composer)

Strictly by the rules

1 - Prokofiev
2 - Brahms
3 - Beethoven
4 - Schumann
5 - Tchaikovsky
6 - Sibelius
7 - Bruckner
8 - Schubert
9 - Dvorak
10 - Mahler
11 - Shostakovich

Sans alcuna licenza

1 - Prokofiev/Schumann/Brahms
2 - Brahms/Schumann/Mahler
3 - Beethoven
4 - Schumann/Dvorak/Schubert
5 - Tchaikovsky/Shostakovich
6 - Sibelius/Mahler/Schubert
7 - Bruckner
8 - Schubert/Shostakovich/Dvorak
9 - Dvorak/Beethoven/Mahler/Bruckner/Schubert
10 - Mahler/Shostakovich
11 - Shostakovich

[Opus106]

Braga Santos' Fourth is almost enough to make me drop-kick Brahms out of my list.

For saying that.

[Lisztianwagner]

One symphony per composer only, it's quite hard to choose:

1. Rachmaninov
2. Elgar
3. Brahms
4. Tchaikovsky
5. Sibelius
6. Mahler
7. Bruckner
8. Dvořák
9. Beethoven
10. Shostakovich
11. Pettersson

[Sergeant Rock]

Therein lieth the challenge, what, Sarge?

It wasn't too difficult for me. Eight on my list actually are among my favorite 15 symphonies: Brian 1, Nielsen 3, Brahms 4, Sibelius 5, Mahler 6, Dvorak 7, Vaughan Williams 8, Shostakovich 15. They've been my favorites for 40, 45 years (even Brian's "Gothic" was on the list, twenty years before I actually heard it  ). Beethoven 3, Elgar 1, Bruckner 3 and 8, Vaughan Williams 4, Mahler 4, Sibelius 4 round out my Top 15 but were eliminated and replaced due to Jens' stringent, and fun, rule.

When it came to 10-14 I made a list for each symphony from my data base so I could see quickly and clearly how many choices I had. This is 12, for example:



Even if I hadn't used Shostakovich and Brian elsewhere, Lloyd would have been chosen as my favorite 12th. I really do love it. It's a gorgeous piece, his symphonic swan song.

Sarge

[springrite]

1:  Barber
2:  Brahms
3:  Rubbra
4:  Nielsen
5:  Beethoven
6:  Tchaikovsky
7:  Pettersson
8:  Schubert
9:  Mahler
10:Tubin
11:Shostakovich

[flyingdutchman]

1. Tchaikovsky
2. Sibelius
3. Brahms
4. Tchaikovsky
5. Tchaikovsky
6. Dvorak
7. Beethoven
8. Dvorak
9. Dvorak
10. Shostakovich
11. Shostakovich


Don't have any up to No. 30 and then it is really up in the air.  But if there are symphonies programmatic, I choose Tchaikovsky's Manfred.

[DaveF]

Not easy, this, but will have a go, partly because I wanted to say (if single symphonies count as "no.1"):

1. Messiaen

and then

2. Schumann
3. Beethoven
4. Rosenberg
5. Nielsen
6. Mahler
7. Sibelius
8. Dvořák
9. Schubert
10. Shostakovich
11. Brian

The results are interesting because they end up (in my case) excluding a number of favourite symphonists completely - VW, Martinů, Walton, Davies, Tippett - because they never quite make the cut for any particular number.  I couldn't quite, much as I love the piece, put Max's 3rd ahead of the Eroica.

[vandermolen]

Some of these cycles are beginning to look like "Check-out-how-refined-and-obscure-my-musical-tastes-are Cycles".

In understand omitting Schumann... possibly even Brahms. But Beethoven? Or Mahler (which I would also understand - but in a cycle that includes Schostakovich's 4th and Bax and Rubbra? Really?)


Silver merit badges to: mc ukrneal, Wanderer, conor, Jeffrey Smith (clever inclusion of Bruckner 0!), Fafner, Velimir, Cato
Merit badge in bronze to: vandermolen

Penalty box for: val

- - - - - original post, continuously edited - - - - -

ve always made this list up in my head; never put it down on 'ether'.

Here's the deal:

Your favorite 15 Symphonies... but they have to be 1 through 15 and one symphony per composer, only.

Edit: OK... I realize that 15 Symphonies is too ambitious. Let's cut it to 11...

So you might like Vaughan Williams 1, Beethoven 2, Mahler 3, and Bruckner 4... but you might not want to make those choices if you also don't want to miss out on Schumann or Brahms.
Get the picture? It makes sense to stack  the composers that wrote plenty Symphonies (i.e. DSCH, even if you like his 7th best) later, to keep room for great composers that wrote fewer symphonies. Schubert counts in the old fashioned way (1-6, 8, 9).

Perhaps easiest by naming multiple candidates for each, then whittling it down. At least that's how I'll construct this. Piece by piece.

1-15	1-11
1.) ......... / Brahms 2.) Mendelssohn / Sibelius / ... 3.) Schumann / ... 4.) Brahms / Nielsen? / Mendelssohn? 5.) Sibelius / Schubert / Nielsen 6.) Dvorak / Bruckner / Mahler 7.) Beethoven / Dvorak / Sibelius 8.) Bruckner / Haydn / 9.) Schubert / Mahler 10.) Diamond? / Mahler 11.) 12.) 13.) 14.) 15.) DSCH	1.) ......... / Brahms 2.) Mendelssohn 3.) Schumann / ... 4.) Brahms / Nielsen? / Beethoven? 5.) Schubert 6.) Dvorak 7.) Sibelius 8.) Bruckner 9.) ...Beethoven? 10.) Mahler 11.) DSCH

knowingly ignored so far: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Hovhaness, Simpson, Myaskovsky?, Schuman, Barber
not figured out which one, if any: Langgaard, Rubbra, Sallinen, Vaughan Williams, Aho, Schnittke, Arnold, Bax, Brian, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Michael Haydn, Milhaud, Petterson, Honegger, Villa-Lobos, Holmboe, Glass, Elgar?, Weinberg

Yes but it is 'your favourite' composers rather than greatest - so I included my favourites.