ABC Classic FM - The Classic 100 Symphony

If you've been listening to ABC Classic FM in the past week or so, you must know that ABC is doing a poll on which symphony is Australia's favourite. As with any 'top-100' surveys, there'll be bias in the final result. However, it's still interesting to see the result.

I'm very surprised to find out that Beethoven 9 did not take the title, and instead the other 9th symphony, by Dvorak that is, actually occupied the number one spot. IMHO, Dvorak 9 is NOT as interesting as his 7th or 8th symphonies. Sure, the 2nd movement is lovely, but I've always been more attracted to the opening of the last movement of the symphony. Anyway, as much as I love Dvorak 9, I don't think it's better than say Mozart's Jupiter (finishes at #12), Brahms' 4 (#20), or Beethoven 3 (#8) or 5 (#6). Call me a snob, I don't think Saint-Saens' Organ symphony should be at #4 too. Again, I love that symphony very much, but it's less sophisticated than any of Mahler's symphonies, dare I say.

I am more interested in the final ranking of a particular composer's symphonies. Let's start with Beethoven: almost all his symphonies made into the list, only the 1st missed out. The final finishing order is: 9, 6, 7, 5, 3, 8, 4 and 2. It's pretty accurate with popular myth: the odd numbered symphonies are better than the even ones (apart from the Pastorale). No one would agree with me but I enjoy the 4th and 8th symphonies better than Beethoven 7. And I think Beethoven 1 is good enough to squeeze in to top 100.

What about Mahler? There has been large number of discussions in ABC message boards regarding Mahler and opinions range from him creating random noise to the best masterpieces ever. Again, almost all of his completed symphonies (the 7 missed out) made it into the top 100, and the final order is: 2, 5, 1, 4, 8, 3, 9, 6, and Das Lied von der Erde. This for me is a controversy. Being a Mahlerian (or Mahlerite), I cannot take an order which lists the 1st and the 4th symphonies to be better than the 9th (!), 6th (!!) and Das Lied von der Erde (!!!). Having said that, I couldn't come up with any personal ranking of Mahler's symphonies. My way of classifying Mahler's symphonies are to categorise the symphonies as a Masterpiece, Great, or Good symphony. The Masterpieces are: (based on the order of composition) 2, 5, 6, Das Lied von Der Erde, and 9. The Greats are: 1, 3 (the last movement is a Masterpiece), 4 (the slow movement is a Masterpiece). Finally, the Goods are the rest: 7 and 8. I can sort of understand why people don't really like the pessimistic symphonies of Mahler: 6, DLvdE, and 9 just simply because of their pessimist nature. For me, these symphonies are the hardest for me to 'get', and it's easy to give up on listening to them after only one or two tries. Let me just say this: you're missing out on some of the most sublime music ever written if you gave up on this piece too soon.

Mozart? I'm always happy with a ranking that ranks the Jupiter higher than the 40th :). In the list, the final order is: 41, 40, 39, 38, 29, 25, 35 and 36. Fair ranking, although if I would to come up with the ranking based on those 8 symphonies, I would rank them in reverse order of their numbers.

I'm disappointed to see Brahms and Bruckner to be outside top 20. Another heart break is not to see Schumann's 2nd and 4th symphonies, and Kalinnikov's 1st symphony in the list.