I think that of my 21 symphonies, each has its own place.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The symphonies are the things that, as a soloist, I've not gotten to play. I used to travel the world playing concertos, and then I would sit and listen to the symphony.
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.
Although, I am proud of all my Symphonies as they all have something special to say, my particular favourite is the Fifth. As the great Mahler expert Donald Mitchell said that if Mahler had written another Symphony, it would have been my Fifth!
All these tales of people sitting down and composing symphonies just as though they were writing a letter are very much exaggerated; at least, it isn't that way in my work.
A Beethoven symphony should be rehearsed like chamber music, only for a lot more people.
If some of our works are symphonies, then wrapped walkways was chamber music.
Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.
We can't afford big symphonies but we commission works that sound rich and symphonic because of the nature of the instrumentation and the people we work with.
I don't see myself necessarily having a burning desire to write a symphony.
I hear entire symphonies, oratorios, in my head, but I can't write a note.