What Symphony would you like to be listening to at the moment of your own
DEATH??"""" - Thomas cobble

Mozart - Requiem

Well, certainly Beethoven, Mozart and the boys, but just to mention a couple of my favorites that haven't come up yet:

Shostakovich 10
Lutoslawski 4
Debussy: La Mer

apropos Tchaik 6 - I've always thought that symphony represents one of the most brilliant "solutions" to the form.

I am writing a symphony now, have movements 2 & 3 done out of four. Third movement was recently read by a good orchestra here - quite an experience! If any of you participate in Sibeliusmusic.com, you can hear an MP3 of the reading there.

When one has listened to enough symphonies, one realizes that there can't be a real "favorite." Many great ones were mentioned that don't get what they often deserve;

Elgar's 1st (I have some technical problems with this work but it's still a great symphony; The Massive Hope)

Prokofiev's 5th, majestic and wonderful throughout.

Saint-Seans 3rd, almost a French national anthem in symphonic form.

Charles Ives' symphonies 2 (humorous) and 4 (more serious)

Dvorak's 7th, a piece I have often associated with Halloween

Gorecki Symphony No. 3 (sorry I don't like it. I think it's pretentious as hell.)

The symphony that has the most personal meaning for me is Mahler's 10th finished by Derek Cooke. Some have asked which of these they'd like to hear as they were dying. Whether I'd prefer it or not, this piece, especially it's end, is probably going to be playing in my mind at the moment of my death. This piece has figured in one way or another at every major turn in my life since I first heard it at the age of 12.

I was once working with someone, a very boastful person who collected this and that very expensive artifact, etc. One day out of the blue he says he bought only one of the two original unfinished scores of Mahler's 10th symphony. He didn't know that I had any personal association with this work or even knew of its existence. I'd never told him anything about it. I was stunned. I asked him how he'd bought it. He said he'd met someone in Munich about 25 years ago and saw the score and paid $50K for it. He said that it was in his vault in Switzerland. I never told him much about how this piece has affected me over the years. It is almost Mahler's apotheosis, a prelude to a message from the beyond.

But do I regard it as the greatest symphony or even my favorite? Probably not. Let's start with the classics:

J.S.Bach's Orchestral Suites or Brandenburg Concertos. This is where it starts.

Haydn's London symphonies (shame on those who didn't include any of these!)

Mozart's 40th. Yes the others are good too, but ...

Beethoven's 3rd (he always liked this one best)

Schubert's 9th (looks forward to others like Dvorak's 8th.)

Berlioz gets honorable mention. What of that oddity of his Harold in Italy? That's really a symphony too. The end of that is WEIRD!

Mendelssohn wrote many nice ones but the 4th and 5th are really the best of the lot.

Schumann, 3rd.

Brahms, all four are good

Tchaikovsky; I like the 4th almost as much as the 6th. And there are a few others, Manfred, that are interesting.

Mahler; 2, 5, 6, 9 (probably his best) and 10

Richard Straus; is Also sprach Zarathustra a symphony?

Copland 3rd.

Bartak Concerto for Orchestra (is it a symphony?)

What's my favorite? Too simplistic a question.

it's interesting...more than a year and this thread still gets replies...thanks everyone!

haha and no one has mentioned Alkan's symphony for piano yet...

I thought Alkan's is a piano concerto without an orchestra rather than a symphony...

well...yeah...but it's still titled Symphony for piano solo right? not like Schumann's Concert sans orchestre or something...

alkan wrote both a complete Symphony, and a seperate Conerto for solo piano

oh, almost forgot -

Mahler 2
Sibelius 2, 5
Beethoven 7, 9

What Symphony would you like to be listening to at the moment of your own
DEATH??""""

If I thought it was a bit early :
Schubert's unfinished symphony.

If I was angry :
Mahler's resurrection

If I felt OK with departing:
Brahms'4th (first movement)
or Mahler's adagietto from the 5th (Death in Venice)
or Beethoven's 7th (first two movements).

Zen music would be fine in all cases.

Beethoven's 9th : I really "heard" the fourth movement this year and was once more amazed by the genius of Beethoven.
Beethoven's 7th
Mozart's 40th
Brahms 3rd and 4th
Mahler's 7th (I heard it by Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philarmonik)
Schubert's unfinished
and I suppose my favourite symphony of all is
... Bach's cello suite.

sorry, I meant Bach's cello suites.

Beethoven's 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th
Dvorák's 9th
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
Mozart's 41st
De Meij's 1st
Mahler's 2nd and 8th
and probably others I didn't heard yet...

Beethoven 5th, and Haydn's Surprise Symphony (played both in high school).

- Mark

Some old threads should never die but should get more notoriety.

Beethoven's 2 (it's underrated!), 3, 5, 7, 9
Haydn 88, 101
Mozart G Minor and Jupiter
Dvorak's New World
Brahms #1 ("Beethoven's 10th")
Schubert's Unfinished
Smetana Má vlast
Mendelsohn Italian and Scottish

Symphonies used to be my favorite genre, but nowadays I seek out chamber music. I'm frozen in time in my knowledge of symphonies to those I'd heard before my tastes shifted.

My personal favourites have to be amongst the following.

Vaughan-Williams - Sea Symphony, London Symphony, and Sinfonia Antarctica (1,2, and 7)

Elgar's First Symphony,

Sibelius First, Second and Fifth,

Gorecki's third,

Mahler's First

Shostakovich's Fifth

Beethoven's Sixth &

Dvorak's Eigth.

If pushed for an absolute favourite it would have to be Sibelius 2 though.

I believe it was Mahler who said "To write a symphony is to construct a world"
If this is the case then it is my personal belief that after Mahler Sibelius symphonies perfected that world.

Cheers