Greatest Symphony ever!!

It's all in the title of the thread, which is the GREATEST SYMPHONY EVER written? Also, which is the greatest recording of the greatest symphony...?

I will keep track of posts so that I can establish a Headfiers favorite Symphony and recording.

Try and keep it to 1 or 2 Symphonies per post rather than one post with a list. Cheers.

I'll start with one of my personal faves, and a recording that has never left my ears through out my interest in classical music. 

Berlioz; Symphonie Fantastique

Apologies if a thread like this has been done before!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sordel 

Hard to imagine this being "won" by anything other than Beethoven's ninth really.

Is that your choice then?

if so, which recording?

have you heard any other symphonies?

Why is it the greatest?

Is it because its so popular?

Do you always go for popular music in general?

Popular isn't always the greatest!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot 

I'm very fond of Schubert's 9th. My favorite version is by Sinopoli/Dresden. Second would be Beethoven's 6th by Bohm/Vienna.

Nice choice, I love Schuberts 9th. More that the more popular unfinished 8th. My fave recording of Beethovens 6th is the old Klemperer recording on EMI with the Philharmonia, strange tempi, and dragged out as always with Otto but theres just something about it!

Here is another contender! One of the greatest Symphs ever written and without a doubt the greatest recording!

The Mighty 5th!  When fate comes knocking on the door in the first bars, its never sounded more ominous and frightening! This is a well celebrated performance and deservedly so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sordel 

Woah, that's a lot of questions. The thread title is greatest symphony ever, not best or favourite. If it were favourite, Beethoven's 9th wouldn't figure, which is why I didn't mention a recording, because I don't like the work enough to have comparative recordings of it. If it were best, well, I'd say that Beethoven's 9th would still figure, alongside examples by Mozart, Brahms, Schubert, Mahler, perhaps Bruckner. But for greatest you need to include good, influential, renowned etc. and Beethoven's 9th has that in spades. Beethoven's 9th is so great that Tippett's 3rd symphony, itself a pretty good symphony, is modelled on it and quotes from it. Virtually every composer since Beethoven has looked upon the 9th (far more than the 5th) as the absolute peak of the symphonic genre. Sometimes a question is phrased in such a way that the answer is pretty much unavoidable.

Couldn't agree more!

The most seminal symphonic masterpiece. There certainly wouldn't be the Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, or even Wagner that we know without it. I love it, but it isn't perfect. The adagio is too long for a start and the finale is dragged out in an attempt to commercialize music at the time (crude, but true for me).  His 5th or 6th Symphonies are more "whole works" from start to finish. I would even put his magnificent 3rd Symphony as more ground breaking.

Is there a better Symphony out there in terms of near perfection?

Another contender for me would be Bruckner's 8th. An epic masterpiece, and under the baton of Karajan with his late 50's working- it is quite literally magnificent!  

Early days but it seems Beethovens 5th 6th and 9th are equally thought of as the greatest.

How about a bit of Finnish flavor, from one of the great late romantic composers Jean Sibelius. His short 7th symphony has been a favorite of mine for years and I love hearing different versions. I would consider Sakari Oramo's version to be the best that I've heard so far. Approx 20 mins of pure perfection, a hauntingly beautiful masterpeice. I wanted it played at my wedding, but the wife thought everyone would fall asleep... (there's no accounting for taste! we had bloody Beyonce instead...ha ha)