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What is your favourite symphony (or symphonic suite)?
My favourite symphonies are:
Saint-Saëns - Symphony No. 3: "Organ Symphony"
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique"
Dvorak - New World Symphony
Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade (symphonic suite)
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Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7 Leningrad
âThe fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.â William Shakespeare, As You Like It
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The Bittersweet one by The Verve
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
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28-03-2015, 19:16
(This post was last modified: 28-03-2015, 20:27 by Lindsay.)
Greetings all round
Another impossible question to answer in this Forum: perhaps it would might lead to more interesting discussion if the question were "What makes a symphony most enjoyable?".
I'll volunteer an answer, in perfect readiness to be contradicted or even shot down in flames:
(i) structure (so you have the melodic and contrapuntal signposts to tell you - even if you don't read music or know anything about musical theory - "where you are" in relation to the rest of the work);
(ii) orchestral colour (it's not a string quartet or a piano sonata - how effective and evocative are the composer's use of the various instruments and instrumental sections?);
(iii) balance of flavours and moods between, and within, separate movements;
(iv) emotional effect and impact of the whole piece (not in any way objectively measurable).
Not necessarily in that order. But these are a sine qua non for a shortlist. And among those (many) that tick all the boxes, I'll suggest Bruckner's 8th as a supreme example.
What think you all out there?
L
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That is both an easy question to answer and a difficult one because it depends a lot on my mood at the time. However, it would be without a doubt Beethoven's 9th, followed by his 6th, 7th, and 3rd. Dvorak 9th and 8th, Shubert 8th (Unfinished) and 9th (The Great). I would throw a Brahms in there too but I would have to hard a time picking which one, not to mention I like his piano concerto's better than any of his symphonies.
