Favorite Symphonies Quiz

I think I’m going to try making a list with my mod 10 numbering suggestion. It’s not going to be much different because other than Mozart, Haydn, and Hovhaness, I can’t think of many composers that will be added.

And.... it just occurred to me that we have to pick ten symphonies to allow numbers ending in zero. Make it so!

@jdane: I too would have picked Mahler for all positions in the list if it were allowed. But you omit Mahler’s Eighth? The night in 2009 that I spent listening to the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus perform Mahler’s Eighth was one of the most memorable evenings I have ever spent at a concert.

https://youtu.be/MAjmM7lcb1c

"Or all of Cookie’s recordings of Tilson Thomas with the SFS"

Was Cookie Marenco involved with the SF Media series of recordings with the SF Symphony? I know the recordings are/were? available on the Blue Coast Music website for purchase and download, but I didn’t know that Cookie was involved in the production.

Aha!  Nielsen make a well-deserved appearance (but I'd pick his third).

How about we keep it at nine symphonies, but open it up to the last digit only? Thus #2, #72, and #102 would all be allowed picks for #2. That gives you more symphonies to choose from, but you still have make choices to come with a list of nine. 

Very few bettered Mozart. It may only be Haydn (104) and Hovhaness (67).

“Very hard to compose a list given this limitation.  Had to repeat. Leaves a good many great symphonies out. Not really fair.”

If you are unhappy about leaving composers out, why did you repeat?

Mod 10 symphony list:

Symphony No. (4)0 Mozart
Symphony No. 1: Copland
Symphony No. 2: Hovaness (although I still like Hanson)
Symphony No. 3: Saint-Saëns
Symphony No. 4: Bruckner
Symphony No. 5: Shostakovich
Symphony No. 6: Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 7: Sibelius
Symphony No. 8: Mahler
Symphony No. 9: Beethoven

@rvpiano1, you are correct,  the request was for your choice as to the best 1st symphony, the best 2nd symphony ... the best 9th symphony, while using nine composers. I was only commenting on the irony of your complaining about having to leave out some composers while giving two slots to one composer.

@schubert , yours is a very nice list, but do you really think Haydn wrote the best Symphony #2, and Mozart wrote the best Symphony #3?

@edcyn  Indeed, Mahler's First Symphony may be the best 1st symphony ever written. And many scholars suspect that is because it was not his first symphony, only his first publish one.  I too, love the Bruno Walter version.