Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[nodogen]

Hope it goes well.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

It was a conscious decision for me, I'm on the down-low with classical at the moment, the main thing I'm listening to are string quartets in the present (as I am presenting one to a string quartet over here, which could get played)

Non-classical is my comfort food at the moment

https://media.giphy.com/media/11k4rk0VYsOUOk/giphy.gif

There's a new CD out of music by Arturo Fuentes played by Quatuor Diotima. Very excited by this. A great composer matched with a great ensemble.

[amw]

Since apparently this just means "your top 10 composers over the past few days/weeks/hours" now, [....]

Top 10 list is still consistent, but here:

JS Bach - has dominated my listening lately to an unusual degree.
Froberger - particularly the "darker" pieces
Louis Couperin - an old favourite
Mozart
Janáček
Sibelius - the music for violin and orchestra & violin and piano, mostly
Yannis Kyriakides - works with voices. as mentioned before in this forum
Chaya Czernowin - music is sometimes a bit busy for my taste, but its expressiveness is appealing right now
Enescu - the mature & late chamber music. Has a really special elusive quality that sets it apart from the late-romantic milieu, particularly in e.g. the slow movement of the D major piano sonata which is the kind of thing I hope to accomplish when I write music myself

[SymphonicAddict]

It's a narrow list actually, but I think these ones work for me at this moment:

Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorák
Tchaikovsky
Sibelius
Nielsen
Shostakovich
Prokofiev
Respighi
Vaughan Williams

[Alek Hidell]

It's a narrow list actually, but I think these ones work for me at this moment:
[...]
Respighi

Respighi is an interesting choice! I have a smattering of his music awaiting me - what works particularly tickle your fancy?

[SymphonicAddict]

Respighi is an interesting choice! I have a smattering of his music awaiting me - what works particularly tickle your fancy?

Vetrate di Chiesa!!! It's my favorite work by him: I like the bombastic here, above all in San Gregorio Magno. Other works I like so much are Feste Romane, Pini di Roma, Sinfonia Drammatica, Trittico Botticelliano, Suite from Belkis, Metamorphoseon, Concerto Gregoriano, Poema autunnale, Ballata delle gnomidi, Lauda per la Natività del Signore, Ciaccona (after Vitali) for violin, strings and organ (it was a recent discovery) and ... many others ... 

What about you?

[Alek Hidell]

Vetrate di Chiesa!!! It's my favorite work by him: I like the bombastic here, above all in San Gregorio Magno. Other works I like so much are Feste Romane, Pini di Roma, Sinfonia Drammatica, Trittico Botticelliano, Suite from Belkis, Metamorphoseon, Concerto Gregoriano, Poema autunnale, Ballata delle gnomidi, Lauda per la Natività del Signore, Ciaccona (after Vitali) for violin, strings and organ (it was a recent discovery) and ... many others ... 

What about you?

Thanks! I'll make a note of those.

I can't say what I like - I've barely listened to anything by him at all (I can't remember if I've even heard the Pines and Fountains, those two warhorses). I was looking for a place to begin. I have some recordings but I haven't gotten to them yet.   

[kishnevi]

Thanks! I'll make a note of those.

I can't say what I like - I've barely listened to anything by him at all (I can't remember if I've even heard the Pines and Fountains, those two warhorses). I was looking for a place to begin. I have some recordings but I haven't gotten to them yet.   

Try the concertos: far less famous but as good or better than the warhorses.

[Christo]

Barber
Braga Santos
Falla
Guarnieri
Holmboe
Janáček
Nielsen
Respighi
Tubin
Vaughan Williams

[SymphonicAddict]

Barber
Braga Santos
Falla
Guarnieri
Holmboe
Janáček
Nielsen
Respighi
Tubin
Vaughan Williams

Mmm interesting list that is... but I don't see any Russian here: 

[Ken B]

Be sure to kill me if you like, for coming back here again but at the moment I'm finding this: (which is quite odd for me)
More or less chronologically:

Hildegard
Dowland
Machaut
Lassus
Josquin
Gesualdo
Monteverdi
Beethoven (piano sonatas mostly)
RAVEL
Stravinsky (late "sacred" works exclusively)
John Cage


What's happening to me??? 

Experience 

Also an evident taste for counterpoint. The complete Dowland box from L'oiseau lyre pops up at a good price periodically and is excellent in all ways.

[SymphonicAddict]

I'd say almost the same, just with some changes (including Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, maybe Villa-Lobos; excluding Falla, Guarnieri, Barber). Very do agree with Respighi, Nielsen, Holmboe, Braga-Santos, Tubin and Vaughan Williams

My list would be something like this:

Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorák
Tchaikovsky
Martinu
Vaughan Williams
Sibelius
Tubin
Shostakovich
Nielsen

I wouldn't be utterly satisfied, though. I'd want to include Bach, Atterberg, Respighi, Braga Santos, Holmboe, Strauss, Prokofiev, Janácek, Hindemith, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Taneyev, Schmidt, Bruckner, Mahler, Ravel, Schnittke, Novák, Szymanowski, Lutoslawski, Arnold, Simpson, Langgaard, Barber, Bantock, Stravinsky, Bartók... there are thousands, many, you wouldn't stop of writing

All this depends on your thinking, tastes, mood, good days, bad days. They can changed in the future.

... but at the last the list will have to be changed, there aren't perfect lists because of the number of composers there are, the huge list of works there are (symphonies, concertos, string quartets, masses, requiems, operas, piano sonatas, and so on...)

[Christo]

I'd say almost the same, just with some changes (including Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, maybe Villa-Lobos; excluding Falla, Guarnieri, Barber). Very do agree with Respighi, Nielsen, Holmboe, Braga-Santos, Tubin and Vaughan Williams

My list would be something like this:

Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorák
Tchaikovsky
Martinu
Vaughan Williams
Sibelius
Tubin
Shostakovich
Nielsen

I wouldn't be utterly satisfied, though. I'd want to include Bach, Atterberg, Respighi, Braga Santos, Janácek, Holmboe, Strauss, Prokofiev, Janácek, Hindemith, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Taneyev, Schmidt, Bruckner, Mahler, Ravel, Schnittke, Novák, Szymanowski, Lutoslawski, Arnold, Simpson, Langgaard, Barber, Bantock, Stravinsky, Bartók... there are thousands, many, you wouldn't stop of writing

All this depends on your thinking, tastes, mood, good days, bad days. They can changed in the future.

... but at the last the list will have to be changed, there aren't perfect lists because of the number of composers there are, the huge list of works there are (symphonies, concertos, string quartets, masses, requiems, operas, piano sonatas, and so on...)

All very similar to my shorter and longer lists; with only one exception: somehow, from very early on, the German Romantics didn't do it for me and I never overcame that, how much I tried (played the Brahms symphonies for two weeks, a couple of years ago, the outcome: nope  ) - but excluding Beethoven at the one end and Bruckner, Mahler, Schmidt and Hindemith at the other. So with the exception of Schumann, Brahms and Strauss, your list is very similar to mine. Feels good. 

Mmm interesting list that is... but I don't see any Russian here: 

My Russians are Tchaikovsky, Rimsky, Stravinsky and Shosta - more so than Prokoviev. One or two should be included, but who to leave out?? 

BTW: wow!, another Tubin enthusiast (please convince our exquisite Brian to have a second listening; his superfical glance over one of our most favourite symphonic cycles hurts. 

[SymphonicAddict]

All very similar to my shorter and longer lists; with only one exception: somehow, from very early on, the German Romantics didn't do it for me and I never overcame that, how much I tried (played the Brahms symphonies for two weeks, a couple of years ago, the outcome: nope  ) - but excluding Beethoven at the one end and Bruckner, Mahler, Schmidt and Hindemith at the other. So with the exception of Schumann, Brahms and Strauss, your list is very similar to mine. Feels good. 
My Russians are Tchaikovsky, Rimsky, Stravinsky and Shosta - more so than Prokoviev. One or two should be included, but who to leave out?? 

BTW: wow!, another Tubin enthusiast (please convince our exquisite Brian to have a second listening; his superfical glance over one of our most favourite symphonic cycles hurts. 

I have been able to see in other threads you don't like much the Romantic Germans (along with vandermolen) 

Tubin is terrific in a high degree. Right now I'm playing the Sinfonietta on Estonian motifs. This work can't bore me, it's impossible!!

[musicrom]

My top 10 based on my Pandora & Spotify likes:

1.   Ludwig van Beethoven
2.   Jean Sibelius
3.   Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
4.   Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
5.   Antonín Dvořák
6.   Frederic Chopin
7.   Sergei Prokofiev
8.   Felix Mendelssohn
9.   Dmitri Shostakovich
10.   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

[Christo]

Tubin is terrific in a high degree. Right now I'm playing the Sinfonietta on Estonian motifs. This work can't bore me, it's impossible!!

He is. Spread the news! 

[NikF]

Right now (and roughly in order) it is:

Brahms
Shostakovich
Ravel
Debussy
Mahler
Prokofiev
Stravinsky
Chopin
RVW
Bartok

[Autumn Leaves]

Right now (and roughly in order) it is:

Brahms
Shostakovich
Ravel
Debussy
Mahler
Prokofiev
Stravinsky
Chopin
RVW
Bartok

Hey Nik - I like your list!; mine is a bit similar :

Bach
Tchaikovsky
Sibelius
Shostakovich
Mahler
Chopin
Debussy
Mendelssohn
Brahms
Schumann

[Mirror Image]

Right now (and roughly in order) it is:

Brahms
Shostakovich
Ravel
Debussy
Mahler
Prokofiev
Stravinsky
Chopin
RVW
Bartok

A fine list indeed. Many of my favorites mentioned.

[TheGSMoeller]

I wrote this just over 5 years ago in 2012 in an old 25 Favorite Composers Thread...

Richard Strauss (Duett-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon))
William Byrd (Ye Sacred Muses)
Heinrich I. F. Biber (Violin Sonata No.3)
Jean-Philippe Rameau(Les Cyclopes)
Franz Joseph Haydn(Symphony No. 80 in D minor)
Hector Berlioz(Grande Messe des Morts)
Charles Ives(Piano Sonata No.2 "Concord")
Sergei Prokofiev(Symphony No.  6 in E flat Major
Benjamin Britten(Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings)
Philip Glass(Beauty and the Beast)   

This is my solid top ten, with R.Strauss being numero uno, the rest being chronological. R. Strauss' tone poems (Till Eulenspiegel in particular) initially sparked my interest in classical music. The rest of the list I'll present in chronological order...

John Dowland(Lachrimae)
Claudio Monteverdi(Orfeo)
J.S. Bach(Goldberg Variations)
Antonio Vivaldi(Mandolin Concerto)
Georg Philipp Telemann(Overture-Suite in C major, TV 55 no C 3 "Wassermusik")
W. A. Mozart(Die Zauberflöte)
Franz Schubert(String Quartet No. 15 in D minor)
Edward Elgar(Symphony No. 2)
Alban Berg(Wozzeck)
Francis Poulenc(Figure humaine)
Alfred Schnittke(Choir Concerto)
Michael Nyman(MGV)
Pascal Dusapin(A Quia, concerto for Piano and Orchestra)
David Lang(Little Match Girl Passion)
Paul Schoenfield(Vaudeville, for Piccolo Trumpet and Orchestra)

I would say it's still close, although it's shocking that Bruckner was excluded completely, and Byrd made my Top Ten   
Maybe I don't know the old me as well as I though I did.