David Matthews 6

I like the music of both David and Colin Matthews (a concert highlight a couple of years ago was going to see Colin Matthews Alphabicycle Order). David Matthews may be too conservative for many tastes, but I believe he demonstrates that there is plenty of life in the symphony. I love this work especially for its brief, dramatic scherzo and the beautiful variations on the hymn tune Down Ampney in the third and concluding movement. 
I would have liked to post a youtube link, but I can only find the Dave Matthews band. 

Beethoven 7

I heard a little extract from this and I had to put on the CD with Haitink and the RPO. If I remember correctly Wagner called this symphon the apotheosis of the dance. It was a good choice to follow the Haydn. The language may have moved on, but this is another symphony which manages to be both happy and profound. Why is Beethoven often seen as so serious?

Haydn 22 "The Philosopher"

I had heard the Philosopher a couple of times a few months ago and decided to revisit it. I think it is my favourite of Haydn's early symphonies (not that I have heard them all, of course). The slow opening movement is delightful; the main theme wondering around aimlessly in a way that sounds very modern, rather than from a work of the mid 18th century. The livelier, following movements demonstrate how Haydn could be both delightful and profound. A happy work, by an apparently happy man. 

 

Beethoven 3 "Eroica"

I was wondering when I would get round to Beethoven. The BBC again kindly made the choice for me. Is this the greatest symphony ever written. It very probably is. This is a work I can never tire of - the slow movement as profound and moving as any music of any time. I must listen to this again. And again...

 

Schnittke 1

I decided it was time for another big symphony. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Leif Segerstam give a remarkable performance of this utterly remarkable and unique symphony. The mix of classical quotations, jazz improvisation and tuning up combined in Schnittke's post-modernism is a heady complex mix. That it works at all is amazing. That it both manages to comment on Soviet society and be absolutely enthralling makes it one of the most symphonies of the second half of the twentieth century. 

 

Carter 1

I heard Elliott Carter's First symphony at a concert in 1983. It was a 75th birthday concert for him and I knew he was going to be in the audience. I went assuming it might be the only opportunity to see him in the flesh. And I vividly remember him standing and applauding at the end; a small, neat man. As I write this over 27 years later Carter is still alive, but I haven't seen him since. Take these opportunities while you can.
I wasn't familiar with the symphony when I first heard it and I was shocked as the music started. It's an early work with more in common with Copland and Barber than the wonderful modernism of mature Carter. Elliott Carter can write memorable tunes and even be jazzy. Always good to have your preconceptions destroyed. 

 

Mozart 41 "Jupiter"

Thanks to the BBC I am really getting through these symphonies. I don't want to be too far ahead but 366 is going to take me well under a year at this rate. Still perhaps I need to build up a surplus of 15 before I take my holiday in May.
I have little to say about this symphony which was broadcast in a vintage and brilliant performance conducted by Georg Szell. Mozart wouldn't have been aware it was his last symphony, of course, but he produced a miraculous work; one of the greatest symphonies ever written and only a relatively few years after the symphony became "standardised" as a concert work. The fugue at the end remains simply breath-taking.