Nine symphonies

The Los Angeles blogger CK Dexter Haven has devised an amusing game: pick your favorite numbered symphonies, one through nine. Brian Lauritzen has added his own entry, and there are sure to be others. I have decided to make the bold choice of omitting Beethoven — he gets enough publicity — and am offering this mildly eccentric list:

Nielsen, Symphony No. 1

Ives, Symphony No. 21

Lutosławski, Symphony No. 32

Brahms, Symphony No. 43

Ustvolskaya, Symphony No. 5

Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 6

Sibelius, Symphony No. 7

Schubert, Symphony No. 8

Mahler, Symphony No. 9

It's painful to leave out Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Martinů, and my beloved Eduard Tubin, among many others, but so the chips fall in one neck of the woods.

NOTES:

1. These first two could easily have been reversed. Also, I was sorely tempted to include Popov's astounding First.

2. An agonizing number, with the Eroica and all the great American Thirds. But the Lutosławski enchants me so deeply every time I hear it.

3. Another agonizing number, with Sibelius, Nielsen, and Shostakovich at their most intense. But the finale of the Brahms obliterates all.