6th for me, not that I dislike any of them.
nope. #6 is my fav. i love the thunderstorm. he wrote wonderful storms.
#3 is next in line for me.
Gotta go with the 9th.
7th is a close second, however.
My favorite is the 9th and for my birthday I got tickets to see the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra perform it!
9, 6, 5 are my favs in rotation in that order. I like them all though.
I have to admit, my favorite recordings are by Szell/Cleveland Orchestra. Those are the performances I grew up with . . . live.
Second movement of the 7th for the top spot.
5th and 9th are my second favorite.
Some pieces of the 6th are awesome(like the parts the Total Recall soundtrack ripped off)
The rest I have to be in the mood for.
Number 7, and specifically the Allegretto. There’s one specific bar that can still send shivers down my spine even after listing to it a gazillion times. It’s where the strings suddenly take their melodic line down an octave. It occurs at around 2.22 in this stunning version with von Karajan at the helm.
I’ve often meditated on the nature of genius. How does a human brain - a few pounds of squishy grey tissue - come up with something like this?
The ninth, absolutely: especially as conducted by Stowkowski. The third movement rocks my world. "BUMbum!-BUMbum!-tympanis-BUMbadum!.
You’re referring to the second movement, I think. No emphatic timpani parts in the third.
Number 6, all the way, baby. Even though he has the lightning coming *after *the thunder. And as mentioned above, I probably like it best because of Fantasia.
Numbers 5 and 9 are close behind in favorites. Am I the only one who thinks of Darth Vader when I hear the Fifth? Not the famous motif; the other one in (I think) the second movement…TRM
[junkie voice] YEAH! That’s the stuff! [/junkie voice]
However, the Ninth still has the point where ALL THE SOUND IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE EXPLODES!!! (Min 2:41: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehIrSBHDOKo&feature=related) There have never been enough orchestras and choruses in existence to do this justice. This is where Beethoven both created and tossed aside Heavy Metal as a mere Xerox. It is LOUD cranked to 22. We can never really experience it because our human forms will disintegrate.
Well, my uncultured self only knows the 5th and 9th, so I’ll say the 9th.
I totally agree; that’s why this movement is my favorite of Beethoven’s . . . and it can be identified by hearing only the first chord (the same can be said of the last movement of the 9th).
The 9th all the way, though I love them all.
Far from the best recording of it, but listening the ‘Freedom Concert’ conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the Berlin Wall never fails to move me.
Slight hijack. What happens to the chorus at about 3:09? Could be a technical sound problem, I guess, but it sounds like most of them forgot about the repeat and blew the entrance!
Saying so is trite and obvious, but the 9th is just stunning wrenching genius. I’m proud to be a member of the same species that created it. I’d be happy to submit it as greatest work of art in the history of mankind.