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User
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Last Active 12-30-14 10:43 am
Joined 12-29-14
Review Comments 46
| I Wrote a Symphony / Best Symphonic Music
Check it out https://youtu.be/WSyAsnElvMI
Also here's some of my favourite symphonic music. Sticking to one piece per composer. | | 1 |  | Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 9
The first movement is the absolute pinnacle of sonata form symphonic first movement. The most beautiful music combined with the most intense combined with the most delicate where it feels like cosmic dust is swirling around and gradually forms planets. The middle two movements are pleasant enough but not my fave mainly because they would both benefit from being half the length. However, in the final movement we are back to business with another S tier movement.
Other honourable Mahler mentions: Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 | | 2 |  | Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105
Whereas Mahler is long, Sibelius shows us how effective you can be by being concise. This is 20 minutes of the most perfect blissfully beautiful music, although not without its moments of struggle.
Other honourable Sibelius mentions: Symphonies 2, 5, 6 | | 3 |  | Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93
Shostakovich's greatest symphony and the most recently composed piece on this list. That first movement - ice cold, but when it gets going it is a powerful machine. The second movement is the most famous here and it is certainly aggressive, but I much prefer the final two movements which really round out the symphony as being a cohesive artistic statement.
Other honourable Shostakovich mentions: Symphonies 4, 5 | | 4 |  | Olivier Messiaen
Turangalîla-Symphonie
You wouldn't think this was composed before the Shostakovich by listening to it; this still sounds futuristic today. I could imagine the dread of an orchestra having to play this beast - 80 minutes of intense counting - the outcome is amazing, with nothing else that sounds at all like it.
Other Messiaen honourable mentions: Harawi | | 5 |  | Pyotr Tchaikovsky
"Pathétique" Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74
I would say that this was the piece that got 16 year old-me properly into orchestral music. At the time we were playing the second symphony in orchestra and honestly before that I barely knew what a symphony was. I then bought a CD with this on it and it opened my eyes. Though today it doesn't quite pack the emotional punch it did when I was 16 (probably due to excessive overplaying at that time), it still is amazing.
Other honourable Tchaikovsky mentions: Symphony 4, 5, Manfred Symphony | | 6 |  | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade
This one is truly gorgeous, one that always brings a smile to my face and will happily listen to start to finish no matter the mood. Also RImsky-Korsakov is an absolute beast of an orchestrator - this thing has fairly modest forces (save for percussion), but the sounds he gets out of the orchestra are incredible.
Other honourable Rimsky-Korsakov mentions: Russian Easter Festival Overture, Cappricio Espagnol | | 7 |  | Igor Stravinsky
Le Sacre du Printemps
I remember in my first A level music class, my teacher gave each of us a copy of the score for this and we just listened to the whole thing. Best class of my life. I had never heard it before and what I saw on the page was revelatory. It completely broadened my horizons on the possibilities of what an orchestra can achieve.
Other Stravinsky honourable mentions: The Firebird, Petrushka, Symphony of Psalms | |
RVAHC13
07.19.25 | Sounds good so far, nice work! What kind of programs did you use for this? | shibole
07.19.25 | Thanks for taking the time to listen to this. The program for writing the core was Sibelius and the sounds are played using Note Performer. |
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