Top 5 most powerful symphony openings

Started by kyjo, October 09, 2017, 10:04:41 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Print
Go Down Pages1 2
User actions

kyjo

October 09, 2017, 10:04:41 AM
This is sort of a counterpart to the "most beautiful symphony openings" thread. For the purpose of this thread, I'm defining "powerful" as loud, attention-grabbing, forceful, etc, but you may define it as you wish :) My choices:

Shostakovich 4
RVW 4
Korngold (startling to anyone expecting the composer's typical Romantic lushness)
Atterberg 5
Khachaturian 2
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Christo

#1
October 09, 2017, 10:16:45 AM
Quote from: kyjo on October 09, 2017, 10:04:41 AMloud, attention-grabbing, forceful, etc

Honegger 3 'Liturgique'
Shosta 4
RVW 6
Holmboe 7
Arnold 7
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Maestro267

#2
October 09, 2017, 10:29:43 AM
Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony
Mahler 8
Shostakovich 4
Britten Sinfonia da Requiem
Brian 1

André

#3
October 09, 2017, 10:32:51 AM
Well, going backwards to the 19th century:  Beethoven 3 and 5. Then Schumann 3 and Brahms 1, then Tchaikovsky 4. 

SymphonicAddict

#4
October 09, 2017, 10:38:53 AM
They come to my mind:

Tchaikovsky 4
Nielsen 4
Langgaard 4
Mahler 5
Prokofiev 2

kyjo

#5
October 09, 2017, 10:49:01 AM
Quote from: Christo on October 09, 2017, 10:16:45 AM
Honegger 3 'Liturgique'
RVW 6
Arnold 7

These could've been choices of mine as well.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

aesthetic

#6
October 09, 2017, 12:06:53 PM
Prokofiev 3
Mahler 3
Mahler 6
Rautavaara 5
Rachmaninov 1

Brian

#7
October 09, 2017, 12:40:27 PM
Nielsen 3
Nielsen 4
Beethoven 3
Brahms 1
Borodin 2

vandermolen

#8
October 09, 2017, 02:17:12 PM
Khachaturian: Symphony 2
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 6
Nielsen: Symphony 4
Bax: Symphony 6
Honegger: Symphony 3 'Liturgique'

Although not a symphony a special mention for Chisholm's 'Pictures from Dante'.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

TheGSMoeller

#9
October 09, 2017, 02:45:10 PM
Following kojo's description of loud, attention-grabbing, forceful, etc, although there are some very powerful openings that begin soft.

All good choices so far, so I'll choose 5 that haven't shown up yet...

Haydn: Symphony No. 26, "Lamentatione"
Mozart: Symphony No. 25
Dvorak; Symphony No. 1 The Bells of Zlonice
Rouse: Symphony No. 3 (After Prokofiev)
Glass: Symphony No. 8

amw

#10
October 09, 2017, 03:24:44 PM
powerful symphonic openings that aren't so much loud or bombastic as powerful in the way a fast car is powerful even at rest: potentia

Bruckner 6 & 8
Beethoven 3, 4, 5, 9
Haydn 104
Sibelius 3 & 4
Shostakovich 4
Maxwell Davies 1
Gerhard 3
add your faves

Maestro267

#11
October 10, 2017, 02:19:21 AM
Quote from: kyjo on October 09, 2017, 10:04:41 AM
This is sort of a counterpart to the "most beautiful symphony openings" thread.

Power can also be beauty. Which is why I struggled in the "most beautiful symphony openings" thread. What even is beauty?

kyjo

#12
October 10, 2017, 09:04:27 AM
Great lists, everyone! Thanks for replying despite the vagueness of my thread title ;D
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

vandermolen

#13
October 10, 2017, 11:27:45 PM
I agree with the choice of Prokofiev's Third Symphony as well.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

#14
October 11, 2017, 04:53:13 AM
Please please: do it just once, just one time will do. DISAGREE with something, whatever, but do it.  :D
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

André

#15
October 11, 2017, 09:19:44 AM
Consensus is his middle name !  :D

SymphonicAddict

#16
October 11, 2017, 03:41:39 PM
Quote from: Christo on October 11, 2017, 04:53:13 AM
Please please: do it just once, just one time will do. DISAGREE with something, whatever, but do it.  :D

He does. Mainly about Brahms and R. Strauss, I know myself  :laugh:

vandermolen

#17
October 13, 2017, 06:34:30 AM
Quote from: Christo on October 11, 2017, 04:53:13 AM
Please please: do it just once, just one time will do. DISAGREE with something, whatever, but do it.  :D

I don't think that this comment was addressed to me but, just in case:

Your comments on Rootham's First Symphony are rubbish hahaha  8)

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

#18
October 13, 2017, 11:03:59 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on October 13, 2017, 06:34:30 AMYour comments on Rootham's First Symphony are rubbish hahaha  8)
O, but we're in total agreement about that.  ;D
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

#19
October 14, 2017, 10:29:47 AM
Quote from: Christo on October 13, 2017, 11:03:59 PM
O, but we're in total agreement about that.  ;D
8) :)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).
Print
Go Up Pages1 2
User actions