What are the greatest twentieth century symphonies?

sibelius was pretty awesome.

Shosty 10, ftw!

That is so much fun to play.

Peteris Vasks' first symphony is wonderful fantastic amazing. :>

Oliver Messiaen: Turangalila Symphonie

John Corigliano: Symphony No. 2

oh.. difficult. The most stirring for me are the Shostakovitch. I love Prokofiev's 1st - so playful. His last is also very stirring and, I think, most intimate. Despite its minimalist leanings, I think Glass' 3rd is good as well.

Symphonies are so outdated... 20th century composers who write formal symphonies are living in the past, imho.

Well aren't YOU just a Grumpy Gus.

Also, the term "Symphony" is used often to designate any large, (often) multi-movement work for a Symphony Orchestra...no?

So, HERE's one of my favorites:

Michael Mantlers Symphony (listen to Part II) (and here's Part III on Youtube!)

Score available HERE!?

Garfield Park Conservatory sure is a standard of excellence, yessir.

Garfield Park Conservatory will go down in YC history. :laugh:

You guys aren't making fun of Gardeners? ARE YOU!?

YES. WE ARE.

>:(

Don't forget Elgar's Second Symphony, another masterpiece! Carl Nielsen's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies also deserve attention, and if you like Sibelius, you should certainly check out the Symphonies of Arnold Bax (esp. Nos. 2, 5, & 6)

There are too few mentions of Messiaen's Turangal

Best 20th and 21st Symphonies -

Ives 4th Symphony

Berio's Sinfonia

Webern's Symphony Op 21 (?)

One of my favorite symphonies though I don't think it is one of the best (yet an excellent symphony) -

Prokofiev 5th

My exposure to 20th and 21st century symphonic literature is a weak spot. But I am picky even about the 18th and 19th century symphonic literature (for example I think Beethoven's 4th and 2nd are uneven in quality, Mozart symphonies begin to get intersting after no 25. Of all the symphonists I consider Hadyn to be the best in the past 300 years if you consider the consistently high level of craftsmanship, inventiveness, experimentation and sheer enjoyment found among over the 100 or so symphonies. )

Oh scraggy, Berio's Sinfonia!

Yaaaaay~ So awesome.

Myaskovsky (a contemporary of Prokofiev) wrote 27 Symphonies. No. 6 is a really solid piece of work that deserves more exposure.

I notice that nobody has yet mentioned Havergal Brian. Certainly his Gothic Symphony, of which I was privileged to witness the first public performance, must rank alongside Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" as one of the biggest symphonies written during the 20th Century. Robert Simpson reckoned that Brian's 8th symphony (then known as No 9)

was the greatest symphony written by any Englishman.

Cheers,

John.

Berio's Sinfonia is definetely up there.

Also, Christopher Rouse's Symphony No. 2, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, and most definetely, John Corigliano's epic Symphony No. 1. If you haven't heard it, go do it now.

*thumbs up*

I love me some Shostakovich 7. Until I heard it, I wasn't exactly a fanatic for his work, but that piece made me want to hear more. Very enjoyable.

Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis...Definitely not a symphony, and none of the themes are his, outright, but still a brilliant reworking of extant material, with interesting orchestrations to boot. I happen to think the Marche alone is worth the admission :)

Bernstein's "Kaddish" symphony, pretty sure it's no. 3...and the Jeremiah one is pretty cool.

Lots of fans of Copland's 3rd - add me to them =)

Prokofiev's 1st - such fun....not profound as many others have already listed are, but to infuse good humor into symphonic form is kinda rare, I will always hold this one dear :)

The list built by this thread is so comprehensive, already...so I'll shuffle off for now....

~K

Hey Gardener, what would happen if I turned you from a Constant Gardener into a Variable Gardener? Would you get multiple personalities? :x

On 2/2/2007 at 4:22 PM, montpellier said:

Oh, ok, Mahler probably just about creeps into the 20th C. .....Though I don't think it one of the 20th centurys greats, I liked very much what he finished of his 10th - the first movement, a beautiful Adagio, and the scherzo.

Mahler was clearly moving into a deeper reflective expression, as if his spirituality was finding a different voice, at one time peaceful but rather resigned.

As for that thug Derryck Cooke who took it on himself to finish that symphony - he grabbed old rejected sketches, bits and bobs, and made stuff up, throwing it back into the realm of earlier Mahler. He hadn't had the sense to realise that Mahler was moving spiritually forward.

I couldn't bear to hear more than two movements of Cooke's travesty.

He's one of those musicologists who never wrote more than 8 bars of his own symphony so he had to crash in on Mahler's gig and others.

So okay - lets add "The fragments that Mahler wrote for his 10th." A sublime work.

Better?

😮

M

 

Do you mean this in a stylistic sense, as in the tenth is his only symphony where he writes in a more 20th century style, rather than his usual late 19th century romanticism? Because I can see where you're coming from if so, but if not, chronologically, symphony no. 4 and all those after it were written after 1900, and a good few of those are among the greatest symphonies of all time, let alone the 1900s (nos. 5 and 9 especially)

I would argue that should be how we define this question, since after all it's literally "the greatest 20th century symphonies" and those are symphonies written in the 20th century.

Sibelius Symphony no. 7

The Shostakovich symphonies

Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements