# The Top 10 Greatest Symphonies in Classical Music (Part 1 of 2)



## peeyaj

*Disclaimer: There is nothing 'Official' about these lists. It is only subjective opinion.. The blog post was written with fun in mind.*










A *symphony* is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. "Symphony" does not necessarily imply a specific form, though most are composed according to the sonata principle. Many symphonies are tonal works in four movements with the first in sonata form, which is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "classical" symphony, although many symphonies by the acknowledged classical masters of the form, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven do not conform to this model.
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*1. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral" *






On May 7, 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven experienced what must certainly have been the greatest public triumph of his career. The audience which gathered at the Hoftheater adjacent to the Vienna Kärtnertor heard not only the abridged local premiere of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (the Kyrie, Credo, and Gloria were given) and Op. 124 Overture, but also the first performance of the composer's 'Choral' Symphony. The event was a rousing success; indeed, one of the most moving accounts of Beethoven's final years describes how the profoundly deaf composer, unable to hear the colossal response of his admirers, had to be turned around by one of the soloists so that he could see the hundreds of clapping hands!

The finished work is of visionary scope and proportions, and represents the apogee of technical difficulty in its day. There are passages, notably a horn solo in the slow movement, which would have been almost impossible to play on the transitional valveless brass instruments of Beethoven's time. As Dennis Matthews writes: "As with other late-period works, there are places where the medium quivers under the weight of thought and emotion, where the deaf composer seemed to fight against, or reach beyond, instrumental and vocal limitations."

The Ninth also personifies the musical duality that was to become the nineteenth century -- the conflict between the Classic and Romantic, the old and new. The radically different styles of Brahms and Liszt, for instance, both had their precedents in this work. On one hand, there was the search for a broader vocabulary (especially in terms of harmony and rhythm) within the eighteenth century framework; on the other, true Romanticism, embracing the imperfect, the unattainable, the personal and the extreme -- qualities that violate the very nature of Classicism. When viewed individually, the first three movements still have their roots distinctly in the eighteenth century, while the fourth -- rhapsodic, and imbued with poetic meaning -- seems to explode from that mold, drawing the entire work into the realm of program music, a defining concept of musical Romanticism.

Beethoven's Ninth represents a fitting culmination to the composer's symphonic ouvre -- a body of work that is still unmatched in its scope and seminal ingenuity -- and remains a pillar of the modern symphonic repertoire.

*2. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Eroica"
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Beethoven completed this work in 1804; it was introduced privately in Vienna, chez Prince Lobkowitz, to whom it is dedicated. Beethoven also conducted the public premiere on April 7, 1805, in the Theater-an-der-Wien. Despite everything written to the contrary, the Sinfonia eroica was never a "portrait" of Napoleon Bonaparte, although Beethoven did plan to dedicate it to the charismatic Corsican "First Consul of France." He went into a rage, however, when a pupil, Ferdinand Ries, brought news in May 1804 that Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor. According to Ries, Beethoven shouted that the General was only "an ordinary human being, [and] went to the table, took hold of the title page, tore it in two, and threw it on the floor."

The symphony is widely regarded as a mature expression of the classical style of the late eighteenth century that also exhibits defining features of the romantic style that would hold sway in the nineteenth century. The Third was begun immediately after the Second, completed in August 1804, and first performed April 7, 1805.

*3. Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor "From the New World

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Dvorák composed this work in 1893; Anton Seidl conducted the premiere with the New York Philharmonic Society on December 16, 1893.

His most popular work from his time spent in America was the swan-song symphony he subtitled From the New World. Chauvinists among us still claim that its themes are either Amerindian or African-American, which Dvorák refuted in 1900: "Omit the nonsense about my having made use of 'American' motifs....I tried only to write in the spirit of those national melodies." This dust-up managed to ignore influences both stronger and more subtle. Dvorák already knew Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, completed in 1888, and he likewise used a motto-theme to link the four movements in his symphony in E minor. The introduction can be made to sound a lot more Tchaikovskian, indeed, than a subsequent theme can be made to sound like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," as alleged. Beyond the Slavic gravitas of both symphonies, however, Dvorák's musical signature was intrinsically Czech, even in the Largo movement that represented, he once said, Hiawatha at the grave site of Minnehaha (a quasi-Spiritual, "Goin' Home" text was created post facto by a white American pupil). By the time he heard any Amerind music, during the summer of 1893 near a Czech settlement at Spillville, Iowa, Dvorák had finished the Ninth Symphony. From the structural standpoint, two sonata-form movements (with an exposition repeat in the first) bracket two movements in song form (ABA), all of them with brief introductions and codas.

*4. Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major "Jupiter" *






The near-quarter century that separates Mozart's first symphony and his last -- the Symphony No. 41 in C major (1788) -- was marked by the composer's recurrent, if not ongoing, interest in the possibilities inherent in this form. Upon examination of the chronology of Mozart's works, one finds that the composition of his symphonies tends to occur in irregularly spaced groups, of as many as nine or ten examples in a row, rather than regularly or singly. What this might suggest, aside from any financially based motivation, is that he employed these various periods specifically for the working out of the problems and challenges of the symphonic form. In surveying these works, one finds that the prominent benchmarks increase almost geometrically as time progresses, so that by the production of the "Jupiter" Symphony two years before his death -- as part of a group of three composed within the space of less than three months -- the full extent of the evolution which has taken place is striking indeed.

The Symphony No. 41 aptly embodies what is now identified as a paradigm of Classical symphonic form: four movements, the first and last in a quick tempo, the second slower, the third a minuet with trio. Unencumbered by norms suggested by any model, however, Mozart's deft imagination distinguishes this work from others in a similar cast.

*5. Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor *






That Brahms initially approached the symphonic form with trepidation is fairly evident from the chronology of his works. It wasn't until the age of 43 that he completed his First Symphony. Indeed, the composer's output to that point suggests a conscious process of self-education. A number of smaller-scale orchestral works, including the Variations on a Theme of Haydn and the proto-symphonic Piano Concerto No. 1, suggest preparation for what Brahms clearly saw as the elusive of compositional enterprises. He was to meet the challenge with a skill and individual spirit, one of Classicism refracted through the prism of high Romanticism, that led many to pronounce him heir to Beethoven.

Brahms' Fourth Symphony (1885), his last, provides with its serious tone, striking complexities, and inspired construction a fitting valedictory to his work in this genre. That its impact was immediate if initially puzzling is clear from the account by the biographer Max Kalbeck of its first run-through (at two pianos) for a small and distinguished audience.

References:

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best-classic-symp.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/symphony-no-41-in-c-major-jupiter-k-551

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony


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## emiellucifuge

Im sorry but youre wrong!

1. Beethoven 9
2. Mahler 2
3. Beethoven 3
4. Mozart 41
5. Shostakovich 5
6. Mozart 40
7. Beethoven 5
8. Beethoven 7
9. Schubert 9
10. Brahms 4

- TC OFFICIAL!


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## peeyaj

Finished it at last!!!


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## peeyaj

There's nothing official to the list..


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## Art Rock

For the life of me, I will never understand the popularity of Beethoven 9.


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## peeyaj

@Art Rock 

Why??? People will tar and feather you..


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## Art Rock

Why?

1. I love the romantic genre
2. I love symphonies
3. I love the combination of voice and symphony orchestra
4. I like Beethoven (a top20 composer for me)

So the 9th should be right up my alley. Yet I really do not like it, in particular the final movement. I don't get what so many people hear in it. It baffles me.

On the other hand, glad that you include the 6th, my favourite Beethoven symphony by far.


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## peeyaj

Thanks..  I think Mahler's works should work with you better and I know you are a big Mahler fan.. Thanks for the support. 

Pastorale should be higher on the list, but we don't want to be accussed of Beethoven's symphatizer.


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## Polednice

It's good to see you include Brahms's 4th despite dissing him in another blog post 

As a matter of personal preference though, I'd probably switch Dvorak's 9th for his 7th, though the former is still a magnificent piece.


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## peeyaj

It pains me to include Brahm's 4th..(cover his head)  But no one can deny the greatness of this masterpiece.


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## Polednice

peeyaj;bt57 said:


> It pains me to include Brahm's 4th..(cover his head)  But no one can deny the greatness of this masterpiece.


Hahahahaha! Defiant to the very end!


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