Last Updated on 26 December 2023

The following list is the Official Definitive List of the 145 best symphonies of all time.

I found 13 different ranked lists online of “best symphonies of all time” and pulled them all into Excel and merged them all to get this definitive compilation.  See my Methodology page for the research process that was used, including links to all 13 lists that were averaged.

  1. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 9 “Choral”
  2. Antonin Dvořák – Symphony No. 9 “From The New World”
  3. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
  4. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique”
  5. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5
  6. Hector Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
  7. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”
  8. Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 4
  9. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 40
  10. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5
  11. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
  12. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale”
  13. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 7
  14. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 5
  15. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 2
  16. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 9
  17. Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 1
  18. Camille Saint Saens – Symphony No. 3 “Organ”
  19. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 60 “Il distratto”
  20. Sergei Rachmaninov – Symphony No. 2
  21. Franz Schubert – Symphony No. 9 “The Great”
  22. Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 3
  23. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 10
  24. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 7
  25. Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8
  26. Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7 “Lyric”
  27. Franz Schubert – Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”
  28. Antonin Dvořák – Symphony No. 8
  29. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5
  30. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4
  31. William Grant Still – Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American”
  32. Felix Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4 “Italian”
  33. Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 2
  34. Florence Price – Symphony No. 1
  35. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 5
  36. Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony No. 5
  37. Louise Farrenc – Symphony No. 3
  38. Henryk Gorecki – Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”
  39. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 1 “Titan”
  40. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 38 “Prague”
  41. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 8
  42. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3
  43. Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”
  44. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 4
  45. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 104 “London”
  46. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 6 “Tragic”
  47. Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9
  48. César Franck – Symphony in D minor
  49. Antonin Dvořák – Symphony No. 7
  50. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 4
  51. Aaron Copland – Symphony No. 3
  52. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand”
  53. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 101 “The Clock”
  54. Alexander Borodin – Symphony No. 2
  55. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad”
  56. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 11
  57. Amy Beach – Gaelic Symphony
  58. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 100 “Military”
  59. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 25
  60. Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 5
  61. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 29
  62. Charles Ives – Symphony No. 4
  63. Franz Liszt – Faust Symphony
  64. Ralph Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 3 “Pastoral”
  65. Alan Hovhaness – Symphony No. 2 “Mysterious Mountain”
  66. Oliver Knussen – Symphony No. 3
  67. Carl Nielsen – Symphony No. 4 “Inextinguishable”
  68. William Walton – Symphony No. 1
  69. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 45 “Farewell”
  70. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 1
  71. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 102
  72. Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 2
  73. Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 6
  74. Witold Lutosławski – Symphony No. 3
  75. Edward Elgar – Symphony No. 2
  76. Anton Webern – Symphony Op. 21
  77. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 3
  78. Leoš Janáček – Sinfonietta
  79. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 39
  80. Johann Christian Bach – Symphony Op. 6 No. 6
  81. Elliott Carter – Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei
  82. Franz Liszt – Dante Symphony
  83. John Adams – Harmonielehre
  84. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 94 “Surprise”
  85. Nikolai Myaskovsky – Symphony No. 10
  86. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 31 “Paris”
  87. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 1 “Winter Daydreams”
  88. Igor Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms
  89. Paul Hindemith – Mathis der Maler
  90. Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony No. 1 “Classical”
  91. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 6
  92. Sergei Rachmaninov – Symphony No. 3
  93. Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish”
  94. Luciano Berio – Sinfonia
  95. Peter Maxwell Davies – Symphony No. 1
  96. George Enescu – Symphony No. 1
  97. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 6 “Morning”
  98. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 15
  99. Ralph Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 2 “London”
  100. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 103 “Drum Roll”
  101. Carl Nielsen – Symphony No. 5
  102. Ralph Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 5
  103. Felix Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”
  104. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 1
  105. Ralph Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 4
  106. Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 1 “Spring”
  107. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 92 “Oxford”
  108. Charles Ives – Symphony No. 3 “The Camp Meeting”
  109. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 35 “Haffner”
  110. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 1
  111. Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 4
  112. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 88
  113. Edward Elgar – Symphony No. 1
  114. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 7 “Song of the Night”
  115. Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 4
  116. Igor Stravinsky – Symphony in Three Movements
  117. Franz Schubert – Symphony No. 5
  118. Wolgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 36 “Linzer”
  119. Olivier Messiaen – Turangalila Symphony
  120. Hector Berlioz – Harold en Italie
  121. Georges Bizet – Symphony in C Major
  122. Carl Nielsen – Symphony No. 3 “Sinfonia Espansiva”
  123. Alexander Scriabin – Symphony No. 4 “Poem of Ecstasy”
  124. Charles Ives – Symphony No. 2
  125. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 2
  126. Ralph Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 6
  127. Arnold Schoenberg – Chamber Symphony No. 1
  128. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 8 “Stalingrad”
  129. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 99
  130. Antonin Dvořák – Symphony No. 6
  131. Felix Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 5 “Reformation”
  132. Igor Stravinsky – Symphony in C
  133. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 96 “Miracle”
  134. Roy Harris – Symphony No. 3
  135. Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 14
  136. Leonard Bernstein – Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”
  137. Ernest Chausson – Symphony in B-flat minor
  138. Bohuslav Martinů – Symphony No. 6 “Fantaisies symphoniques”
  139. Michael Tippett – Symphony No. 2
  140. Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony No. 3
  141. Arthur Honegger – Symphony No. 3 “Symphonie liturgique”
  142. Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 83 “Poule”
  143. Howard Hanson – Symphony No. 2 “Romantic”
  144. Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony No. 6
  145. Albert Roussel – Symphony No. 3

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