Your ten unusual symphonic choices (post 1916)

[vandermolen]

Unusual, whatever that may be - but okay, a bit more unusual than usually: 

Matthijs Vermeulen 2 (`Prélude à la nouvelle journée')
Eivind Groven 1
Kaljo Raid 1
Léon Orthel 2 ('Piccola Sinfonia')
Paul Ben-Haim 2
Ruth Gipps 4
Ulvi Cemal Erkin 2
Camargo Guarnieri 3
John Veale 2
John Kinsella 7

Glad to see that Raid has been reinstated 
The Gipps, her masterpiece I think, cries out for a CD release. The Veale is a great new discovery and I have you to thank for my Orthel awareness. I think I prefer the Ben Haim No.1 but No.2 is great too, complete with angry outburst from the conductor on the Botstein download.

[Christo]

I think I prefer the Ben Haim No.1 but No.2 is great too, complete with angry outburst from the conductor on the Botstein download.

Actually conductor Leon Botstein shouting angrily 'Cover your mouth!!!' at some-one in the audience who had been coughing during the very quiet and concentrated final minutes of the third movement; you can hear the audience whispering after his outburst and it takes some extra time before he can begin with the finale. 

[vandermolen]

Actually conductor Leon Botstein shouting angrily 'Cover your mouth!!!' at some-one in the audience who had been coughing during the very quiet and concentrated final minutes of the third movement; you can hear the audience whispering after his outburst and it takes some extra time before he can begin with the finale. 

Yes, I have both recordings, including an earlier CD release - both are very good.there is a nice CD of his chamber music on Chandos as well.

[Androcles]

Very interesting choices. Love the Popov. He seems to quote from Boris Godunov near the end amidst all the [forced?] celebration. I find it incredibly moving, especially knowing what a difficult life Popov had with the soviet authorities - he was a great composer in my view.

Yes - Popov is a very interesting composer. His symphonies are a bit uneven though. I've heard 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, probably not in the best possible recording. Nos 3 and 5 lack focus in my view. No. 2 is a fine example of the Soviet symphony (it won a Stalin prize). The most famous one is obviously the first, praised by Shostakovich and allegedly influential on his 4th Symphony. This is a powerful piece but ultimately, I think, a bit rough round the edges. It reminds me of Havergal Brian's Gothic in some ways. There are moments of extreme power, clear exploration on the part of the composer, and the piece is well worth hearing. Many listeners will really respond to it. On the other hand it lacks the kind of consistency and incision that would make it appeal to critics.

The 6th Symphony, is, however, a masterpiece. It is a very strange work, it seems to making a mockery of Lenin by by beginning its festivities ( subtitled 'festive' symphony) with what sounds like a drunken fanfare. Themes return and morph in ways that are both disturbing and amusing. Above all it is focussed in a way that its immediate predecessors were not.

Popov suffered under the Soviet, but probably not as much as some others - Zaderatsky in particular springs to mind, who wrote his most important music in the gulag. Mossolov was also imprisoned, as was Weinberg.

I changed my Denisov recommendation to Symphony No. 2, a short work (14 mins) that perhaps seems to say just as much as the 1st symphony despite its length. Both are well worth hearing though. It seems strange that while Gubaidulina nd Schnittke have found a ready audience in the West, Denisov, their contemporary who was actually more focussed on engaging with Western trends in music is largely ignored. That said, the 2nd Symphony is being performed in the London South Bank Centre in Feb 2017.

Thanks for this starting subject. As a lover of 20th century symphonies there is a wealth of material for me to work on here. So many lists of symphonies by composers I have never heard of, but would like to encounter.

[vandermolen]

Yes - Popov is a very interesting composer. His symphonies are a bit uneven though. I've heard 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, probably not in the best possible recording. Nos 3 and 5 lack focus in my view. No. 2 is a fine example of the Soviet symphony (it won a Stalin prize). The most famous one is obviously the first, praised by Shostakovich and allegedly influential on his 4th Symphony. This is a powerful piece but ultimately, I think, a bit rough round the edges. It reminds me of Havergal Brian's Gothic in some ways. There are moments of extreme power, clear exploration on the part of the composer, and the piece is well worth hearing. Many listeners will really respond to it. On the other hand it lacks the kind of consistency and incision that would make it appeal to critics.

The 6th Symphony, is, however, a masterpiece. It is a very strange work, it seems to making a mockery of Lenin by by beginning its festivities ( subtitled 'festive' symphony) with what sounds like a drunken fanfare. Themes return and morph in ways that are both disturbing and amusing. Above all it is focussed in a way that its immediate predecessors were not.

Popov suffered under the Soviet, but probably not as much as some others - Zaderatsky in particular springs to mind, who wrote his most important music in the gulag. Mossolov was also imprisoned, as was Weinberg.

I changed my Denisov recommendation to Symphony No. 2, a short work (14 mins) that perhaps seems to say just as much as the 1st symphony despite its length. Both are well worth hearing though. It seems strange that while Gubaidulina nd Schnittke have found a ready audience in the West, Denisov, their contemporary who was actually more focussed on engaging with Western trends in music is largely ignored. That said, the 2nd Symphony is being performed in the London South Bank Centre in Feb 2017.

Thanks for this starting subject. As a lover of 20th century symphonies there is a wealth of material for me to work on here. So many lists of symphonies by composers I have never heard of, but would like to encounter.

Very interesting post. Thanks. I agree with you about Popov's 6th Symphony - I find it tragic in places and moving so the subtitle 'Festive' does indeed sound ironic. I must look out for Denisov whose music I don't know at all. Another recommendation from me is Arthur Butterworth's Symphony 4 - a powerful, craggy and poetic score which quotes from Sibelius's 'The Tempest' in one of its quieter moments.

[kyjo]

These should be obscure enough Some of them have not been commercially recorded but are available on YouTube:

Volkmar Andreae: Symphony in C
Cláudio Santoro: Symphony no. 4 "Sinfonia Da Paz"
László Lajtha: Symphony no. 1
Albert Hurwit: Symphony no. 1 "Remembrance"
Takashi Yoshimatsu: Symphony no. 3
John Kinsella: Symphony no. 7
Boris Lyatoshinsky: Symphony no. 2
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs: Symphony no. 3 "Westmorland"
Lucijan Marija Škerjanc: Symphony no. 4
John Fernström: Symphony no. 12

Honorable mentions:

Ulvi Cemal Erkin: Symphony no. 2
Ernst Levy: Symphony no. 15
Stjepan Šulek: Symphony no. 4
Roh Ogura: Symphony in G
Pierre-Octave Ferroud: Symphony in A
Fridrich Bruk: Symphony no. 2

[SymphonicAddict]

Yoshimatsu 2
Nielsen, Ludolf 3
Mathias 2
Górecki 2
Norgard 3
Taktakishvili 2
Lopes-Graça
Guridi
Bortkiewicz 2
Borresen 2

[kyjo]

Yoshimatsu 2
Nielsen, Ludolf 3
Mathias 2
Górecki 2
Norgard 3
Taktakishvili 2
Lopes-Graça
Guridi
Bortkiewicz 2
Borresen 2

The only one I know is the Yoshimatsu (which is great but I slightly prefer his 3rd), so I've clearly got some exploring to do!

[SymphonicAddict]

The only one I know is the Yoshimatsu (which is great but I slightly prefer his 3rd), so I've clearly got some exploring to do!

Actually, I could have chosen any symphony by him, there is no any bad, on the contrary, all of them are entertaining. If you like Glazunov, Borodin or Tchaikovsky, you'll enjoy the Bortkiewicz's. Something similar with Ludolf Nielsen: it's a lush post-romantic symphony with memorable stuff.