It already is a HB thread ...

I certainly came to the more compact symphonies first; I think the first one I heard was No 10. The very early LP issues with amateur orchestras. And certainly, it did seem a bit baffling and unexpected, but I was interested enough to persevere. I don't think I heard the Gothic for a long while after.

Last I looked, about £100 per volume.

Easley Blackwood is a name to conjure with. I first came across him thanks to a terrible library LP (in a very enlightened - then - public library) with his 2nd symphony. It was completely scratched, but nevertheless, the power of the music caught my imagination. It took me decades to finally catch up with the piece on CD.

Closest to Miaskovsky, I would say. This is a dramatic piece with its heart on its sleeve. I found it really quite gripping.

Agreed - I wish they could come back into print again - maybe a 2nd edition, newly revised?

The point of this thread is hardly to do that. It's rather to consider how far it is possible for a good composer to decline to writing very poor music. If the 3rd were not such a masterpiece, the 13th would not be worth writing about.

PS I agree about Bernstein.

It surprises me that No. 5 is left out, given that this is a relatively modest and accessible piece.

This provokes a question: supposing you tried to compose the worst piece of music ever written? Could it actually be done? If, say, you took some manuscript paper and put down notes at random for 30 pages, can it you arrive at something worse than anything else? I suspect that (a) if you deliberately tried to compose something abysmal you would only succeed in creating a piece of conceptual art which might actually be regarded relatively favourably; and (b) the worst piece of music has to be something that was intended seriously.

George Tolhurst's Oratorio Ruth, anyone?

Are you sure that is the reason for the shift?

I don't remember who it was wrote that Nielsen's 5th represents the high point of Western civilisation, but I'm inclined to agree with the sentiment.

At least he won't bore you for very long!

I remember being at what I think was the first Irish performance of Webern's symphony; the reaction at the conclusion was not so much applause as a nervous giggle. This would have been 1970s I think.

robt007 is also a great channel. I just wish there was a way of browsing channels without constantly being returned to the latest page and having no way of getting directly to the earlier pages.

My Mother was convinced Walton had written a 3rd Symphony. It's possible to get such ideas into one's head ...

I never said he was, nor Lutoslawski, nor Xenakis.

Outside the definition of the symphony, I would say the three most influential pieces are all ballets: the Rite, the Miraculous Mandarin, and Petruschka. If you really want symphonic poems, then Apres-midi d'un Faun for certain. That leaves one slot free.