Czech Composers vs. Each Other

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Kdo je váš oblibený český skladatel?

Time for another dumb poll pitting composers against each other. Supraphon's website just had a similar poll, so I thought it would be fun to do the same thing here, for fans of this small country's amazing musical legacy.

[springrite]

Janacek followed by Martinu and Suk for me.

[mc ukrneal]

Kdo je váš oblibený český skladatel?

Time for another dumb poll pitting composers against each other. Supraphon's website just had a similar poll, so I thought it would be fun to do the same thing here, for fans of this small country's amazing musical legacy.

I don't think I could live without Dvorak. He has pretty much every genre covered well. Some of the others on the list are quite good and deserve more publicity, but Dvorak is just so strong.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

FYI, the Supraphon poll (you can go vote at www.supraphon.com) is currently showing Dvorak out in front; Martinu slightly behind him in 2nd place; Janacek slightly behind Martinu; and Smetana trailing way behind the other guys in 4th place. (they didn't include anyone else)

[DavidW]

I can't vote on the Supraphon, and I've tried three different browsers.  Dvorak must win!

I liked how they said which do you listen to the most often?  Not who is greatest, favorite etc etc  So I'll interpret this poll the same way:

Dvorak = Martinu > (Janacek = Smetana) in terms of my listening habits.

[Brian]

Much as I love Janacek and his Glagolitic Mass, Dvorak is my musical soulmate and always has been. Dvorak's quintets opp. 77 and 81, and Symphony No 8, are about as close as you can get to my worldview and personality expressed in musical notation.

[DavidW]

Much as I love Janacek and his Glagolitic Mass, Dvorak is my musical soulmate and always has been. Dvorak's quintets opp. 77 and 81, and Symphony No 8, are about as close as you can get to my worldview and personality expressed in musical notation.

I always thought you were a rhapsody in blue kind of personality!

[Luke]

Do I even need to say....?

[DavidW]

I only have one Janacek cd so maybe I should make this a Janacek and Ravel day.

[Scarpia]

Martinu, second place would go to Janacek.  None of the others appear in my CD player with any regularity.

[bhodges]

Janáček for me, with Dvořák and Martinů not far behind.  Works by all three are among my all-time favorites; I only chose Janáček because my list of faves by him is slightly longer.

--Bruce

[Luke]

I only have one Janacek cd so maybe I should make this a Janacek and Ravel day.

David, David, David.... tut, tut, tut! Please let it be the string quartets that you have - how anyone can live without them is beyond me  0:)

But a Janacek and Ravel day sounds like heaven - when I get a free spell to do some listening I might follow suit.

[karlhenning]

But a Janacek and Ravel day sounds like heaven

Mm, mm, good!

[Scarpia]

David, David, David.... tut, tut, tut! Please let it be the string quartets that you have - how anyone can live without them is beyond me  0:)

But a Janacek and Ravel day sounds like heaven - when I get a free spell to do some listening I might follow suit.

Hmmm, better add Janacek, Ravel didn't write enough music to last a whole day, did he? Two hours of piano music, two hours of chamber music, three hours of orchestral music (cheating, most of it transcriptions of piano music).  But there are some songs, that might tide you over until lunch.   

[DavidW]

Yes Luke it is the string quartets that I have, specifically this recording:

[karlhenning]

Yes, Davey! The "shrimps"! : )

[DavidW]

Hmmm, better add Janacek, Ravel didn't write enough music to last a whole day, did he? Two hours of piano music, two hours of chamber music, three hours of orchestral music (cheating, most of it transcriptions of piano music).  But there are some songs, that might tide you over until lunch.   

Which would you rather listen to?  One day of the complete works of Ravel and Webern or one month of the complete works of Telemann?  Quality > Quantity.

[Luke]

Phew!    And that's a great recording of them, too, more fully alive to the folk music aspect of the scores than most. The members of the quartet are accomplished players of Czech folk music too - and there's a simply lovely disc of them in a string quartet arrangement of J's piano accompaniments to Moravian folksongs, sung here by Iva Bittova - it's perfectly poised between the various stools between which it complicatedly falls....the quartet even sing along with Bittova at points; a winner, that disc is. I ramble...

If you ever get the chance to hear the Smetana Quartet in these two quartets, grab it (my own personal choice, it goes without saying)

[Brian]

Ravel didn't write enough music to last a whole day, did he? Two hours of piano music, two hours of chamber music, three hours of orchestral music (cheating, most of it transcriptions of piano music).  But there are some songs, that might tide you over until lunch.   

The purely orchestral works/ballets probably take up 3 CDs, plus the two operas, piano concertos - about 320 minutes there, plus the piano and chamber music, that's 9 hours sans songs and obscurities. Which is why it's so baffling that I'm having to wait so long for a Brilliant Classics Complete Ravel Edition.

[karlhenning]

... three hours of orchestral music (cheating, most of it transcriptions of piano music.

Scarps, that's not cheating; the orchestrations are value added, without nullifying the piano originals.