# Your Favorite Last Symphonies



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Let's have a bit of fun. Which last symphony is your favorite? You may vote more than one. It's just a bit of fun; nothing more, nothing less.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Mozart's.

Of the rest I would say Mahler's just barely edges out Bruckner's.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

I voted for Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, and Mahler.

Beethoven 9 was chosen for what I think are obvious reasons. I will list a few of my favorite parts: the first movement development section fugue, the first movement coda, the "Turkish March" variation in the finale, the fugue in the finale.

Schubert 9 has a heroism that is almost unparalleled. The first, third, and fourth movements always raise my spirits. 

Bruckner 9's first movement is my favorite Brucknerian first movement, especially the third theme group in the exposition.

And I find myself unable to describe the sublimity of Mahler 9.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

consuono said:


> Mozart's.
> 
> Of the rest I would say Mahler's just barely edges out Bruckner's.


41 is hard to beat. One of the finest in the repertoire.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I voted for the Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Bruckner. 

Also 'other' for Ives 4 and Rachmaninov 3


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Where is Tchaikovsky's 6th?


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

The "Jupiter" for me, principally for the sake of that miraculous finale.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bruckner, Mahler, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. Among the best symphonies of all time. The other options are not even close (as always, based on personal preference only).


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

tdc said:


> I voted for the Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Bruckner.
> 
> Also 'other' for Ives 4 and Rachmaninov 3


Ives 4 could the be the finest symphony composed by an American.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

For me it was pretty much a tie between Bruckner 9 and Shostakovich 15. Beethoven 9, Tchaikovsky 6, Dvorak 9, Schubert 9, Mozart 41, Ives 4 (not listed), are also all favorites of mine. Mahler 9 is good but I like Mahler's earlier symphonies 1-4 best, unless you include _Das Lied von der Erde_ as a symphony.


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## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

I haven't voted yet, but I am being a bit influenced by whether I think each one of those last symphonies is their own composer's finest. 
It's a great list, but I prefer Beethoven 3 (and possibly also 5 and 7) to 9. I prefer Mozart 40 to 41. I like VW9, but not convinced it is up there with any of 3 to 6. Similarly, I think Prokofiev 7 is unfairly dismissed, but it isn't number 6. For Bruckner, hard to say, and ditto Mahler. For Haydn, there are so many to choose from, and I am perhaps a bit more Sturm und Drang in my sympathies. Oddly, I really like Shostakovich 15, as I find some of his works too overtly political, whereas 15 is beautifully quirky. On Mendelssohn, perhaps also unusually, I was blown away by number 5 the other day.
Hence, I probably lean to supporting Brahms and Sibelius here as I think those are their finest symphonies. 
Perhaps also, in this context, I have Sibelius 7 top, not because it is better than Brahms 4 (or others), but because it seems to represent a summation of what Sibelius was seeking in symphonies. (Perhaps on that basis I should uprate Brucker 9, but then he didn't finish it, so would be an odd sort of summation.)


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Sibelius 7
Obviously


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

I had to vote for three. Mozart, Bruckner, and Brahms last symphonies are their best. Tchaikovsky's 6th too.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I'm surprised the Haydn 104 hasn't a bigger following; it may be Haydn's greatest symphony as well as his last, and, frankly, what other opportunity does one have to favor a Symphony Number 104?

The Mozart and Beethoven and Mahler "last symphonies" are stunning achievements, and that's where I placed my vote (along with the Haydn). Interestingly enough, it seems Beethoven and Mahler were sketching a follow up symphony left unfinished at their deaths, so had they lived a while longer we would ultimately likely have a different "last" symphony from each. I don't believe the same is true of Mozart and Haydn, though likely had these men lived on a few years more (especially Mozart, youthful as he was when he died), we'd have several more symphonies to appreciate from that "classical" era. Alas ....

Of course, this poll is invalid without the great Tchaikovsky 6th on the list. That may well be my favorite "final symphony" in the repertoire.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

I voted for Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Prokofiev, and should have selected the "Other" option (I forgot) for Tchaikovsky's _Pathétique_.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Dvorak 9
Schmidt 4
Elgar 2
Tchaikovsky 6


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

My choices (though I do like--to some extent--many of the others) were Mozart, Brahms, Sibelius, Prokofiev.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Mine are Sibelius, Nielsen, Brahms, Shostakovich, Martinu, Vaughan Williams, Bruckner and Schmidt.


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## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

Beethoven and Schumann for me.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

haziz said:


> Where is Tchaikovsky's 6th?


You can vote for "Other". The poll allows a maximum of about 16 options.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> I'm surprised the Haydn 104 hasn't a bigger following; it may be Haydn's greatest symphony as well as his last, and, frankly, what other opportunity does one have to favor a Symphony Number 104?
> 
> The Mozart and Beethoven and Mahler "last symphonies" are stunning achievements, and that's where I placed my vote (along with the Haydn). Interestingly enough, it seems Beethoven and Mahler were sketching a follow up symphony left unfinished at their deaths, so had they lived a while longer we would ultimately likely have a different "last" symphony from each. I don't believe the same is true of Mozart and Haydn, though likely had these men lived on a few years more (especially Mozart, youthful as he was when he died), we'd have several more symphonies to appreciate from that "classical" era. Alas ....
> 
> Of course, this poll is invalid without the great Tchaikovsky 6th on the list. That may well be my favorite "final symphony" in the repertoire.


Yes, I could not fit anymore in the poll. You could vote for "Other".


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Axter said:


> Beethoven and Schumann for me.


Which Schumann? The Symphony No. 3 in E♭ major, Op. 97 'Rhenish', is the last symphony composed by Robert Schumann.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I haven't a single favourite from the list provided but of those not mentioned I'm particularly fond of Malcolm Arnold's 9th, especially the epic slow-burner of a final movement.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Myaskovsky's Symphony N°27, C-Moll, Op. 85 is a pretty fine "last symphony". What's really fun is to work up to it by listening to the other 26 in numerical order.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

In no particular order: Beethoven 9, Mahler 9, Sibelius 7, Dvorak 9, Tchaikovsky 6


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1918/1919 George Enescu's 3rd
1950 Karl-Birger Blomdahl's "Facetter" Symphony No.3

1964
André Jolivet's 3rd
Humphrey Searle's 5th

1967 Roberto Gerhard's "New York" Symphony No.4
1973 William Alwyn's 5th
1978 Symphony No.9 by Roger Sessions

As usual with me - it's 'other'


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Besides the *Shostakovich 15th*, I voted: *None, I hate symphonies* and *Who cares*.


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## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

Radames said:


> Which Schumann? The Symphony No. 3 in E♭ major, Op. 97 'Rhenish', is the last symphony composed by Robert Schumann.


Well I meant the 4th (composed in 1841, and revised in "1851") and I am aware, that "Rhenish" was composed in 1850. 
But I also like Rhenisch equally, so statistically I didn't do any damage to the polls by voting others.  alongside Beethoven 9th.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Who cares, unanswerable question, for me that is.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> Besides the *Shostakovich 15th*, I voted: *None, I hate symphonies* and *Who cares*.


I dislike the coarseness and lack of respect in that comment.


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## John Lenin (Feb 4, 2021)

Shostakovich, Brahms, Mahler and Bruckner


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

In no order

Mozart 41
Haydn 104
Bruckner 9
Mahler 9
Sibelius 7
LvB 9
RVW 9
DSCH 15


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Love all of them but voted Brahms


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