Greatest Symphonies

selected by Piero Scaruffi

Back to the Essentials | Selected discography | Greatest compositions
  1. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral"
  2. Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major "The Great"
  3. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D major
  4. Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A major
  5. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor
  6. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor
  7. Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor "From The New World"
  8. Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
  9. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major
  10. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major "Jupiter"
  11. Elliott Carter: Symphony for Three Orchestras
  12. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor "Tragic"
  13. Cesar Franck: Symphony in D minor
  14. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major "Pastorale"
  15. Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor "Unfinished"
  16. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major
  17. Osvaldas Balakauskas: Ostrobothnian Symphony
  18. Alfred Schnittke: "Symphony No. 8"
  19. Charles Ives: Symphony No. 4
  20. Henryk Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"
  21. Olivier Messiaen: Et Exspecto Ressurectionem Mortuoram (1964)
  22. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Eroica"
  23. Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor
  24. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor
  25. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 102 in B flat major
  26. Serge Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major
  27. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor "Pathetique"
  28. Eduard Tubin: Symphony 8 (1966)
  29. Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major "Leningrad"
  30. Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major
  31. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major
  32. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C minor
  33. Gloria Coates: Symphony No. 14 "Symphony in Microtones" (2003)
  34. Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony 5
  35. Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
  36. Camille Saint Saens: Symphony No. 3 in C minor "Organ"
  37. Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major
  38. Franz Liszt: Faust Symphony
  39. Alexander Scriabin: Symphony No. 4 in C major "Poem of Ecstasy"
  40. Krysztof Penderecki: Symphony No.7 "Seven Gates of Jerusalem"
  41. Benjamin Britten: Requiem Symphony
  42. Serge Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D major "Classical"
  43. Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor "Stalingrad"
  44. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major
  45. Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor
  46. Witold Lutoslawski: Symphony 3
  47. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor
  48. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat major
  49. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor
  50. Alfred Schnittke: "Symphony No. 1" (1972)
  51. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major "Lyric"
  52. Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major "Italian"
  53. Oliver Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony
  54. Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor
  55. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major "Prague"
  56. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Unfinished"
  57. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 101 in D major "The Clock"
  58. Alexander Scriabin: Symphony No. 3 in C minor "Le Divin Poeme"
  59. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major "Haffner"
  60. Pierre Schaeffer: Symphonie Pour Un Homme Seul (1950)
  61. Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 in D minor
  62. Roger Sessions: Symphony 7 (1967)
  63. Serge Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3
  64. Kalevi Aho: Symphony No. 11 For Six Percussionists And Orchestra (1998)
  65. Per Norgard: Symphony 3
  66. Roberto Gerhard: Symphony 3 "Collages" (1960)
  67. Charles Ives: Symphony No. 3 "The Camp Meeting"
  68. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E flat major "Romantic"
  69. Witold Lutoslawski: Symphony 4
  70. Luciano Berio: Sinfonia
  71. Arthur Honegger: Symphony No. 3 "Symphonie liturgique"
  72. Igor Stravinsky: Symphony in C
  73. Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major
  74. Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major
  75. Alan Hovhaness: Symphony 2 - Mysterious Mountain (1955)
  76. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G major "Surprise"
  77. Vagn Holmboe: Symphony 8
  78. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor
  79. Anton Webern: Symphonie (1928)
  80. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor
  81. Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Rhenish"
  82. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor
  83. Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
  84. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 3 for soprano or tenor & orchestra "Pastoral"
  85. Alexander Borodin: Symphony No. 2 in B minor
  86. Leonard Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 "The Age of Anxiety"
  87. Benjamin Britten: Cello Symphony
  88. Michael Tippett: Symphony No. 4
  89. Vasilije Mokranjac: Symphony 5
  90. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor "Resurrection"
  91. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E flat major "Symphony Of A Thousand"
  92. Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor "Scottish"
  93. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E minor "Song of the Night"
  94. Bohuslav Martinu: Symphony No. 6 "Fantaisies symphoniques"
  95. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 in G major "London"
  96. Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major
  97. Paul Hindemith: Symphony for Concert Band
  98. Igor Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
  99. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major "London"
  100. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 36 in C major "Linzer"
  101. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 100 in G major "Military"
  102. Serge Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 in E flat minor
  103. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 103 in E flat major "Drum Roll"
  104. Eduard Tubin: Symphony 10
  105. Igor Stravinskij: Symphony of Psalms (1930)
  106. Karol Szymanowski (Poland, 1882): Symphony 4 (1932)
  107. Erich Korngold: Symphony in F# Major
  108. Henry Cowell: Symphony 11
  109. Roberto Gerhard: Symphony 4
  110. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in D major
  111. David Del Tredici: An Alice Symphony
  112. Hugues Dufourt: Symphony for percussion instruments, Erewhon (1976)
  113. Charles Wuorinen: Percussion Symphony
Random order:

Symphonic Poems and other Orchestral Works

  1. Michael Nyman: "Water Dances"
  2. Claude Debussy: "Prelude a l'Apres-midi d'un Faune"
  3. Karlheinz Stockhausen: "Gruppen"
  4. Joseph Haydn: "The Seven Last Words of Christ"
  5. Arvo Part: "Tabula Rasa"
  6. Penderecki: "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima"
  7. Gyorgy Ligeti: "Lontano"
  8. Richard Strauss: "Also Sprach Zarathustra"
  9. Toru Takemitsu: "A Flock Descends Into The Pentagonal Garden" (1977)
  10. Richard Strauss: "Death and Transfiguration"
  11. Olivier Messiaen: "Des Canyons aux Etoiles"
  12. Pierre Boulez: "Repons"
  13. Leos Janacek: "Sinfonietta"
  14. Modest Mussorgsky: "Night on the Bare Mountain"
  15. Olivier Messiaen: "Couleurs de la Cite' Celeste"
  16. Iannis Xenakis: "Metastasis"
  17. Gustav Holst: The Planets
  18. Kaija Saariaho: Du Cristal (1989)
  19. Bela Bartok: "Divertimento for String Orchestra"
  20. Charles Ives: "The Unanswered Question"
  21. Alexander Scriabin: "Prometheus"
  22. Leos Janacek: "Taras Bulba"
  23. Charles Ives: "Three Places in New England"
  24. Richard Strauss: "Don Juan"
  25. Claude Debussy: "Nocturnes"
  26. Jonathan Harvey: "Speakings" For Large Orchestra And Electronics
  27. Olivier Messiaen: "Chronochromie"
  28. Ferencz Liszt: "Totentanz"
  29. Berlioz: "Romeo et Juliette"
  30. Olivier Messiaen: "Sept Haikai"
  31. Claude Debussy: "La Mer"
  32. Roberto Gerhard: "Epithalamion"
  33. Charles Ives: "Three Places In New England"
  34. Olivier Messiaen: "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum"
  35. Luciano Berio: "Epifanie"
  36. Arnold Schoenberg: Variations for Orchestra
  37. Jean Sibelius: "Tapiola"
  38. Anton Webern: Variations for Orchestra
  39. Bruno Maderna: Quadrivium (1969)
  40. Toru Takemitsu: "From Me Flows What You Call Time" (1990)
  41. Olivier Messiaen: "Reveil des Oiseaux"
  42. John Adams: "Harmonienlehre"
  43. Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite #3 Overture
  44. Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite #2 Overture
  45. Franz Liszt: "Tasso"
  46. Franz Liszt: The Preludes
  47. Franz Liszt: "Mazeppa"
  48. Felix Mendelssohn: "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
  49. Felix Mendelssohn: "The Hebrides"
  50. Aaron Copland: "El Salon Mexico"
  51. Serge Prokofiev: "Peter & the Wolf "
  52. Camille Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre
  53. Alexander Borodin: "In the Steppes of Central Asia"
  54. Ottorino Respighi: "The Pines of Rome "
  55. Ludwig van Beethoven: "Coriolan" overture
  56. Ludwig van Beethoven: "Egmont" overture
  57. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: "1812 Overture"
  58. Robert Schumann: "Manfred" overture
  59. Hector Berlioz: "King Lear" overture
  60. Ottorino Respighi: "Fountains of Rome"
  61. Johann Strauss: "Die Fledermaus" overture
  62. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Marriage of Figaro" overture
  63. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Cosi fan tutte" overture
  64. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Don Giovanni" overture
  65. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Magic Flute" overture
  66. Gioacchino Rossini: "William Tell" overture

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