# Your Top 10 Ninth Symphonies!



## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Last but not least, what are, in your opinion, the greatest, or just your personal favorite_ ninth _symphonies? 

Mine:

1. Beethoven
2. Mahler
3. Bruckner
4. Schubert
5. Shostakovich
6. Dvorak
7. Vaughan Williams
8. Myaskovski
9. Raff
10. Langgaard


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Oh, definitely *Beethoven* and *Dvorak*. I imagine if this were a poll these two would claim the number one and two spots.


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

1. Beethoven
2. Mahler
3. Bruckner
4. Schubert
5. Dvorak
6. Shostakovich
7. Vaughan Williams


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

The first 5 are pretty clear, but the last 5 could change easily.

Beethoven
Schubert
Dvorak
Bruckner
Mahler
Vaughan Williams
Pettersson
Shostakovich
Atterberg
Glass


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Favorite symphonies numbered as _9_ today:

1. Beethoven
2. Bruckner
3. Schubert
4. Mahler
5. Dvorák
6. Raff
7. Shostakovich
8. Vaughan Williams
9. Arnold
10. Witt


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Beethoven
Mahler- 2 of the greatest works in all of music...

Bruckner
Schubert
Dvorak
Shostakovich
VWms
Schuman


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

Beethoven
Mahler
Schubert
VW
Dvořák
Pettersson
Shostakovich


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bruckner
Mahler 
Dvorak
Arnold
Shostakovich
Raff
Schubert
Vaughan Williams
Myaskovsky
Weinberg


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1. Symphony No.9 (1978) by Roger Sessions
2. Irwin Bazelon's 1992 "Sunday Silence"
3. Vaughan Williams (1957)
4. Leif Segerstam's 1985 Symphony No.9 in one movement (orchestral diary sheet no.3)
5. Opus 28 (1927) by Nikolai Myaskovsky
6. Aubert Lemeland's 1995 Opus 168
7. Villa-Lobos (1952)
8. Opus 95 (1968) by Vagn Holmboe
9. Malcolm Arnold's 1986 Opus 128
10. Sinfonia della speranza (1990) by Andrzej Panufnik

Common practice superstition would have us all drop dead after posting our 9ths ...



https://i.gifer.com/7AnF.gif


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Why last?

No listing for 10ths and beyond?

Or is it just that Shostakovich and Segerstam would win hands down?


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

Mahler
Beethoven
Schubert
Bruckner
Henze
Pettersson
Simpson
Holmboe
D.Matthews
Tuur


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## Anooj (Dec 5, 2021)

Beethoven
Dvorak
Mahler
Schubert
Bruckner
Shostakovich
Vaughan Williams


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

Beethoven (of course)
Mahler (ditto)
Dvorak (same)
Glass (whaaaat?)
Bruckner
Vaughan Williams
Shosty


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

The obvious:

Beethoven on a class and league of it’s own.

Then the equal rest:

Mahler
Schubert
Dvorak
Bruckner


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Beethoven
Mahler
Bruckner
Dvořák
Schubert
Tansman


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Beethoven
Mahler
Bruckner
Schubert (Great C major, nowadays #8)
Shostakovich (one of my favorites)
Dvorak


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

In strict order of which ones I enjoy

1. Bruckner
2. Mahler
3. Beethoven
4. Vaughan Williams
5. Dvorak
6. Robert Simpson
7. Villa Lobos
8.Hans Werner Henze

Strangely, though 'The Ninth' has a certain aura, I can only identify 8 examples that I truly enjoy. I'm still not quite there with Schubert (Norrington's London Classical players and Stuttgart recordings get me closest...)


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Forster said:


> Why last?
> No listing for 10ths and beyond?


You want to go beyond the 9th? Do you have a death wish or something? 
But yeah, we could do one more for 10th symphonies - further down on the road it gets too difficult to list 10 favorites, I guess.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

1. Beethoven
2. Dvořák
3. Shostakovich


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Forster said:


> Why last?
> 
> No listing for 10ths and beyond?
> 
> Or is it just that Shostakovich and Segerstam would win hands down?



With some competition from Havergal Brian.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> Bruckner
> Mahler
> Dvorak
> Arnold
> ...


eh?! I wasn't aware that Weinberg's 9th had been recorded (or, without checking, even performed yet). The most recent release I know of is the remarkable 13th. Where did you hear it? For the most part my top choices otherwise match yours very closely with Bruckner a clear first and then virtually a toss up between Mahler, Dvorak, Arnold and Schubert as runners up.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

dko22 said:


> eh?! I wasn't aware that Weinberg's 9th had been recorded (or, without checking, even performed yet). The most recent release I know of is the remarkable 13th. Where did you hear it? For the most part my top choices otherwise match yours very closely with Bruckner a clear first and then virtually a toss up between Mahler, Dvorak, Arnold and Schubert as runners up.


Well, that was stupid. I checked my CD files, and indeed I do not have the 9th. I must have confused it with the 10th.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> Well, that was stupid. I checked my CD files, and indeed I do not have the 9th. I must have confused it with the 10th.


both the 10th and 8th are excellent symphonies in very different ways.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Forster said:


> Why last?
> 
> No listing for 10ths and beyond?
> 
> Or is it just that Shostakovich and Segerstam would win hands down?


What . . . No listing for 40th Symphonies?


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

There is probably enough content with symphonies numbered 10 through 15 to continue onwards; it's with the over-20 crowd that we have limited contestants.

Excluding Haydn & Mozart, I figure the playing field looks like below:

344 (& counting) Leif Segerstam
70 (-> 75) manuscripts by Hovhaness (67 officially numbered)
51 (?) Pavel Vranický/Paul Wranitzky
32 Havergal Brian
27 Nikolai Myaskovsky
17 (?) Mendelssohn
16 Allan Pettersson
15 Shostakovich
15 Henk Badings
15 (?) Henry Cowell
14 (& counting) Philip Glass
13 Vagn Holmboe
12 Villa-Lobos
11 Bruckner
10 Schubert
10 Mahler
10 Eduard Tubin
10 Aubert Lemeland
10 (& counting) Shin'ichirō Ikebe

Seems as though only a Top 5 would be possible for a 40th symphony, eh? TC members with any further information feel free to chime in. 

There certainly are some underdog composers. I think Henry Cowell's 15th symphony was his last ... but I also think Cowell was not even mentioned once throughout these TC threads on Top 10s. Henk Badings may have been cited only one time. 
Imagine being a composer who wrote more than 9 symphonies but having your lifetime's work marginalized by the established reputations of the same dozen big name 'star's ... and by audiences of listeners unfamiliar with your works.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Prodromides said:


> There is probably enough content with symphonies numbered 10 through 15 to continue onwards; it's with the over-20 crowd that we have limited contestants.
> 
> Excluding Haydn & Mozart, I figure the playing field looks like below:
> 
> ...


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Favorite Ninths:

1. Dvorak "New World"
2. Bruckner
3. Beethoven "Choral"
4. Schubert "The Great"
5. Vaughan Williams
6. Mahler
7. Shostakovich (Leonard Bernstein called it an anti-Ninth)
8. William Schuman "The Ardeatine Caves"
9. Roy Harris "The Great American Ninth"
10. Alan Hovhaness "Saint Vartan"


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Prodromides said:


> There certainly are some underdog composers. I think Henry Cowell's 15th symphony was his last ... but I also think Cowell was not even mentioned once throughout these TC threads on Top 10s.


I've sampled some of Cowell's symphonies on YouTube and also have a CD somewhere featuring some of his other orchestral works (such as _The Persian Set_). From what I think I understand, Cowell's orchestral works seem to be tonal, traditional, plesant, but not very memorable. But the works by Cowell for solo piano are much more abstract, daring, dissonant, and interesting. I always think of Cowell's piano works as the bridge between Charles Ives' _Concord Sonata_ and John Cage's _Sonatas for Prepared Piano_.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Mahler
Dvořák 
Pettersson
Vaughan Williams
Shostakovich
Aho 
Sessions
Henze
Rubbra
Lloyd


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

i would advise the thread initiator to stop with the ninth; because after that the quality will go down the drain and it is my conviction that we should try to improve the level of the works proposed on TC; of course for the tenth you would still have aho, brian, coates, pm davies, glass, haydn, hovhaness, mahler, d.matthews, mozart, myaskovsky, panufnik, pettersson, raff, rubbra, simpson, shostakovich, villa-lobos, weinberg


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

justekaia said:


> i would advise the thread initiator to stop with the ninth; because after that the quality will go down the drain and it is my conviction that we should try to improve the level of the works proposed on TC; of course for the tenth you would still have aho, brian, coates, pm davies, glass, haydn, hovhaness, mahler, d.matthews, mozart, myaskovsky, panufnik, pettersson, raff, rubbra, simpson, shostakovich, villa-lobos, weinberg


Agreed, I planned to do just one more for the 10th's, since I can still think of 10 great 10th's - but further down the road it gets much harder, and it would be just a list of the usual suspects.
I initially thought of doing one for 11-15 or 11-20 but that way, half of everyone's lists would be Shostakovich, so better not.


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

RobertJTh said:


> Agreed, I planned to do just one more for the 10th's, since I can still think of 10 great 10th's - but further down the road it gets much harder, and it would be just a list of the usual suspects.
> I initially thought of doing one for 11-15 or 11-20 but that way, half of everyone's lists would be Shostakovich, so better not.


to me your real challenge would be to try and identify the best versions of the great symphonies that have been shortlisted by our members in your thread; there are historical versions like mahler's ninth by bruno walter with the initial vision of the composer and its breakneck speed, the reduced frequency range of the recording, the tonal distortions, the wobbly passages of the vienna philharmonic and a few wrong notes, but all in all a version to cherish; after that you have great versions by horenstein, karajan and of course the versions of our contemporary conductors who benefit from listening to all these early versions, from a deep analysis of the score and come up with their own take; i think a deeper analysis of the 10 favourite symphonies chosen by our members and a selection of great recordings of these would be a fabulous thread; it is nice and important to make lists but then it is even more important to go for a deeper analysis with our members, including the ones who also listen to recent recordings; that being said i am personally very grateful for your great thread


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

justekaia said:


> to me your real challenge would be to try and identify the best versions of the great symphonies that have been shortlisted by our members in your thread; there are historical versions like mahler's ninth by bruno walter with the initial vision of the composer and its breakneck speed, the reduced frequency range of the recording, the tonal distortions, the wobbly passages of the vienna philharmonic and a few wrong notes, but all in all a version to cherish; after that you have great versions by horenstein, karajan and of course the versions of our contemporary conductors who benefit from listening to all these early versions, from a deep analysis of the score and come up with their own take; i think a deeper analysis of the 10 favourite symphonies chosen by our members and a selection of great recordings of these would be a fabulous thread; it is nice and important to make lists but then it is even more important to go for a deeper analysis with our members, including the ones who also listen to recent recordings; that being said i am personally very grateful for your great thread


I would welcome a "The Definite Recordings" vote!


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## Aries (Nov 29, 2012)

1. Anton Bruckner
2. Gustav Mahler
3. Franz Schubert 
4. Ludwig van Beethoven
5. Antonin Dvorak
6. Janis Ivanovs
7. Eduard Tubin
8. Michael Haydn
9. Philip Glass
10. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


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## leonsm (Jan 15, 2011)

Dvorak
Bruckner
Beethoven
Villa-Lobos
Schubert
Shostakovich
Atterberg


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I'd say my 'Top 5' 9th symphonies would be (in order):

Mahler
Bruckner
Beethoven
Shostakovich
Dvořák

Honorable mentions: Schubert, Vaughan Williams, W. Schuman, Myaskovsky, Arnold (!)


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

haziz said:


> 1. Beethoven
> 2. Dvořák
> 3. Shostakovich


Still:

1. Beethoven
2. Dvořák
3. Shostakovich

I must be bored .....


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

*Bruckner
Dvorak
Vaughan Williams
Lajtha
Mahler
Shostakovich
Schubert
Arnold
Beethoven
Schuman*


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