What is the last great symphony?

Cafe Society
1

Pretty much the title says it all. I’m interested in your opinion or a generally-recognized answer. Orchestral only, please.

2

I don’t follow serious modern music, I’m afraid, but the most recently assembled and recorded symphony that I really like is Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony.
Yes, I’m serious. I’ve got the recording. Two different ones were released in 1988:

3

Was thinking “last” in terms of year composed rather than year of the performance.

4

That’s also the year of “composition”, since it was assembled from pieces Beethoven had never put together (Or, critics argued, he never intended to put together). Prior to 1988, there was no “tenth” symphony in any sense.

5

I’m not a huge fan of his music, but Shostokovich is famous in part for his symphonies, and his 15th and final symphony premiered in 1972:

“Great symphony” could mean any number of things. I’m sure great symphonies in some sense are being written, but few reach a large number of people, and almost nothing past the late 19th, early 20th (Mahler, etc.) is regularly played.

6

“Orchestra only” is a severe and rather peculiar limitation (there goes Gorecki 3, arguably the last widely recognized great symphony, 1977).

7

Here are some post-WWII symphonies that I consider well worth listening to:

Messiaen - Turangalila (1949)
Dutilleux - Symphony n°1 (1951)
Prokofiev - Symphony n°7 (1952)
Shostakovich - Symphony n°13 Babi Yar (1962)
Britten - Cello-Symphony (1963)
Sallinen Symphony n°3 (1975)
Lutoslawski Symphony n°3 (1983)
Lutoslawski Symphony n°4 (1992)

Among these I bet that the Messiaen, Prokofiev and Shostakovitch symphonies are the most often recorded and performed.

My personal favourite is Prokofiev 7, closely followed by Dutilleux 1, Messiaen and Britten (in that order).

8

Shostakovich 13 is not “orchestra only”. It *is *a masterpiece though.

9

Oops, you’re right of course.

10

Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 is the most recent symphony I can think of that has achieved wide popularity (not that that’s necessarily the same as being “great”), but it does include vocals. ETA: Oops, I see Art Rock already mentioned this.

Shostakovich may well have been the last great symphonist.

The “last” in the thread title implies there won’t be any more great symphonies in the future. I hope that isn’t true.

11

I don’t know that I’d rate Shostakovich’s symphonies with the greatest of all time, but I’d agree that he’s the most recent compsoer whose symphonies are likely to show up regularly on a typical orchestra’s playlist.

12

Some fairly recent (post-Shostakovich) all-orchestral symphonies that I like very much (“great” is undefined anyway):

Hovhaness - Symphony No. 50 Mount St. Helens (1982)
Sallinen - Symphony No. 6 From a New Zealand Diary (1990)
Rautavaara - Symphony No. 7 Angel of Light (1994)

13

I was very impressed by Don Gillis’s Symphony X (Big D) from 1967.

14

Hmmm, I’ll listen to these.

Sallinen 3 is quite impressive and I like Rautavaara’s music although he has an annoying tendency to recycle exactly the same melodic turns and kettledrum crashes all the time. I can’t listen to more than 2-3 works of his in a row. Still, it’s good, accessible and appealing music.

15

Tchaikovsky 6

16

One that impresed me when I saw it on TV in the 70’s as a kid:

The thing that amazes me is that such a symphony was made originally for a TV documentary. It has become just a little bit popular among university orchestras in the USA to perform.

[QUOTE] The University of Arizona Wind Symphony in concert September 26, 2013, performing Norman Dello Joio's Scenes from "The Louvre," under the direction of Kevin M. Holzman. [/QUOTE]

Link to the documentary with the original more magnificent score:


For more recent times I do think that the scores of many movies can qualify here. Specially when the composers do organize the score to perform it in an auditorium. Like The Lord of the Rings symphony by Howard Shore. No links to the full one as it has some parts with choral bits. But The Lighting of the Beacons part will always be memorable.

17

Yes, except that Rachmaninoff 2 is later.

18

I’ll listen to the Beethoven 10 sometime, CalMeacham, and I’ll listen to the ones others have suggested (especially if there’s a link), thanks.

I did listen to the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs today. It’s fine, maybe its greatness grows on one. I certainly didn’t experience the rich imagery of a destroyed Europe one YouTuber talked about.

By orchestral only I meant only that it was written for an orchestra and didn’t intend to exclude a chorus. I would like to exclude any operas.

Movie scores count if the music is arranged in movements and it was written for an orchestra, sure. And, of course, you or at least somebody reckon it great. I don’t care if you mean Alexander the or Tony the Tiger.

19

Symphonies by definition exclude operas and movie scores. Looks like you are asking the wrong question. If you are looking for any composition for an orchestra, then various movie score excerpts would qualify, since they are regularly recorded and performed (thinking of major themes from Star Wars, Schindlers List, and so on).

20

Since you asked for links, here are some to the lesser-known (but great IMHO) symphonies on my list: