Top Ten Symphonies

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

PPS: Would Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante count? Also Brahms double and Beethoven triple, and Bach double violin concerto, and I guess Harold in Italy too!
What about Lalo Symphonie Espagnole - where would that go?

Well I counted Harold in Italy as a symphony in my 100 list, but by all means categorise it as a concerto, for that is what it is.

[Op. XXXIX]

Top 10 concertos anyone?

Okay, I'll bite:

Mozart 25
Beethoven 5
Brahms 2
Liszt 1
Rachmaninov 2
Prokofiev 3
Busoni
Elgar violin
Sibelius violin
Prokofiev violin 1

subject to change in 30 minutes or less...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But wouldn't it be better to start a new thread for concertos?

[Mr Pee]

But wouldn't it be better to start a new thread for concertos?

Top Ten Symphonies:- (although I'll certainly come up with a different list in ten minutes time ):-

1.Elgar 1.
2.Elgar 2.
3. Rachmaninov 2.
4. Bruckner 9.
5. Beethoven 7.
6. VW London Symphony.
7.Mahler 9.
8. Mahler 4.
9. Bruckner 8.
10.Walton 1.

[pilamenon]

Top Ten Symphonies:- (although I'll certainly come up with a different list in ten minutes time ):-

1.Elgar 1.
2.Elgar 2.
3. Rachmaninov 2.
4. Bruckner 9.
5. Beethoven 7.
6. VW London Symphony.
7.Mahler 9.
8. Mahler 4.
9. Bruckner 8.
10.Walton 1.

Good list, Mr Pee.

Beethoven 7 seems to be a very popular choice. It's probably my personal favourite, although this morning I was rather disappointed in a recording I had been looking forward to - VPO/Carlos Kleiber - as I was with their much vaunted Beethoven 5 included in the DG box set.

Listen to Haitink's recent live version of No 7 with the LSO for a glorious rendition of this most life-affirming of music.

[umslopogaas]

Post 36 french frank

You commented that you thought you were the only person who would put Sibelius symphony 4 on the list (subsequently there have been others). I thought about it, I love that work, but in the end we were only allowed ten and I veered towards symphony 5 instead. The reason is that it was one of the first proper, grown-up pieces of music I ever bought: I bought the mono DG LP conducted by Karajan in a mono deletion sale (only had one speaker at the time, so mono deletions were good news, they were very cheap for a poor student). Must have been 1967, I think. Later I replaced it with the stereo, which I still have. Later I got the Karajan version of no. 4 and its a wonderful work: with the chance of a longer list, I'd definitely include it. And 6 and 7 and for that matter, all of them!

[antongould]

Feel free to do 100 we have precedents!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Feel free to do 100 we have precedents!

[Nick Armstrong]

Post 36 french frank

You commented that you thought you were the only person who would put Sibelius symphony 4 on the list (subsequently there have been others). I thought about it, I love that work, but in the end we were only allowed ten and I veered towards symphony 5 instead. The reason is that it was one of the first proper, grown-up pieces of music I ever bought: I bought the mono DG LP conducted by Karajan in a mono deletion sale (only had one speaker at the time, so mono deletions were good news, they were very cheap for a poor student). Must have been 1967, I think. Later I replaced it with the stereo, which I still have. Later I got the Karajan version of no. 4 and its a wonderful work: with the chance of a longer list, I'd definitely include it. And 6 and 7 and for that matter, all of them!

Same here umslop (where does your moniker come from, by the way?!).

A cassette of Karajan's Sibelius 5 (plus one of Abbado's Dresden performance of Brahms 3) accompanied me through my first term at University (and thereafter), having bought them in a sale in a little music shop near the college during an early exploratory walk. Sibelius 5 remains a carrier of potent memories & important emotions. Nos 4, 6 & 7 would be easy entrants in my 'long list' - but 5 has a special place.

[Mahlerei]

Dang, this is tough. Today's list only:

Aho: 'Luosto' Symphony
Beethoven: 9th Symphony
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
Bruckner: 8th Symphony
Casella: 2nd Symphony
Dvorak:'New World' Symphony
Ives: 3rd Symphony
Mahler: 2nd Symphony
Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony
Shostakovich: 8th Symphony

[umslopogaas]

Caliban post 82

I think I posted about this before, some months ago, and of course it has nothing to do with this thread, but I'm delighted to be given an excuse to repeat it. Umslopogaas is the real hero of Allan Quatermain, Rider Haggard's sequel to King Solomon's Mines. Finding themselves bored with the life of English squires which they bought into with the proceeds of the pocketfuls of diamonds they brought back courtesy of King Solomon and Gagool, the intrepid trio of Quatermain, Curtis and Good decide to return to the African wild. They meet up with Quartermain's old ally, the fearsome Zulu warrior and virtuoso on the battle axe, Umslopogaas. And off they go into the interior, shooting anything on two legs or four that hasnt already been beheaded by Umslopogaas. I think Rider Haggard was a bit needled by suggestions of a gay subtext to King Solomon's Mines (he does warn us at the outset that there are no women in it, which is not strictly true, there is Gagool and also the beautiful Foulata, who makes a brief appearance before getting knifed). Anyway, by way of compensation, this time we get not one beautiful queen at the head of an undiscovered tribe, but two. One good, one not so good. Trouble inevitably ensues. I happened to be rereading it on the night I decided to sign on to these boards, so decided to name myself Umslopogaas, which is really a case of false pretences, I am neither fierce nor much cop with an axe, though I do split logs for the stove with one.

These are not novels to be taken seriously, but they are rattling good yarns!

[Nick Armstrong]

Ah! Umslop, I think I remember reading your previous post now. Odd coincidence, I was friends at school with two of Rider Haggard's great grandsons (or -nephews, can't remember). Anyway they bore the family name and resemblance, and the friendships prompted me to read their ancestor's books. As you say, good and rattling!! Though I didn't remember the character from Allan Q obviously...

PS Funnily enough, did you know that "Allan" is a family name in the real-life Quartermaine [that's how they spell it] family today (as I happen to know as a result of another odd coincidence...)

[umslopogaas]

Caliban Post 87

Very interesting, I guess its possible Rider Haggard knew an Allan Quatermaine of his generation, and lifted the name for his book, judiciously altering the spelling slightly?

I've got my grandfather's hardback Longmans editions of King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain, complete with numerous illustrations. They are inscribed as Christmas presents, he was about twelve years old at the time, 1888, they had only just been published. By the time they came to me the bindings were in poor shape, but I've had them rebound and they should be good for another hundred years. I'm rather proud of them. I've also got matching editions of She, Cleopatra and also Ayesha: The Return Of She (though that is Ward Lock, not Longmans). She and Ayesha really are the most delirious nonsense, but they're great fun.

Help, someone say something more about favourite symphonies, or french frank is going to scold me for veering off topic.

[antongould]

umslopogaas
Fear not I feel the thread has more than fulfilled it's original purpose and probably run it's course. It has produced at least 2 healthy offspring and a number of nice asides like yours which I find very interesting.
Given that 10 is far too few and that you fall into the "how could I forget" trap I would be tempted sometime in the future to play it again just to see how much people's favourites change from day to day and if there is indeed a core 4/5? that will never change.

[Serial_Apologist]

Beethoven - 5
Brahms - either 3 or 4
Mahler - 10
Sibelius - 4
Zemlinsky - Lyric Symphony
Schoenberg - Chamber Symphony No 1
Eisler - German Symphony
Vaughan Williams - 1 or 8
Koechlin - 2
Honegger - 4
Henze - 7