# Ranking Bruckner Symphonies



## beetzart

At this point in time, and it is highly variable, I rank starting with my favourite first:

5197684230,00.


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## Tchaikov6

47289516300,0.

My Bruckner ranking rarely changes, since I am not a huge fan of him. Even my favorite, the fourth, lacks the symphonic material of the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Sibelius, and others.


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## Heck148

Mine changes around a lot after #7....
7.....9, 4, 8, 6, 3....5, 2....


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## Brahmsian Colors

Tchaikov6 said:


> 47289516300,0.
> 
> My Bruckner ranking rarely changes, since I am not a huge fan of him. Even my favorite, the fourth, lacks the symphonic material of the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Sibelius, and others.


I don't consider myself a great fan of Bruckner either, and pretty much prefer the symphonies of those you mention over his as well.

My relatively unvarying order of Bruckner's Symphonies: 7,5,8,9,6,4...don't care at all for the others.


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## Woodduck

I don't know them all well and so can't rank them all, but of those I do know I'll say: 9876543. 

Will I go on to 21000? Nah. Life can't be that neat and predictable.


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## merlinus

Bruckner is one of my top composers. Favorites, in no particular order: 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9.

I enjoy 1, 2, 3, and 6 as well.


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## Orfeo

My ranking of the Bruckner symphonies are quite constant, and it goes like this: 8, 9, 5, 7, 4, 3 (original 1873 version), 6, 2, 0 (Die Nullte), 1, Symphony in F (so called "00").


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## Bruckner Anton

My personal favorites: 9,8,5,7,4,6,3,2,1


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## Klassik

merlinus said:


> Bruckner is one of my top composers. Favorites, in no particular order: 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9.


These are my favorites as well with the exception of 7. I'd go with 8, 5, 9, and 4.


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## Pugg

Bruckner Anton said:


> My personal favorites: 9,8,5,7,4,6,3,2,1


Spot one, saves me typing. :tiphat:


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## dzc4627

4, 9, 8, 5, 7, 2, 3, 6, 1. Bruckner is my 2nd favorite composer behind Mahler. This list could easily change. I love them and know them all well besides 1, which I don't know as well as I should.


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## Art Rock

984762351000

The 9th in the unfinished version.


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## Merl

4 7 5 9 6........not bothered after that. Like the others but much prefer those 5.


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## Überstürzter Neumann

Bruckner is my absolute favourite symphonist, and I am unable to present any absolute, definitive ranking. Except that nr. 8 remains firmly in first place, So for the time being it is: 8, 5, 6, 9, 2, 4, 7, 0, 1, 3, 00


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## Nevum

398764251000...................................................


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## Brahmsianhorn

8, 7, 9, 4, 5, 6, 3, 2, 1


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## Totenfeier

8, 6, 9, 7, 5, 4, 2, and I don't know the rest well enough.


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## hpowders

Bruckner is not my current cup of tea, but for the finest symphonies in descending order:

1. 7

2. 9

3. 8

4. 3

5. 6

6. 5

7. 4


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## jimsumner

9, 7, 8, 4, 6. 5, 3, 2, 1


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## bz3

I like them all very much, he's one of my favorites. Spaces indicate a bigger dropoff, his last 6 can shuffle depending on the day but the 9th remains atop ever since I fell in love with it.

9
8
5
7
4
6

1
3
2
0

00


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## billeames

In descending order. I love Bruckner. 

8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3, 1, 2, 0, 00. I have heard the 8th many times, so I dont listen to it much anymore. 

Bill


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## danielinyaracuy

Well, I may be the odd one here. I really do not have a favorite between 4 and 9. All are great according to my mood du jour. This being said I do have some movements that are always stirring. The first two of the 6th are perhaps the ones that I would take to my desert island if I packed light. To them I would add the 9th adagio, the #1 of 4 and 8. But the 6th overall would be my desert island one, of anything for its dashing first movement and the funeral march in the second. I never can tire of listening to them, I always find new details. And worse, I confess, I am stuck with the old Klemperer version. He is the only one to date that did get the 6th.


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## CnC Bartok

9,7,8,6,4,3,5, then the early ones. Unfinished Ninth, please!!!


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## Tallisman

9, 3, 4, 7, 8, 5, 6 

Unfinished Ninth is my favourite at the moment. Karajan's 66 recording wins because it's recorded in a church, which really benefits Bruckner.


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## Nevum

Here is a revised order:

3-9U-8-7-9F-6-4-2-1L-5-1V-0-00

9U- 9 unfinished
9F- 9 finished (Letocrat)
1L- 1 Linz version
1V- 1 Vienna version


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## mathisdermaler

Thank you for making this thread.

Nobody likes Bruckner more than I do. My alarm clock, which wakes me up at 9:04 everyday (September 4 being Bruckner's birthday) is a recording of Bruckner's 9th, movement 2. After that I have a cup of coffee while I listen to the 4th. Then, I brush my Teeth to the Bruckner rhythm. After I finish my day job working as a church organist and girls choir director, I go to the morgue and cradle skulls. Then I work out at the gym to Bruckner's Te Deum. After that, I come home and pray while I listen to Bruckner's 5th. Then I go out to the opera and watch Gotterdammerung with my friends and get confused by the plot. At the end of each day, my wife and children sing "Locus iste" to put me to bed. 

With that being said,

9, 3, 8, 5, 6, 7, 4, 2, 1, 0, 00

hot take: most finished versions of the ninth are better than the unfinished version. Damn that would have been a fine last movement!


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## mathisdermaler

Totenfeier said:


> 8, 6, 9, 7, 5, 4, 2, and I don't know the rest well enough.


please listen to the third. Like Nevum, I'm often to tempted to consider it his very greatest symphony, despite Bruckner's trajectory of artistic quality being an otherwise mostly upward slope!


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## mathisdermaler

Tchaikov6 said:


> 47289516300,0.
> 
> My Bruckner ranking rarely changes, since I am not a huge fan of him. Even my favorite, the fourth, lacks the symphonic material of the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Sibelius, and others.


I will throw down with you tchaikov6


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## Nevum

mathisdermaler said:


> Thank you for making this thread.
> 
> Nobody likes Bruckner more than I do. My alarm clock, which wakes me up at 9:04 everyday (September 4 being Bruckner's birthday) is a recording of Bruckner's 9th, movement 2. After that I have a cup of coffee while I listen to the 4th. Then, I brush my Teeth to the Bruckner rhythm. After I finish my day job working as a church organist and girls choir director, I go to the morgue and cradle skulls. Then I work out at the gym to Bruckner's Te Deum. After that, I come home and pray while I listen to Bruckner's 5th. Then I go out to the opera and watch Gotterdammerung with my friends and get confused by the plot. At the end of each day, my wife and children sing "Locus iste" to put me to bed.
> 
> With that being said,
> 
> 9, 3, 8, 5, 6, 7, 4, 2, 1, 0, 00
> 
> hot take: most finished versions of the ninth are better than the unfinished version. Damn that would have been a fine last movement!


Hmm... I am a concerned that you are not a real Brucknerian. Your activities appear to be only modestly Brucknerian and I am not sure I follow your Gotterdammerung comment. Can you clarify for us? What do you listen to when you have lunch or dinner? What size suits do you wear? How many times did you revise your comment above before posting it?


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## Boston Charlie

My taste indicate that Bruckner's later symphonies (7, 8 & 9) are his best. Conversely, I enjoy Mahler's earlier symphonies (1, 2, 3 and 4) most of all; unless you count Mahler's wonderful "Das Lied von der Erde" as a symphony.


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## Clito

I have a hard time with Bruckner. I can’t listen to one of his symphonies for more that ten minutes. I just don’t get it. I love the symphonies of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and many others. I also adore the music of Wagner, Strauss, Webern and Berg, but am not the biggest fan of Mahler. I do, however, like some of his music.


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## Manxfeeder

Clito said:


> I have a hard time with Bruckner. I can't listen to one of his symphonies for more that ten minutes. I just don't get it.


There's still hope. He did write some nice motets.


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## DeepR

Clito said:


> I have a hard time with Bruckner. I can't listen to one of his symphonies for more that ten minutes. I just don't get it. I love the symphonies of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and many others. I also adore the music of Wagner, Strauss, Webern and Berg, but am not the biggest fan of Mahler. I do, however, like some of his music.


Bruckner is too good to give up easily. In my experience his music is really not that weird or difficult compared to other composers. The main thing you have to get used to is the way he builds and structures his music over time, which seems rather unique. This takes time and a lot of listening (memory is key). Patience will be rewarded!


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## damian101

7, 9, 3, 
6, 4, 8
1, 0, 
5, 
2, 
00

I much prefer to listen to the ninth in a completed version with Finale, the Josephson completion is probably my favorite, followed by Carragan.


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## brucknerian1874

5
8, 9 (with completed Finale)
3
7, 4, 6
0, 1
2, 00

Why the 5th? Quite simply it's the most Brucknerian; the most like Bruckner and the least like anyone else.

I have yet to hear some of the completed 9ths mentioned here (Letocart, Josephson). Of those I have heard I have a preference for Gerd Schaller's revised completion.


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## 89Koechel

Well, I've listened to a "put-together" version of the 4th, from the Japanese "arm" of the Wilhelm Furtwangler Society. It includes half of a recording, plus the other half, from rehearsals. It's really extraordinary, as were other of the WF interpretations of Bruckner. Thanks to WF, the Fourth compares, favorably, with the 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th.


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## Aries

I almost always liked the 8th the most. 

When I heard the completed finale of the 9th, I changed my mind for some time, that the 9th is his best symphony but only with finale. But the symphony has to many aspects I don't love. Overall its too celebral. It begins with the cold opening of the first movement and the horn motif I only really like in the coda. Also the weird introduction to the scherzo and the trio and the motif-less brass eruptions in the adagio and its endless reverberation. Overall its too cold and celebral. But the first movements has a great development and probably the best coda of a first movement. And the finale has a lot of greatness. Probably my preferred movement of this symphony. But I love the 8th more.

I recently heard the more living symphonies No. 3 and 4 more. The option to compare different versions makes it even more interesting. The first movement of the 3rd is one of the very best movements of Bruckner. The 5th also belongs these great earlier symphonies.

My order:

8
9 (with finale), 4, 3, 5
9 (without finale)
2, 7
6
0
1
00


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## philoctetes

8,5,7,9,3,4,0,2,1,6


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## RobertJTh

6 - 5 - 4 - 7 - 9 - 8 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 0 - 00

I guess it's a minority view, but I think Bruckner's major key "tetralogy" (4-7) are his best works. The 6th strikes me as the most perfect manifestation of his powers as a composer, in its sophistication, elegance, perfect form and balance and of course the great melodies.


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## joen_cph

The 3rd became upgraded in my book in the original version, as recorded by Inbal, a very dynamic performance and a great, expanded slow movement. 

But I can't really rank the symphonies, except that 0 + 00 can be placed lowest, the 1st seems simpler than the next ones, and the 7th and the 5th seem rather different from the others, etc.


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## haziz

His 4th symphony is listenable. The first movement of his 7th is listenable. The remaining symphonies are not listenable.


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## joen_cph

haziz said:


> His 4th symphony is listenable. The first movement of his 7th is listenable. The remaining symphonies are not listenable.


Good to know.

...........


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## haziz

joen_cph said:


> Good to know.
> 
> ...........


Can you guess that I am not a fan of Bruckner?


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## joen_cph

haziz said:


> Can you guess that I am not a fan of Bruckner?


I conclude of course that you haven't heard _enough_ Bruckner :lol:


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## Dimace

The perfection of his two last symphonies in every aspect is incomparable, second only to Beethoven. The 7th is also very big symphony. The other are also very good (the 0 & 00 are nothing serious. Works of a student)


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## Art Rock

Dimace said:


> The other are also very good (the 0 & 00 are nothing serious. Works of a student)


This is a common misconception. Symphony 0 was composed after the first. YMMV, but for me it is at the same level as the first, but the second was a clear improvement on these two.


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## Becca

^^ Correct, the D minor symphony was written in 1869 between the 1st and 2nd. After receiving a caustic comment from a conductor, Bruckner said that the symphony "does not count" and wrote "annullirt" ("nullified") on the front page and changed "Nr. 2" to "0". His next work which had been called the 3rd was then changed to what we now know as the 2nd. It is unfortunate that due to the '0', it has since been assumed to be a precursor to the 1st. Personally I find it more interesting than either the 1st or 2nd.


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## Neo Romanza

If I were to rank Bruckner's symphonies in terms of favorites, it would probably look like this: 8, 9, 6, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Honestly, though, from the 4th through the 9th are absolutely astonishing and any order of these symphonies would be fine by me.


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## ORigel

897563420100

Frankenbruckner Symphony! My favorite movements of each of his symphonies:
1st movement-- 9th
Scherzo- 7th
Trio- 8th
Slow movement- 5th
Finale- 8th


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## Kreisler jr

9,7,8,5,6,3,4, don't care enough about the rest to rank, probably unoriginally 2-1-0-00 but I have probably not heard 0 and 00 more than once or twice.


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## Azol

Mine would be more like 9 - 8 - 7, 5, 4 - 6 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 0 - 00 as of today. Can't rank between 4, 5 and 7 to be honest.


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## haziz

joen_cph said:


> I conclude of course that you haven't heard _enough_ Bruckner :lol:


Nope. Over the last 40 years of listening to classical music, I somehow never joined the cult of Bruckner. I actually tried to listen multiple times to his music. Strange, since I have not done so with other composers I dislike, e.g. Schoenberg. I have somehow accumulated about 8 complete sets of his symphonies, and have listened repeatedly to many. But I think I am done, I am sheltering elsewhere, thoroughly enjoying music I love, by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Borodin, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Kalinnikov .........


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## ORigel

Kreisler jr said:


> 9,7,8,5,6,3,4, don't care enough about the rest to rank, probably unoriginally 2-1-0-00 but I have probably not heard 0 and 00 more than once or twice.


I like the first movement of 0.


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## hammeredklavier

haziz said:


> His 4th symphony is listenable. The first movement of his 7th is listenable. The remaining symphonies are not listenable.


Try


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## Kreisler jr

haziz said:


> Nope. Over the last 40 years of listening to classical music, I somehow never joined the cult of Bruckner. I actually tried to listen multiple times to his music. Strange, since I have not done so with other composers I dislike, e.g. Schoenberg.* I have somehow accumulated about 8 complete sets of his symphonies, and have listened repeatedly to many. *


Wow, that's remarkable to have so many recordings of music one does not like... 
I have several recordings of the Grieg piano concerto or the Rachmaninoff #2 or some pieces by Liszt or Chopin I don't much care for but they came almost all as couplings, fillers, in boxes I wanted for something else.


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## savae

My favorites are (7, 6, 3, 9). Then (4,5,8). And finally 1 and 2.


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## RobertJTh

Kreisler jr said:


> Wow, that's remarkable to have so many recordings of music one does not like...
> I have several recordings of the Grieg piano concerto or the Rachmaninoff #2 or some pieces by Liszt or Chopin I don't much care for but they came almost all as couplings, fillers, in boxes I wanted for something else.


I've got at least 5 or 6 recordings of the Concierto de Aranjuez. Why and how I got those is of the great mysteries of my life.


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## Kreisler jr

I think my shelves are Rodrigo-free, but I am not completely sure (maybe a filler somewhere but no full concerto). I enjoy the Grieg once every (other) year but I would not have bought a second recording (and even the first, probably Szell/Fleisher I bought mainly for the Schumann) of it. It's now music I'd switch off in the radio but I rarely put it on on purpose.


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## elgar's ghost

5, 7, 8, 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 00. Probably different to when I last thought about it. :lol:


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## tdc

RobertJTh said:


> I've got at least 5 or 6 recordings of the Concierto de Aranjuez. Why and how I got those is of the great mysteries of my life.


Its a very good and popular work, and therefore has been recorded a lot, not so mysterious, really. Do you really think you will ever compose something as good as that? I doubt it.


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## RobertJTh

tdc said:


> Its a very good and popular work, and therefore has been recorded a lot, not so mysterious, really. Do you really think you will ever compose something as good as that? I doubt it.


The ad hominem was rather uncalled for, but yes, I think it's rather easy to compose something that's better than the Concierto de Aranjuez.


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## Kreisler jr

The piece would probably be a curiosity like the "Warsaw concerto" if it had been composed for piano, violin or some more common instrument...

And it would truly be a cruel world if I had to endure or even praise everything I could not myself make better... Among other things I'd have to become vegetarian immediately as I have never butchered animals or made sausage... So "you have do make it better yourself" is one of the worst non-arguments one can make.


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## Phil loves classical

I was just listening to Bruckner's 5th and 6th. I find the music incredibly repetitive and disjointed in phrases always switching back and forth between the same themes, repeating same figures, and very similar in expression to his later symphonies. He seems to have a pretty limited range to me. I only need the 9th and 4th. The 7th is also quite different from the others.

9 4 .... 8 ...7 .....


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## BrandonLG

8. The rest of them.


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