Great (or very impressive) First Symphonies of the (relatively) lesser known.

[Dave]

Other than the First Symphonies of the most (or more) famous names (Brahms, Berlioz, Bruckner, Schumann, Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich), I would love to read your take on this subject. For me, a lot of First Symphonies impress me immensely, in part due to ambition in communication, but also due to maturity; the fingerprints or gateways of composers they ultimately  became and whom we've come to understand and admire further. So, with that said, I'll mention the First Symphonies of:

Svendsen
Atterberg (with a wonderful slow movement)
Glazunov (a precocious gem)
Balakirev
Lyapunov
Lemba
Artur Kapp
Stenhammar
Nielsen
Rachmaninoff
Scriabin
Kalinnikov
Gliere
Lyatoshynsky
Bax
Vaughan Williams
Madetoja
Melartin
Rakov
Borodin
Ives
Roussel
Hanson
Dohnanyi (brilliant yet bold)
Langgaard (discursive, but it has its moments)
Braga-Santos
Draeseke

Any ideas?

[Alan Howe]

Please note: I have cut the above list to encompass only those composers who conform with our remit. Please could participants in this thread bear in mind this remit when they post. Details here:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3681.0.html

[LateRomantic75]

I largely agree with your list, Dave. I have always thought Langaard's First to be one of the most accomplished works written by a teenager! I would also add Elgar (though he was 51 when he wrote it), Tubin (does his early style fall within UC's remit?), Maliszewski (found it on YouTube-gorgeous work!), and Alnaes. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting!

[Dave]

Dear Mr. Howe:

Please note (and I'm saying that respectfully) that many of the composers you erased continued on with the Romantic tradition, especially in their earlier compositional efforts (Skulte, Tubin, Diamond, Popov (who continued on the tradition of Glazunov/Borodin), Shebalin, Revutsky, Goossens, Jacob, and so forth). For instance, Goossens is hardly more modern than Bax. You kept Rakov, but deleted Shebalin, despite the fact the latter's work is an earlier piece very much in line with Myaskovsky's tonal language. You may have also overlooked the fact that Ukraine was late in emerging into (at least) a viable classical music tradition (like Estonia, Latvia, and even Finland in fact). So it's music is comparatively anachronistic even by the 1920s (you curiously kept Lyatoshynsky, but deleted Revutsky, whose emergence is quite similar to his earlier on). Boiko is mentioned in this forum, whose music is very Russian, tonal and accessible. But is his music less tonal and accessible than Khachaturian's or Khrennikov's First Symphonies also originally mentioned?

I read the link, but at the same time, there is quite a bit of a grey area given the nature of the works written, by whom, when (what period(s) in relations to their respective countries' classical music evolution), under what political/social/personal conditions and/or circumstances, if any (Stalin's Russia for instance), and from where. Bortkiewicz (Ukrainian) is a compelling example of this. His two symphonies were written in 1933 and 1934, and yet the idiom is very much late 1880s, 1890s. Mikhail Nosyrev's (1924-1981) ballet "Song of Triumphant Love" is very much in the tradition of Glazunov, Gliere, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Ravel and the French, and yet it was written in 1968-1969 after he spent over a decade in the gulag, thus robbing him of his musical development, which was promising earlier on.

Just some thoughts.

[Dave]

I largely agree with your list, Dave. I have always thought Langaard's First to be one of the most accomplished works written by a teenager! I would also add Elgar (though he was 51 when he wrote it), Tubin (does his early style fall within UC's remit?), Maliszewski (found it on YouTube-gorgeous work!), and Alnaes. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting!

Elgar, I agree (but he's so far from being lesser known). But Vermeulen's first effort is quite something.

[LateRomantic75]

Elgar, I agree (but he's so far from being lesser known). But Vermeulen's first effort is quite something.

Certainly! Vermeulen's First is a stunning work which is easier to assimilate than his later symphonies.

[Balapoel]

Dave,
Could you PM me your original list? I've been exploring a number of the composers you mention (and a few others besides), and I do find their work quite romantic and compelling and I want to check them off against your list. I am aware that many Ukranian composers kept a late romantic language after other national tendencies tended towards atonality.
Thanks.

[Amphissa]

Rachmaninoff is lesser known? Wow! On what planet?

Well, whatever. I'd add Zemlinsky and Chausson.

[eschiss1]

Chausson? I think the point of the list might be to avoid symphonies by composers who only composed one, but...

Anyhow, I'd suggest Rangstrom, Myaskovsky and Raff (though his 1st is "only" impressive) - also Berwald and maybe also Gernsheim.

[Balapoel]

well, in small defense, Chausson did sketch out his Symphony No. 2 in 1899 (not sure how much is there, or if it is performable).

[alberto]

Martucci
Sgambati
Fibich
Gade
d'Indy (among the numbered ones, it is the "Cevenole")
Bizet (if "Roma" is the Second)

[alberto]

I delete Bizet, as sung (not as often as I would)

[eschiss1]

d'Indy's first symphony is his Italienne in A minor, not his Cenevole. It's now been recorded once or twice.

[Balapoel]

Wouldn't d'Indy's Jean Hundaye symphony, op 5 be the second? (1875). I haven't seen it recorded.

[Dave]

Rachmaninoff is lesser known? Wow! On what planet?

Well, whatever. I'd add Zemlinsky and Chausson.

You're quite right. My error (though not as famous as Tchaikovsky).