Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

Started by Mirror Image, March 08, 2014, 06:24:13 PM

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Ken B

Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on March 08, 2014, 08:38:23 PM
Brahms's chamber works with piano are some of my favorite pieces of all (along with the piano concertos). Brahms being a pianist himself it seems to me the whole piano/chamber group interacting thing was a big challenge to him and something he reveled in.

The piano quartets, the sonatas for clarinet and piano, the piano quintet, the piano trios, the sonatas for violin and piano...for me these works rank way up there as far as greatest works ever written.

I guess it helps that I love the piano.
Eek. I left Brahms off. That was an accident as I listed 9 spots.
I add Brahms ahead of Bruckner.

Ken B


Mirror Image

This composer is slowly finding his way into my top 10...


Ken B

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 08, 2014, 08:51:24 PM
This man is slowly finding his way into my top 10...


My button is almost done; slot 5 should be available by morning.

  0:)

Mirror Image

Quote from: Ken B on March 08, 2014, 08:53:30 PM
My button is almost done; slot 5 should be available by morning.

  0:)

:D What do you think about Dutilleux's music, Ken? He's been a composer I've become more and more fascinated by throughout the years. Naturally seen as an extension of what Debussy and Ravel were doing, but it seems his star is still on the rise. So many box sets have already come out in the last few years. I think I own them all now. 8)

Dancing Divertimentian

Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

Ken B

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 08, 2014, 08:58:46 PM
:D What do you think about Dutilleux's music, Ken? He's been a composer I've become more and more fascinated by throughout the years. Naturally seen as an extension of what Debussy and Ravel were doing, but it seems his star is still on the rise. So many box sets have already come out in the last few years. I think I own them all now. 8)
He wasn't on my radar at all until about 2 years ago, just a name, until I picked up the symphonies used. I like the symphonies a lot. I see Honegger more than Ravel actually, and Roussell. But I haven't heard much beyond those and the cello concerto (which I wish sounf more like Honegger  :) ) so I can't say much. Any box you recommend, especially to a devotee of the SDCB?

Mirror Image

Quote from: Ken B on March 08, 2014, 09:31:35 PM
He wasn't on my radar at all until about 2 years ago, just a name, until I picked up the symphonies used. I like the symphonies a lot. I see Honegger more than Ravel actually, and Roussell. But I haven't heard much beyond those and the cello concerto (which I wish sounf more like Honegger  :) ) so I can't say much. Any box you recommend, especially to a devotee of the SDCB?

I think Dutilleux absorbed a bit of Bartok, too. 8) Which recording of the symphonies do you own? From here, I can give a recommendation for a box set.

Moonfish

1. Bach
2. Haydn
3. Verdi
4. Wagner
5. Beethoven
6. Mozart
7. Schubert
8. Chopin
9. Debussy
10. Sibelius
11. Handel
12. Marais
>:D

Traditional list, eh?

"Every time you spend money you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want...."
Anna Lappé

DavidW

In alphabetical order. :)

Bach
Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorak
Haydn
Mahler
Mozart
Schubert
Shostakovich
Stravinsky

Ken B

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 08, 2014, 09:33:43 PM
I think Dutilleux absorbed a bit of Bartok, too. 8) Which recording of the symphonies do you own? From here, I can give a recommendation for a box set.
Tortelier, and Plasson on EMI, so I have them twice.

Ken B

Quote from: Moonfish on March 08, 2014, 09:34:38 PM
1. Bach
2. Haydn
3. Verdi
4. Wagner
5. Beethoven
6. Mozart
7. Schubert
8. Chopin
9. Debussy
10. Sibelius
11. Handel
12. Marais
>:D

Traditional list, eh?



Even more so than mine!
You know Purcell's music for viola da gamba, or Locke's? I assume you know Saint Colombe ...
Excellent stuff, a Maraisian would like it.

Mirror Image

#32
Quote from: Ken B on March 08, 2014, 09:41:38 PM
Tortelier, and Plasson on EMI, so I have them twice.

Okay, I would say go for the Graf on Arte Nova. This can actually be purchased as a set via Amazon France now. Graf brings a Boulezian sense of clarity to the music that you don't always get with say Tortelier. While I wouldn't want to be without Tortelier, I think Graf's performances bring the music into a sharper focus, but sometimes I like getting lost in the more dreamy, atmospheric performances of Tortelier. I had Plasson but I gave it away. I thought he didn't bring anything to the musical table at all. It just seemed like an underrehearsed, rush-to-get it recorded job to these ears.

DavidW


Ken B

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 08, 2014, 09:47:04 PM
Okay, I would say go for the Graf on Arte Nova. This can actually be purchased as a set via Amazon France now. Graf brings a Boulezian sense of clarity to the music that you don't always get with say Tortelier. While I wouldn't want to be without Tortelier, I think Graf's performances bring the into a sharper focus, but sometimes I like getting lost in the more dreamy, atmospheric performances of Tortelier. I had Plasson but I gave it away. I thought he didn't bring anything to the musical table at all. It just seemed like an underrehearsed, rush-to-get it recorded job to these ears.
Merci beaucoup.
I got Plasson as part of his French music box, which my store sold me cheap. A useful way to get a lot of listen once music ...

amw

From the other thread—this about covers it in terms of overall influence on my life & listening habits.
QuoteBeethoven (especially the late quartets & piano sonatas)
...
Schumann (early piano works, songs from 1840)
...
...
...
...
Schubert (late chamber music & piano sonatas)
...
Bartók (string quartets & orchestral music)
Brahms (chamber music & piano works)
...
...
...
...
Mozart (piano concertos, string quintets & quartets, Da Ponte operas)
Haydn (string quartets, piano trios & symphonies)
Bach (keyboard music)
...
Chopin (Ballades, Scherzi, Polonaise-Fantasie, Sonatas, Mazurkas, Preludes)
...
...
Dvořák (symphonies, concertos, chamber music)
Ligeti (orchestral works, chamber & electronic music)
Medtner (sonatas, chamber music, Forgotten Melodies)
Cage (prepared piano music, number pieces, etudes, String Quartet in Four Parts)
Webern (entire output)
Nono (orchestral, choral & electronic music)
Stockhausen (chamber & electronic music)
Stravinsky (middle & late works)
(etc)
Bach used to be in the top 5, but I'm not sure where. I think I just stopped listening to his music nearly as much after a while, allowing Brahms to creep in. The other top 4 have been steady for awhile.

Moonfish

Quote from: DavidW on March 08, 2014, 09:49:06 PM
I like your list Moonfish. :)

Thank you David!  :)  I always struggle with lists as there are so many amazing composers. I kind of wanted to toss in Liszt, Mahler, Bruckner and Vaughan Williams as well but.....    I realize that I need to expand (at least expose myself) to the 20th century a bit more. Your list is more balanced in that sense!!
"Every time you spend money you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want...."
Anna Lappé

Moonfish

Quote from: Ken B on March 08, 2014, 09:44:37 PM
Even more so than mine!
You know Purcell's music for viola da gamba, or Locke's? I assume you know Saint Colombe ...
Excellent stuff, a Maraisian would like it.
They are all wonders. Purcell's chamber music can be quite pleasant, but Marais is the beauty of melancholy incarnated.  You seem to have a wide range of composers.  I like how you view your own list as extremely dynamic in the light of the years you have listened to classical music. It is strange how one's beloved works suddenly go "quiet" after having been examined so closely (like your PC 21). Perhaps one simply strives towards new musical experiences - the holy grail of music? The list keeps changing.....
"Every time you spend money you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want...."
Anna Lappé

EigenUser

New top 10:
1) Bartok*
2) Ligeti**
3) Ravel**
4) Debussy
5) Messiaen
6) Gershwin
7) Haydn***
8) Feldman
9) Mendelssohn
10) Schumann

*Never changes, though I haven't been listening to his music so much recently (because I pretty much know it all inside-out).
**2 and 3 are equal -- I just put them in alphabetical order to avoid bias.
***I've been discovering his symphonies and never cease to be impressed (far be it from me to say ;)).
Beethoven's Op. 133 -- A fugue so bad that even Beethoven himself called it "Grosse".

EigenUser

Quote from: James on May 17, 2014, 05:11:31 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach
Richard Wagner
Gabriel Fauré
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Igor Stravinsky
Béla Bartók
Anton Webern
György Ligeti
Karlheinz Stockhausen

Nice! I struggle Wagner, Webern, and Stockhausen, but that's an awesome list!
Beethoven's Op. 133 -- A fugue so bad that even Beethoven himself called it "Grosse".