# Symphony cycles I may be missing out on?



## Manok

I own most of the symphonies by most of the major composers, and was wondering which of the minor ones have a set of more than 2 symphonies that are worth considering. I'm thinking like Ives and Villa-Lobos (Own a copy of both sets), not that I am looking for similar composers, just symphonies that are often overlooked.


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## Art Rock

Bax (7), Vaughan Williams (9), Rubbra (9), Holmboe (13), Hanson (7), Tubin (9), Alfven (5), Schmidt (4), Myaskovsky (27)... for starters...


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## Aramis

Szymanowski (4)


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## dmg

W. Schuman (10), Rautavaara (8), Penderecki (8)...


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## violadude

Art Rock said:


> Bax (7), Vaughan Williams (9), Rubbra (9), Holmboe (13), Hanson (7), Tubin (9), Alfven (5), Schmidt (4), Myaskovsky (27)... for starters...


Hmm I thought Rubbra wrote 11 symphonies and Tubin 10.


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## Art Rock

Possibly, I was posting from memory.


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## superhorn

Ernst Toch (7). On CPO with Alun Francis and the Berlin R.S.O. Alberic Magnard (4).


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## superhorn

Saint-Saens. (5). Get the classic EMI two disc set with Jean martinon and the French Radio orchestra.


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## Vaneyes

Roussel Syms. 1 - 4. Of sets commonly available, Deneve on Naxos and Dutoit on Apex are inexpensive, but I prefer Eschenbach on Ondine. 

My favorites by Sym.: Sym. 1 - Eschenbach (Ondine); Sym. 2. - Martinon (Erato); Sym. 3. - Bernstein (Sony); Sym. 4. - Verrot (Analekta).


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## starthrower

^^^^^^^^^^
I've been meaning to get around to those Roussel symphonies.

There's the Schnittke symphonies on BIS, and Chandos.

For Ives, I like the Tilson Thomas CDs on Sony.


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## violadude

Malcolm Arnold (9), Atterberg (9), Peterson-Berger (5), Alan Pettersson (16), Rangstrom (4), Sumera (6), Carl Vine (7), Brenton Broadstock (5), Henze (10), Yoshimatsu (5 I think), Isang Yun (5), Per Norgard (I really am not sure how many but I think it's around 7), Melartin (6), Langgarrd (16), Honegger (5), Hartmann (8),Martinu (6), Alwyn (5), Robert Simpson (11)


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## Jeremy Marchant

Havergal Brian (32)
Benjamin Frankel (8)
Hilding Rosenberg (6) 
Karl-Birger Blomdahl (3)
Aulis Sallinen (8)
Roy Harris (around 18 - see Wikipedia)
Roberto Gerhard (4)


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## Meaghan

Farrenc (3)
Early-mid-19th century French composer, but the symphonies don't really sound typically "French" to me (French music is not my favorite, but I really like these). Main influence is Beethoven--very tight structure, little motives unifying whole movements. Plenty of drama.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

I presume the original poster prefers late Romantic and beyond symphonies.

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), 4 symphonies
Egon Wellesz (1885-1974), 9 symphonies with interesting shift in style from tonality to 12-tone.


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## Olias

May I humbly recommend the three symphonies each of Copland and Bernstein. All six are very different from each other and with the exception of Copland's 3rd are very underplayed.


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## elgar's ghost

Hindemith - 7 (but not numbered so I've listed them in date order):

Mathis der Maler Symphony **
Symphony in E flat
Symphony Serena
Symphonietta (Little Symphony) in E major
Die Harmonie der Welt Symphony **
Symphony in B flat for Concert Band
'Pittsburgh' Symphony

(** Based on material from the opera of the same name)


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## NightHawk

Alfred Schnittke - 9 symphonies - I'd order them separately and start collecting the ones coming from the Royal Danish Philharmonic. Just about the most wonderful 'decently recent' music I've heard in a long time. No. 1 was premiered in 1974 and No. 9 was finished in 1997.


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## Vaneyes

Re Hindemith, this box is a good way to pick up some of his orchestral works.


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## TxllxT




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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

violadude said:


> Malcolm Arnold (9), Atterberg (9), Peterson-Berger (5), Alan Pettersson (16), Rangstrom (4), Sumera (6), Carl Vine (7), Brenton Broadstock (5), Henze (10), Yoshimatsu (5 I think), Isang Yun (5), Per Norgard (I really am not sure how many but I think it's around 7), Melartin (6), Langgarrd (16), Honegger (5), Hartmann (8),Martinu (6), Alwyn (5), Robert Simpson (11)


I have the Carl Vine symphonies. I thought there were six of them? Unless of course he has written another since that release.


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## violadude

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I have the Carl Vine symphonies. I thought there were six of them? Unless of course he has written another since that release.


Ya, he has.


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## Guest

I believe Alan Hovhaness has 67 numbered symphonies. I don't know if there exists a complete cycle. I have highly enjoyed all of his symphonies which I have heard. Someone to check out.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

violadude said:


> Ya, he has.


When did he write it?


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## violadude

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> When did he write it?


2008
..............


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

That long ago????

BTW, I had I idea you live in WA.


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## pollux

Glazunov composed 8 symphonies. I know his 4th and 7th. Worth trying. The 4th in particular is great.


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## violadude

Charles Villers-Stanford, besides having the same name as a prestigious Ivy league college, also wrote 7 symphonies that are pretty nice. I recommend 3, 5 and 6 the most.


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## NightHawk

EDIT: Oops and sorry. Thought I was responding to someone else's OP. But will still make some of my comments regarding your collection of symphony cycles.

You may want to consider the Egon Wellesz 9 symphonies (late Romantic increasing to more dissonant harmonies) if you do not have them. Do you have the the Johann Baptiste Vanhal symphonies? Czech b. 1839 - d. 1813. I think his symphonies are very fine, polished, elegant, good melodies with some Sturm und Drang, I believe. I think four or five discs at low prices will get them all.



Manok said:


> I own most of the symphonies by most of the major composers, and was wondering which of the minor ones have a set of more than 2 symphonies that are worth considering. I'm thinking like Ives and Villa-Lobos (Own a copy of both sets), not that I am looking for similar composers, just symphonies that are often overlooked.


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## NightHawk

What say you about Villiers-Stanford style, please? Leaving on road trip Monday, so will make good on my Langgaard project. I think your original estimation is going to be very accurate. I was led astray by the excellent performances by the Danish Nat. Sym. Orch. 



violadude said:


> Charles Villers-Stanford, besides having the same name as a prestigious Ivy league college, also wrote 7 symphonies that are pretty nice. I recommend 3, 5 and 6 the most.


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## violadude

NightHawk said:


> EDIT: Oops and sorry. Thought I was responding to someone else's OP. But will still make some of my comments regarding your collection of symphony cycles.
> 
> You may want to consider the Egon Wellesz 9 symphonies (late Romantic increasing to more dissonant harmonies) if you do not have them. Do you have the the Johann Baptiste Vanhal symphonies? Czech b. 1839 - d. 1813. I think his symphonies are very fine, polished, elegant, good melodies with some Sturm und Drang, I believe. I think four or five discs at low prices will get them all.


I haven't heard that much of his symphonies but what I have heard made me want to hear more, very intriguing.


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## violadude

NightHawk said:


> What say you about Villiers-Stanford style, please? Leaving on road trip Monday, so will make good on my Langgaard project. I think your original estimation is going to be very accurate. I was led astray by the excellent performances by the Danish Nat. Sym. Orch.


Yes, Langgaard's output is uneven to say the least. But there is some good stuff in there. Hopefully you don't feel like you've wasted your money!

Re: Charles Stanford, the important thing is not to judge him on his first symphony heh heh! It's not incredible, but has good movements. He's a pretty tuneful British composer. His output is kind of uneven as well. But his 3rd symphony is a fun piece with a very beautiful, elegiac slow movement that I believe begins with a harp solo. The 5th symphony is very "epic." It begins with blaring horns and ends with a great ending including an organ! The 6th symphony has a pretty heroic feel about it, and the slow movement sounds quite nostalgic to my ears. Number 4 is pretty good too and I would put it slightly below the aforementioned 3 but above 1, 2 and 7.

But if you are looking for new symphony cycles PM me! Because I would recommend other cycles before I recommended this one.


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## mleghorn

Vaneyes said:


> Roussel Syms. 1 - 4.


Absolutely! I love the set on Naxos.


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## mleghorn

Wellesz 9 symphonies. These are available as a set. It's all good or great music.


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## mleghorn

mleghorn said:


> Wellesz 9 symphonies. These are available as a set. It's all good or great music.


Oops, I should have read the whole discussion. Sorry for the duplicate post -- and for this extraneous post


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## NightHawk

No, I don't feel like I wasted my money, though it was expensive - Syms 1, 4, 5a, 5b, 6 and 7 make good impressions. 6 and 7 even have some fugato work which always perks me up - I like counterpoint, I like development. I don't like ANY of the symphonies that include piano, chorus or solo voice. While listening to the 4th for maybe the 5th time it occurred to me that the symphony (a suite of numerous movements, actually) reminded me of movie music (I feel like I've posted this before) in that movie scenes are short and they are often highly contrastive - this is a good description of the episodic, miniatures of Langgaard's 4th and characteristic of all his symphonic work that I have heard.



violadude said:


> Yes, Langgaard's output is uneven to say the least. But there is some good stuff in there. Hopefully you don't feel like you've wasted your money!
> 
> Re: Charles Stanford, the important thing is not to judge him on his first symphony heh heh! It's not incredible, but has good movements. He's a pretty tuneful British composer. His output is kind of uneven as well. But his 3rd symphony is a fun piece with a very beautiful, elegiac slow movement that I believe begins with a harp solo. The 5th symphony is very "epic." It begins with blaring horns and ends with a great ending including an organ! The 6th symphony has a pretty heroic feel about it, and the slow movement sounds quite nostalgic to my ears. Number 4 is pretty good too and I would put it slightly below the aforementioned 3 but above 1, 2 and 7.
> 
> But if you are looking for new symphony cycles PM me! Because I would recommend other cycles before I recommended this one.


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## Crudblud

Michael Tippett, an often overlooked English composer, wrote four symphonies which I find to be highly original and unusual. I like Colin Davis' recordings with the LSO (some occasional audible humming, but not enough to bother me, at least), and Solti also does a good 4th. Davis' 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Solti's 4th are available on a 6 disc set along with some of his concertante, piano and chamber music on Decca.

Also, I must recommend Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie. It's the only work he designated a symphony, although I suppose some of his other multi-movement orchestral works (L'ascension; Eclairs sur l'au-dela) may also be relevant here. Seek out the recording by Antoni Wit and the Polish RSO on Naxos, which is a two disc set with my favourite recording of L'ascension as an added bonus.

Lastly, and I know it was already mentioned, Scriabin's symphonies/tone poems are fantastic and well worth looking in to. Both Segerstam and Ashkenazy have good/great sets available, Muti is also fine.


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## oldman

Good place to look for symphonies of the beaten path is the Unsung Composers site at

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php

A large number of broadcasts have been archived for free download. You will need to register to view the downloads page.

Among the highlights are a nearly complete Brian symphony cycle (including copies of the world premiere performances).

Enjoy!


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## Sator

Witold Lutosławski x 4


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## Polyphemus

Robert Simpson is a bit under represented here. 11 symphonies, start with the superb No 9 and explore the rest. 'Hyperion' have a complete cycle, mostly conducted by Vernon Handley. Simpson's chamber music is also worth investigating.
A worthwhile use for all those record tokens you got for Christmas.


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## starthrower

Kalevi Aho 15 full blown, 3 chamber symphonies


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## PetrB

Darius Milhaud: Six Symphonies de chambre ~ 'little symphonies' -- for various small chamber ensembles, brief, marvelously compact three-movement works, each lasting a handful of minutes.
No.1 "Le printemps", Op.43 (1917)
No.2 "Pastorale", Op.49 (1918)
No.3 "Sérénade", Op.71 (1921)
No.4 "Dixtour", Op.74 (1921)
No.5 "Dixtour d'instruments à vent", Op.75 (1922)
No.6, Op.79 (1923)


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## suffolkcoastal

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Havergal Brian (32)
> Benjamin Frankel (8)
> Hilding Rosenberg (6)
> Karl-Birger Blomdahl (3)
> Aulis Sallinen (8)
> Roy Harris (around 18 - see Wikipedia)
> Roberto Gerhard (4)


Your information on Harris is slightly incorrect. There are 13 numbered symphonies, plus an early unnumbered and unpublished Symphony America Portrait as well as the Symphony for Voices and the Symphony for Band 'West Point'. There are however a number of projected symphonies which never got off the ground and a handful of incomplete works some of which ended up as different works altogether.

Other composers I would ad are Draeseke (4), Kalliwoda (7) nos 3-5 are outstanding, Ropartz (5) nos 3 -5 are really worth getting to know, Onslow (4) all rather attractive, Paul von Klenau (7) Cipriani Potter (I believe 7 survive), Walter Piston (8) nos 2, 4 & 6 are the best, David Diamond (11) ( I love nos 2, 3 & 9), Roger Sessions (9) challenging but ultimately rewarding works, Peter Mennin (9) but like William Schuman the first two were withdrawn (though I have an off-air recording of Schuman 2)

There are a number of others I have in my collection too.

I forget to check but I guess Atterburg and Vainberg (Weinberg) have already been mentioned.


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## Pestouille

Felix Weingartner 7 symphonies, interesting...


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## Lukas

Tansman composed 9 Symphonies which I'm yet to hear, and 2 Sinfoniettas and 2 chamber symphonies which I've just heard and am very satisfied.

Roy Harris (9 symphonies) was completely unknown to me untill very recently. His 3rd is amazing.

Also, a lot of lesser known symphonies can be found at:
http://unsungsymphonies.blogspot.com/


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## suffolkcoastal

Lukas please note my posting above about the Harris symphonies, there is a lot of confusion caused by inaccuracies on the web and in some books. The total is 13 numbered and 3 unumbered. I have recordings of all of them except for the unpublished American Portrait and part of no 12.

The Tansman symphonies are rather good and were certainly a discovery for me when Chandos released them in 4 volumes along with the two sinfoniettas and two sinfonias. The 1st symphony was either withdrawn or lost, I can't currently recall which.


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## Lukas

suffolkcoastal: Thank's for correcting me and I'm sorry about my misinformation. I'm new to Harris


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## Manok

So I've taken a listen to both Wellesz, and Schnittke, and seriously considering both sets of symphonies. I do need to explore both a bit more first though. Thanks for the suggestions.


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## luismsoaresmartins

Joly Braga Santos complete symphonies on Naxos are amazing, I strongly recomend them


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## tahnak

Have you missed out on the Tchaikovsky symphony cycle including his later score Seventh symphony in E Flat Major?


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## realdealblues

luismsoaresmartins said:


> Joly Braga Santos complete symphonies on Naxos are amazing, I strongly recomend them


I second the 6 Symphonies from Joly Braga Santos. I have them on the Marco Polo Label which I think Naxos owns now or something. Anyway, great works that should be heard more often.


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## samurai

@ luismsoaresmartins and realdealblues, Thanks to your strong advocacy of Braga Santos, I shall give shortly listen to him {?} on *Spotify. *This is one of the reasons I so love *Talk Classical, *when my fellow members are willing to share their love for a particular composer with others. In this instance, I had never heard of this composer before in my life, and now I'll be able to experience his music for the first time, to which I'm really looking {or hearing} forward.
Guys, Thanks Again!


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## realdealblues

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do  I heard his 1st Symphony on a local PBS classical radio station one time many years ago and I was sold.


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## samurai

realdealblues said:


> I hope you enjoy them as much as I do  I heard his 1st Symphony on a local PBS classical radio station one time many years ago and I was sold.


Thanks so much; I'll be listening to his *First and Fifth Symphonies on Spotify *tomorrow night!


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## luismsoaresmartins

To me, is best symphonies are numbers 1, 3 and specially 4. Is 2nd is also fine. 5th and 6th are not bad, but are "too modern" to me... Also, "Concerto in D" (you can hear part of it in 



 ) and "Sinfonietta for Strings" are truly amazing pieces. Hope you enjoy it!!!


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## Prodromides

Fartein Valen (4 symphonies, I recall)
Josef Tal (6 on CPO)
Humphrey Searle (5 on CPO)
Ahmed Adnan Saygun (5 on CPO)
Aubert Lemeland (10, I think, some are on Skarbo, but not all)
Marcel Landowski (4, 3 of which appeared on Erato)
Meyer Kupferman (lost count, more than 23 - I think; some are numbered/some aren't ; much of them are on SoundSpells)
Andre Jolivet (3 symphonies)
George Enescu (3)
Carlos Chavez (6 - or are there more?)
Richard Rodney Bennett (at least 3)


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## Laudemont

If not already mentioned, the Dutch composers Cornelis Dopper (7) and Matthijs Vermeulen (7). Also, Elgar composed three; my favorite is the unfinished 3rd, realized by Anthony Paine. Did anyone mention Howard Hanson (4)? They are favorites of mine.


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## TheComposer

Tcherepnin (4) there's supposedly only one full recording of the cycle by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra which i happen to have 
Conrad Beck(7)


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## elgar's ghost

Prodromides said:


> Fartein Valen (4 symphonies, I recall)
> Josef Tal (6 on CPO)
> Humphrey Searle (5 on CPO)
> Ahmed Adnan Saygun (5 on CPO)
> Aubert Lemeland (10, I think, some are on Skarbo, but not all)
> Marcel Landowski (4, 3 of which appeared on Erato)
> Meyer Kupferman (lost count, more than 23 - I think; some are numbered/some aren't ; much of them are on SoundSpells)
> Andre Jolivet (3 symphonies)
> George Enescu (3)
> Carlos Chavez (6 - or are there more?)
> Richard Rodney Bennett (at least 3)


I've since bought Searle's 2nd, 3rd and 5th symphonies on a cpo disc and I like them a lot - although I would describe them as occasionally on the knotty side I certainly don't find them as difficult as some reviewers would have us believe (preconceptions based on the fact that he studied under Webern?)


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## Vaneyes

Re Fartein Valen (1887 - 1952) Symphonies, I gave the Ceccato set a try years ago. The composer is stuck in neutral most of the time. The meandering sameness seemed boring, so they were culled early on. As was GG's Valen Piano Sonata 2, even though Glenn said,"For the first time in many years I have found a looming personality in the 20th century's music."

I sampled the much later Eggen set of Valen Symphonies, but didn't hear anything to stir my juices for a proper revisit.


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## DeepR

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), 4 symphonies


I think you mean 3 symphonies, although sometimes the two symphonic poems are also referred to as symphonies, in that case it would be 5 symphonies. Wkipedia says Scriabin sometimes referred to the Poem of Ecstasy as his 4th symphony, so if he didn't consider the Poem of Fire as his 5th, then you could be right after all.


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