advertisement


Symphonies - pick a number (not entirely serious...)

A Second well worth hearing is that by Madetoja, which was playing when I returned to this thread...

And Lilburn's 2nd is his finest work, in my opinion. Sibelian, but with an Anglophone Antipodean accent - irresistible :)
Two composers I'd never heard of, but will now try!
 
Not picking 4-6 means that you can avoid the Tchaik teenage strops in basic sonata form, which is an advantage to me.
 
In Tchaikovsky I think you can often hear the musical joins, ie he does not always connect the various sections of a piece seamlessly. Not so evident in symphonies 4 & 6, but in (say) the 1st piano concerto this is very obvious, with a few moments of terrifically lyrical themes bound together by very humdrum sections. Contrast say with the 1st movement of Mahler 2 which shows total mastery of thematic development and structure. I still have a lot of affection for Tchaik though....
 
Well, nobody has picked 1 yet, so I will. Why? RVW's 1st, a Sea Symphony, is essential. Simple as that. :)
 
5* for me, in that I get Beethoven, Schubert, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Mahler and Vaughan Williams. But maybe 4....I mean, Brahms 4...can't miss that.

Not a fan of Tchaikovsky 5 tbh.
 
I'm sticking with number 3 - I've just been bowled over (as I invariably am) by Marcel Tyberg's Third in the superb performance by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
 
9 - I seem to have reached an age where Beethoven's starts making sense, and then there's Mahler.
 
9

Whilst I prefer chamber music these days, two symphonies I wouldn’t want to be without are Mahler 9 and Bruckner 9.
 
Aha - you also get Malcolm Arnold's 9th. Many critics dismissed it, saying (as if they knew something the composer didn't) that Arnold had lost the plot... yet repeated listening shows quite clearly that he knew exactly what he wanted to convey, and did so masterfully. It is a Ninth fully worthy of that number.

Of the four available recordings, only the one on the Toccata label fails to hit the mark (too fast by far in the final movement). The Chandos is my favourite.
 
Tricky.
Maybe 6.

Near or actual top choice for.... Bruckner, Mahler, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky.

And it will give me a chance to love the 6ths of Bax, Miaskovsky, Schubert, Rubbra, Henze, Braga Santos, Prokofiev...

Shame about Brahms, but hey ho, you can't have it all. Unless I can include his very symphonic piano concerti to allow me a 6th.
 
Last edited:
...it will give me a chance to love the 6ths of Bax, Miaskovsky, Schubert, Rubbra, Henze, Braga Santos, Prokofiev...

Not forgetting Havergal Brian - one of his best! Strangely, he was (in my opinion) pretty good at even numbers (6, 8, 10, 12), not much cop at odd ones...
 
Another Third for your consideration :)

Saburo Moroi. Who? you say... Japanese composer, studied in 1930s Germany, nothing ethnically Japanese about his Third symphony, which was completed in 1944 just before he was conscripted into the doomed Imperial army. He survived, but never wrote anything else of this stature.

It is a darkly powerful, moving work, a product of its time. Much more to my liking than any other Japanese symphony so far (and I've tried a few). A fine performance in its only recording by Takuo Yuasa and the Irish National SO on Naxos, one which I have now played many times.

If I ever get to speak to Birmingham's Maestro Kazuki Yamada (well, you never know) I'll be asking for it. Goes very well with the Britten Violin Concerto which I played immediately before it this evening...
 
Another Third for your consideration :)

Saburo Moroi. Who? you say... Japanese composer, studied in 1930s Germany, nothing ethnically Japanese about his Third symphony, which was completed in 1944 just before he was conscripted into the doomed Imperial army. He survived, but never wrote anything else of this stature.

It is a darkly powerful, moving work, a product of its time. Much more to my liking than any other Japanese symphony so far (and I've tried a few). A fine performance in its only recording by Takuo Yuasa and the Irish National SO on Naxos, one which I have now played many times.

If I ever get to speak to Birmingham's Maestro Kazuki Yamada (well, you never know) I'll be asking for it. Goes very well with the Britten Violin Concerto which I played immediately before it this evening...

Mmm, sounds like my kind of music. Here it is on YouTube:

 
Another Third for your consideration :)

Saburo Moroi.

Thanks for that, listening now. I can well imagine it being a grower.

Having tried a few from that Naxos series myself, I admire your patience in identifying the occasional gem from a mass of relative mediocrity!

[I much prefer it to the Brian 6th you suggested.]
 


advertisement


Back
Top