Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Karl Henning]

Only one change since then:

Beethoven
Brahms
Shostakovich
Dvorak
Nielsen
Sibelius
Martinu
Prokofiev
R. Strauss
Vaughan Williams

I approve of the swap.

[Brahmsian]

Mine updated:

Richard Wagner
Gustav Mahler
Franz Liszt
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sergei Rachmaninov
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Richard Strauss
Gustav Holst
Maurice Ravel
Arnold Schönberg

A very nice list, Ilaria! I am surprised not to see one of the Waltz Strausses on here? 

[Brahmsian]

Currently:

1-a Shostakovich
1-b Dvořák
1-c Bruckner

4 - Tchaikovsky
5 - Sibelius
6 - Penderecki
7 - Taneyev
8 - Schumann
9 - Franck
10 - Prokofiev

Well, it hasn't been a long time since my last "list", but I don't think I would change anything here.

[Lisztianwagner]

A very nice list, Ilaria! I am surprised not to see one of the Waltz Strausses on here? 

Eh, that's why it's so painful to do ranking lists! Schönberg has surpassed Johann Strauss in my preferences, but I still greatly love the Waltz King.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Eh, that's why it's so painful to do ranking lists! Schönberg has surpassed Johann Strauss in my preferences, but I still greatly love the Waltz King.

I remember learning the German dative prepositions to the Blue Danube. 

PD

[Florestan]

Today's list

D. Scarlatti
Handel
Vivaldi
Boccherini
Mozart
Paganini
Rossini
Bellini
Donizetti
Verdi

There, I did it: only Italians or Italianates.

But then again, it's not fair, after all it's the Austro-Germans who wrote the best music, right? Right. There we go:

Haydn
Henri Herz
Sigismond Thalberg
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Johann Strauss I
Johan Strauss II
Josef Strauss
Jacques Offenbach
Paul Lincke
Franz Lehar

[Brahmsian]

But then again, it's not fair, after all it's the Austro-Germans who wrote the best music, right?

The Russians would like to have a word with you. 

[Florestan]

The Russians would like to have a word with you. 

Last I checked, they were banned from all international competitions. 

[Lisztianwagner]

But then again, it's not fair, after all it's the Austro-Germans who wrote the best music, right? Right. There we go:

Haydn
Henri Herz
Sigismond Thalberg
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Johann Strauss I
Johan Strauss II
Josef Strauss
Jacques Offenbach
Paul Lincke
Franz Lehar

Strauss I over Strauss II? Interesting! Great to see so much Strauss Family on your German ranking anyway.

[Florestan]

Strauss I over Strauss II? Interesting! Great to see so much Strauss Family on your German ranking anyway.

Not over, just chronologically prior to. I like them both equally.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I remember learning the German dative prepositions to the Blue Danube. 

PD

Sadly, I wonder how many "kids" would know "An der schönen blauen Donau" these days? 

PD

[foxandpeng]

Today's list

D. Scarlatti
Handel
Vivaldi
Boccherini
Mozart
Paganini
Rossini
Bellini
Donizetti
Verdi

There, I did it: only Italians or Italianates.

But then again, it's not fair, after all it's the Austro-Germans who wrote the best music, right? Right. There we go:

Haydn
Henri Herz
Sigismond Thalberg
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Johann Strauss I
Johan Strauss II
Josef Strauss
Jacques Offenbach
Paul Lincke
Franz Lehar

Your new list officially qualifies as the one where, apart from Haydn, I have never heard a single work by any composer.

My ignorance is impressive, even to me.

[Lisztianwagner]

Sadly, I wonder how many "kids" would know "An der schönen blauen Donau" these days? 

PD

Everyone, at least the main theme of the composition, but they don't know that music is a waltz by Johann Strauss. Instead, if you talked about the German title, I agree with you. 

[Jo498]

Your new list officially qualifies as the one where, apart from Haydn, I have never heard a single work by any composer.

My ignorance is impressive, even to me.

You have probably not heard anything by Henri Herz or Sigismond Thalberg who were competitors with Liszt for the most dashing virtuoso (I am pretty sure I have heard only their names.)
You might not have heard anything by Meyerbeer who wrote Grand opera.

You have probably heard pieces by the others, except maybe Lincke

Johann Strauss I Radetzky March
Johann Strauss II Blue Danube, Emperor waltz, Fledermaus ouverture or some piece from the operetta, there are many famous dances and operetta tunes
Josef Strauss if you have seen any Vienna New Years concert, there would have been one of his dances, like "Aquarellen", "Dynamiden" etc. but none is as famous as his brothers
Jacques Offenbach the famous Cancan from Orpheus, or maybe the Fees du Rhin (Rheinnixen) waltz tune
Paul Lincke mostly known today for "Berliner Luft (Air of Berlin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4nFgneHZPU
Franz Lehar Something from "The Merry Widow", probably still one of the 3-5 most popular operettas, such as the Vilja song, "Lippen schweigen", Heut geh ich zu Maxim"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_e8g4LhAOA

Lots of these and many similar operetta/dance tunes were  commonly known  "middlebrow" music as late as the 1950s/60s (that is before "modern" popular music took over) in Germany and Austria (and probabyl elsewhere), e.g. for my parents born the early 1940s (certainly for people a few decades older). On the radio, played by bands for balls or in outside concerts (such as in seaside resorts), on affordable record anthologies etc.

[Papy Oli]

Your new list officially qualifies as the one where, apart from Haydn, I have never heard a single work by any composer.

My ignorance is impressive, even to me.

And on the other hand, you know Gunning and your recent advocacy of his works made some of us sample his music today

[foxandpeng]

You have probably not heard anything by Henri Herz or Sigismond Thalberg who were competitors with Liszt for the most dashing virtuoso (I am pretty sure I have heard only their names.)
You might not have heard anything by Meyerbeer who wrote Grand opera.

You have probably heard pieces by the others, except maybe Lincke

Johann Strauss I Radetzky March
Johann Strauss II Blue Danube, Emperor waltz, Fledermaus ouverture or some piece from the operetta, there are many famous dances and operetta tunes
Josef Strauss if you have seen any Vienna New Years concert, there would have been one of his dances, like "Aquarellen", "Dynamiden" etc. but none is as famous as his brothers
Jacques Offenbach the famous Cancan from Orpheus, or maybe the Fees du Rhin (Rheinnixen) waltz tune
Paul Lincke mostly known today for "Berliner Luft (Air of Berlin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4nFgneHZPU
Franz Lehar Something from "The Merry Widow", probably still one of the 3-5 most popular operettas, such as the Vilja song, "Lippen schweigen", Heut geh ich zu Maxim"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_e8g4LhAOA

Lots of these and many similar operetta/dance tunes were  commonly known  "middlebrow" music as late as the 1950s/60s (that is before "modern" popular music took over) in Germany and Austria (and probabyl elsewhere), e.g. for my parents born the early 1940s (certainly for people a few decades older). On the radio, played by bands for balls or in outside concerts (such as in seaside resorts), on affordable record anthologies etc.

This is so lovely , thank you. I will explore!!

[foxandpeng]

And on the other hand, you know Gunning and your recent advocacy of his works made some of us sample his music today

Thank you, dear friend!

[Florestan]

Your new list officially qualifies as the one where, apart from Haydn, I have never heard a single work by any composer.

My ignorance is impressive, even to me.

You have never heard one single work by Mozart? Nor by Handel? That's indeed impressive, like saying you are in your fifties and still a virgin. 

[vandermolen]

Today's list: 

Vaughan Williams
Sibelius
Mozart
Dvorak
Kodaly
Martinu
Debussy
Ravel
Chopin
Shostakovich
Pardon, but who is Raff?

PD

Try Raff's 5th Symphony PD - I love the ghostly night-ride section of the last movement.

[foxandpeng]

You have never heard one single work by Mozart? Nor by Handel? That's indeed impressive, like saying you are in your fifties and still a virgin. 

Ha. No, that second Italianate list. Haydn, then... nope. What a wilderness of knowledge. When I first started listening to classical music years ago, I listened to a lot of Haydn and and Mozart, like lots of novices. Bach, Handel, all the 'elli's ... but then dropped them off quite quickly. It all felt a bit samey to my tastes.

I never really had anyone to suggest what to hear, so just read Gramophone and followed my nose. I suspect I went in odd directions ... such as knowing virtually no Schubert for years, but being hugely familiar with Spohr; listening massively to Rubenstein but no Shostakovich.

Classical music wasn't encouraged where I came from 😁