# Your Top 10 Fourth Symphonies!



## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Continuing the quest.
What are, in your opinion, the greatest, or just your personal favorite_ fourth _symphonies?

Mine (a rather boring list as usual):

1. Sibelius
2. Bruckner
3. Schmidt
4. Brahms
5. Schumann
6. Shostakovich
7. Beethoven
8. Nielsen
9. Mahler
10. Ives

Honorary mentions: Mendelssohn, Bax, Vaughan-Williams, Taneyev, Prokofiev (original version), Glazunov, Roussel, Scriabin (Poem of Ecstacy)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

OTOOMH as usual:


Mahler
Brahms
Schmidt
Sibelius
Shostakovich
Mendelssohn
Bruckner
Alfvén
Bax
Schuman


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Brahms
Nielsen
Mahler
Mendelssohn (Italian)
Schumann
Beethoven
Sibelius
Ives
Shostakovich
Bruckner


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

For some reason I tend not to think of Nielsen for questions like this. And before people ask, Schuman is not a typo. It is William.


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## Anooj (Dec 5, 2021)

Tchaikovsky
Taneyev 
Glazunov
Mahler
Beethoven
Brahms
Sibelius
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Vaughan Williams


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

NY is the first stop:

1. "New York" (1967) by Roberto Gerhard
2. Maurice Karkoff's 4th (1963)
3. Josef Tal (1985)
4. Alexander Tcherepnin (1957)
5. Karol Szymanowski's 1932 Symphonie Concertante
6. Daniel Pinkham (1990)
7. "Chiaroscuro" (1984) by Gloria Coates
8. Malcolm Arnold (1960)
9. "A Vitória" (1919) by Villa-Lobos
10. Wallingford Riegger (1956)


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Roughly in descending order of preference (the gaps are deliberate):

Tchaikovsky
Mendelssohn
Beethoven
Glazunov
Nielsen

Brahms


Mahler


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Primary favorites (alphabetically)....

Brahms
Mahler
Mendelssohn ("Italian")
Shostakovich
Sibelius

Secondary favorites (alphabetically)....

Beethoven
Dvorak
Prokofiev
Schubert
Tchaikovsky


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Today:

1. Brahms
2. Mahler
3. Sibelius
4. Mendelssohn (_Lobgesang_)
5. Tchaikovsky
6. Berlioz (_Funèbre et Triomphale_)
7. Schubert
8. Prokofiev (first version)
9. Alfvén
10. Beethoven

I don't know the Schmidt, the Glazunov nor the Shostakovich yet, and I probably should.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

I do not have ten!

Sibelius
Brahms
Tchaikovsky
Bruckner
Kokkonen
Nielsen
Mendelssohn

(Beethoven and Mahler dropped from the list here! How is that possible? Then again they will emerge again with their 5ths!)


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Favorite 4th Symphonies:

1. Ives
2. Mahler
3. Sibelius
4. Tchaikovsky
5. Vaughan Williams 
6. Hovhaness "For Band"
7. Nielsen "The Inextinguishable"
8. Roger Sessions
9. Beethoven
10. Brahms


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

1. Beethoven
2. Nielsen
3. Brahms
4. Bruckner "Romantic"
5. Schumann (Numerical not chronological Fourth)
6. Mendelssohn "Italian"
7. Mahler
8. Ives
9. Schmidt
10. RVW


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Hurwitz did a video the other day with sixteen Second Symphonies. Instead of listing ten warhorses, he listed mostly unpopular symphonies from the 20th cemtury. His list didn't include Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, or Nielsen. He said that the golden age of the symphony was from after German composers stopped writing them and the rest of the world wrote symphonies. He did include Mahler 2 as the "ultimate" Second Symphony.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

ORigel said:


> Hurwitz did a video the other day with sixteen Second Symphonies. Instead of listing ten warhorses, he listed mostly unpopular symphonies from the 20th cemtury. His list didn't include Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, or Nielsen. He said that the golden age of the symphony was from after German composers stopped writing them and the rest of the world wrote symphonies. He did include Mahler 2 as the "ultimate" Second Symphony.


Polemics give views to youtubers, and he knows this.


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## MusicInTheAir (Apr 21, 2007)

RobertJTh said:


> Continuing the quest.
> What are, in your opinion, the greatest, or just your personal favorite_ fourth _symphonies?
> 
> Mine (a rather boring list as usual):
> ...


1. Brahms
2. Tchaikovsky
3. Mendelssohn
4. Mahler
5. Nielsen
6. Sibelius
7. Beethoven
8. Bruckner
9. Schubert
10. Shostakovich.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

This is so easy, and off the top of my head......

Nørgård
Ives
DSCH (the greatest 4 of all time and DSCH's best utterance)
RVW
Beethoven
Sibelius
Nielsen
Bruckner
Schumann
Mahler

(can we augment the rubric to 11? Schnittke's never gonna get on my list otherwise, and I love his symphonies)

*EDIT*: Damn!!!! (looking at other people's lists, I forgot Brahms & Tchaikovsky - this is the problem with doing it off the top of one's head!)


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## DLOinQUEENS (Nov 22, 2018)

Brahms
Schmidt
Tchaikovsky
Glazunov
Rubinstein
Braga-Santos
Bruckner
Beethoven
Mendelssohn 
Schumann


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Xisten267 said:


> Polemics give views to youtubers, and he knows this.


Hurwitz knows more recordings than almost anyone else, and thus knows more Symphony no. 2s than almost anyone else, is probably sick of listening to endless Brahms symphony discs in order to review them, and knows that the early Haydn symphonies are not Haydn's best (otherwise knowing Hurwitz, Haydn would dominate the lists!).


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

1. Bruckner
2. Sibelius
3. Beethoven
4. Brahms
5. Schumann (final version)
6. Mendelssohn
7. Tschaikowsky
8. Nielsen
9. Schmidt
10. Coates


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

ORigel said:


> Hurwitz knows more recordings than almost anyone else, and thus knows more Symphony no. 2s than almost anyone else, is probably sick of listening to endless Brahms symphony discs in order to review them, and knows that the early Haydn symphonies are not Haydn's best (otherwise knowing Hurwitz, Haydn would dominate the lists!).


I thought that the selections of this youtuber were tongue-in-cheek, but now that I've seem his video, I know they aren't. So I take back what I've said in post #14.


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## Yabetz (Sep 6, 2021)

Bruckner
Brahms
Beethoven
Mahler
Ives
Sibelius
Tchaikovsky
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Nielsen


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## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

Glazunov - Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Op. 48 (1893)
Sibelius - Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63 (1911)
Berg, Natanael - Symphony No. 4 "Pezzo Sinfonico" (1918)
Gretchaninov - Symphony No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 (1927)
Schmidt - Symphony No. 4 in C major (1933)


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

Brahms
Vaughan Williams
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Tchaikovsky
Mendelssohn
Schmidt
Ives
Gerhard
Alfven


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Brahms 
Schumann
Ives 
Beethoven 
Kokkonen
Szymanowski
Alfvén 
Melartin
Saygun
Parry


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Lutoslawski
Henze


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

I think these would go better in the Classical Music Discussion Polls subforum within Classical Music Discussion rather than spamming this section with all of these, if you're going to do all of them...


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## Bruckner Anton II (6 mo ago)

I didn't realize that I heard so many great 4th symphonies that deserve a place on the list. Anyway, this is my top 10 among other great ones:
1. Brahms
2. Bruckner
3. Beethoven
4. Schumann
5. Tchaikovsky
6. Mahler
7. Shostakovich 
8. Mendelssohn
9. Schmidt
10. Schubert


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

maestro267 said:


> I think these would go better in the Classical Music Discussion Polls subforum within Classical Music Discussion rather than spamming this section with all of these, if you're going to do all of them...


I guess it's up to the mods to decide where this belongs. The polls section is rather crowded too.
But I'm not trying to spam up the board, that's why I prefer to wait till there's little activity left in the present thread before creating the next one.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

RobertJTh said:


> I guess it's up to the mods to decide where this belongs.


It's neither a game nor a poll, so it's fine where it is.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Damn you...


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Fourths I’m likely to be hearing with some regularity these days in no particular order:

Shostakovich
Weinberg
Sibelius
Brahms
Penderecki
Nielsen
Mahler
Beethoven
Schnittke


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Art Rock said:


> OTOOMH as usual:
> 
> 
> Mahler
> ...


Correction after replaying the Nielsen symphonies:


Mahler
Brahms
Schmidt
Sibelius
Shostakovich
Mendelssohn
Bruckner
Nielsen, C.
Alfvén
Bax


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Brahms
Beethoven
Bruckner
Vaughan Williams
Nielsen
Shostakovich
Mahler
Sibelius
Antheil
Penderecki
Schumann
Dvorak


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

Brahms
VW
Beethoven
Huber
Ives
Henze
Antheil
Penderecki
Szymanowski
William Schuman


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Mendelssohn
Mahler
Szymanowski
Chavez
Nielsen
Schumann
Brahms

I could add three more to make the ten, but it boils down to the difference between love and like (even the last three are somewhere on the borderline of that).


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Completely forgot about Szymanowski! His Sinfonia Concertante definitely deserves at least a honorable mention.
(But one can argue about how it resembles a piano concerto more than a symphony...)


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## Shoskofiev (5 mo ago)

Brahms
Bruckner
Magnard
Shostakovich
Nielsen
Vaughan Williams
Tubin
Tchaikovsky
Glazunov
Tippett


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Beethoven
Brahms
Mahler
Bruckner
Sibelius
Tchaikovsky
Mendelssohn
Schumann


In no particular order .


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Honegger
Sibelius
Hartmann
William Schuman
Arnold
Martinu
Mahler
Bruckner 
Nielsen 
Lajtha


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## PeterKC (Dec 30, 2016)

Ives
Nielsen
Schumann
Tchaikovsky
Atterberg
Sibelius
Brahms
Parry
Shostakovich
Vaughn Williams


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

*Nielsen
Langgaard
Tubin
Brahms
Braga Santos
Martinu
Bruckner
Vaughan Williams
Schmidt
Magnard*


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