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Unsung 20th Century Symphonists

Started by Alan Howe, Wednesday 24 August 2011, 09:21

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reineckeforever

Alfred Schnittke, Kurt Atterberg, Joseph Marx, Bohuslav Martinu, Peter Maxwell Davies. I think that Schnittke, Martinu and Davies are not unsung....in this case....i can replace in order with IKarol Szymanowski, ldebrando Pizzetti (Sinfonia in la and Concerto dell'Estate), Gianfrancesco Malipiero. I have heterogenous taste...
bye, Andrea

Alan Howe

Could I re-stress: not top five symphonists, but top five symphonies, please!

Rainolf

Excuse my error, Alan, I have precised my rating.

Alan Howe


alberto

-Magnard n.4
-Suk Asrael
-Schmidt n.4
-Martucci n.2
-Antheil n.4
(If Suk is rated sung, Pettersson n.7)

Alan Howe


ahinton

Quote from: alberto on Thursday 15 September 2011, 10:37
-Magnard n.4
-Suk Asrael
-Schmidt n.4
-Martucci n.2
-Antheil n.4
(If Suk is rated sung, Pettersson n.7)
Four tremendous symphonies and a fifth with which I regret to being unfamiliar - but however the Suk may be rated (and I rate it very highly), what about Pettersson 1 now?(! - go see BIS's site)...

Alan Howe

No doubt as I get to know more of the works discussed in this thread I will change my mind, but here are my current favourite 5 (in no particular order):

1. Blacher Symphony (1938)
2. Klami Symphony 1 (1937-8)
3. Tubin Symphony 5 (1946)
4. Suder Chamber Symphony (1925)
5. Paray Symphony No.1 (1934)




dafrieze

In no order:

Moeran Symphony
Samuel Barber Symphony #1
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Symphony #2, "To the South"
Humphrey Searle Symphony #2
Walter Piston Symphony #2

There are many more than five, but these are among the ones that I return to most frequently.

reineckeforever

Sorry Alan,
In order are:
Janacek: Sinfonietta
Schnittke: Symphony n.1
Schnittke: Symphony n.2
Pizzetti: Sinfonia in la minore
Szymanowsky: Symphony n.3 "Song of the night"

bye, Andrea

Alan Howe

Interesting. I'm afraid Schnittke is beyond me (too amorphous and diffuse), as is Searle (just too densely chromatic in a quasi-Bergian way).

Anyone got any views on Sallinen?

semloh

Alan - re Sallinen - I find he takes a lot of effort but it's worth it.  I have to be in the right frame of mind to cope with all those long-breathed, shimmering passages - they recall the semi-darkness of arctic day-nights, vast wildernesses, isolation, and so on. ... all highly meaningful in a metaphorical way, of course. I like the 3rd, but if I'm going to listen to Sallinen, I might as well go the whole hog and choose the big 6th Sym. .... quickly followed by some Fats Waller by way of a cheerful re-engagement with everyday life! No doubt, others will see it quite differently...

Alan Howe


Alan Howe

It appears to be a strange anomaly that I can make sense of Hugh Wood's very expressionistic, Bergian Symphony of 1982, but find Searle much more tricky. It must be me, of course...

dafrieze

Alan, I like both Wood's and Searle's symphonies.  The first time I heard a recording of the latter, maybe twenty years ago, I was instantly struck by its energy, its sense of going somewhere, and its ues of twelve-tone technique in such as way as to make it sound dissonant but tonal.