July 9, 2025 | Author: Dominic Nicholas | Category:Repertoire Guides
A Symphony Orchestra
Any attempt to pick a definitive list of the best ever symphonies is, let’s face it, doomed to failure. Debate is inevitably dominated by taste, with some people simply preferring the sound of Mozart to Mahler; Beethoven to Brahms; Schubert to Shostakovich.
So though making this list might be controversial, it is fun and not totally without merit—we might not have got it totally right, but all the works included are certainly brilliant.
We have also highlighted the best melodies from them, with links to our exclusive arrangements of these tunes, so you can experience and play these pieces yourself.
Haydn was so prolific in this form, writing 104 works during the course of his long life, that he has sometimes been labelled ‘The Father of the Symphony.’ Though there is much to be admired across his output, his best works were written towards the end of his life, particularly numbers 93–104, known as the ‘London’ Symphonies, largely written whilst he was in that city.
Amongst the most famous of these is his ‘Surprise’ symphony, so named because of its abrupt, and jump-inducing, fortissimo that appears after an innocent-sounding pianissimo melody in the second movement.
Though some have speculated that Haydn, who was known for his humour, did this to wake up the audience, he said that he wanted the ‘surprise’ to be that nobody had written something so novel and interesting before.
Like Haydn, Mozart was a prolific symphonist and may even have exceeded his friend’s output had he lived as long. His crowning works are his last three symphonies: 39, 40 and 41 (also known as the ‘Jupiter’).
Of these, the 40th, in G minor, with its exquisitely singing first movementreally is special; it feels ahead of its time, with a sense of melancholy that seems to foreshadow the psychological complexity of the Romantic era.
Choosing a favourite Beethoven Symphony is almost as difficult and controversial as choosing a symphony by any composer, so great are his nine works. For us, however, one really does stand out—his Symphony No.7, written in Tepliz, Bohemia from 1811–12.
The 'Allegretto’ second movementis particularly fine, it’s hypnotically beautiful opening melody building towards a stately climax. The frenetic last movementis about as exciting as symphonic music can get—small wonder that Wagner called the work ‘the apotheosis of the dance.’
Like Beethoven (and later Bruckner, Mahler, Dvorak and a quite a few others), Schubert wrote 9 symphonies. There are three candidates for his greatest work: Numbers 5, 8 and 9.
No. 5 (1816) is among his more classical works, with an utterly charming opening movementthat happens to work very nicely as a duet.
Symphony No. 8(begun 1822) is important for presaging many features of later Romantic music, but unfortunately the composer only completed two of its movements.
This leaves Symphony No.9, also known as ‘The Great C major’, a work that is just as noble as this title suggests. In blends the symphonic logic and disciple of Beethoven with a new and powerful emphasis on the melodic, most notable in the tremendous first movement.
Beethoven gets two entries on this list, to acknowledge his status as the greatest symphonist to have lived. Choosing amongst his remaining works, however, is not an easy task.
His Choral Symphony, No.9, perhaps, with its famous Ode to Joy?Or maybe his marvellous depiction of the countryside in his 'Pastoral' Symphony, No.6?
We’ve gone for his Symphony No.5—the ‘Da da da duuum’ first movementis just too iconic to ignore. And don’t forget also to check out our arrangement of the gorgeous slow movement,which makes a really lovely concert solo, and the thrilling last movement,which wouldn't sound out of place accompanying a swashbuckling Hollywood movie.
Mendelssohn wrote four symphonies, of which the last two, known as “The Scottish” and “The Italian” are the results of his soaking up of the local atmosphere during a European Tour.
Of the two, the Italian really is difficult to resist, the opening movementbursting over the listener with a great gush of melodic joy. It ends in similarly exhilarating fashion, with a frantically kinetic saltarello that you’d be hard-pressed to dance to.
As good as Dvorak’s other 8 symphonies are, choosing his symphonic best is easy. His Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’ was written whilst he was whilst Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City from 1892 to 1895.
Its title is an acknowledgement of the direct influence that the landscapes, people and music of America had on the work.
Though it does not quote any American folk music, it contains some of the most recognisable melodies in the repertoire: the call and repose theme of the first moment,the famous Largosecond movement, the driving dance rhythms of the third movement(which were possibly influenced by American dance music heard by the composer) and the furious final movementwith its doom-laden main theme.
Brahms’s four symphonies are all masterpieces. Each contains some great themes.
Amongst our favourites are the broad and noble last movementof Symphony No.1; the utterly charming Allegro Grazioso Allegro Grazioso third movementof Symphony No. 2; the hauntingly rocking tune of the third movementof Symphony no.3—so different from the scherzo sound world of Beethoven.
Of the symphonies as a whole, however, the fourth really is magnificent, a work in which Brahms looks all the way back to Bach—the stately fourth movement passacaglia uses a theme by the composer—for his inspiration. The first movement main theme,by contrast, has a brittle and haunting beauty; the second,introduced by horn, is more plaintive; the thirdhas, for the only time in a Brahms symphony, all the energy of a Beethoven scherzo, even though it is in 2, not 3.
Mahler’s 9 symphonies are a worlds apart from the compact classical works of Mozart and Haydn. It is not uncommon for a single movement from one these works to last as long as a whole symphony by either of his illustrious Austrian predecessors—to listen to a work by Mahler is to be absorbed into a complex world of shifting colours, lush late-Romantic harmony, tense psychological drama, and orchestration that ranges from the subtly small to the overpoweringly huge.
Perhaps his most well-known symphony is his fifth, if only because of its beautiful Adagietto,which was popularised by its later use in the soundtrack to the movie ‘Death in Venice’ (1971).
His Symphony No. 6, however, really is special. It is sometimes labeled ‘Tragic’, most likely because of the 3 hammer blows that represent fate in the half-hour-long (and utterly compelling) finale. It also has a beautiful slow movement,easily the equal of the more celebrated Adagietto from Symphony No.5.
