sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 1, 2008 7:56:33 GMT -8
I was listening to Shostakovich's First this morning and am truly impressed at the maturity level for a 17 year old. It is a Stravinsky Petrushkaesque style as well as mournful funeral piece in the third movement from the oboe/violin.
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Post by Yavar Moradi on Jan 2, 2008 13:38:23 GMT -8
I love love love Dvorak's First (listen to it maybe the most of all his symphonies) but I'm the only one I know who really likes it.
Yavar
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sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 2, 2008 21:00:59 GMT -8
I had a friend who owned a classical radio station in Tijuana for many years. He commented to me once that he could never get past Mahler's First, another great #1. I've never listened to Dvorak's First . I doubt if the library has it but i'll check it out for sure. tom
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Post by TJ on Jan 2, 2008 21:34:31 GMT -8
Yes Mahler's 1st is great. I actually performed (cymbals) it in concert.
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Post by Jockolantern on Jan 2, 2008 23:08:14 GMT -8
Samuel Barber's 'First Symphony' is among my top favorites amongst the genre as a whole... it's a brilliant one-movement work that manages to do everything a larger four-movement symphony can do... in half the time.
Plus, you've gotta' give Mozart props for his First Symphony. Sure, his dad helped him out a bit, but I can't even begin to imagine a contemporary eight-year old who could so well understand the fundamentals of symphonic writing at such an early, early stage of development. Truly incredible and it's a really lovely little symphony.
-Jockolantern
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sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 3, 2008 7:55:11 GMT -8
Some others that come to mind for me: Beethoven=not really excited much Brahms=excellent Prokofiev=perhaps his finest was his first?
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Post by Yavar Moradi on Jan 3, 2008 11:51:27 GMT -8
I had a friend who owned a classical radio station in Tijuana for many years. He commented to me once that he could never get past Mahler's First, another great #1. I've never listened to Dvorak's First . I doubt if the library has it but i'll check it out for sure. tom Best recording IMO is Witold Rowicki with the London Symphony Orchestra. Close second: Rafael Kubelik. Yavar
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jorgen
Scoring Assistant
Posts: 194
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Post by jorgen on Jan 4, 2008 13:45:10 GMT -8
Dvorak´s first was his first opus as well, so kudos to him. I also like Mahler´s first. The 4th movement of Brahm´s 1st. And, of course, Sibelius´1st
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sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 4, 2008 14:23:50 GMT -8
My friend made the argument with me last night that the Sibelius #1 was the best of the lot.
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Post by Yavar Moradi on Jan 4, 2008 19:31:06 GMT -8
I love Sibelius's 1st. I think it's better than his 2nd, which is his most popular. My absolute favorite Sibelius symphony is the 3rd, which is largely overlooked (the only less well-known less often performed symphony of his is the 6th). It has a powerful, epic first movement and the second movement brings me to tears. I think Sibelius's *best* however (or at least most shocking/original/powerful) is his 4th. For a long time I really didn't "get" it, didn't appreciate it much, kinda just tolerated it. But this past season at the L.A. Phil Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted it so well (and I suppose I was also more exprienced listening to modern music) in live performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall that I was completely blown away and everything about the symphony *clicked* with me. It was a shattering experience.
Yavar
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sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 4, 2008 21:03:20 GMT -8
I too very much enjoy his 4th. From what I read he was rather depressed at the time having had to give up cigars because of a throat tumor.
I started looking at some of the Dvorak Symphony sets and decided against it mainly because I have 2, 5, 7, 8, & 9. The Rowicki #1 is $14.99. The Gunzenhauser on Naxos is $3.99 from Berkshire. I'll keep looking.
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jorgen
Scoring Assistant
Posts: 194
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Post by jorgen on Jan 6, 2008 5:21:20 GMT -8
I have never warmed to Sibelius´4th. My order for Sibelius´ symphonies goes: 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 6th, 7th and 4th. I can´t remember Beethoven´s 1st, nor Mendelsohn´s, nor Saint-Saëns´, nor Rachmaninoff´s, nor Tchaikovsky´s... I have never listened to Mozart´s 1st as far as I remember. I think I loved Schumann´s 1st, but maybe I´m remembering his 3rd. Can´t remember Schubert´s either, nor Bruckner´s....but Berlioz´s "Symphonie Fantastique" is good (at least, the "dies irae" part). There are too many great works out there....
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sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 6, 2008 11:23:39 GMT -8
One that we have overlooked is Franck's Symphony in D Minor! Although not called his first, I believe it was the only symphony that he wrote and it is one that I have gone back to over and over again.
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sdtom
Conductor
Posts: 1,109
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Post by sdtom on Jan 16, 2008 20:08:48 GMT -8
Apparently his first is not his first opus at all! It was only discovered after his death in 1923 from a Prague scholar also named Dvorak but no relation. I too have enjoyed it for the Bruckner horns, the Mendelssohn like third movement and the tolling bells. Good job
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jorgen
Scoring Assistant
Posts: 194
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Post by jorgen on Jan 17, 2008 14:08:19 GMT -8
My mistake! (I´d swear that the CD compilation where I have his 1st symphony - Phillips - says that is his first opus. The back art could be wrong anyway).
By the way, other great 1st symphone (his only symphony, as well) is Bizet´s. And I think he wrote it when he was 17. Go figure.
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