Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Brian]

I was not anticipating this!

For the last year or so I've been really deeply immersed in two box sets - the Warner RVW and Prokofiev editions - and the less famous orchestral works of Tchaikovsky (the suites, some overtures and entr'actes, the "other" concertos). Prokofiev especially surprised me; as a young person his melodies usually seemed somewhat tart and bitter to me. But now, like my taste in wine and beer, I like tart things more   

[ChamberNut]

Here are mine as of today:

Shostakovich
Dvořák
Bruckner

Tchaikovsky
Penderecki
Bacewicz
Falla
Franck, C.
Schubert
Brahms

[ChamberNut]

For the last year or so I've been really deeply immersed in two box sets - the Warner RVW and Prokofiev editions - and the less famous orchestral works of Tchaikovsky (the suites, some overtures and entr'actes, the "other" concertos). Prokofiev especially surprised me; as a young person his melodies usually seemed somewhat tart and bitter to me. But now, like my taste in wine and beer, I like tart things more   

The RVW might be the most shocking of all to me. 

[Brian]

wow, what kind of vibes am I giving off?!?   

[hopefullytrusting]

wow, what kind of vibes am I giving off?!?   

I cannot do 10, but I can do 5 (right now, of course)

1. Reich
2. Lange
3. Brahms
4. Johnston
5. Schoenberg

[Karl Henning]

@Brian reviving this thread gives me an opening which I shall exploit to the full. I shall adopt the philosophy of this "Five Favorite" post, of not hanging myself up over whom I'm leaving out, but I'll also skip here the five posted there.
So: ten composers I always love....

Bartók
Brahms
Chopin
Dvořák
Hindemith
Janáček
Shostakovich
D. Scarlatti
Tchaikovsky
Vivaldi

[San Antone]

Also innpired by the top five thread, since I felt cheated being only allowed five .... and I'm including the works which make them my top ten.

Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame
Mozart Die Zauberflöte
Bernstein Mass
Duruflé   Requiem
Bach Goldberg Variations
Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms
Debussy   Pelleas et Melisande
Ravel Piano Trio
Verdi Rigoletto
Golijov Ainadamar

[Lisztianwagner]

My top 10 can be:

Wagner
Mahler
Liszt
Beethoven
Rachmaninov
Schönberg
Tchaikovsky
R. Strauss
Ravel
Holst

[foxandpeng]

OK. I'll go, as it's been a while. No order. Subject to whim, as always.

Vasks
Tabakov
DSCH
Holmboe
Bax
RVW
Simpson
Hovhaness
Rautavaara
Pettersson

The odd thing is the possibility of Tabakov taking top spot because of his magisterial symphonies. Nobody grabs me like Tabakov at the moment.

Huh. Interesting. Close enough, probably.

[Christo]

Make it ten, as of 2025:
1946-         Pēteris Vasks (Latvia)
1921-1999 Ruth Gipps (UK)
1910-1981 Samuel Barber (USA)
1909-1996 Vagn Holmboe (Denmark)
1905-1982 Eduard Tubin (Estonia)
1879-1936 Ottorino Respighi (Italy)
1876-1946 Manuel de Falla (Spain)
1872-1958 Ralph Vaughan Williams (UK)
1862-1918 Claude Debussy (France)
1854-1928 Leoš Janáček (Bohemia)

Thanks for the suggestion to try Emil Tabakov: bought his CD with the Concerto for Orchestra back in 1991 in Sofia, the Sofia Philharmonic under his own direction. Will report back!

[foxandpeng]

Thanks for the suggestion to try Emil Tabakov: bought his CD with the Concerto for Orchestra back in 1991 in Sofia, the Sofia Philharmonic under his own direction. Will report back!

Always delighted to hear folk engaging with Tabakov. His intensity doesn't suit everyone, but he is remarkably good.

Happy listening!

[DavidW]

Bach
Mozart
Haydn
Mahler
Schubert
Bruckner
Shostakovich
Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Sibelius

Wait... Beethoven fell off my top ten!

[Madiel]

Bach
Mozart
Haydn
Mahler
Schubert
Bruckner
Shostakovich
Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Sibelius

Wait... Beethoven fell off my top ten!

*watches as a stray arm knocks Beethoven's bust off the top of the piano and it shatters on a hard floor*

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

My current 'Top 10' -

Mahler
Debussy
R. Strauss
Sibelius
Bartók
Brahms
Schubert
Schoenberg
Berlioz
Stravinsky

[DavidW]

I just realized that also Brahms and Wagner are not in my top ten. What am I slowly turning into Florestan!?

[ChamberNut]

I just realized that also Brahms and Wagner are not in my top ten. What am I slowly turning into Florestan!?

Well, it seems I don't know GMG members as well as I thought I did. 

Never realized you liked Wagner!

[ChamberNut]

My current 'Top 10' -

Mahler
Debussy
R. Strauss
Sibelius
Bartók
Brahms
Schubert
Schoenberg
Berlioz
Stravinsky

What ever happened to Shostakovich?

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

What ever happened to Shostakovich?

Definitely in my 'Top 20'. It should be said that while I do love Shostakovich, I don't listen to his music as much as I have in the past. His symphonies, concerti and chamber works still hold a special place in my heart, though.

[Christo]

Definitely in my 'Top 20'. It should be said that while I do love Shostakovich, I don't listen to his music as much as I have in the past. His symphonies, concerti and chamber works still hold a special place in my heart, though.

Exactly the same here: played all his symphonies in the 1990s and overcame my distaste for his and also Mahler's 'exaggeration', (oversentimentality or something like that) -- always loved more the more concentrated 'essayistic symphonic style' of Vaughan Williams and the Sibelius school -- but never completely won over. Still Top 40, though. 

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Exactly the same here: played all his symphonies in the 1990s and overcame my distaste for his and also Mahler's 'exaggeration', (oversentimentality or something like that) -- always loved more the more concentrated 'essayistic symphonic style' of Vaughan Williams and the Sibelius school -- but never completely won over. Still Top 40, though. 

The sentimentality of Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov were something I've always been drawn to, but with Shostakovich, it's different. Generally-speaking, I'm quite fond of Late-Romanticism, which is why I love many composers within this style, but I've always viewed Shostakovich as more of a Modernist even in his more big-boned symphonies like his 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 13th. His music is filtered through this kind of grim-tinted prism and sometimes I'm just not in the mood for it. Of course, I think Shostakovich is an incredible composer and he is a favorite of mine, but over the years, I just haven't felt the need to listen to his music too often.

Vaughan Williams and Sibelius, admittedly two different kettle of fish, have a more streamlined approach to the symphony --- no question about it. I love both of these composers for this fact and also how they offer a completely different view than so many other composers who came before them.