The world's shortest Symphonies

Some lesser known short modern symphonies:

Frederick Tillis Symphony In Three Movements (Nacirfa Nroh) – 15 minutes
Nicolas Bacri Symphony No. 4 – 13 minutes and No. 6 - 12 minutes
Ester Magi Symphony No. 1 - 13 minutes
Elsa Barraine Symphonie No. 2 – 16 minutes
Janis Ivanovs Symphony No. 1 "Poem" – 13 minutes
Ernest Pingoud Symphony No. 1 - 16 minutes
John Veale Symphony No. 1 - 14 minutes and No. 3 - 17 minutes
Don Gillis Symphony No. 10 – 13 minutes
Nicolai Rakov Symphony No. 3 – 11 minutes
Chary Nurymov Symphony No. 2 - 16 minutes
Eric DeLamarter Symphony No.1 - 16 minutes

Uh ... John McCabe wrote one ... its title? - "Six-minute Symphony"!



Also:

Luc Brewaeys - Symphony No. 3 - 10:20
Carl Vine - MicroSymphony (get it?) - 10:47
Daniel Pinkham - Symphony No. 4 - 11:45
Josef Tal - Symphony No. 2 - 12:08
Luc Brewaeys - Symphony No. 2 - 13:42
Daniel Pinkham - Symphony No. 3 - 13:53
Aulis Sallinen - Symphony No. 1 - 14:25
Paul Uyttebrouck - Sinfonia Belgica - 14:48

These are my 'under-15' crowd; symphonies 15 minutes and longer accelerate in quantity thereafter.

prlj said:

Or Klemperer!

Click to expand...

Klemperer’s deceleration or relaxed pacing is largely a characteristic of his later (stereo) years and seems a function of the inevitable slowing of mind and body with advancing age, exacerbated in his case by the cumulative weight of his medical setbacks, which critic Harold Schonberg described as "a Job-like succession of misfortunes [and] blows that would have demolished a weaker person." For example, his Beethoven Seventh grew from a conventional 36 minutes in a 1951 Concertgebouw concert to 37½ in 1955 with the RIAS, and then, with the Philharmonia, to 38½ in his 1955 mono recording, 41½ in a 1960 stereo version, 43 in a 1968 remake and 44½ in a 1970 BBC concert. Klemperer's 1951 Missa Solemnis is remarkably fast paced – its 72 minutes would not be matched until the emergence of historically-informed readings a generation later. His Bruckner Fourth from the same period is perhaps the fastest of record at 51 minutes. Klemperer’s early mono recording of Mahler’s Das Lied comes in under 51 minutes (vs. 64 in his 1964 studio recording).

Some further ones, lasting 15 minutes or less:

Abrahamsen 1st Symphony (14)
Ades Chamber Symphony (15)
Andriessen 1st Symphony (13)
Copland Short Symphony (15-16)
Denisov 2nd Symphony (15)
Hovhaness 7th Symphony, for winds (14)
Hovhaness 14th Symphony, for winds (14)
Ibert Symphonie Marine (14-15)
Haydn Symphonies 1 (14), 2 (10), 9 (13), 14 (15), 16 (12), 17 (15), 18 (14), 19 (11), 20 (15), 25 (14), 26 (14), 27 (14), 30 (14), 37 (14) (=Fischer timings)
Hovhaness 53rd Symphony, for winds (14)
Klenau 5th Symphony (12)
Knussen 3rd Symphony (15)
Lokshin 5th Symphony (15)
Mendelssohn Symphonies for Strings nos.1-6, 10
Mozart Symphonies 1-5, 7-11,16, 22-24, 26, 32, 42-> (=Pinnock timings)
Pärt 2nd Symphony (11)
Silvestrov 1st Symphony (15-17)