Symphony cycles competition !

[teamsaint]

A little lighthearted challenge that I thought might be fun !

A point for each of the cycles listed of which you have heard every work live in the concert hall.

Shostakovich symphonies.

Mendelssohn symphonies

Prokofiev symphonies

Vaughan Williams symphonies

Rachmaninoff three symphonies and four piano concertos

Tchaikovsky six numbered symphonies plus Manfred

Bernstein symphonies

Sibelius symphonies

Nielsen Symphonies

Mahler symphonies including 10 in any form.

Bruckner 1 to 9

In the event of a tie, after a yet to be decided cut off date , points can be claimed for

Martinu Symphonies
Honegger symphonies
Bax Symphonies
Malcom Arnold symphonies ( clearly impossible though)
Roussel Symphonies.
Or anything else impressive!!


zero for me Mahler is my best effort think.

I reckon that Sibelius, Mahler and Rach are probably the most achievable given their popularity on schedules. RVW should pick up a few as well.

( The idea sparked at a DSCH 10 I was at tonight , and it occurred to me that not many people would have heard all 15 .)

There are no prizes

[smittims]

Is this a way of encouraging us to go to more concerts? I'm afraid it's a little late for me. It must be forty years since I last went to a symphony concert. I've heard both the Elgar symphonies conducted by Sir John Barbirolli but that's about it as far as complete series go. , I think.

Anyway it's not really a 'competition' is it? It doesn't depend on ability .

The only complete series I attended of any music was the Beethoven Sonatas played by Roger Woodward at the QEH around 1980, a memorable experience.

[teamsaint]

Is this a way of encouraging us to go to more concerts? I'm afraid it's a little late for me. It must be forty years since I last went to a symphony concert. I've heard both the Elgar symphonies conducted by Sir John Barbirolli but that's about it as far as complete series go. , I think.

Anyway it's not really a 'competition' is it? It doesn't depend on ability .

The only complete series I attended of any music was the Beethoven Sonatas played by Roger Woodward at the QEH around 1980, a memorable experience.

i just thought it might provide a little lighthearted food for thought.

[gradus]

A tough call, the only complete cycles for me would be Beethoven and Elgar.

[Petrushka]

A little lighthearted challenge that I thought might be fun !

A point for each of the cycles listed of which you have heard every work live in the concert hall.

Shostakovich symphonies.

Mendelssohn symphonies

Prokofiev symphonies

Vaughan Williams symphonies

Rachmaninoff three symphonies and four piano concertos

Tchaikovsky six numbered symphonies plus Manfred

Bernstein symphonies

Sibelius symphonies

Nielsen Symphonies

Mahler symphonies including 10 in any form.

Bruckner 1 to 9

In the event of a tie, after a yet to be decided cut off date , points can be claimed for

Martinu Symphonies
Honegger symphonies
Bax Symphonies
Malcom Arnold symphonies ( clearly impossible though)
Roussel Symphonies.
Or anything else impressive!!


zero for me Mahler is my best effort think.

I reckon that Sibelius, Mahler and Rach are probably the most achievable given their popularity on schedules. RVW should pick up a few as well.

( The idea sparked at a DSCH 10 I was at tonight , and it occurred to me that not many people would have heard all 15 .)

There are no prizes

I've heard all of the Mahler symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde in concert more than once over and for a bonus point heard all but the 8th by Bernard Haitink.

I've also heard all of the Sibelius symphonies (except Kullervo) in concert.

Shostakovich and Bruckner are my best efforts otherwise with 2 & 3 missing for DSCH and 1 & 2 for Bruckner.

I claim another bonus point for Elgar!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Never seen a symphony cycle other than The Ring which is , arguably, symphonic, and a genuine cycle whereas all 9 (typically );symphonies done by the same band and baton waver just strikes me as a marketing exercise.
Don’t think I’ll ever see the Ring again as I can’t face sitting through Das Rheingold.

[LMcD]

A tough call, the only complete cycles for me would be Beethoven and Elgar.

100% of Elgar's symphonies, or 66.66% if you include the ' Third', and 50% of Walton's. .

[Petrushka]

You'd think Beethoven would be the most straightforward one but I only just scrape in as I've heard the 2nd just the once (Norrington, 1989) and had to dig deep into the memory bank to recall that one! The rest, obviously, multiple times.

[Petrushka]

I think that Rachmaninov and Mendelssohn are more difficult to achieve than might first appear. When has the Rach 1st Symphony been programmed or the Mendelssohn 1 & 2? Prokofiev is similarly tricky.

[teamsaint]

I think that Rachmaninov and Mendelssohn are more difficult to achieve than might first appear. When has the Rach 1st Symphony been programmed or the Mendelssohn 1 & 2? Prokofiev is similarly tricky.

I have heard Rach 1 at the RFH in about 2017 , ( LPO/ Jurowski) but it doesn’t get programmed nearly often enough. Such a brilliant work.

( That’s why I put those two on the list as Rach PCs 1 and 4 don’t get programmed all that often, and also Mendelssohn 1 and 2.
I might usefully have added Schubert, but there are those pesky numbering issues )

[teamsaint]

I've heard all of the Mahler symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde in concert more than once over and for a bonus point heard all but the 8th by Bernard Haitink.

I've also heard all of the Sibelius symphonies (except Kullervo) in concert.

Shostakovich and Bruckner are my best efforts otherwise with 2 & 3 missing for DSCH and 1 & 2 for Bruckner.

I claim another bonus point for Elgar!

I was going to open a book, and your concert going allied with your extraordinary memory would have you comfortably odds on !!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Ah if you mean the complete symphonies done by various bands as some people seem to assume then :

in which case Beethoven more than once , Mahler , and Bruckner bar 1 and 2 , Elgar and Walton.,

[edashtav]

A tough call, the only complete cycles for me would be Beethoven and Elgar.

I have managed those two, also

plus
all of Brahms, Sibelius and Walton,

all of Bruckner bar #1
all of Honegger bar #1 and #5
all of Mozart’s “last’ 10
all of Dvorak from #6 to #9
All of RVW bar #7 and #9

[richardfinegold]

Zero for me. Mahler 10 has eluded me in the concert hall.
As an American RVW is near impossible to achieve, as he simply is never programmed here. Same with Arnold

[LHC]

I think I can claim 8 points.

I've seen all the Shostakovich symphonies in bits and pieces over the years.

Mendelssohn's symphonies when JEG recorded them all with LSO

Similarly Prokofiev's symphonies with the LSO and Gergiev and more recently Noseda

Rachmaninoff three symphonies and four piano concertos

Tchaikovsky six numbered symphonies plus Manfred

Sibelius symphonies, mainly with Colin Davis as he programmed these relatively frequently

Nielsen Symphonies, but only because Colin Davis discovered these towards the end of his career and played them with the LSO (the only time I've seen any of them).

Mahler symphonies including 10 in any form. I've seen all of these, several more than once. when I first discovered Mahler, I saw the first five in order (although this wasn't planned), 1 with Rattle, 2 with Abbado, 3 with Levine and 4 and 5 with Tennstedt.

I've also seen complete cycles of the Beethoven symphonies with Rattle and Haitink and all the Elgar symphonies.

I do see a lot of live music as I usually go to 2 or 3 concerts or operas every week. For example, last week I saw Hugh Cutting and the English Concert at the Wigmore Hall, Tosca at Covent Garden and Cinderella at ENO.

Edited to add I can also claim to have seen all the Brahms, Schuman and Szymanowski symphonies and a possible bonus for all the Mozart piano concertos directed from the keyboard by Mitsuko Uchida.