# Poll of The Month #1: What is your favorite symphony by Mahler?



## Lord Lance

So, I am starting a poll of the month. Hopefully, it can last. 
The polls will have to be voted within a month of posting as voting will be closed afterwards.

To start, this month I have chosen Mahler because... why not?


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## DaDirkNL

Six, period............................................


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## hpowders

Have to go with the ninth, Mahler at his most profound and moving.


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## Art Rock

4-9-6-2-10-1-3-7-5-8


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## maestro267

No. 2. Greatest symphony ever written, imo.


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## ptr

Haven't changed my mind since last this question was up for a poll, is still the fourth!

/ptr


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## MagneticGhost

The resurrection is probably my favourite piece of music.


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## Manxfeeder

Personal favorite, the 3rd.


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## nightscape

Second Symphony. I'm glad to see people voting for #4 though.


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## ahammel

9 for me.

I always find that people's favourite Mahler symphonies are much more evenly distributed through the cycle than for Beethoven or Bruckner or Schubert. They're all excellent symphonies.

Interesting that _DLvDE_ was omitted. I'd call it a symphony.


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## brotagonist

I like the 5th a lot. I know the 4th best, so that one is very high on my list. Since I only completed my Mahler Symphonies collection a couple of months back, it is too premature to speak of favourites.


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## Skilmarilion

#9.

Ask me tomorrow though and you'd maybe get a different choice.


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## Tristan

The second. The closest thing to a perfect symphony and one of my all-time favorite works of classical music.


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## Avey

Hardest. Decision. Ever.


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## Celloman

#6 is my favorite, followed by #4 and #9.


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## Ingélou

The Second, but they all have fabness stamped through them.


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## elgar's ghost

6, followed by 9 and 2.


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## starthrower

No. 10 Just the adagio.


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## AClockworkOrange

Symphony No. 2 for many reasons, not least of which Klaus Tennstedt's live LPO recording on the LPO's own label


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## Itullian

1......................


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

The 7th is my favourite as it has been for a long time.


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## Cheyenne

Das Lied Vo -- Oh... Nine, then.


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## TurnaboutVox

4th, possibly. Ask me again another day and you'll get a different answer. 

I listened to the 7th today, so it's somewhere near the top, today anyway. They are all excellent.


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## Blake

Favorites hardly last. Especially with such a quality output as Mahler. It's 2 today... could be 6 next week.


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## quack

Das Lied von der Not Included


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## tdc

My vote would've also gone to DLVDE but from this list I'll go with 6.


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## PetrB

Damn! Now someone will have to make a poll to decide which is the actual "Poll of the Month."


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## TurnaboutVox

Art Rock said:


> 4-9-6-2-10-1-3-7-5-8


4=9=6=2=10=1=3=7=5=8


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## csacks

4, 2, 1 and 5. Very hard to decide. I have just started to listen the 9th, I still need to "find" it.


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## Lord Lance

Das Lied von der Erde is technical a work for orchestra and 2 vocal soloist. Practically, it may sound like a symphony but for the purpose of this poll I have excluded it. [Next poll maybe?]


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## Guest

Of the three I've listened to (5,8,and 9), only the 5th has been of sufficient interest that I've actually bought it. I'll not vote though - wouldn't want a Mahler-newbie to distort things!


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## MagneticGhost

Can someone save me time and point me in the direction of a thread that discusses best Mahler recordings.
I like what I've got. But I would like to explore further now. And I want to read the consensus on best recordings / performances.

If there is no such thread (which I doubt), I'll start one of my own.


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## MagneticGhost

MacLeod said:


> Of the three I've listened to (5,8,and 9), only the 5th has been of sufficient interest that I've actually bought it. I'll not vote though - wouldn't want a Mahler-newbie to distort things!


Late Mahler is quite different in tone from early Mahler. Just because you didn't enjoy 8+9, doesn't mean you won't adore 2+3.


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## Guest

MagneticGhost said:


> Late Mahler is quite different in tone from early Mahler. Just because you didn't enjoy 8+9, doesn't mean you won't adore 2+3.


No, quite. That's why I'm not voting, having not yet heard anything like enough to form a view. Just wanted to make a contribution.

BTW, will I adore 2+3?


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## MagneticGhost

MacLeod said:


> No, quite. That's why I'm not voting, having not yet heard anything like enough to form a view. Just wanted to make a contribution.
> 
> BTW, will I adore 2+3?


I understood your point 100%. I just wanted to subliminally suggest that you may adore 2+3.


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## Mahlerian

MagneticGhost said:


> Late Mahler is quite different in tone from early Mahler.


Late Mahler (9 and Das Lied, potentially the 8th) is denser and more compact in general, and the focus turns to shorter motifs more than long-lined melodies. The middle period works are somewhere in between.


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## Avey

I want to preface the below: This is entirely personal, obviously, and likely a wholly unique perspective on each symphony. But I figure that's the point and figure that's what makes all this discussion interesting and rewarding.
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I'm going to fall in the "always changing" category, but for different reasons. I don't necessarily have a _new_ favorite this week, and a different one the previous. That is, I won't say _this_ one is my favorite currently because I've listened to it more than any other.

Instead, I just have particular pieces that speak to me at any particular moment in life. For instance, I listen to the _Fourth_ nearly every other week, simply because I'm addicted to what that sound gives me. But is it my _favorite_? I don't believe so.

The _Fourth_, while tragic in it's own right, is often _too_ joyful and optimistic for me at any point in time -- though I wish it were. The _First_ is a bit more _absolute_ and superficial, if you will, than emotional IMO. Similarly, the _Seventh_ further showcases *Mahler* as a wholly unique and preeminent symphonist, but does not necessarily serve as a table-turning fortune in my life, like many of his other works. The _Third_ grows on me with every listen, and the depth and intricacy of the work continues to astound me. But the narrative has yet to truly _touch_ me, or at least affect me in the manner his other works do.

In contrast, the _Sixth_ has been particularly touching and relevant to me these past several months, and I've always been drawn toward the suffering illustrated in that particular tale. Along these same lines, every time I hear the _Fifth_, I find a new beautiful note, melody, emotion. The narrative, however, still escapes me at this point in my life. I remain hopeful and optimistic because of this piece; thus, it has been incredibly influential and necessary to me. But not my favorite.

Because I find the _Eighth_, like most, the least attractive, I'm left with the _Second_ and _Ninth_. The former being, again IMO, his greatest orchestrated and sophisticated work, and the latter, being his most cultured and omniscient work. I truly don't know where I fall on this scale.

Supposedly, regarding the _Second_, Mahler remarked something along these lines: "The increasing tension, working up to the climax, is so tremendous that I don't know myself how I ever came to write it." Just as moving, within the _Ninth_, Mahler marked the last notes of his symphony _ersterbend_, or "dying away."

These are otherwordly creations, two surreal and sacrosanct works of art that exude their own respective sentiments. Because I am young and relatively unscathed, however, the _Ninth's_ seemingly honest and seasoned expression of life presumably has not entirely revealed itself to me.

Thus, I am left with the _Resurrection Symphony_, absolutely influential and contemplative to me as any of *Mahler's* other symphonies. And I believe everyone feels the same way, regardless of which work we prefer over the others. I'm happy to have been able to discuss all this because of the poll, and forever grateful to have stumbled upon the sounds of *Mahler* during my life.

Also, thank you for reading through.

Oh, and still haven't voted BTW.


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## opus55

3rd, because of those horns!


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## DeepR

I've listened to 1, 2, 6 and 8 and out of these I pick 2.
Number 2 was the first Mahler symphony I listened to. I was getting into it and loved it so much that I just had to hear it in concert. So I looked on the web and guess where it was going to be performed... in a concert hall 150 meters from where I live. Awesome! It was great, I'll never forget that performance.


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## hpowders

The Mahler Ninth will always occupy a special place for me.


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## adrem

For me - always 6. Such extraordinary masterpiece. I vividly remember a moment when I first heard it. It was a shock and still is.


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## Richannes Wrahms

7 - "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare” (Spinoza)


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## Chi_townPhilly

brotagonist said:


> I like the 5th a lot. I know the 4th best, so that one is very high on my list. Since I only completed my Mahler Symphonies collection a couple of months back, it is too premature to speak of favourites.





MacLeod said:


> Of the three I've listened to (5,8,and 9), only the 5th has been of sufficient interest that I've actually bought it. I'll not vote though - wouldn't want a Mahler-newbie to distort things!


Let me take this opportunity to encourage both of you to _trust your instincts!_


MacLeod said:


> BTW, will I adore 2+3?


I predict:

You'll adore 2, but not as much as 5.
You're not as likely to adore 3...
You'll like 1, but not as much as 2.

I'll be interested to see if I'm right about this...


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## Mahlerphile

I don't understand why No.8 gets so little love. It was the first Mahler symphony I listen to back when I was 14 and it has been my favourite ever since. Closely followed by 2 then 6 and Das Lied.


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## Lord Lance

I am very jealous of those people who fully understand the Third in all of its magnificence and glory, who have fully understood what the Third is. To novices like us, Third remains a bit of a mystery. Its extraordinary size and its massive orchestral forces make me stand in complete awe of it. [Discovery is always fun, right?]

I am saying this because I recently heard the Third twice and I was left dumbstruck. I was delighted by the first in certain sections of the piece and confused by others. The II and III movements failed to make any significant impression [to me.]
IV and V were brilliant and then, VI just suddenly changed the entire mood of the symphony unnecessarily.


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## Lord Lance

BUMP, for more voters and posts.

Symphony#2 seems to have won by a wide margin. Thought has much.


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## Muddy

Mahlerphile said:


> I don't understand why No.8 gets so little love. It was the first Mahler symphony I listen to back when I was 14 and it has been my favourite ever since. Closely followed by 2 then 6 and Das Lied.


I too am mystified by the lack of love for the 8th. While it is not my favorite Mahler symphony, the tremendous climax always knocks me out. As for my favorite, I guess it has to be the 2nd, but the 3rd and the 9th are right there also, nipping at the 2nd's heels.


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## Polyphemus

My friends this like the weather changes.


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## hpowders

I'll always prefer the Ninth.


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## Animato

My favourite is Symphony no. five with the beautiful Adagietto


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## Blake

Yup, it changed. Now it's 3.


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## Richannes Wrahms

Sometimes I feel that the 9th relies too much on motif repetition whereas Das Lied and the 10th are better balanced on that matter.


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## Fugue Meister

Why is this poll closed I wonder? I wanted to vote for No. 6 in a.


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