Best symphony ever?

[monkspider]

My apologies in advance to Boris if I have made an egregious ommission or two. So which one is it? My vote goes to Beethoven's legendary 9th.

[notyoueither]

Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones...

Errr, sorry.

[monolith94]

Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade.
The one peice of classical music I will NEVER get tired of.
hey Boris, is there any one 'version' of Scheherezade you'd reccomend to me?

[Ned]

Mahler's 2nd followed closely by Beethoven's 9th

[Meshelic]

You forgot Mahlers 6th Symphony! Truly a beautiful piece of work!

What about Holst's "The Planets", or Tsaichovksy?

Oh well.

EDIT - well you've got ONE Tsaichovsky at least...

[Kassiopeia]

Agh. Can I vote three symphonies? Sibelius's fifth, Dvorak's ninth, Beethoven's ninth, can't decide...

[colossus]

I think Scherherezade is a symphonic suite rather than a symphony(the CD booklet just say so...), although I can't tell the difference.

The version I owned is Karajan conducting Berliner Philharmoniker, published by DeutscheGrammophon. It sounds excellent, its just the type of music Karajan excelled-emotional and expressive.

[Boris Godunov]

Re: Best symphony ever?

*cracks knuckles*

Ok, first:

Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade.

Not a symphony!

As for a specific recording, I'm partial to both the Riccardo Muti and the George Szell. I haven't heard it, but the recent Kurt Masur one is supposedly good as well.

What about Holst's "The Planets",

Not a symphony! But indeed a great work, Especially Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Now, as for the poll's omissions... the most glaring is the absence of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Oh monkie, how could you? It is the brightest symphonic star in the musical firmament between Beethoven's death and Brahms' 1st!

Also absent are the Bruckner 6th and 8th (both easily outstripping the 7th and 4th), the Beethoven 7, the Brahms 1 (Monkie, I thought this was your favorite Brahms???), the Schubert 9th, the Schumann 2nd, the Mahler 8th, the Sibelius 2nd (his best), and the Shostakovich 5th.

As for the "best" symphony--this is rather difficult, because the symphonic languages changes so much from Haydn to Shostakovich. It's rather like saying James Joyce is better than Chaucer. How does one compare?

Setting aside my personal favorite, the Brahms 4th, I give the top spot, as cliched as it may sound, to the Beethoven 5th. It is simply a perfect symphony from beginning to end. The thematic unity is unmatched in any symphony before or since, and it is so tightly constructed that not a note is out of place. Many portray it as the struggle between Man and Fate, but that's not necessary to appreciate its greatness.

The rest of my "1st-tier Beethoven" symphonies are the 4th and 7th, and I vascilate over which I like more. Currrently, the 7th is in the lead. The Allegretto is sublime, and the finale is also one of Ludwig's best bits.

The 9th is...problematic for me. I love it as a piece of music, but as a whole symphony it's got problems. The first movement is great--titanic, in fact. But there are some orchestration problems I would like to fix, such as having the trombones come in on the huge climax. I know tradition said to reserve them for later on, but they really add oomph to that section. The biggest delight about the 9th is that after the 1st movement comes an even better 2nd movement, the Scherzo. So how much of a let down is it to move from those two movements into the 3rd movement? While by no means bad, it's really...unremarkable and, frankly, boring. It is sorely out of place amongst its two predecessors.

The finale stands alone as a great work of music, but in the symphonic context it's a little bumpy. The chorale theme, while justly famous, is useless for symphonic development, so Beethoven spends the movement working around this problem. He includes snippets of each of the previous movements, which comes across as a somewhat cheap way of bringing thematic unity to the work where none exists.

But these are quibbles, because it's undeniable that the Finale is rip-roaringly good, achieves the desired effect of uplifting the soul and bringing an audience to its feet in jubilation.

But ya know, I have to break my symphonic bests into categories. So here they are:

High Classical: Mozart's 40th (Runner up: Haydn's 96th)
Late Classical: Beethoven's 5th (Runner up: his 7th)
Early Romantic: Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique (Runner up: Schubert's 9th)
High Romantic: Brahms' 4th (Runner up: his 1st)
Late Romantic/Modern: Mahler 5th (Runner up: his 1st)

[monkspider]

Re: Re: Best symphony ever?

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


(Monkie, I thought this was your favorite Brahms???),

Excellent post Boris.
My favorite is actually the 3rd, closely followed by the 4th.
1st is a good one though, I just thought Herr Brahms was ably represented by the 3rd and 4th.

[DaShi]

Dvorak's Eighth is better than his nineth.

[Japher]

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

[thinkingamer]

Where's Beethoven's 7th symphony???

[lord of the mark]

i voted for Brahms 4th. I agree Symph Fantastique should be on the list, though i would dont much like it and would not have voted for it. Brahms 1st is another fav.

I also like Prokoviev's Classical symphony.

[Japher]

Boris has hit it pretty much right on the nose with his list, IMO.

I only wish Berlioz was not such a dud after his first.

[S. Kroeze]

Since I have to uphold my reputation as an elitist, pretentious snot, I voted 40th Symph. in g by W.A.Mozart.
Actually I prefer his 38th Symph. in D, the Prager, but I couldn't vote for it -understandably since it is less well-known.
In my view Mozart was the last first-rate composer!

My favourite Brahms Symph. is his IInd in D.
I also love Schubert's Vth in B flat.

Generally I do not like Beethoven, though I am willing to admit he is a great composer. I prefer his VIIth Symph. in A.

It's a pity Josquin desPrez didn't compose symphonies...