What symphony can you not live without?

[mbhaub]

Just one? Well, Elgar 2nd it would have to be, with deep regrets to Mahler 7, Tchaikovsky Manfred, Bloch C sharp minor, Schmidt 4, Sibelius 7, Balakirev 1, Glazunov 4, Vaughan Williams 2, Bax 3, Rachmaninoff 2, Raff 3, and Kalinnikov 1.

[kolaboy]

Hadley's 2nd; Gade's 6th...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Sorry to be boring, guys, but for me it has to be Beethoven's 3rd - the "Eroica".  It's virtually the first truly 'Romantic' symphony; it all starts from there (Romanticism in music, I mean) - and it's a work of pure and radiant genius. Never has the bare triad of E flat major been more melodically eloquent than in the opening bars. The whole work is truly heroic.

And after that it would have to be either Elgar's 1st or Vaughan-Williams' 2nd (the "London"), for similar reasons in that they seem to mark a real gear shift into the modern symphony, an attempt to address the disillusionment of the new century and make sense of the human condition. Whereas Beethoven's is a confident affirmation of optimism born out of aspiration and struggle, the two English men meet despair head on and turn it into a courageous realism.

[eschiss1]

not a boring answer at all, a very good one I say...

[DaveF]

Another London symphony for me - Haydn 104.

DF

[oldman]

The Bantock Celtic Symphony for me.

[eschiss1]

then there's the parallel question for, say, piano concertos (not joking, esp. in regards a slightly earlier composer than we incline to talk about, Mozart, whose piano concertos- almost all of them- are on a much more even level of general inspiration, genius and excellence than his symphonies, where less than 6 are really lasting works...)

[Peter1953]

Sung: Beethoven 9
Unsung: Raff 1

[jimmattt]

Taneyev No. 2, Beethoven No. 5, top two of 1,000,000

[Rainolf]

Maybee this thread is the best place for my first posting in this forum.

My favourite unsung symphonies are: Draeseke's "Tragica", Taneyev's Fourth, Pfitzner's op. 36a, Hausegger's "Nature Symphony", Furtwängler's Second, Rubbra's First, Mennin's Seventh and the symphonies of Robert Simpson (especially No. 7 and 9)

Of sung symphonies there are the works of Beethoven (especially No. 2 and 3, and the first two movements of the Ninth) and Bruckner (especially No. 1 and 9, the latter my all time favourite piece of music), which I like most.

[reineckeforever]

sung...Bruckner 7th and Schubert 9th "The great"
unsung...Rott symphony in E major...Bax 4th

[Alan Howe]

...oh, and Georg Schumann's 1st Symphony. Glorious, Brahmsian music from a blossoming young composer. Utterly memorable and packed full of tunes and vigorous writing. 

[fuhred]

Sung: Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony
Unsung: Glazunov No.6

[Latvian]

Stjepan Sulek: Symphony No. 6

[mahler10th]

Hans Rott  -  Only one symphony available, Symphony in E Major.  I CANNOT live without it.