# Your Top 20 Favorite Symphonies from 20th Century



## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

As in the title.

My top 20 favorite symphonies from 20th century are:
(in chronological order)


Dohnányi - Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 9 (1901)
Karłowicz - Symphony "Rebirth" in E minor, Op. 7 (1902)
Melartin - Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 1 (1902)
Noskowski - Symphony No. 3 in F major "From Spring to Spring" (1903) 
Gretchaninov - Symphony No. 2 in A major "Pastoral", Op. 27 (1908)
Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 (1908)
Peterson-Berger - Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, "The Journey of Southerly Winds" (1910) 
Sibelius - Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op 63 (1911)
Melartin - Symphony No. 5 "Sinfonia Brevis" in A minor, Op. 90 (1915)
Peterson-Berger - Symphony No. 3 in F minor, "Lappland Symphony" (1915)
Wetz - Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 40 (1916)
Berg, Natanael - Symphony No. 4 "Pezzo Sinfonico" (1918)
Wetz - Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 47 (1920)
Sibelius - Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 (1921)
Melartin - Symphony No. 6, Op. 100 (1924)
Sibelius - Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 (1924)
Gretchaninov - Symphony No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 (1927)
Peterson-Berger - Symphony No. 5 in B major, "Solitude" (1933)
Graener - Wiener Sinfonie in F major, Op. 110 (1941)
Dohnányi - Symphony No. 2 in E major, Op. 40 (1944)


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1.	Jolivet – Symphony No. 3 (1964)
2.	Szymanowski – Symphony No. 3 (1916)
3.	Kupferman – Jazz Symphony (1988)
4.	Gerhard – Symphony No. 4 (1967)
5.	Blomdahl – Symphony No. 3 (1950)
6.	Bennett – Symphony No. 1 (1965)
7.	Holmboe – Symphony No. 6 (1947)
8.	Searle – Symphony No. 5 (1964)
9.	Schmitt – Symphony Concertante (1931)
10.	Arnold – Symphony No. 7 (1973)
11.	Frankel – Symphony No. 2 (1962)
12.	Valen – Symphony No. 2 (1944)
13.	Yun – Symphony No. 2 (1984)
14.	Enescu – Symphony No. 3 (1918?/1919?)
15.	Tansman – Symphony No. 5 (1943)
16.	Sessions – Symphony No. 9 (1978)
17.	Brian – Symphony No. 1 (1927)
18.	Wellesz - Symphony No. 7 (1967)
19.	Coates – Symphony No. 8 (1991)
20.	Tal – Symphony No. 4 (1985)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Very quick and improvised choices, but some of the most listened to would be

Shostakovich - 8,15
Prokofiev - 6
Nielsen - 3,4,5
Holmboe - 11
Pettersson - 8
Martinu - 6
Nørgård - 5
V-Williams - 4
Elgar - 1
Langgaard - 4
Mahler - 6,9,10
Sibelius - 4,6
Honegger - 3


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

My favorite century for symphonies! One per composer in random order:

Casella: 2
Sibelius: 7
Holmboe: 8
Nielsen: 5
Tubin: 2
Glière: 3
Shostakovich: 8
Mahler: 6
Magnard: 4
Arnold: 2
Langgaard: 6
Bloch: Symphony in C sharp minor
Madetoja: 2
Walton: 1
Raid: 1
Martinu: 6
Melartin: 3
Vaughan Williams: 9
Korngold's only one
Braga Santos: 4

Honorable mentions: Atterberg 2, Prokofiev 5, Nystroem _Sinfonia de mare_, Stenhammar 2, Alfvén 4, Rachmaninov 2


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## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

I think those that get played most often in our household would be:

1. Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms
2-4. Sibelius, Symphonies Nos. 5-7 (we often listen to these as a trilogy, as Sibelius suggested)
5. Sibelius, Symphony No. 4
6. Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2
7. Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 3
8. Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5
9-11. Mahler, Symphonies Nos. 2-4 (often as a trilogy)
12. Hindemith, Mathis der Maler Symphony
13. Hindemith, Harmonie der Welt Symphony
14. Messiaen, Turangalîla-Symphonie
15. Britten, Spring Symphony
16. Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5

A couple of recent threads have made me guilty that I don’t play post-Shostakovich symphonies often enough, so I’m deliberately going to fill up the rest of the list with some of my favorites in that field:

17. Lloyd, Symphony No. 11
18. Penderecki, Symphony No. 7 (Seven Gates of Jerusalem)
19. Rautavaara, Symphony No. 8 (The Journey)
20. Pärt, Symphony No. 3

This unfortunately squeezes out Shostakovich himself (not to mention Myaskovsky, Bax, Tubin, Langgaard, Zemlinsky...). But I do want to make some amends for neglecting the music of my own lifetime!!


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## Bxnwebster (Jan 5, 2021)

Roussel: Symphony No. 3
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
Janacek: Sinfonietta
Villa-Lobos: Symphony No. 3
Szymanowski: Symphony No. 4
Vaughan-Williams: Symphony No.5
Marx: Eine Herbstsymphonie
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Gorecki: Symphony No. 3
Atterberg: Symphony No. 4
Roussel: Symphony No. 4
Santoro: Symphony No. 4
Schmidt: Symphony No. 4
Scriabin: Symphony No. 4 (Poem of Ecstasy)
Weinberg: Symphony No. 21, “Kaddish”
Still: Symphony No. 1
Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony
Reger: Sinfonietta
Hovhannes: Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain”
Ives: Symphony No. 2


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Mahler Symphony 9
Shostakovich Symphony 10
Sibelius Symphony 7
Mahler Symphony 6
Shostakovich Symphony 5
Rorem Symphony 3
Sibelius Symphony 3
Sibelius Symphony 4
Shostakovich Symphony 7
Mahler Symphony 5
Mahler Symphony 7
Shostakovich Symphony 15
Sibelius Symphony 2
Sibelius Symphony 5
Schnittke Symphony 1
Pettersson Symphony 7
Schnittke Symphony 1
Prokofiev Symphony 1
Rorem Symphony 1
Schnittke Symphony 8


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
Elgar Symphony No. 1
Elgar Symphony 2
Prokofiev Symphony 1
Britten Simple Symphony
......

And that's about it, unless we shoehorn Mahler's 4th into the 20th century.

Sorry, my musical tastes seem firmly rooted in the 19th century. I do need to explore Shostakovich a bit more.


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## brucknerian1874 (Oct 21, 2020)

Bax 5
Eisler k
Frankel 5
Hindemith E-flat
Honegger 3
Hovhaness 2
Ives 1
Lutoslawski 4
Magnard 4
Mahler 7
Martinu 5
Messiaen T
Part 3
Prokofiev 5
Shostakovich 10
Stravinsky SoP
Suk Asrael
VW4
V-L 7
Zemlinsky 2


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## mparta (Sep 29, 2020)

Oh well, I'm a little bored this morning, I'll bite:

Shostakovich 8, 10, 4-- the only one I've heard in performance is 4, a kick *** job at the Proms quite a few years ago. Crazy piece, extraordinarily virtuosic for the orchestra, thus.... The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chung. The Chandos Jarvi has a sound characteristic that I like (and I usually don't like Chandos)-- the brightness gives that opening a real kick.
The playing on Haitink's 8 is beautiful. I've wanted to hear the Solti/CSO but haven't plunked for that yet.

Prokofiev-- 1 and 5, especially 5 by Levine/CSO, one of my top 10 orchestra recordings

Rachmaninoff 3-- Concertgebouw/Ashkenazy. Not a Rachmaninoff person at all but lovely themes and the playing, wow!

OK, the Russians already have 6-- impressive.

No English symphony rises to the top despite the fact that I have much affection for Rubbra. Walton 2 is impressive from Szell but not from others, so not the work I guess.

No French symphony, same, some good music but they excell in other forms. Except Roussel 3, ok, that's that.

Mahler too much of the 19th century for me. Technically though I guess I'd include the 9th. 6 and 8 are 20th century and I love them. I love the 8th. i think that's not the popular opinion but in a good performance, it's really something, shape and weird (silly to me) text be damned. That tenor part, when well done, sends me, listen to Eugene Conley in the Stokowski (ancient) performance to hear what can be done. The guy whom I don't otherwise know for Horenstein also good. I think both the Solti and HvK 6ths have extraordinary playing, when I listen closely and compare others, few measure up.

And now for the home team:

Copland 3. I like the Bernstein/DG/NYPO but the St. Louis/Slatkin is better playing. That St. Louis orchestra with Slatkin was really a triumph of his aesthetic, which is remarkable because I hear nothing in much of what he does in any other context, and sometimes even with them.
I heard an hilarious performance of the Copland 3 by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Dutoit. Talk about lost as a goose:lol:

Shapero, Symphony for Classical Orchestra. Wow, Bernstein, Previn, whatever. Great Piece.

Piston 6: underrated, although some of his other work is subpar, this and the Incredible Flutist move him up and the symphony I return to regularly.

Ives: 1,2, 3 and 4. No matter how highly you rate him, he's underrated. There may be a thing to the ears through which this music is filtered, like Bruckner for an Austrian, but to me, like no other and a wonder.

Sibelius 6: the HtheK DG recording, incomparable.

Now I'm cheating and looking at other lists.

Oh Nielsen: I love 3, 4 and 5, know the others less well.

Stravinsky, Russian-American, Symphony of Psalms, like the purely orchestral works less but like them still.

Cheating ( a little, literally) Janacek Sinfonietta. Great, wild recording from VPO and Mackerras and I heard a spectacular performance by the Zurich Tonhalle with Hrusa. It was over the top wonderful and had as a final thrill the conductor returning to the podium for great applause and ... holding up the score to acknowledge it!! that was really something.

OK, that's 20 if you don't mind calling 23 20


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