# Favorite slow movements from symphonies



## Celloissimo

I'm a sucker for a well written adagio. For me they often convey the most emotionally charged and poignant themes, and to write a truly fantastic slow movement takes a certain amount of compositional and musical brilliance. What are some of your favorite slow movements from orchestral works? 

A few of my favorites would be:

1. Shostakovich's 5th 
2. Bruckner's 7th 
3. Dvorak's 9th
4. Beethoven's 9th (3rd Movement)
5. Barber: Adagio for Strings


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## Art Rock

Barber's is of course not from a symphony (it is actually an orchestrated version of a string quartet movement).

Any Mahler slow movement will do for me.


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## quack

For slow movements look no further than Myaskovsky, it seemed to be the area he excelled at. I'm not sure if his symphonic output can be called great, although greatly undervalued, but almost all of his symphonies seem to have beautiful, haunting adagios.


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## Skilmarilion

I absolutely love the long, beautiful, string-heavy slow movements of Mahler. The adagio of the 9th is particularly wonderful.

Some other favourites:

Beethoven 5
Haydn 46
Schubert 9
Brahms 3
Sibelius 3
Tchaikovsky 4 - 6 (finale)
Rachmaninov 2
Shostakovich 5


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## Vesteralen

Beethoven 2 & 7
Mendelssohn 3
Schumann 2
Brahms 3 & 4
Bruckner 4 & 8
Mahler 5
Nielsen 3
*Vaughan Williams 2* 
Prokofiev 5

(oh yeah, I just looked at the post before...forgot Rach 2)


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## Muddy

Beethoven 3 and 9
Bruckner 7 and 8
Mahler 4, 5 and 6
Mozart 41


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## maestro267

Beethoven 9, III
Bruckner 8, III
Mahler 3, VI
Rachmaninov 2, III
Shostakovich 6, I
Tchaikovsky 6, IV
Penderecki 3, III
Vaughan Williams 2, II
Elgar 2, II
Arnold 5, II


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## anasazi

I adore the Adagio from the Rachmaninoff symphony #2. I liked it so much I even made my own little
transcription of the theme for solo piano. The opening Adagio theme segues quickly to a solo clarinet
piece that is nearly the equal of the one the composer used in his Piano Concerto #2. Just so, so sad and
bittersweet as only a clarinet can illuminate.


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## DaDirkNL

Some of my favourites are:
Schubert's 8th and 9th
Beethoven's 3rd, 6th and 7th
Mozart's 35th-41st
Mahler: probably all of them
Sibelius' 3rd


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## Weston

First thing that comes to mind is Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, II. It's an Allegretto, but it's still the slowest movement, and the most debilitating of his symphonic movements for me -- at the moment.

Some others:

Beethoven No. 5, II.

Berwald No. 3 "Sinfonie singulière," II. Berwald inserts his scherzo in the middle of this adagio rather than making it a separate movement. That seems very different to me, and what a contrast! 

Brahms, No. 3, II. slow and majestic. Not sorrowful.

Sibelius No. 5, II

Okay, may as well include Dvorak No. 9, II.

I should mention Gliere and Tournemire, but I'm running out of steam this evening. I'm sure there's plenty more.

Now if we could venture into concertos and even chamber works . . . whew!


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## dgee

Noone mentioned Mozart 40 and 41? Elgar 1 is quite nice too


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## Mahlerian

Limiting myself to one example for each composer:

Beethoven 9
Brahms 4
Bruckner 5
Mahler 9 First movement (but I love them all)
Mozart 40
Schubert "Unfinished"
Schumann 4
Sibelius 4 First movement


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## samurai

The third movement from Mahler's *6th* and the last movement from his *9th*. They always send shivers up my spine, they're so hauntingly beautiful.


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## Celloissimo

Bruckner, in my opinion, was a master of adagios. All his symphonies, especially the 5th, 7th, and 2nd, have powerful and tear jerking adagios that are among my favorites.


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## schuberkovich

Adagio from Dvorak's 8th
Andante from Schubert 9th
Urlicht from Mahler 2nd

I've listened to the adagio from Mahler's 10th a couple of times recently, and it completely terrifies me with how _raw _it sounds...
But the adagio from Dvorak's 8th is criminally underrated. It has wonderful use of solo violin.


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## chalkpie

Celloissimo said:


> Bruckner, in my opinion, was a master of adagios. All his symphonies, especially the 5th, 7th, and 2nd, have powerful and tear jerking adagios that are among my favorites.


Yes! I have always thought the same thing. He needs a boxed set of just his adagios.


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## chalkpie

Shostakovich (like Mahler and Bruckner, too many amazing adagios to mention)
Ives 2 - III
Ives 3 - I and III
Ives 4 - III and IV
Copland 3 - III
Messaien Turangalila - VI Jardin du Sommeil d’amour
Sibelius 4 - III
Sibelius 2 - II
VW 2 - II
VW 5 - III
Prokofiev 5 - III
Prokofiev 6 - II 
Lutoslawski I - II
William Schuman 7 - I
Aho 12 - II
Arnold 5 - II
Stravinsky - Psalms, II
Schnittke 3 - IV
Schnittke 6 - III

too tired to list any more.......


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## Blake

Celloissimo said:


> Bruckner, in my opinion, was a master of adagios. All his symphonies, especially the 5th, 7th, and 2nd, have powerful and tear jerking adagios that are among my favorites.


Bruckner is most righteous.


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## jim prideaux

slow movement of Martinu 2nd symphony is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.....


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## Celloman

As far as Mahler is concerned, I think it's a toss-up between the slow movements of the 4th and 6th symphonies.

Other slow movements that I particularly enjoy include the Brahms 1st, Bruckner 7th, Tchaikovsky 5th, Vaughan Williams 2nd, Samuel Barber 2nd...just to name a few.


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## Winterreisender

I agree with Celloman about Vaughan Williams' 2nd being an excellent slow movement. I would also mention the adagio from his 5th symphony, as well as the 3rd symphony in its entirety, since it is pretty much slow throughout.

I will also mention Schubert's 5th as one of my favourite slow movements in the classical style. This piece sounds like Schubert at his most Mozartian.

I must confess that I struggle to connect with Mahler's slow movements. That probably explains why my favourite symphonies by Mahler are #1 and #2, since these don't really have typical slow movements. Maybe I'm just not patient enough to follow a slow movement for half an hour.


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## Mahlerian

Winterreisender said:


> I must confess that I struggle to connect with Mahler's slow movements. That probably explains why my favourite symphonies by Mahler are #1 and #2, since these don't really have typical slow movements. Maybe I'm just not patient enough to follow a slow movement for half an hour.


The slow movement in Mahler's 2nd is, formally and melodically, probably the simplest movement in any of his mature works. His later slow movements are infinitely more versatile and extremely rewarding to get to know, but they work better in context, of course.


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## Winterreisender

Mahlerian said:


> The slow movement in Mahler's 2nd is, formally and melodically, probably the simplest movement in any of his mature works. His later slow movements are infinitely more versatile and extremely rewarding to get to know, but they work better in context, of course.


Are you referring to the Ländler (mvt. 2) or the Lied (mvt. 4)? Both of these movements are fairly simple and slow-ish but I find the rusticity of the former and the plaintiveness of the latter to be very effective in the context of the symphony as a whole. I'm not sure if I would consider either to be in the same category of slow movements as we find in later symphonies, however. It's these later ones that I struggle to get to grips with. Perhaps I just lack the patience.


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## Mahlerian

Winterreisender said:


> Are you referring to the Ländler (mvt. 2) or the Lied (mvt. 4)? Both of these movements are fairly simple and slow-ish but I find the rusticity of the former and the plaintiveness of the latter to be very effective in the context of the symphony as a whole. I'm not sure if I would consider either to be in the same category of slow movements as we find in later symphonies, however. It's these later ones that I struggle to get to grips with. Perhaps I just lack the patience.


The 4th's main slow movement is the third, which is a theme and variations (and a glorious one at that). I'd say "Das Himmlischen Leben" is a far more complex movement than the slow laendler of the 2nd, especially in its relation to the symphony as a whole, but also simply in terms of the bar-to-bar melodic construction. The laendler of the 2nd is one of the very few places where Mahler's writing consists _almost_ entirely of simply two themes alternating in a literal ABABA, and that kind of literal repetition became anathema to him later in his career, so when one describes the form of movements like the slow movement in the Sixth, even the description ABA'CA''DA''' fails to really do justice to how it works, which is more along the lines of continual development, wherein all of the themes are constantly renewing themselves and giving birth to new forms.

Edit: Sorry, I misread you, and thought you were asking about the lied at the end of the 4th symphony. I'm keeping the response above as stated, but yes, I meant the second movement. The fourth movement is more like a free recitative leading into the finale. It is relatively simple, but it doesn't take up the same amount of time, and its music is more dense with material than the andante.


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## YiQue

Bruckner 7&9
Schumann 1
Brahms 4
Mahler 4&5


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## shangoyal

Some of my favourites off late:

Mozart -- 41st Symphony 'Jupiter'
Mozart -- 35th Symphony 'Haffner'
Shostakovich -- 5th Symphony

But the all time winner is Beethoven's 9th. I can hardly imagine it beaten...


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## Avey

Obviously, Mahler, etc. -- what everyone else said.

But for other discussion, *Elgar's* _First_ and *Schumann's* _Second_ symphonies have wonderful adagios. The former being the reminiscent of the _Nimrod_ from _Enigma Variations_, and an absolutely essential point in the story of his work -- rehabilitation before the climax. The latter (Schumann's) sounds like something written by Mahler 50 years prior. IT's a wonderfully underrated moment in Schumann's orchestral catalogue -- though the whole symphony is often overlooked.


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## MrCello

We are all forgetting Franck's Symphony in D...


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## tahnak

This is my list:
1. Tchaikovsky's Pathetique - Finale Adagio
2. Rachmaninov's Second Symphony - III
3. Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade - III
4. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique - III
5. Beethoven Choral - III
6. Bruckner - Ninth - III
7. Schumann - II - III
8. Dvorak - New World - Largo - II
9. Mahler - Fourth - III
10. Saint Saens - Organ Symphony - II


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## scratchgolf

The whimsy of Beethoven's 6th/ 1st movement was what drew me in but the beauty of the 2nd Movement is what keeps me coming back. The 3rd of the 9th pops into my head instantly but the 2nd of the 6th is my favorite. I hang on every note.


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## PeterJB

Elgar 1 and Vaughan Williams 2 can hardly be touched.


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## Blake

Myaskovsky really knows how to work a slow movement. Beautiful stuff.


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