# Your Top 10 Symphonies Nos. 11 or higher



## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Let's complete this set for real. What are your top 10 symphonies numbered 11 or higher?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Shostakovich 14 and however many I can have of late Mozart and Haydn.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Mozart 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41
Haydn 88, 93, 95, 104

I feel boring now  but as I don't listen to all that much Shostakovich, I don't have many other options that I can think of whose music I actually listen to somewhat regularly.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

Shostakovich 11th , 13th, 14th , 15th
Haydn 93, 95 , 104
Mozart 39, 40, 41


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Restricting myself to two works per composer looks possible:

Haydn: 44 (Trauer) and 92 (Oxford)
Mozart: 38 (Prague) and 40
Shostakovich: 13 and 15
Myaskovsky: 21 and 27
Brian: 12
Raff: 11


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

At the moment:

1. Shostakovich #14
2. Shostakovich #11
3. Mozart #41
4. Mozart #40
5. Mozart #38
6. Mozart #39
7. Shostakovich #15
8. Haydn #104
9. Hovhaness #19
10. Mozart #36

I still don't know most symphonies by Weinberg, Brian, Myaskovsky, Hovhaness, Segerstam and others with more than ten numbered works in the genre, so I predict that this list will change a lot in the future.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Mozart: 38, 39, 40
Haydn: 45, 86, 88, 90, 99, 102, 104... and many others.

I don't care enough for Shostakovich and even less for any from his 11-15 to replace any of these favorites.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

*Shostakovich: 13 and 15
Myaskovsky: 22 and 27
Mozart: 39
Haydn: 49 and 82
Badings: 12
Lloyd: 12
Aho: 12*


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## dholling1 (25 d ago)

Shostakovich: Symphony no. XV


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Myaskovsky: Symphonies XV, XVI, XXI, XXVII
George Lloyd: Symphony no. XI
Shostakovich: Symphonies XI, XIII
Ivanovs: Symphony no. XVII
Weinberg: Symphonies XIV, XIX, XI
Mozart: Symphony no. XLI
Haydn: Symphony no. XXII "The Philosopher"


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

the harmonies- (MH188)




Merry Christmas, btw


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## RussianFlute (Jul 26, 2021)

Myaksovsky No.22, 24, and 27
Hovhaness No.60, 63, and 66 
Shostakovich No.11


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Limited myself to one symphony per composer:

Pettersson - Symphony no. 12 "De Döda på torget"
Aho - Symphony no. 12 "Luosto"
Shostakovich - Symphony no. 14
Badings - Symphony no. 14 "Symphonic Triptych"
Myaskovsky - Symphony no. 24
Lloyd - Symphony no. 12
Röntgen - Symphony no. 15
Malipiero - Symphony no. 11 "Delle Cornamuse"
Lokshin - Symphony no. 11
Milhaud - Symphony no. 12 "Rurale"
A few honourable mentions:

Cowell - Symphony no. 16 "Icelandic"
Holmboe - Symphony no. 12
Karamanov - Symphony no. 23 "I Am Jesus"
Weinberg - Symphony no. 21 "Kaddish"


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Shostakovich 11, 15
Lloyd 12
Brian 15, 30
Myaskovsky 11, 16, 17, 25, 27


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## Aries (Nov 29, 2012)

Shostakovich: No. 12
Haydn: No. 39, 59, 103, 49, 45
Ivanovs: No. 19, 17
Mozart: No. 41
Hovhaness: No. 60


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

--Mozart: nos. 25, 31 "Paris", 36, 38 "Prague", 39, 41 "Jupiter", etc.
--F. J. Haydn: nos. 49' La Passione ', 92 "Oxford" (or 96), 100,104, etc.

Other than Mozart & Haydn, there are very few composers that wrote more than 11 symphonies that I still listen to. Generally, since Beethoven, it's been a monumental struggle for composers that I like & admire to make it to 9 or 10; while some very significant symphonists didn't make it past 3 to 6 (Brahms, Schumann, Nielsen, Martinu, Lutoslawski, Kokkonen, Knussen, for example). Though of course there are composers whose symphonies I've not yet heard (such as Weinberg, Schnittke, Cowell, Aho, etc.)

Here's what I listen to the most among the 11 & up crowd,

--Vagn Holmboe,

1. Symphony No. 11:





2. Symphony No. 12:





3. Symphony No. 13:





--Dmitri Shostakovich: 

_4. S_ymphony No. 11: 




5. Symphony No. 13: 




6. Symphony No. 15: Symphony No. 15 in A Major, Op. 141: I. Allegretto

--I listen to Ib Nørholm's Symphonies, too, but frustratingly, nos. 10--13 have yet to be recorded. (Here's a link to No. 9: Ib Nørholm: Symphony No.9, Op.116 (1990))

--Allan Pettersson, 

7. Symphony No. 11:
Symphony No. 11

8. Symphony No. 14: Pettersson's 14th is one of his most underrated symphonies I think,
Symphony No. 14

9. I also still occasionally listen to the short symphonies by "the father" of Haydn's symphony style, Giovanni Battista Sammartini:

--Symphony in A Major, J-C 62:
Giovanni Battista Sammartini - Symphony in A Major, J-C 62

ETC.

10. & Michael Haydn: 

--Symphony No. 23: M. Haydn - P 14, MH 284 - Symphony No. 23 in F major

ETC.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Top Ten Symphonies #11+ (Excluding Haydn and Mozart):

1. Dmitry Shostakovich #11 "1905" (Stokowski/Houston Symphony)
An early favorite that first came to me by way of the soundtrack of the original _Cosmos_ TV show with Carl Sagan. It's a real sound-spectacular with a very eerie first movement that perfectly captures impending doom.








2. Alan Hovhaness #19 "Vishnu" (Hovhaness/Sevan Philharmonic)
Another great symphony also brought to me through the _Cosmos_ soundtrack, and it still remains practically unknown. As far as I know, only one recording of it exists conducted by the composer himself. I was lucky to find it in LP form as a teenager back in the 1980s. Like Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_ or Richard Strauss' _Zarathustra_, it's about a half hour of blaring orchestral color.









3. Roy Harris #11 (Ian Hobson/Warsaw Sinfonia)
Roy Harris was a second tier (or third tier?) American composer from the last century who never quite caught on. Leonard Bernstein, though, liked Harris' 3rd symphony enough that he recorded TWICE! Harris' 11th, in one movement, is short, tight, and urgent.








4. Philip Glass #11 (Dennis Russell Davies/Bruckner Orchestra, Linz)
Here's one that's fairly new to me. Back in the 1980s I read in _Opus_ magazine an interview with the then much revered American composer, Gunther Schuller, that Philip Glass was more-or-less a flash-in-the-pan, a passing fad. So here here we are 40 years later and while Schuller is nearly all but forgotten, Glass has become the new Grand Old Man of American Music; following in the way of Ives and Copland. The 11th by Glass is really draws in the listener with a powerful forward thrust.








5. Alan Hovhaness #11 (Hovhaness/Royal Phiharmonic Orchestra)
A little more subdued than Hovhaness' over-the-top 19th; but similar in tone and raw Armenian flavor.








6. Dmitry Shostakovich #13 "Babi Yar" (Masur/NYPO/Sergei Leifkerkus w/Chorus)
It took me a while to warm up to this choral work hailed as a mighty achievement Shostakovich and the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Soviet officials made Yevtushenko change a few words here and there as the original was evidently a bit too "woke" for the establishment's sensibilities.








7. Dmitry Shostakovich #14 (Britten/English Chamber/Mark Rezhetin/Galina Vishnevskaya)
If it took me a long time to "get" Shostakovich's Symphony #13, then it took even longer than that for me to understand and enjoy his Symphony #14, if one can even enjoy a symphony (or song cycle?) that centers around death and dying. And Shostakovich's picture of death is no _Death and Transfiguration_ vision by Richard Strauss or peaceful transport from this world into the savior's loving arms as in Bach's _Come Sweet Death. _Rather, Shostakovich's is a bleak vision. Not exactly music you'd break out at a party. Though I had solid recordings of Shostakovich's 14th by Bernstein, Ormandy, and Barshai; the premier recording conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich in Moscow with Mark Rezhetin and Rostropovich's wife, Galina Visnevskaya, is the finest. Since I couldn't afford to buy that recording at the time I first heard it on Youtube, I opted for Benjamin Britten's excellent performance with the English Chamber Orchestra and the same soloists.








8. Dmitry Shostakovich #15 (Maxim Shostakovich/Moscow Radio & TV Orchestra)
Here Shostakovich reverts back to his early days when as a young smart-aleck, he brought forth such clever things as the Symphony #1, Piano Concerto #1, the Jazz Suites, and Age of Gold. The first movement toys with the audience with silly little quotes from Rossini and Wagner, and the ending slowly fades into the mysterious black night. The hard-to-find recording by the composer's son Maxim with the Moscow Radio and TV Orchestra is the finest recording. You'd be advised to grab it if you happen to see it at a used record store, flea market, or yard sale.










9. Alan Hovhaness #22 "City of Light" (Alan Hovhaness/Seattle Symphony)
10. Alan Hovhaness #50 "Mount St. Helen's" (Gerard Schwarz/Seattle Symphony)
Two more by Alan Hovhaness to round things out. Since Hovhaness used and reused his ideas over and over again, it's not necessary to fill your collection with much more than a few of Hovhaness's mysterious and meditative symphonies (He composed over 60!), as it's nice to have a few on hand when the mood strikes you.








Honorable Mention:
11. Dmitry Shostakovich #12 "1917" (Mravinsky/Leningrad Philharmonic)
Straight up Soviet propaganda music! It's still good to have some fun with if you can ignore the premise. Evgeny Mravinsky and plays it to the hilt!










Composers such as Cowell, Brian, Myaskovsky, Villa-Lobos, Petterson, Weinberg, and Michael Haydn, have been left out due to my own ignorance of their symphonic output.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Orfeo said:


> Weinberg: Symphonies XIV, XIX, XI


eh? I wasn't aware Weinberg's 11th had been recorded yet.

Anyway:
1. Weinberg 19
2. Weinberg 17
3. Weinberg 13
4. Weinberg 21
5. Shostakovich 15
6. Weinberg 14
7. Weinberg 20
8. Weinberg 12
9. Weinberg 16
10. Shostakovich 14

I don't know Pettersson's 14th, though mostly I stop with him at no. 9. There would probably be a Myaskovsky knocking at the door somewhere but I don't know them well enough yet.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Yep, as far as Weinberg symphony recordings go we're missing Nos. 9, 11 and 15.


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## cybernaut (Feb 6, 2021)

Highwayman said:


> Limited myself to one symphony per composer:
> 
> Pettersson - Symphony no. 12 "De Döda på torget"
> Aho - Symphony no. 12 "Luosto"
> ...


Happy to see Pettersson on your list.


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