The best symphonies of the past 50 years?

[markniew]

I add to my earlier indicated Gorecki's no. 3 the 15th by Shostakovich.
I am not a specialist in symphonies so I cannot add something specal or comment the pieces mentioned above.
From the late  three symphonies by Shostakovich I vote for no. 15 because it is purely instrumental piece aand in that sense more symphonical. And what is most important it is very dramatic piece written by seriously ill old composer and we can feel this in music especially in the last movement - passacaglia - extraordinary piece, very uncommon and the very end of it with the enigmatic percussion is something completely shocking! In teh biography of Shostakovich by Krzysztof Meyer there is one good impression (stated by one of the conductors); "It is music completely reduced to ashes, totally burnt out".
OK quotations of other music (Wilhelm Tell Wagner etc.) are - in my mind - strange and unnecessary but the impression of the symphony in its entirety is shattering.


 

[Dundonnell]

I am very pleased to see so many members nominating Robert Simpson's 9th

To my mind it is one of the great 9ths-worthy to stand shoulders with the 9th symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner and Mahler( with Vaughan Williams, Rubbra and Pettersson not far behind). Yet it has only received one commercial recording (by Handley for Hyperion).

This is a symphony which should be taken up by a great living conductor and given the exposure it so richly deserves.

I love the description in the old Penguin Guide that the music sounds as though galaxies are forming

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Here another admirer of Simpson's 9th. I remember I couldn't believe what I was hearing when I listened to it for the very first time. It really is a colossal work.

[Alan Howe]

I thoroughly agree: for me it blows away any symphony written within the time-span in question, with the exception of the very different late symphonies of Shostakovich. But am I just an unreconstructed conservative who cannot appreciate his more avant-garde contemporaries?

[Albion]

I'm afraid that I cannot in all honesty really contribute very much to this topic as my knowledge of symphonies written during the last fifty years is sadly limited

 

but it seems to me that Robert Simpson's is a very significant voice, along with Shostakovich, Havergal Brian, Daniel Jones, Michael Tippett, Malcolm Arnold, Arnold Cooke, Graham Whettam and David Morgan (well, you should have expected a predominantly British bias). This is not to say that these are the 'best' by any means, but they are all composers who strike a chord with me.

 

[Rainolf]

But am I just an unreconstructed conservative who cannot appreciate his more avant-garde contemporaries?

Would that be so bad? You would be in an association with such conservative figures as Bach, Mendelssohn, Brahms, etc. Surely, not the worst company.

[vandermolen]

I'd include Vasks Symphony No 2, the end of which I find very moving and the 3rd (Joie de Vivre) and 4th Symphony (The Four Provinces) by Irish composer John Kinsella (Marco Polo). I investigated this when a review described it as being in the spirit of Tubin and Lilbrn - two of my favourite composers. No 3 starts off rather like Bax' 3rd Symphony and is a very powerful work in a modern but tonal style. It is a very exciting symphony (Nielsen also comes to mind). Symphony No 4 is a musical traversal of the four provinces of Ireland in the order they are touched by the prevailing wind. I find the return of the prevailing wind motto theme at the end tremendously exciting and overwhelming. I'd support the Gorecki Symphony No 3 too and also David Matthews's 6th Symphony, with its Vaughan Williams influences.

[Dundonnell]

I very much agree with your assessment of the Kinsella 3rd and 4th, Jeffrey

Am very much looking forward to the new recording of the composer's 6th and 7th symphonies from RTE

[Alan Howe]

Somehow, I feel I ought to be able to comprehend something with the title 'Symphony' - I certainly want to - and yet, it seems to me that a yawning gap has opened up between those composers who want to continue and develop 'the tradition' (e.g all those mentioned by Albion, above), and those who somehow want to deconstruct it so that it becomes something radically 'other' (Schnittke?) or write something that is so hard to comprehend that one is left not moved or exhilarated, nor emotionally drained, nor uplifted, but merely baffled, confused....

Is it me?

[Dundonnell]

Living composers still writing 'genuine' symphonies which you (may) have a chance to hear would include:

John McCabe and David Matthews(Great Britain)
Kalevi Aho, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Aulis Sallinen(Finland)
John Kinsella(Ireland)
Halvor Haug, Ragnar Soderlind(Norway)
Krzystof Penderecki(Poland)
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich(USA)

It's not a very long list, is it    But all of these-at least to my ears-have the ability to write in long, extended paragraphs of genuinely symphonic dimensions and to touch the soul. I might add later Vadim Silvestrov(Ukraine) as well

[Rainolf]

Not to forget John Pickard and Matthew Taylor, who follow Robert Simpson's footsteps.

[Dundonnell]

Not to forget John Pickard and Matthew Taylor, who follow Robert Simpson's footsteps.

Unfortunately neither Pickard's 2nd or 3rd symphonies has been commercially recorded(Symphony No.1 has been withdrawn for revision). Although if anyone has a copy of their broacast performances that would be hugely appreciated

Thank you for reminding me about Matthew Taylor though I have been meaning to buy his First and Third symphonies for some time and had completely forgotten to do so. He is teaching a young friend of mine at the Royal Academy in London. Anyone got a copy of the BBC broadcast of the 2nd symphony?

[Dundonnell]

I think that I should probably have mentioned too Panufnik's 9th "Sinfonia della Speranza", another magisterial 9th symphony and my favourite Panufnik

[Tapiola]

Yes, Panufnik! Shame on me. Sinfonia Sacra (1963), Sinfonia Votiva and Symphony 10, all top notch. The others need more concentration from the listener to ever be performed often I'm afraid, but a magnificent series of symphonies. Much more Polish than British, more Polish in flavor than Lutoslawski

[saxtromba]

I would approach this in a slightly different way, given the underlying concern of the original question: from the 200 years prior to 1960, how many symphonies deserve to rank among the greatest?  That is, how many symphonies utilize the full resources available to the composer in the fullest manner?  How many are both structurally complex and powerfully emotional, operating consistently at the highest level?

Not so many as we might suppose, I would guess.  A certain number by Haydn, but no more than 20 or 30.  The last three by Mozart, and perhaps a couple of others.  Beethoven 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9 (and some might argue against 6!).  Schubert 8 and 9.  And then....?  Remember, we're talking 'greatest', not 'very good' or 'most popular'.

So (he says, rushing in where angels fear to tread)-- Nothing before Brahms and Bruckner, or at most Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Mendelssohn 4, and Schumann 4.  Brahms 1 (though this would not be universally accepted, judging from various reactions over the years), and certainly 4 (2 & 3?  |Do they really hold up against the aforementioned pieces by Beethoven?).  Bruckner 4, 5 and 7, possibly, and certainly 8 & 9.  Saint-Saens 3?  Tchaikovsky 4, maybe 6.  Dvorak 7 probably, and I'd make a case for 8, as others would for 9.  Mahler 6, possibly 9.  Nielsen 4 &5.  Sibelius 4 & 5?  Shostakovitch 5, maybe 8, and 10.  Prokofiev 5?  A couple by Miaskovsky?  A couple by Hartmann?

And then, since I'm no doubt forgetting a few (Toch?  Martinu? Tubin?), we'll say that another dozen can be added.  This gives us, at most (assuming truly great symphonies don't come pouring out of the woodwork), some ninety or so truly great symphonies in two hundred years (simply accepting every symphony mentioned above as 'great').  Take off Haydn and Mozart, who wrote in a vastly different era and other vastly different circumstances than their successors, and the number drops by almost half.  So we have an average of somewhere between fifteen and forty-five great symphonies for each fifty years.  Just on the numbers I'd suggest that the last fifty years are holding up pretty well, even if you double the above numbers.

My nominations (sticking, almost, to the original three symphony limit)? 
Shostakovitch 13 absolutely, and 14 and 15 strongly.
Pettersson 7, and maybe 8.
Aho 7

There are, though, many other very fine symphonies of recent origin.  As I said, the last fifty years seem to be at least as productive as any other fifty year period after Beethoven.