Favorite Symphonies Quiz

Beethoven 9th Furtwangler
Sibelius 2nd
Alan Hovaness 22: symphony of light

Nice.  I'm having trouble w/ 1, so I'll just toss in Dmitri S. (I don't know that symphony at all, but I'm sure it's fine).  Took some shuffling (e.g., the obvious Gorecki 3 changed to 4, which if you haven't heard it ROCKS!), moving Mahler and Brahms etc.  Of course the best list would include Mahler in all positions except 8!

1. Shostakovich
2. Brahms
3. Mahler
4. Gorecki
5. Schubert
6. Haydn
7. Beethoven
8. Bruckner
9. Dvorak

jdane -- I dig your choices.  Love the Schubert Fifth.  I play some of those tunes on my fiddle.  It's better than whistling 'em!  The adagio in the Bruckner Eighth has some of the most powerful moments in all of music.  The Mahler Third is a vast wonderland.  Every choral group in the land should sing "Es sungen drei Engel" at least once each Christmas.

This is fun and a bit of a challenge.   I'm going with:
1. Brahms
2. Sibelius
3. Mahler
4. Shostakovich
5. Mendelssohn
6. Tchaikovski
7. Beethoven
8. Schubert
9. Bruckner

This arrangement permitted me to choose my favorite classical and post classical symphony composers, although it necessitated exclusion of Dvorak.  It permitted me to select my favorite symphonies of Brahms, Sibelius, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovski (Manfred is close to 6),  Beethoven, and Schubert. Selecting Shostakovich at 4 is a stretch, but the wonderful account by Mariss Jansons allows me to slot Shostakovich here.  If you haven't heard Janson's 4th, you haven't heard the 4th.  In truth,  Babi Yar would be my favorite, but you stopped at 9, so Dmitri had to go somewhere.  I'd probably call #9 Bruckner's best, so this isn't much of a stretch.  If I go HvK Bruckner, its #9, If I go Eugen Jochim, probably 6 or 8,   

@jdane: I too would have picked Mahler for all positions in the list if it were allowed. But you omit Mahler’s Eighth? The night in 2009 that I spent listening to the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus perform Mahler’s Eighth was one of the most memorable evenings I have ever spent at a concert.

https://youtu.be/MAjmM7lcb1c