Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[The One]

There are definitely some polls for the favourite recordings of certain works, and then there's the GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists thread.

Doesn't serve the same purpose I think.

[North Star]

Doesn't serve the same purpose I think.

Oh, indeed not.

[The One]

Oh, indeed not.

I have started one. Let's see if it is meaningful or at least if it helps to lead to a proper one with feedbacks

[Karl Henning]

Doesn't serve the same purpose I think.

Get it started, then! 

[Mirror Image]

Let's see what today's 'Top 10' looks like:

(In no particular order) -

Shostakovich
Sibelius
Bartók
Stravinsky
Nielsen
Vaughan Williams
Debussy
Ives
Martinů
Szymanowski

[Ken B]

Let's see what today's 'Top 10' looks like:

(In no particular order) -

Shostakovich
Sibelius
Bartók
Stravinsky
Nielsen
Vaughan Williams
Debussy
Ives
Martinů
Szymanowski

I found this cool portrait of Delius.



OOPS. Thought this was "Pictures I like"

[ritter]

I found this cool portrait of Delius.



OOPS. Thought this was "Pictures I like"

I momentarily mistook the portrait for one of Villa-Lobos...

[Brian]

1. Beethoven
2. Dvorak
3. Schubert
4. Haydn
5. Ravel
6. Janacek
7. Berlioz
8. Chopin
9. Brahms
10. Martinu

My list turns over a whole lot less than MI's does!

Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, and Sibelius are among some of the big names lurking in 11-20.

no change! Scarlatti is now also in the 11-20 range.

[Karl Henning]

Scarlatti is now also in the 11-20 range.

Good.

[André]

Not even trying a comparison with any earlier list. Let's see... In no particular order:

Reger
Delius
Elgar
Beethoven
J.S. Bach
Haydn
Prokofiev
Wagner
Bruckner
Arnold

Schubert, Verdi, Vaughan-Williams are busy fighting for a place on the list. Actually, places #  11-20 are a more interesting contest IMO 

[amw]

There are a lot of comparative listeners here. I wonder why there aren't any polls for recordings

Hmm, good idea. I'll do one for something where I know more about the recordings

[Christo]

Probably posted some list here before, but today they are, in alphabetical order:

Arnold
Barber
Bate
Berkeley (père)
Braga Santos
Brian
Cooke
Dvořák
Falla
Guarnieri
Gershwin
Holmboe
Holst
Janáček
Kinsella
Nielsen
Pierné
Ravel
Respighi
Shostakovich
Tubin
Vaughan Williams
Villa-Lobos (to make it ten  )

Edit: forgot to mention my rising star:  Hindemith 

Another star risen since 2015: Tournemire 

[Mirror Image]

Let's see what today's 'Top 10' looks like:

(In no particular order) -

Shostakovich
Sibelius
Bartók
Stravinsky
Nielsen
Vaughan Williams
Debussy Ravel
Ives
Martinů
Szymanowski

I got to thinking about this particular list and, while it would be quite difficult, especially at this moment, to drop and replace anyone on this list, I have to drop Debussy and replace him with Ravel for a few reasons: 1. Daphnis et Chloé is one of the most magnificent pieces ever composed IMHO and has been a constant in my life for the past eight years, 2. I love L'enfant et les sortilèges and only merely like Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, 3. Trois poèmes de Mallarmé!, and 4. Ravel's two PCs, like Daphnis, are two of my favorite pieces that have been in my mind since I first heard them. I still love Debussy's chamber music dearly, but, outside of his chamber music and a few select orchestral works, he doesn't quite entice me the same way Ravel's music has. So sorry Claude!

[SymphonicAddict]

Right now, in alphabetical order:

Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorák
Nielsen
Prokofiev
Respighi
Saint-Saëns
Shostakovich
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan Williams

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Currently Wagner and Strauss for me

[Josquin13]

My top ten:

Josquin Desprez
Guillaume Dufay
J.S.Bach
G.F. Handel
F. J. Haydn
W.A. Mozart
L.V. Beethoven
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Jean Sibelius

My 10 additional favorites (11-20): Ockeghem, Machaut, Ciconia, Tallis, Byrd, Prokofiev, Lassus, Schumann, Schubert, Mahler.

(21-25--Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, & De Vitry.)

(26-40--Faure, Liszt, Vivaldi, Biber, Monteverdi, Du Caurroy, G. Gabrieli, Obrecht, R. Strauss, Faugues, Dunstable, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Martinu or Binchois.)

[amw]

Last couple months primarily:

Mozart
Beethoven
Haydn
Matteo da Perugia (even though I have no idea who he actually is)
Luca Marenzio
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Chaya Czernowin (again)
Janáček
Bach (mostly the passions though)
Christopher Tye
Brahms string sextets

[Christo]

Right now, in alphabetical order:

Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorák
Nielsen
Prokofiev
Respighi
Saint-Saëns
Shostakovich
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan Williams

All personal favourites, except for Brahms (never attuned much to German 19th century Romanticism in general, but love Dvořák!) 

[Jo498]

Paradoxically, I don't listen to some of my favorites all that much anymore because I spent so many years mostly listening to their music, e.g. Beethoven and Mozart. They are still absolute favorites and I love their music when I hear it.
E.g. since I got the Pro Arte Haydn and the Walcha Bach hpschd boxes before Xmas I listened to both all through within a week or so, subsequently probably another one or two times to the Bach and to another dozen of discs with Bach keyboard works but before that it might have been year or more since I had listened to any Haydn quartet or French suite.
So my favorites boringly stay mostly the same and there is a good chance that a piece by someone around 15-20 like Berlioz or Sibelius will currently receive more listening time than a perennial favorite.

Beethoven
Bach
Mozart
Haydn
Schubert
Brahms
Schumann
Chopin
Handel
Bartok
but the last three are already shaky, could as well be Mahler, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Dvorak

[Karl Henning]

Chopin, shaky?  Jamais!