What’s Your Favourite Symphony?

[Barbirollians]

I honestly can't see why some folk have a problem in answering this question...Surely, your favourite symphony is (as against has been, or will be next time the subject crops up) the first one that comes to mind as soon as you read the question. If I were to answer it again, I would very probably come up with a different answer. It's only a bit of fun, surely, not a matter of life and death?

[BBMmk2]

Schubert 9 (or should that be 8 - there seems to be a dispute as to whether the sketched but incomplete E major work should count as No7 - but anyway I mean the "Great C Major"). My favourite recording is currently Berlin Phil/ Rattle.

Have you tried the Orchestra Mozart/Abbado recording. even better then the one he did with the CoE!

[cloughie]

Have you tried the Orchestra Mozart/Abbado recording. even better then the one he did with the CoE!

Krips, Furtwangler and Loughran top my list for the Great C Major

[waldo]

Have you tried the Orchestra Mozart/Abbado recording. even better then the one he did with the CoE!

I was just listening to that! An absolutely incredible record. My usual go-to for the 9th is/was Rattle/BPO. Though I don't always get on with Rattle recordings (too much fussing and overemphasis), this is just stunning. Not his primary territory, so I suppose it got a bit overlooked, but there is a magnificent sweep to the whole performance.

But......the Abbado/Orchestra Mozart just might be better.

[Pabmusic]

Schubert 9 (or should that be 8 - there seems to be a dispute as to whether the sketched but incomplete E major work should count as No7 - but anyway I mean the "Great C Major"). My favourite recording is currently Berlin Phil/ Rattle.

Schubert completed seven symphonies. No dispute about that. Then there's the 'Unfinished'. He sketched out bits of about eight more symphonies, including the E major work that's in the RCM. But it's very sketchy. And with what other composer do we count sketches as symphonies?

Strictly speaking, the Unfinished is no. 7, the Great C major no. 8.

[Bryn]

. . . with what other composer do we count sketches as symphonies?

Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Elgar come to mind. The there's Ives (Universe Symphony), Bruckner (9th) . . .

[Pabmusic]

Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Elgar come to mind. The there's Ives (Universe Symphony), Bruckner (9th) . . .

I don't agree. The received wisdom, surely, is that Tchaikovsky wrote six, Mahler nine and Elgar two. If you are right, why don't we think of Schubert as writing 15 or 16?

Example: Elgar most emphatically didn't write 3 symphonies - even Tony Payne is very clear about that.

Do we say that LvB wrote 10?

[Bryn]

I don't agree. The received wisdom, surely, is that Tchaikovsky wrote six, Mahler nine and Elgar two. If you are right, why don't we think of Schubert as writing 15 or 16?

I think of Mahler composing 11. Others clearly think of Tchikovsky as composing 8 (including the projected 7th and Manfred) and Elgar 3. The Mahler 10th and Elgar 3rd are very commonly numbered thus, and relatively frequently performed and recorded as such. Enterprising composer/musicologists just have not shown the same level of enthusiasm regarding all but the Schubert 'unfinished' (widely referred to as the 8th, now 7th).

[Pabmusic]

I think of Mahler composing 11. Others clearly think of Tchikovsky as composing 8 (including the projected 7th and Manfred) and Elgar 3. The Mahler 10th and Elgar 3rd are very commonly numbered thus, and relatively frequently performed and recorded as such. Enterprising composer/musicologists just have not shown the same level of enthusiasm regarding all but the Schubert 'unfinished' (widely referred to as the 8th, now 7th).

I'll limit my comments to Elgar. Payne is on record as saying that he was concerned that people would see his 'completion' as Elgar's 3rd. That's why his work is called The Sketches ... Elaborated by Anthony Payne. But of course people ddon't respect that. It's a wonderful piece, but it isn't Elgar's 3rd.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think of Mahler composing 11. Others clearly think of Tchikovsky as composing 8 (including the projected 7th and Manfred)

I did a university long essay on the Tchaikovsky symphonies. (We could choose the symphonies of any romantic composer, and most people chose Brahms.)

I began by referring to Tchaikovsky as the composer of 8 symphonies, which was greet by a red line through the sentence. A couple of lines later, following my explanation, I received a red apology.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If you don't count Mahler 10, then you shouldn't really count Bruckner 9 or Schubert 8.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I rather like Beethoven 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKoE1f7evDA

[Turangalîla]

Sibelius 4 - those augmented 4th's echo around my head for days on end.

[Joseph K]

Liszt's Faust symphony (at the moment)

Mahler 9 was the one that sprung to my mind first. Probably in the recording in which I got to know it - John Barbirolli, Berlin Phil 1964.

[alycidon]

Schubert 4. Tragic it is most certainly not!