| Pittsburgh Symphony |
Paul Hindemith |
Music |
1958 — Hindemith's last symphony is also his gnarliest. It seems to fit with the temper of the times more than his previous outings, and, on first listening, barely sounds Hindemithian at all! But it doesn't take many repeated hearings and you get the point. This is Hindemith after all. In three movements, the first is almost off-putting. It grows on you, though; or did me. The final movement concludes as if in homage to Ives's Second Symphony, with a treatment of a popular song, Pittsburgh is a Great Old Town, sounding exactly like the spiritual This Train, to me. But though this sort of comes out of left field, Hindemith had done this before. Check out the last movement of the Piano Concerto. Commissioned by the conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of the time, Hindemith intended the symphony to celebrate the spirit of an industrial city, and its surrounding Pennsylvania Dutch communities. In the second movement a Pennsylvania Ductch tune is employed to great effect. |
25/03/07 |
Match |
| Symphonia Serena |
Paul Hindemith |
Music |
1947 — Cheerful? Serene? How about sane? Playful-but-serious? Confident? I like it that Hindemith never numbered his symphonies. He named them. This is a comparatively obscure work, having received fewer performances than his two more famous opera symphonies (Mathis Der Maler and Harmonie Der Welt), and probably fewer performances than his two symphonies designated by key. But it's this work that I now admire most. It deserves study as well as repeated listenings. It is readily apparent that Hindemith was at top of his form, here. He is ingenious. What amazing development, what great textures, what surprising orchestral colors! The first movement is for full orchestra. The second, a metamorphosis on a theme by Beethoven, is for winds alone. The third, for strings, divided into two groups and contrasted with soloists. The fourth movement brings the whole orchestra back together, and revives a theme from the first movement. This is a joyous work, deserving not only to be c |
25/03/07 |
Match |
Symphony Mathis der Maler |
Paul Hindemith |
Music |
1934 Usually considered to be Hindemith's greatest orchestral work, this symphony is the emotional peak of the composer's symphonic output. The music is taken from his opera about the painter Matthias Grόnewald. The opera has never quite caught on, but the symphony sure has. It is the best example of Hindemith's mature style, and an early one at that. |
25/03/07 |
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| Symphony No. 2 |
John Harbison |
Music |
A very colorful modernist/post-modernist masterwork of a symphony. In four movements played without interruption, it always holds one's interest, even if (for listeners not used to the complexities and refined gestures of modernism) you are not quite sure why it holds interest. This is difficult music for people who think they don't like difficult music. Really, it's not that difficult! Not to listen to, anyway. |
25/03/07 |
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| Symphony No. 3 |
Einojuhani Rautavaara |
Music |
1960 — The more I listen to this work, the more I admire it. I am not a Romantic by temper, and this is a very Romantic symphony, notwithstanding traces of dodecaphony. Rautavaara's quiet opening doesn't stay quiet, and that first movement really does pack a wallop. Most commentators mention Bruckner, and it is reminiscent of Bruckner, I guess, but do I notice Sibelian procedures of development? I've not studied the score, so I can't adjudicate controversial matters like that, and I can't explain how something allegedly imbued with Schoenbergian serialism could be so tonal and tuneful. The opening woodwind glissandi becomes an important motif for the whole work, as near as I can make out, and, unlike in Schoenberg, we hear it repeated. We welcome it each time. This is one of the great Finnish symphonies, no matter what procedures or textures it echoes. |
25/03/07 |
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| Harmonielehre |
John Adams |
Music |
1985 — This is a symphony in all but name, and though the composer has written a number of other symphonies-in-all-but-name, this remains his best. The first movement somehow integrates High Romanticism with minimalism, with great force and eloquence. The second is a deeply sad, deeply moving slow movement, entitled The Anfortas Wound, apparently after Wagner's Parsifal, but also after the eponymous character, out of Arthurian legend. The final movement is a brilliant union of darkness and light, and light for Adams means playfulness and joy as well as triumph. A breathtakingly amazing work. |
25/03/07 |
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| Symphony No. 7 |
Roy Harris |
Music |
1955 — Roy Harris's symphonic output reaches its highest points in his two one-movement symphonies, the third and the seventh. In this, the seventh, similar procedures prove impressive. Harris somehow unites a disparate amount of mood and motif together, finding rhythmic impetus. At least, that's what's evident in Kuchar's performance with the National Orchestra of the Ukraine. None of the motivic and melodic material is as memorable as in the third symphony, but the handling is as good, and the overall effectc: impressive. This is a fine symphony. |
25/03/07 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 3 |
Roy Harris |
Music |
By reputation and near-universal agreement, this is Roy Harris's best symphony. I agree. I go further: It is one of the greatest symphonies ever. Like Sibelius's Symphony No. 7, it is in one movement. And like that symphony, it develops from simpler motivic material, organically. The textures and orchestral use are brilliantly done; the themes, memorable . . . and excitingly developed. Leonard Bernstein was a major advocate of the work, and he was right to advocate it. It gets my vote as the greatest symphony composed by a home-grown American. |
25/03/07 |
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| "Vishnu," Symphony No. 19, Op. 217 |
Alan Hovhaness |
Music |
1966 This may be Hovhaness's greatest work. It is surely his most thoroughgoing use of aleatoric quasi-improvisation in senza misura . . . One of the great one-movement symphonies. An impressive statement, impossible to take lightly. |
13/12/04 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 4, Op. 91 |
Alexander Tcherepnin |
Music |
1958 — This final symphony from Tcherepnin is my favorite. The lean textures, memorable motivic material, arresting developments — perfect Russian neo-classicism, no? And yet this simple symphony sums up a great deal of Tcherepnin's musical development, taking ideas from all his compositional periods and fusing them into a joyous whole. Spry, energetic, serious, playful, decisive. There's nothing "lumbering" here. It really is worth listening to over and over again. From what I can tell, most listeners prefer his Third, or "Chinese" Symphony. Well, I've not taken to that yet, really. But the Fourth strikes me as perfection, a fine pinnacle to a great career in composition. |
01/12/04 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 42 |
Alexander Tcherepnin |
Music |
A great symphony, memorable opening, tautly constructed. Second movement is a percussion reprise of elements of the first, a breakthrough in 1927. The third movement is lovely, almost sublime. The last is a rousing if emotionally static conclusion. |
11/04/04 |
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| Symphony No. 9, "St. Vartan," Op. 180 |
Alan Hovhaness |
Music |
19491950 This symphony is to be found as a citation in the Guiness Book of World's Records for the symphony with the most number of movements: 24. These are not long movements, but short ones, and each features a subset of the orchestra, often of chamber music proportions. One might, then, be tempted to confine it to the non-symphonic realm, like most of us do his elegant and awesomely strange Mountains and Rivers Without End. But this is not a chamber work, really. And the separate short movements add up to a super-suite, and, as a mosaic, have a cumulative effect: so call it a symphony. But whatever you call it, listen to it. It is one of the stranger masterworks of 20th century genius. Hovhaness here celebrates a long-dead Armenians saint, and does so with some of his most original music. There is a solo saxophone movement, a love song, that will beguile you hours and days and perhaps years after hearing it. There are glorious dances and plaintive meditations. There are joys and sorrows and . . . in fine, interest in every instance, greatness in total effect. |
29/11/03 |
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| Symphony No. 2, "Mysterious Mountain," Op. 132 |
Alan Hovhaness |
Music |
1955 Like Igor Stravinsky, Hovhaness's greatest work is named as a symphony, but not a symphony at all. In Hovhaness's case, that work is the strange and wonderful Mountains and Rivers Without End (Op. 225), billed by the composer as a chamber symphony for ten players. I can't but help wanting to write about that work, though really my symphony list is not the place to do it. So I reach from his greatest work to his most popular work, also invoking the majesty and mystery of mountains, his second symphony, named Mysterious Mountain. This is a fairly early work, and was a great early success for him, having found champions in Leopold Stokowski and Fritz Reiner. There is a Renaissance flavor to much of the music, and it seems as though Hovhaness was dipping into some arcane and ancient hymnal for inspiration in the first and last of the work's three movements. In the central movement he dipped into his String Quartet No. 1 and fleshed out a great double fugue. The first theme is stately and simple; the second is a whirling dervish. When the two themes come together at the end of the movement, the listener is very happy that Hovhaness learned to ignore his critics. There is life in the old-fashioned, academic fugal form yet (critics be damned), and an artist of genius and it strikes me that Hovhaness, for all his faults, was indeed that can use old forms as well as new ones. Mysterious Mountain may seem far off and distant from the Asian and almost avant-gardish sensibilities of Hovhaness's middle-period music, typified by Mountains and Rivers Without End, but it too has a greatness in it, and justifies the vaunting audacity of suggesting that a symphony can be some sort of match for a mountain. It can. Hovhaness proved it. |
29/11/03 |
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| Symphony No. 50, "Mount St. Helens," Op. 360 |
Alan Hovhaness |
Music |
1982 Hovhaness took inspiration from mountains, and celebrated them in numerous works. The Mount St. Helens Symphony is among the most memorable of these celebrations. Before 1980, the Washington state mountain marked the skyline of that green forested land, a land that Hovhaness called home during the last thirty years or so of his life. He knew how beautiful the mountain had been, and honors that beauty with an opening movement that is shameless in its attempt to inspire in us the word lovely ; it is breathtakingly beautiful music. The second movement is called Spirit Lake, for the resort area that attracted people from all over the world to revel in the beauty of the mountain. This movement has a more Asian feel, and evokes the reflecting lake with a sense of mystery. And then, the final movement takes on the violent 1980 eruption of the volcano, in a long segment featuring bass drums and trombone glissandi and the whole orchestra marching to a devilish, chthonian beat. But the eruption wasn't the whole story of the mountain, and Hovhaness wouldn't let it stop there. He ends, as he often ends his music, with hymn-like exaltation. A fitting end for this program symphony, and it provides a sense of unity, of return to past beauty. Thus, it is a fitting end to the work as a symphony proper, too. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony of Psalms |
Igor Stravinsky |
Music |
1930 Stravinsky's greatest achievement may very well be mistaken for a symphony: his oddly named single-movement Symphonies of Wind Instruments. The choral work Symphony of Psalms is nearly as great, and is more nearly a symphony proper. It is in three movements, and because of its musical integrity and formal perfection, it narrowly sneaks into the category of the symphony, and there holds its own. The chorus sings Latin texts from the Vulgate, in solemn homophony, while the pared-down orchestra (no high strings, no clarinets) performs in a generally contrapuntal manner. The opening is unforgettable. The impression made by the whole work quite singular. It is one of the greatest of religiously inspired works, and yet it stands apart. It is one of the most amazing creations in the history of music, and is Stravinsky's greatest symphony, or sounding together. Not counting, of course, the sounding together of his Symphonies of Wind Instruments. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony in Three Movements |
Igor Stravinsky |
Music |
1945 Arguably, this work is a Sinfonia concertante, or concerto for orchestra. The first movement has a prominent part for piano, the second movement, for harp. The final movement lets both concertante instruments work together. Because of the instrumentation, and because of the vigor of the outer movements, this work fondly recalls Stravinsky's great early ballets, Petrouchka and Le sacre du printemps. But the neoclassical feel of the work remains present, and helps unify material that Stravinsky had composed for several different purposes. Unlike the Symphony in C, this work holds together quite well, and is a little masterpiece not his greatest work, perhaps, but a symphony worth repeated listenings and no small amount of praise. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 2 |
Charles Ives |
Music |
19001902, 19071910 Americanist but more Romantic than his equally Americanist Third Symphony, this work takes Stephen Foster tunes, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, the revival hymn Bringing in the Sheaves, and a whole lot more to make an infectious romp. The music is not noticeably dissonant (until the very end), and thus seems of its time at the turn of the century. But though he adheres to the letter of the laws of respectable consonance, he flauts the spirit: this music was not to be too dignified (as, arguably, his student work in his first symphony, is), and Ives lets more than a taste of gaucherie creep into the whole affair. And that makes it all the more memorable! The fifth and final movement takes Foster's Camptown Races, the Reveille, Wake Nicodemus, Pig Town Fling and Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, and races to a breakneck conclusion, ending with an eleven-note dissonant blat of a fanfare. Ives tacked this on years after completing the work, but it really helps sell the whole concoction, and is a stroke of genius. I don't know how you can't be smiling after listening to this great weird romp! (Note: Bernstein's first recording of this symphony is far, far better than his later performance. Unfortunately, the last I checked that first performance of the Second Symphony was paired with a terrible performance of the Third. You'll just have to buy duplicate performances.) |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 3, "Camp Meeting" |
Charles Ives |
Music |
1904 The first great work in the Americanist vein that Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Roy Harris perfected and popularized later on. A perfect companion to the great Americanist Third symphonies of Harris and Copland, this is nevertheless far quirkier, as one should expect of Ives. It does not engage in any overt radicalism, however, and can pass, today, as almost traditional music. But it is not. Still, Ives has great respect for the traditions of the folk of his day, and appropriates a great deal of American folk, popular, patriotic, and hymnody into his post-tonal mix. Very, very good, though many performances miss the symphony's coherence, and end in disaster. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 4 |
Charles Ives |
Music |
19101916 The perfect summation to Charles Ives proto-postmodernist emprise! This work for orchestra, spatially distanced chamber group, choir, and optional (but much appreciated) theremin, is the perfect work for the serious listener to confront Ives at his most audacious and successful. The first movement is a maestoso reworking of a 19th century hymn, Watchman, Tell Us of the Night. It breaks off strangely, and then begins a chaotic scherzo in Ives's multi-level cacophonous style, complete with hymns, patriotic tunes, background fiddling, and fight songs. The third movement is an orchestral reworking of a double fugue from the Revival String Quartet, and it is a reworking of genius. From Greenland's Icy Mountains and All Hail the Power get a Romantic-nationalist treatment in studied and ingenious counterpoint, with Joy to the World thrown in as epiphany. Austere, moving, lovely, sublime. And then Ives pulls out all the stops. The fourth and final movement is the work that he himself thought his best, and he was right. I won't describe it, but will just say that the method of layering used in the second movement here goes not to play but to reverential Transcendantalism. This is nonpareil. Four utterly different movements, and yet they all work together. Ives's aesthetic could encompass more than any other composer could. This is his greatest statement. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 4, Op. 49 |
Aulis Sallinen |
Music |
1979 This is the symphonic masterpiece that Bernard Herrmann never wrote. OK, that's unfair. But really, every time I listen to this work, I think of Herrmann's great music for Hitchcock. But Herrmann's absolute music rarely works. This symphony, by one of Finland's several great living composers, works on several levels. Very accessible, if not extraverted or playful. It is just perfect. That's enough, eh? |
29/11/03 |
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| Symphony No. 1 |
Einojuhani Rautavaara |
Music |
1956, 1988 A youthful work that the aging composer recently pared down. And, in the paring, a masterpiece is revealed. Next to the Finnish composer's wondrous Cantus Arcticus, this is his work I most often stop and listen to. The first movement is romantic, dramatic. The second movement is much lighter, more impish in a manner suggesting Prokofieff. And that's all, folks: two movements. But, with music this good, two movements are enough. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 5 |
Einojuhani Rautavaara |
Music |
1986 — This symphony begins with an orchestral swell that is so arresting that the audience is in danger of fainting, from the simple holding of breath! An impressive single-movement symphony, it is marred by a few moments where Rautavaara channels Varese rather than his own muse. Oh, well; otherwise it is flawless. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 4, "West Point" |
Morton Gould |
Music |
1952 — One of the all-time great wind symphonies, this work marks almost the apotheosis of the marching band: In the symphony's most arresting segment, Gould calls upon a special percussion instrument (or the band's feet) to imitate the marching of an army. An awe-inspiring work — and certainly the best piece of music commemorating an American military institution! |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 3 |
Bohuslav Martinu |
Music |
1944 An impressive symphony that starts off with almost violent music, and ends quietly. There's a lot going on in this three-movement work, and a great deal of structural ingenuity went into the making of it. For rousing drama, you can hardly beat that first movement, and the last movement is heartbreakingly lovely. A truly great symphony, well worth listening to. Again and again and again. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 5 |
Bohuslav Martinu |
Music |
1946 The symphony of Martinu's that I return to most often, this work is surprising, serious, playful, sad, lovely, triumphant. Along with his Third Symphony and his fine Sinfonietta La Jolla, his greatest music in the neoclassical vein. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Fantaisies symphoniques: Symphony No. 6 |
Bohuslav Martinu |
Music |
1953 — Martinu's greatest work, and one of the orchestral masterworks of the 20th century. A brilliant whirl of shimmering, leaping, transcendent music. |
29/11/03 |
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| Symphony No. 2 in Two Movements |
Tibor Serly |
Music |
A pre-Modus Lascivus masterpiece by the man who completed Bartok's Third Piano Concerto. Scored for winds and percussion, this is an unduly neglected symphony, and should be played more often by bands in search of interesting material. It's certainly better than the wind symphonies of Hovhaness and Giannini. I think it is great. |
29/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 3 in C Major, Op. 52 |
Jean Sibelius |
Music |
1907 — Jean Sibelius is, next to Beethoven, the greatest symphonist of all time. Extravagant claim? No other symphonist managed to make as many great contributions to the genre, truly wondrous contributions, and innovative ones at that. His first two symphonies are fine creations in the Romantic tradition, and I won't say anything against them. But his Third Symphony is the first of his that I truly love, and it is also the first of his that shows his genius for form and orchestration. Almost a neoclassical work, but without any harking back to old forms, Sibelius creates music out of motivic variation and transformation, in a way somewhat Beethovenian without ever sounding like Beethoven. His touch is light, but his handling of the orchestra almost impressionistic (though more Ravel than Debussy). He at once suggests Mozart and Schubert while proving himself his own man. But it should be noted that for all his motivic cleverness, he never forgets to come through with the gorgeous melody. This is happy music, touched with cool romance and informed by a serious temper. I first heard this on the car radio, and I regretted that I could not stop my car by the side of the freeway to listen to the whole thing properly. Dozens of times since — perhaps scores of times since — I've made up for that inappropriate listening experience. It holds up every time. |
03/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 5 in E Flat Major, Op. 82 |
Jean Sibelius |
Music |
(1915–) 1919, 1921 — At least twice revised from its original 1915 four-movement version, the final Sibelius Fifth is an amazing construction, and it should be his most popular, though the number of Tchaikovskians hopelessly enamored of the Second probably shout out us Fifth Symphony partisans. The motivically complex, rhthmically interesting, and emotionally wide-ranging first movement moves from 12/8 to 3/4, and traverses amazing harmonic ground. The second movement is tranquillity over a sea of squalls, lovely as any ostensibly slow movement in the repertoire. The final movement is a brilliant exercise in counterpoint, combining several great themes, including a theme in the horns that moves from foreground to background and back, and leading to a breathtaking conclusion, in a big blat of a chord — and then a parody of a Beethovenian ending, with six more blasts, separated by excrutiatingly funny hyper-Haydnesque silences. A Romantic movement thus ends in cosmic japery. There's nothing quite like it. (The ability to combine the Sublime and the Ironic in one breath is, well, rare in music, to say the least. Many after Stravinsky have striven for it, but it was Sibelius, here, that provides the greatest example. Only John Adams in the current day has managed to produce music of this grandeur and epic impishness. Richard Strauss's attempt in Till Eulenspiegel just doesn't approach this level of mastery.) |
03/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 1 |
Arthur Honegger |
Music |
1931 (February 13, first performance) — Commissioned in 1929 by Serge Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary, Honegger's first symphony shows his commitment to absolute music, distinguishing him from the lighter hearts among Les Six. Whereas Milhaud — the leading figure of Les Six — had excelled in ballet, incidental music, and in shorter works for chamber groups and solo instruments, Honegger proved with this work that he could write an innovative piece of absolute music in the symphonic form for full orchestra without any programmatic references or extra-musical utility. The first movement is one of those early modernist Behemoths on the order of Prokofieff's second symphony — but far more successful. Indeed, this movement is one of the best of the driving, vigorous and dissonant masterpieces of the early 20th century, and works far more successfully than his more famous "Pacific 231," or Copland's aggressive but uninteresting "Symphonic Ode." The symphony's second movement is a serious slow movement, and is quite lovely, with a dramatic section in the middle. The final movement breaks into a joyous rondo, concluding quietly with tranquil slow music. This is not a perfect symphony — to my ears, it could go on longer and profit from the extended length! But it is worth listening to. That first movement is extraordinarily impressive, and the final movement a good example of joyous celebration in 20th century "serious music"; but it is not a tacked-on Milhaud romp: it works in its modified symphonic format. The concluding slow section transforms the fun final movement into something impressive as well as, though perhaps a few more bars of that tranquil music wouldn't have hurt. |
03/11/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 2 for strings and trumpet ad libitum |
Arthur Honegger |
Music |
1942 — Another innovative symphony from Honegger, and a complete triumph. It is a string symphony of a very sombre cast, adding the trumpet only at the end, as the mood lifts from darkness to the light of an affirming chorale (an original melody with Honegger, not a quotation). Like the first symphony, it is in three movements; but no matter how good the first movement is (and it is very good), it need not suffer as the savior of the work: the other movements come through as perfect expressions of their author's seriousness, and one has experienced a complete emotional catharsis by the sympony's end. This is, I think, Honegger's greatest symphony. |
03/11/03 |
Match |
Symphony No. 3, Liturgique |
Arthur Honegger |
Music |
1946 — Here is a work that bears repeated listening. It is another very serious work by Honegger, but the programmatic element might intrude on the listener's appreciation. Does it really help that the composer felt compelled to speak of the vigorous, compelling motivic material of the last movement as "stupid music"? He claimed that the music depicted "nationalism, militarism, paperwork, administrations, customs officials, taxes, wars," and as much as I may be as opposed to these things (perhaps more than was Honegger himself), I find the idea of associating these things with the arresting, dramatic music of the last movement absurd. So forget the program. Forget, too, the liturgical associations; forget any philosophical ideas that may have existed in Honegger's head as he composed his third three-movement symphony. Don't be ashamed to enjoy the ostensibly "stupid" music as it reaches a climax in its last big dissonant chord. Further, there is no special honor in finding the quiet, peaceful adagio a satisfying end to the work: you are not especially smart for appreciating it; Honegger provided the intelligence. (It is the most moving of his slow music efforts, sublime in its loveliness and sorrow.) In fine, the movement contains no stupidity, and wouldn't have even if Honegger concluded the symphony with that magnificent violent chord that ends the march and putative "revolt." Any associations beyond the music itself should be kept, by the listeners, as a very private thing — as it should have been by the composer himself. Making these associations public is the only stupid thing about this symphony. |
03/11/03 |
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Symphony No. 5, Di tre re |
Arthur Honegger |
Music |
The peculiar title indicates that each movement ends with the timpani playing a D. Very, very clever, if not as emotionally satisfying at first hearing as many of his other works. But over time I've come to appreciate this music. I immediately recognized its technical perfection. And that perfection suggests what repeated listenings prove: this is great music, a great symphony. Honegger is an under-performed symphonist, and this work deserves a champion who really understands its procedural and thematic unity. Still, I've not heard a really bad performance of it. The work's genius may be indestructible to competent orchestras. The musicians require, though, substantial technical proficiency — this is no Simple Symphony! |
03/11/03 |
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| Symphony No 26 in D Minor, "Lamentatione" |
Franz Josef Haydn |
Music |
1768 — The nickname comes from the source of the main theme of the first movement: a Gregorian chant. But this very classical music doesn't sound very Gregorian! The first of Haydn's "Sturm und Drang" symphonies, it is arresting, dramatic, and ends with a minuet and trio — a very odd ending, for Haydn or any other symphonist. |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944, "The Great" |
Franz Schubert |
Music |
1828 Called the "Great" to distinguish it from a previous C major effort by the young composer. This one is indeed "The Great" and I mean that beyond distinguishing two symphonies by one composer. Probably the Romantic symphony I listen to most. Schumann praised its "heavenly length," but though it may be long, it is not once, for even a moment, the least bit boring. My favorite work by Schubert, bar none (including even his every example of exquisite chamber music and Lied.) |
12/10/03 |
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| Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759, "Unfinished" |
Franz Schubert |
Music |
1822 — Would that all unfinished works were as polished and inspiring as this! Two movements. That's all. That's enough. Romanticism kicks into high gear. Slowly. The symphony begins brooding. It doesn't end there! But the contemplative dominates. (The work strikes me almost as a prophecy for the direction of Romanticism in music. But perhaps we shouldn't make too much of an incomplete work? Hah! Too much can hardly be made of this masterpiece.) |
12/10/03 |
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| Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 25, "Choral" |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1824 — A great symphony because two parts of it are great, by normal standards (a strange and wondrous opening movement, a brittle, brilliant, incisive scherzo), and one part of it Great in some For All Time and Against The Gods sense. This last movement is what everybody remembers. Too bad the third movement in no way matches the slow movements of the Third, Fifth, Seventh or even Sixth symphonies. Oh, well. |
12/10/03 |
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| Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1812 A brisk symphony that, like the Fourth, harks back to the classical tradition. But its forward movement, driving, driving, joyful and vigorous, well: to say "harks back" seems out of place. Forward! Forward! |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1812 — Wagner called this symphony "the apotheosis of the dance", but it is the slow movement variations that stick with me most, and the word "dance" doesn't do it justice, godlike or not. What's a god to this music? |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, "Pastoral" |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1808 — With the Fifth, Beethoven established Absolute Music absolutely and for all time; with this, the Pastoral Symphony, he established himself as the most rigorous and inventive of Romantics. Listen to it with or without the program. Utopian? Heavenly? Utterly at one with nature? Just great art, perhaps. |
12/10/03 |
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| Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1808 — Arguably the greatest symphony ever composed. Perfect in whole and in part, a marvel of aesthetic ingenuity and a puzzle for mereologists. I have loved every piece of it, at some point or other. Right now the theme of the scherzo runs in my head. |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op 60 |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1807 — A mature composer looks back, fondly, at the roots from which he sprang. An under-appreciated symphony, reminiscent of Haydn, but unmistakable as Beethoven. |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op 55, "Eroica" |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1803 — The first Beethoven symphony that sounds completely and totally Beethoven's own, a great, mature work, and one that advanced the possibilities and scope of the symphony as an art form. Every movement is great. A tribute, it is said, of idealistic Beethoven to Napoleon, whom Beethoven saw as a hero saving civilization from revolutionary zeal and mass murder. But then Napoleon turned emperor, and Beethoven scratched out his dedication to the general and substitued "Hero" as the title. Beethoven was a republican. (Republicans in America should follow suit, and get rid of the imperialists in their midst.) |
12/10/03 |
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| Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 |
Ludwig Van Beethoven |
Music |
1800 — A perfect symphony, flowing vigorously out of the young composer's teacher's tradition: very Haydnesque. But also very Beethovenian; a promise of things to come. Start here for Beethoven's symphonies. This cleanses your palette, if you've been awash in the later symphonic tradition, or (far worse) popular music traditions. |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, "Jupiter" |
Wolfgang Amadι Mozart |
Music |
1788 This is the symphony that scholars love to hold up as an example. If I liked it more, I'd study it as well as the previous two symphonies on Mozart's list. It's good, even great (I admit), but doesn't do all that much for me. I'm a Haydn man, I guess. Still, it's better than the earliest Mozart symphonies indeed, better than all but the other two in his final trilogy. |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 |
Wolfgang Amadι Mozart |
Music |
1788 My favorite and (I believe) greatest of the Mozart symphonies. The first movement is utterly sublime, perfect, unmatched in the symphonic literature. The remaining movements don't quite match up to this first, but the symphony does indeed work as a whole. This is the symphony that allows us to place Mozart in the top rank of Viennese symphonists, right up there with Haydn and Beethoven. |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 39 in E Flat Major, K. 543 |
Wolfgang Amadι Mozart |
Music |
1788 The first of Mozart's final trilogy of symphonies, and the one you hear the least often. Listen to it. I confess to preferring it over the Jupiter! |
12/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 94 in G Major, "Surprise" |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
1791 Haydn's most famous symphony, and an enduringly popular one, and for more than one reason. Yes, the surprise orchestral blast in the slow movement is clever and memorable. It is also perfect, musically. No mere gimmick. And the first and last move |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 44 in E Minor, "Trauer" |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
c. 1771 — The greatest of Haydn's "Sturm und Drang" period symphonies. A minor-key work that deeply impresses the listener with its sad passions. Is it funereal, as the nickname suggests? The sadness does not suggest a funeral to me, but, perhaps, the private mourning of a person walking home after the funeral of a loved one. Musically, it is an amazing thing, constructed in an inventive way. This symphony represents, to some degree, a road not taken in classical music, though Mozart's final G minor symphony comes to mind. |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 97 in C Major |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
1792 — This is a good example of Haydn's craftsmanship. In the first movement he takes the simplest, almost silly, dominant-tonic thumper of a theme and elaborates great music out of it and then, for a transition to the sweeter second subject writes an extravagantly interesting, arresting, brilliant passage for the whole orchestra. The symphony is worth listening to just for that passage (repeated, and transposed and repeated later in the movement.) A great work? I'm not sure. But evidence of a great composer, surely! |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 101 in D Major, "The Clock" |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
1795 — I suppose there is a clock-like ticking in the adagio, but don't be too preoccupied by the names given to Haydn's symphonies; they are good (even great!) were they are unadorned by a nickname. This one, too. Great minuet — the longest and most elaborate Haydn wrote for a symphony. |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 103 in E-Flat Major, "Drum Roll" |
Joseph Hadyn |
Music |
1795 — a somber, arresting opening — Haydn's specialty — followed by another great sonata-form Allegro (con spirito, this time); this penultimate Haydn symphony is as great as any other. |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 95 in C Minor |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
1791 - The only minor key effort in his final twelve "London" or "Salomon" symphonies. A truly great work, foreshadowing Beethoven but perfect Haydn. |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 104 in D Major, "The London" |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
1795 - Haydn's final symphony, and certainly one of his greatest. A maestoso opening, a vigorous fast sonata-form movement. Great slow movement, stately minuet, and a folksy-arty rondo concludes. Many good performances available. (One of Bernstein's, however, has a mistuned timpani!) |
11/10/03 |
Match |
| Symphony No. 22 in E Flat Major, "The Philosopher" |
Joseph Haydn |
Music |
1764 - a great first slow movement, with horns and English horns antiphonally developing a great, stately, lovely — almost-heartbreakingly elegant — theme. Neville Marriner does a good job with this; Esa Pekka Salonen's recording takes it much too fast. |
11/10/03 |
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