Symphony Cycle

I just remembered an idea I heard about ages ago but thought I would give it a go again. The rules are simple, you have to make the best 9-symphony cycle you can by choosing the best symphony for each number. You're not allowed to choose a composer more than once so you may have to sacrifice your favourite by one composer to fit them in somewhere else. Here's my offering.

1 - Mahler
2 - Rachmaninov
3 - Saint-Saens
4 - Brahms
5 - Sibelius
6 - Haydn
7 - Beethoven
8 - Schubert
9 - Dvorak

There were tough choices here for every position. Mahler's 1st is one of my favourite pieces and the first spot is rarely the highlight of any composers work but Prokofiev and Walton and would give it a run for its money and Elgar is worth a mention. Vaughan-Williams "London" Symphony was a contender at no.2 while at no.3 Bernstein's "Kaddish" is worth a mention. The fourth and fifth were both hotly contested with Nielson and Schubert both contenders at no.4 and Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky only just missing out at 5. The biggest conundrum however was at 6 and 7 which are my favourite Beethoven symphonies, with number 7 edging that. So it was really a case of what would fill the other spot best and the choice here was between Haydn's "matin" and Shostakovoch's "Leningrad". With so little to choose here I decided to choose my favourite Beethoven leaving Haydn to fill the number 6 spot. Finally at 8 and 9 I went for Schubert and Dvorak. Dvorak 8 is also worth a mention but the Schubert is such a perfect piece it couldn't really contend and Dvorak 9 is better. Of course Mahler and Beethoven both deserve mentions here too.

So in the end a pretty good list, with a huge amount of choice but some obvious winners in every spot. The big losers are Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky who were contending for a few spots each. Mozart suffers from the quality of his early symphonies but if there was a prize for a no.41 then he would win. Other fantastic pieces missed out due to not being numbered, such as Stravinsky and Bizet's Symphonies in C, with the latter being a particular favourite of mine.