# What is my favorite Mahler Symphony?



## Dim7

Sorry for the egocentricity.


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## hpowders

Four because it has more humor/humour than the others.


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## hapiper

I like 4 also, reminds me a lot of Beethoven's Pastoral.


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## Guest

Das Lied von der Erde is my favourite symphony,one of a kind.


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## Guest

Das Lied von der Erde is my favourite,one of a kind.


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## mmsbls

Tough call. Maybe 5, maybe 4, maybe 1, maybe Das Lied von der Erde. I ultimately voted 5.


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## SeptimalTritone

Dim7 said:


> Sorry for the egocentricity.


Well...

8 is very towering, powerful, positive, heartwarming, and tied-together, but you don't like vocal music. This probably means you don't like Das Lied either.

2, 3, and 4 are only vocal for a short time. 3 is probably too long for your attention span, and I don't think you have the capacity to appreciate the greatness of the first movement. 2 is probably too apocalyptic->triumphant for you. 4 is a possibility.

Out of the middle three instrumental symphonies: 5 you probably like, but no connoisseur's favorite Mahler symphony is the 5th. 7 is probably too good natured for you and too positive. 6 is a possibility, but then again, you're not the angsty crying type who would emotionally implode at all the climaxes and has a fetish for major turning into minor (or are you?). Actually, maybe 7 is a possibility.

9 is a masterpiece, but the first movement (well, all of it) is probably too whiny for you. 10 is perhaps too sparse and emotionally ambiguous for you.

So I'd say 4, 6, or 7.


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## DiesIraeCX

Dim7, the Sixth is your favorite, I thought this was tragically obvious.


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## OldFashionedGirl

The Sixth, bro!!


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## Adair

The Second, as conducted by Klemperer on Vox (better than the later EMI recording, in my opinion) with Ilona Steingruber, soprano, and Hilde Roessl-Majdan, alto.


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## arpeggio

oops. misread op.


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## Pugg

Dim7 said:


> Sorry for the egocentricity.


No 3 I guess :tiphat:


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## Haydn man

I am something of a Mahler novice, but having recently worked my way through all the symphonies it is No.5 that edges it for me


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## Dim7

I have a feeling that some of you haven't read the poll question correctly 



SeptimalTritone said:


> 3 is probably too long for your attention span, and* I don't think you have the capacity to appreciate the greatness of the first movement.*


How rude


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## Dr Johnson

I wish to vote correctly.

Which is your favourite Mahler symphony?


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## SeptimalTritone

Dr Johnson said:


> I wish to vote correctly.
> 
> Which is your favourite Mahler symphony?


Indeed. The suspense is unbearable.


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## Kivimees

I don't recall this topic being discussed in the course lectures nor in the required reading. 

I intend to complain to the dean.


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## Guest

Dr Johnson said:


> I wish to vote correctly.
> 
> Which is your favourite Mahler symphony?


Maybe it's a trick question, you know what she's like.
Maybe she hates Mahler. 
Maybe she mis-spelled the name "Mozart." 
Maybe she is deaf.

Don't be fooled.


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## Guest

SeptimalTritone said:


> Indeed. The suspense is unbearable.


...as are all of his posts.


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## Dr Johnson

dogen said:


> *Maybe it's a trick question,* you know what she's like.
> Maybe she hates Mahler.
> Maybe she mis-spelled the name "Mozart."
> Maybe she is deaf.
> 
> Don't be fooled.


You have a point there.

But I shall assume that it isn't a trick question until it's proved that it is.

I await Dim's answer with bated breath.


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## KRoad

Number four for me


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## Dim7

Okay I I'll tell you.... it is..............

Sixth! DiesIraeCX got it right.

(or maybe 10th. Though I've only heard the adagio)


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## Guest

Oh! Good choice!!!


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## Dr Johnson

I voted for the sixth.


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## Dim7

dogen said:


> I reckon the 2nd.


This isn't the Wrong Post Order thread.


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## Guest

I reckon the 2nd.


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## SeptimalTritone

Dim7 said:


> Okay I I'll tell you.... it is..............
> 
> Sixth! DiesIraeCX got it right.
> 
> (or maybe 10th. Though I've only heard the adagio)


You should check out Rattle's Cooke version.


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## hpowders

I answered the OP as it was written, literally. I chose the Mahler 4 for the original poster.

But if it's a choice for me, then the Mahler 5 would be my favorite, especially as conducted by Klaus Tennstedt in a rare, once in a lifetime live performance by the New York Philharmonic.

I had to shell out for a big box of live NY Philharmonic performances to get it and this performance is the crown jewel of the set. Worth the money.


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## Richannes Wrahms

Well obviously: 

Das Lied is overripe Romanticism glazed with cheap orientalism and is not even a Symphony
10 is contrapuntally incomplete Tritan und Isolde
9 is weird, motivically repetitive and only the first mov is decent
8 is saccharineous crap whipped up in a rush
7 is weird inconsistent Meistersinger with trivial guitar and mandolin part and a brass instrument nobody can play well 
6 is Strauss and film music
5 is gay Tchaikovsky
4 is bonbon Haydn
3 is trivial Mahler
2 is trivial Brucker 8th /Beethoven 9th
1 is a trivial mistake


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## DiesIraeCX

^


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## joen_cph

You like the 10th, because at last one can see the end of them.


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## tahnak

The Eighth - Symphony of a Thousand and before it is over, I am already standing at the gates of he Kingdom of Heaven.


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