Building a Collection
The Top Twenty Symphonies You Should Have in Your Library
by Lee Denham
As part of MusicWeb International’s Thirtieth Anniversary Year, this is the first of a projected series of occasional articles over the next twelve months showcasing our extensive back-catalogue, all of which is available to view free of charge.
When compiling a top twenty list of anything there will always be controversies, especially so when the list concerned is one containing the top twenty essential symphonies where, undoubtedly, many people reading this will have some very strongly held views indeed regarding which ones should be included, as well as those which should definitely be left out. The latter point is tacitly acknowledged by the final ‘symphony’ on this list, which was included at the expense of other, perhaps more notable, works instead.
Probably the most ‘notable’ of these is the ‘Eroica’ – but then had that extraordinary work by Beethoven been selected, the argument for also including the same composer’s Seventh Symphony would have been overwhelming – and then, likewise, for the Pastoral and then the Eighth. Bruckner’s own colossal Eighth Symphony could also have occupied the final berth without raising too many eyebrows; similarly, any of the other symphonies by Brahms, in addition to the single one selected. Does any other symphony open with such an eruption of pure joy as Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, or with so much doom and gloom as Rachmaninov’s Second, either of which could/should have been included? Likewise, another five by Mozart would sit easily in this company in addition to his sole representation and, indeed, a further nineteen by Haydn to accompany the single one on this list; he was, after all, the ‘father of the modern symphony’. To be frank, the top 200 may not even be enough to do justice to the symphonic canon we are so privileged to enjoy today. With that in mind, the following is a purely subjective list which, although it is perhaps aimed at the ‘novice’ collector, will also, hopefully, contain most of the works more seasoned readers would have recommended, based on merit rather than any other more obscure and questionable agenda, although consideration has been given to geographical representation and a timeline from Mozart and Haydn to the present day.
To add fuel to this already blazing pyre of controversy, some ‘recommended recordings’ for each symphony are included. In selecting these, in each case, there is one ‘historical’ (i.e. Toscanini, Furtwangler etc.), one ‘classic’ (i.e. Karajan, Solti, Bernstein etc.), and another either ‘modern’ (i.e. Honeck, Dudamel etc.) or historically informed/on period instruments (i.e. Norrington, Harnoncourt, etc.). In addition – and where available – a DVD recommendation has been included, too. Most of these recordings will be familiar to the majority of MusicWeb International’s readers, but in case not, there are links to their reviews in the archives of this site where these are available; just click on the ‘review’ hyperlink to be taken to the appropriate place and if you wish to explore further, clicking the ‘Masterwork Index’ hyperlink after the introductory paragraphs will take you to an index listing all the reviews of that work by other orchestras and conductors in MusicWeb International’s archives. Thereafter, if something piques your interest, then by clicking on ‘PURCHASE’, you will also be able to buy the recording, from which MusicWeb International receives a small fee which helps keep the site up and running.
As always, any errors below are mine alone and if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to express them (politely) on this site’s Message Board.
To read Lee’s recommendations, download the whole article here as a pdf.
