Top 10 favourite VS. top 10 greatest composers

[Guido]

Favourites:

Ives
Barber
Finzi
Strauss (R, obviously)
Janacek
Goldschmidt
Schoeck
Crawford Seeger
Bridge
Feldman

This looks very strange I admit, but it's probably honest. I'd be happy to take these to a desert island. Though Bartok, Stravinsky, Walton, Part, Dvorak, Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Dutilleux and many many others floating very close to the perimeter... Seems criminal not to fit Bach in somewhere as a favourite. Maybe he'd replace Feldman.

[Mirror Image]

Favourites:

Ives
Barber
Finzi
Strauss (R, obviously)
Janacek
Goldschmidt
Schoeck
Crawford Seeger
Bridge
Feldman

What, in your opinion, is so compelling about Goldschmidt's music? I haven't heard any of Schoeck's music. Do you have any recommendations?

[Guido]

Schoeck: listen to Elegie for baritone and chamber orchestra (the CSO disc) as a starter. Penthesilea and Lebendig Begraben are also both astonishing. He's one of the most subtle and ingenius orchestrators there's ever been, a master of economy in every way: his orchestration makes his pieces speak, the tiny fragments and gestures that he weaves into the larger songs and structures, sometimes a single chord seems to say as much as a whole movement of his viennese, late romantic compatriots. And the music is really of the highest quality - in Elegie, endless shadings, colourings of a single feeling, one of the most extraordinary works I know.

Goldschmidt: listen to the first opera, Der Gewaltige Hahnrei, or the disc of concertos - the cello concerto with Yo-Yo Ma is a disc I adore (there's another recording of the piece which is nowhere near as successful). And the second string quartet is a true masterpiece. More generally, I adore the neoclassical cleanness, flavoured with Berlin 1920s energy, combined with the not so secret romantic heart, the extraordinary moments of lushness in a generally reserved (though not cool) tonal landscape. His music of course went through that extraordinary renaissance in the 80s/90s, and touchingly, he was still alive to witness it, but it hasn't stayed in the repertoire, probably because it doesn't appeal to enough people.

[Mirror Image]

Schoeck: listen to Elegie for baritone and chamber orchestra (the CSO disc) as a starter. Penthesilea and Lebendig Begraben are also both astonishing. He's one of the most subtle and ingenius orchestrators there's ever been, a master of economy in every way: his orchestration makes his pieces speak, the tiny fragments and gestures that he weaves into the larger songs and structures, sometimes a single chord seems to say as much as a whole movement of his viennese, late romantic compatriots. And the music is really of the highest quality - in Elegie, endless shadings, colourings of a single feeling, one of the most extraordinary works I know.

Goldschmidt: listen to the first opera, Der Gewaltige Hahnrei, or the disc of concertos - the cello concerto with Yo-Yo Ma is a disc I adore (there's another recording of the piece which is nowhere near as successful). And the second string quartet is a true masterpiece. More generally, I adore the neoclassical cleanness, flavoured with Berlin 1920s energy, combined with the not so secret romantic heart, the extraordinary moments of lushness in a generally reserved (though not cool) tonal landscape. His music of course went through that extraordinary renaissance in the 80s/90s, and touchingly, he was still alive to witness it, but it hasn't stayed in the repertoire, probably because it doesn't appeal to enough people.

Alright, thanks for your recommendations and for telling me why you like Goldschmidt so much.

[jlaurson]

Schoeck: listen to Elegie for baritone and chamber orchestra (the CSO disc) as a starter.

After Elegie, if you like the edge between tonal and atonal, get cracking on Notturno, perhaps.

Sound-samples sadly defunct... http://www.weta.org/oldfmblog/?p=3151


Lebendig Begraben, 6-10 DFD,
http://youtu.be/YJ-ipTsVKBI

[Lethevich]

Rachmaninov - Bortkiewicz or Rozycki

Hmm, intriguing - I've only heard a quartet by him (coupled with Szymanowski on Hyperion).

[thalbergmad]

Hmm, intriguing - I've only heard a quartet by him (coupled with Szymanowski on Hyperion).

The Piano Concerto (albeit an old recording) has now been released by Acte Prealable. Even though the recording is far from perfect, the music is anything but and it is almost crying out for another recording.

Thal

[Lisztianwagner]

Very interesting question 

10 Greatest: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Čajkovskij, Mahler, Debussy, Schönberg.

10 Favourites: Wagner, Beethoven, Liszt, Mozart, J.Strauss, Mahler, Rachmaninov, R.Strauss, Čajkovskij, Shostakovich.

I really wanted to include other composers as my favourites as well, I may not write just ten of them; I'll also add: Bruckner, Brahms, Sibelius, Holst and Chopin.

Ilaria

[Mirror Image]

Very interesting question 

10 Greatest: Čajkovskij

Ilaria

I never heard a note by this composer. What, in your opinion, makes this composer one of the greatest of all-time?

[Mirror Image]

10 favorites some from my original list have been replaced. In no particular order:

Ravel
Bartok
Vaughan Williams
Koechlin
Villa-Lobos
Berg
Sibelius
Debussy
Stravinsky
Shostakovich

[North Star]

I never heard a note by this composer. What, in your opinion, makes this composer one of the greatest of all-time?

Never heard of Pjotr Iljits Tchaikovsky? 

[Mirror Image]

Never heard of Pjotr Iljits Tchaikovsky? 

That name is Tchaikovsky? I had no idea. Of course I've heard, and love, Tchaikovsky.

[eyeresist]

Never heard of Pjotr Iljits Tchaikovsky? 

Obviously just confused by variant spelling. My first Prokofiev CD was credited to "Prokofjew", which was rather confusing.

[North Star]

Obviously just confused by variant spelling. My first Prokofiev CD was credited to "Prokofjew", which was rather confusing.

Well I didn't really think otherwise


Would Prokofjeff be better for you?

[Hattoff]

The greatest are taken as read.

My present choices
Purcell
Handel; I've only begun to appreciate how good he is recently.
Beethoven
Rossini
Elgar
Holst
Sibelius
Havergal Brian
Stravinsky
Prokofiev

When I was twenty years old it would have been a little different.
Bach
Wagner
Tchaikovsky
Rachmaninov
Mahler
Elgar
Holst
Prokofiev
Poulenc
Shostakovich

All pretty conventional really! Well, for this messageboard anyway

[jlaurson]

Obviously just confused by variant spelling. My first Prokofiev CD was credited to "Prokofjew", which was rather confusing.

It's a favorite spelling in, among others, German musicologist circles. Something to make them feel like they have one up on the great unwashed that go with the (various) traditional, perfectly suitable transliterations. Quite annoying, if you ask me... and going well beyond far smaller adjustments, like the move away from Rachmaninov (in English) to Rachmaninoff.

[mszczuj]

Greatest: Beethoven,  Bach,  Mozart,  Haydn, Haendel, Chopin, Ockeghem, Josquin, Wagner, Richard Strauss

Favorites: Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Bartok,  Bruckner, Ockeghem, Haendel.

[eyeresist]

It's a favorite spelling in, among others, German musicologist circles. Something to make them feel like they have one up on the great unwashed that go with the (various) traditional, perfectly suitable transliterations. Quite annoying, if you ask me... and going well beyond far smaller adjustments, like the move away from Rachmaninov (in English) to Rachmaninoff.

Well, I just thought it weird that he had "jew" as part of his name.   Never seen that before. 

Obviously this was years before I discovered that j can sound like y or i, and w can be v or f.

[Lisztianwagner]

I never heard a note by this composer. What, in your opinion, makes this composer one of the greatest of all-time?

Tchaicovsky is not the only way you can write the surname of the great Pyotr Ilyich.
Čajkovskij would be the correct transliteration from Russian, like Šostakovič for Shostakovich.

Ilaria

[Sergeant Rock]

Tchaicovsky is not the only way you can write the surname of the great Pyotr Ilyich.
Čajkovskij would be the correct transliteration from Russian, like Šostakovič for Shostakovich.

Ilaria

Correct or not (and transliteration is always debatable) if you try to search for Tchaikovsky by using Čajkovskij on any Amazon site (I tried DE, IT, FR, UK and US), you won't get any hits. If you use it here, on GMG, you'll confuse many of us, not just MI. Correct or not, Tchaikovsky has become the standard spelling in the English speaking world.

Sarge