Composers with only one, but great symphony

[eschiss1]

Bernard Herrmann was working on a 2nd symphony it seems but didn't finish it (not sure from the description whether it was a symphony for organ and orchestra or for organ alone), an interesting detail...
I seem to recall finding notice in RISM of a symphony, quite possibly the one symphony, by a (very little-known) friend (no, not Grimm- much less-known than Otto Grimm...) of Brahms and Dietrich (I think?) to whose manuscript, according to RISM, Brahms added a number of annotations- will have to have another look... "one, but intriguing, symphony" would be more the category there, for me.

Edit: Wilsing. Daniel Wilsing (1809-1893). Symphony in D, copy made in 1832 (so composed at least a year before Brahms was born.) see here for information about a copy held at the Schumann-Haus, Zwickau library.

[Gauk]

I first got to know the Chausson Symphony via the old Decca Eclipse LP conducted by Robert Denzler. Searching for this this evening on various sites I couldn't find any mention of it, so maybe it is quite a rare pressing now, which would surprise me, as I thought that series was very common.

But it is a well-known work. One really major work from around the same period that has not been mentioned, and is a lot less well-known, is the solitary symphony of Louis Vierne. A very powerful and moving piece, composed, if I remember correctly, after the death of the composer's son.

[eschiss1]

I think his son died in WWI, which - in a sense - led to his (wonderful...) piano quintet. (Or did he have two sons and one died in WWI, the other in the early 1900s?... could be...) The violin sonata op.23 (1903-5) and symphony op.24 (1908) did also, i seem to recall, have their origin in a trauma but I don't recall what it is.

[chill319]

From about the same time as the Chausson, I think the Beach symphony has majesty and sweep in its outer movements (not necessarily evident in Jarvi's "Mendelssohnian" performance), real drama in its slow movement, and more than its share of good tunes throughout.

[Gauk]

I have this bad habit of relying on my memory, which is not as good as it once was. The trigger for Vierne's symphony was not a death, but the collapse of his marriage - I just checked.

[izdawiz]

I'd like to nominate Frederic Cliffe's Symphony 

[Mark Thomas]

Cliffe wrote a second symphony, which has yet to be performed although I believe that the manuscript has now been tidied up.

[izdawiz]

ahh!.. Thanks Mark..

[Alan Howe]

I'd like to nominate Frederic Cliffe's Symphony 

The the cover of the Sterling recording clearly says 'Symphony No.1', not simply 'Symphony'.

[izdawiz]

  your right Alan..   ....  well in that case I'd nominate Dora Pejačević Symphony in F minor 

[Alan Howe]

That's an excellent choice. It's a marvellous work.

[JimL]

Pardon the interruption, but...don't you mean F-sharp minor?  For the Pejacevic, I mean.

[eschiss1]

*snake goes fisssss!* That did sound wrong.

[Peter1953]

I like to add the Symphony in G minor by the Flemish composer August de Boeck (1865-1937). Maybe not a 'great' symphony compared to many others, but this four movement work (1896) is certainly a (late) romantic work, featuring an impressive flow of beautiful passages.

[Christo]

The Ludvig Irgens-Jensen, his Symphony in D minor from 1942, now available in its original version    , including the deleted third movement. Bjarte Engeset conducting the Bournemouth SO for Naxos.