Hello!

[kyjo]

Hello all! I'm new here, so please allow me to introduce myself. Some members here might know me from the lovely Art-Music Forum (please consider becoming a member there if you haven't already), but I see there are a good many members here who I do not know at all; I look forward to meeting them. Well, I am a passionate music lover-I am both an ardent CD collector (primarily of obscure repertoire) and an amateur pianist and cellist. I enjoy most music except for medieval/Renaissance and avant-garde music, but my musical interests lie primarily in the fields of late-romantic and tonal modern music. My top ten favorite composers are (in somewhat of an order) Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Grieg, Vaughan Williams, Scriabin, Ravel and Prokofiev (or Debussy, depending on what mood I'm in). Over the years I've encountered the music of many obscure composers that has stunned me and left me wondering why on earth it isn't better known. Such composers include Kurt Atterberg, Joly Braga Santos, Richard Arnell, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Erkki Melartin, Vagn Holmboe, Alberic Magnard, Alfredo Casella and Stanley Bate, to name some of my greatest discoveries. I'm sure being a member of this forum will be an enriching experience for me

[knight66]

Welcome, by the looks of it you will have quite a bit that you can share with us and find many here who share your enthusiasms. I hope you enjoy yourself.

Mike

[Mirror Image]

Welcome aboard! Great list of composers there. I look forward to reading your posts.

[mc ukrneal]

Welome and enjoy! You have listed some very interesting composers.

[The new erato]

Welcome! High time you made your way over here! 

[kyjo]

Many thanks for the warm welcomes everyone

[bhodges]

Hello, kyjo, and welcome from New York City. Great assortment of composers, including the lesser-known ones. (Many interesting voices aren't widely popular, as you have clearly discovered.) Have a good time here!

--Bruce

[kyjo]

Thank you as well, Brewski I don't know how I forgot to include that Bruckner is one of my favorite composers. He would probably rank right behind Shostakovich on my list. Some other little-known composers who have impressed me deeply are Nikolai Myaskovsky, Eduard Tubin and Kalevi Aho.

P.S. This forum is HUGE!

[pencils]

Welcome, indeed.

[bhodges]

I don't know how I forgot to include that Bruckner is one of my favorite composers. He would probably rank right behind Shostakovich on my list.

Bruckner and Shostakovich =  0:).  Some of the greatest musical experiences of my life have been with those two composers.

--Bruce

[Lisztianwagner]

Welcome to the forum, nice to meet you.
Great choices, many of the favourite composers you mentioned can easily be on my list too; I'm also glad to know you play the piano, I'm a pianist too. May I ask if you like Liszt as well?

Ilaria

[North Star]

Welcome!

Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Grieg, Vaughan Williams, Scriabin, Ravel and Prokofiev (or Debussy) ... Bruckner, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Eduard Tubin and Kalevi Aho.

That's a great list of names! No Janacek or Bartók, though

[kyjo]

Welcome!That's a great list of names! No Janacek or Bartók, though

Thank you! I do greatly admire Janacek and Bartok, though they are not on my top ten list. My top 20 list would include them, however:
11. Debussy
12. Bax
13. Dvorak
14. Elgar
15. Nielsen
16. Bartok
17. Copland
18. Janacek
19. Kodaly
20. Rimsky-Korsakov

Something like that! I have no definite list-it is difficult to compile one because I love so many composers, and many to the same degree

[Mirror Image]

It's like me and kyjo were separated at birth. We share MANY similarities with composers we adore.

[kyjo]

It's like me and kyjo were separated at birth.

I'm starting to think we were

[Mirror Image]

I'm starting to think we were

[kyjo]

Wait a second-I just noticed that we have the same Rachmaninov quote as our signature, John I've got to start checking my birth records ....

[kyjo]

Welcome to the forum, nice to meet you.
Great choices, many of the favourite composers you mentioned can easily be on my list too; I'm also glad to know you play the piano, I'm a pianist too. May I ask if you like Liszt as well?

Ilaria

I'm sorry for the belated reply to your post-somehow or another I passed it up Thanks for the welcome! I enjoy a lot of Liszt, but I find him rather uneven (though he was prolific!). The piano concertos, Totentanz, Sonata in B minor, Annees de pelerinage, Mephisto Waltz no. 1, Hungarian Rhapsodies 2 and 5, Les Preludes, and some of the shorter piano works I all hold in high regard. I find some of the symphonic poems and other orchestral works to be a little questionable in quality, but there's no denying they're great fun!

[Lisztianwagner]

I'm sorry for the belated reply to your post-somehow or another I passed it up Thanks for the welcome! I enjoy a lot of Liszt, but I find him rather uneven (though he was prolific!). The piano concertos, Totentanz, Sonata in B minor, Annees de pelerinage, Mephisto Waltz no. 1, Hungarian Rhapsodies 2 and 5, Les Preludes, and some of the shorter piano works I all hold in high regard. I find some of the symphonic poems and other orchestral works to be a little questionable in quality, but there's no denying they're great fun!

It's ok, no problem. I'm very pleased to know overall you like Liszt too, all his works you mentioned are stunning; about the Hungarian Rhapsodies, both the 2nd and the 5th were masterfully arranged for orchestra as well, but I suppose you meant the solo piano version before. Liszt was certainly at his best in the piano music, and in my opinion there's not a piano composer able to evoke images and strong emotions using all the expressive possibilities of the instrument in a better way than Liszt's, but I think his orchestral repertoire is very brilliant too.

[kyjo]

It's ok, no problem. I'm very pleased to know overall you like Liszt too, all his works you mentioned are stunning; about the Hungarian Rhapsodies, both the 2nd and the 5th were masterfully arranged for orchestra as well, but I suppose you meant the solo piano version before. Liszt was certainly at his best in the piano music, and in my opinion there's not a piano composer able to evoke images and strong emotions using all the expressive possibilities of the instrument in a better way than Liszt's, but I think his orchestral repertoire is very brilliant too.

I've heard the orchestral versions of those rhapsodies and I find them stunning as well! I guess I'll give his orchestral music another go-it's actually been quite a while since I've listened to the Faust and Dante symphonies, in particular. BTW, there's an orchestral version of the Sonata in B minor (arranged by composer Leo Weiner) that works surprisingly well! It's been recorded on a Cavi CD with Nicolas Pasquet conducting.