Thread: Top 100 Symphonies - predict the results

OK, so Australia’s ABC-FM radio station is continuing its series of ‘Top-100’ listener polls. They started this back in 2002 with a “Classic Top 100”, being a listener survey of the piece of classical music you ‘couldn’t live without’. That poll was topped by Mozart’s Clarinet concerto, followed by VW’s Lark Ascending, then Beethoven’s 9th. In subsequent years, they’ve done a top 100 Piano, 100 Opera moments, 100 Concerto, 100 Chamber music etc.
Anyway, this year they’re doing a Top 100 symphony. The voting closed yesterday, and they allowed you three (equally weighted) votes. Some time in September they’ll spend a weekend playing the whole list, countdown style, with bits of the top 10 broadcast live in concert by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

So, the exercise in this thread is to predict what you think the Top 10 will be, in sequence. (NOT your personal favourites, but what you think the masses will vote for). Previous survey results are here: www.abc.net.au/classic/classic100/previous.htm if you want to get a flavour for the peculiarities of ABC-FM listeners!

Here’s my countdown for how I think the voting will go:
10. Schubert 8
9. Beethoven 7
8. Saint-Saens 3
7. Beethoven 3
6. Tchaikovsky 5
5. Beethoven 6
4. Mozart 40
3. Beethoven 9
2. Dvorak 9
1. Beethoven 5

What’s yours?
cheers,
Graeme

I think Beethoven's 9th will likely rank higher than the 5th, as there are two movements all the stations' "classical listeners" are familiar with in the 9th compared to 1 in the 5th. Expect Dvorak's 9th and Beethoven's 6th to fight for the top spot too.

My station, which I never listen to, had a similar countdown too and this is how the list went:

10 Schubert 9
9 Mendelssohn 4
8 Beethoven 3
7 Rachmaninoff 2
6 Mozart 41
5 Beethoven 5
4 Dvorak 9
3 Beethoven 7
2 Beethoven 6
1 Beethoven 9

Oh, and this was extracted from the KDFC Classical All-Stars 2009 (what a great name) in which Pachelbel Canon ranked 11th. Yes, 11th.

Originally Posted by airad2

Oh, and this was extracted from the KDFC Classical All-Stars 2009 (what a great name) in which Pachelbel Canon ranked 11th. Yes, 11th.

Oy vey....

At least in the original Australian Top 100, the Pachelbel only came in at 30-something! In that original list, there were exactly 10 symphonies in the 100 pieces. With their position no., they were:
3: Beethoven 9
6: Beethoven 6
40: Beethoven 3
42: Beethoven 5
43: Mahler 5
45: Saint-Saëns 3
52: Dvorak 9
62: Mahler 2
76: Mahler 8
80: Beethoven 7

There's no guarantee that the order will be like that in this new survey. Interestingly, despite the Mozat clarinet concerto winning the overall Top 100, when they ran a separate 100 Concertos in 2006 it was beaten by a number of others (Emperor & Rach 2 coming in first & second).

At least in favour of Australian listeners is that the Top 100 Chamber music failed to place Eine Kleine Nachtmusic anywhere!
cheers,
Graeme

Odd that Mozart 40 gets in there - I by far prefer 39 and 41

Isn't Brahms 4 a famous one? Or is it considered too serious? Brahms should have given it a name might have become more famous. Called it 'The Tragic' or something.

Tchaikovsky 6 I would assume would be near the top 10, seems famous enough. Having a name helps it.

Not sure how famous the Berlioz Fantastique symphony is....but I would guess it would top 20 at least.

I agree Schubert 8th would probably be included, more famous than the 9th.

Mahler / Rachmaninov I think are so famous due to fashionability more than anything. I mean...3 Mahler symphonies in the top 10?!

Probably Mozart's Jupiter over the 40th? Last pieces are often made famous, the name helps too. But the music in the 40th might be more famous.

Haydn's last symphony known as the 'London' might be quite high in a list of famous symphonies. Maybe the 'Surprise' might be quite famous too?

I would be highly skeptical of this list. It's interesting to see how the public's opinion will affect what makes the cut, but if it's a serious attempt to classify the greatest symphonies, it will fall flat on its face. (We all know that's an impossible task, anyway!)

Saint-Saens no. 3? Come on.

But I guess this sort of exercise is more for fun than anything, and what's wrong with a little fun every now ang again?

Originally Posted by Tapkaara

I would be highly skeptical of this list. It's interesting to see how the public's opinion will affect what makes the cut, but if it's a serious attempt to classify the greatest symphonies, it will fall flat on its face. (We all know that's an impossible task, anyway!)

No, it's not a serious attempt at anything, it is just a listener survey of "your three favourite symphonies", of no more value than that. There are no attempts to rank anything other than by number of votes cast, no rules about 'best' or 'most famous' or anything like that.
And you can't vote for the same symphony three times, either - I tried! Even given that it's a listener-only poll, I wouldn't be surprised to see Gorecki's 3rd somewhere in the top 20 either. Anyway, my first post was just what I think will fill the top 10, as the public will vote.
It was interesting to see how little my (predicted) list differed from the actual one that the Californian radio station came up with using an obviously similar approach. In that one I was surprised to see Rachmaninov 2 & Mendelssohn 4 ahead of anything by Tchaikovsky. You live and learn...

Anyway, you've all got a couple of months to work out what you think it will be...
cheers,
Graeme

I wouldn't even want to try to predict what will make this list. No doubt, there would be one or two wacky entries that I would never have predicted in a million years. Something like the 3rd Symphony of Saint-Saens, for example.

Either Beethoven's 5th or 9th will make number one, and both will certainly be on the list.

Originally Posted by Tapkaara

I wouldn't even want to try to predict what will make this list. No doubt, there would be one or two wacky entries that I would never have predicted in a million years. Something like the 3rd Symphony of Saint-Saens, for example.

Either Beethoven's 5th or 9th will make number one, and both will certainly be on the list.

Saint-Saens 3rd Symphony came in as the third favourite symphony in this year's "Classic FM" poll. CFM is the UK's nationwide very popular classical music station, and its annual poll of listeners' favourites appears to be conducted along similar lines to the Australian radio poll, except that it covers all classical music works. I agree that it's a ridiculous result but that's what tends to happen (ie distorted results) when you get radio stations playing only parts of symphonies, as happens quite a lot of the time on CFM. I hasten to add that I never listen to CFM, although I have to admit that it's not a bad place to go for anyone new to classical music and if all they want is a crash course in what's what.

Originally Posted by Toccata

Saint-Saens 3rd Symphony came in as the third favourite symphony in this year's "Classic FM" poll. CFM is the UK's nationwide very popular classical music station, and its annual poll of listeners' favourites appears to be conducted along similar lines to the Australian radio poll, except that it covers all classical music works. I agree that it's a ridiculous result but that's what tends to happen (ie distorted results) when you get radio stations playing only parts of symphonies, as happens quite a lot of the time on CFM. I hasten to add that I never listen to CFM, although I have to admit that it's not a bad place to go for anyone new to classical music and if all they want is a crash course in what's what.

Although I do not live in the UK, I am aware of Classic FM and their penchant for playing snippets from works instead on whole works. This an effort to cater to the "grab and go" culture we now live in, and no doubt, a great deal of those who listen to Classic FM do so at work to "smooth out their day," because, after all, classical music is nothing more than relaxation music.

So, with this types of polls, one must consider who is contributing to them. (Many think they are voting for their favorite classical "song!") Thus the results that leave us scratching our heads.

We have station like this in San Diego, unfortunately. So, I do most of my classical radio listening online, most KUSC in Los Angeles. If only San Diego could have a station as good as this.

This is probably of some interest for people just getting acquainted with classical, but I'm over it. I mean, we've all listened to Beethoven's 5th about a million times...

Originally Posted by Andre

This is probably of some interest for people just getting acquainted with classical, but I'm over it. I mean, we've all listened to Beethoven's 5th about a million times...

Thankfully I haven't, because I'm not big into composers that other people always talk about. How many times are we even going to hear about Beethoven. I'm tired of hearing about him, so you won't hear me hardly ever talking about him except in this post.

Well I don't mind Beethoven's Eroica but I can't stand the 5th & I'm not heavily into the others either...I enjoy Haydn's symphonies more for some reason...As for Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony, I thought it was fabulous when I was a teenager (it was one of the first works I saw performed live), but now I think that it is very dull...

& i think that Dvorak's 9th is not his best, I like the 8th much better...

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of the standard symphonic repertoire, as you can see. Give me Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony any day instead of those listed above...

Well, I can take some standard repertory with my more "off the beaten path" composers...why not have the best of both worlds? But I will admit, much of the standard rep is of less interest to me than other music.

Having ssaid that, I love Beethoven and I love his 5th...I don't care how cliche it is!