Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

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

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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

Quote from: SymphonicAddict on January 23, 2018, 07:54:57 PMRight 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!)  ;D
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

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
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

ritter

#884
Quote from: Mirror Image on January 23, 2018, 06:42:53 PM
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! :-\
I thought Jeux would have (or actually had)  tipped the balance in Claude de France's favour...but no  :(. Still, you give perfectly legitimate reasons to prefer one composer over the other (even if I do  not share them   ;) ).

Good day, John:)

Spineur

These lists are very undesirable, because of their exclusive nature.

The One

Quote from: Spineur on January 24, 2018, 06:14:07 AM
These lists are very undesirable, because of their exclusive nature.

I think they are very desirable, because of their inclusive nature. :) Please, no offense

Florestan

Quote from: Spineur on January 24, 2018, 06:14:07 AM
These lists are very undesirable, because of their exclusive nature.

By marrying the woman you married, you excluded all other women.

By choosing the profession you chose, you excluded all other professions.

Just saying.



Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Spineur

Quote from: Florestan on January 24, 2018, 08:56:07 AM
By marrying the woman you married, you excluded all other women.

You must  be kidding !!  You are talking to a frenchman


Florestan

Quote from: Spineur on January 24, 2018, 09:05:26 AM
You must  be kidding !!  You are talking to a frenchman

Your reputation is greatly exaggerated.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

André

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 23, 2018, 06:42:53 PM
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! :-\

+ 1

I admire Debussy (a lot), but I abandon myself to Ravel  :D

Sergeant Rock

the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Madiel

Quote from: Spineur on January 24, 2018, 06:14:07 AM
These lists are very undesirable, because of their exclusive nature.

It's okay, you're still allowed to read other lists.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Mirror Image

Quote from: ritter on January 24, 2018, 06:11:12 AM
I thought Jeux would have (or actually had)  tipped the balance in Claude de France's favour...but no  :(. Still, you give perfectly legitimate reasons to prefer one composer over the other (even if I do not share them   ;) ).

Good day, John:)

G'day to you, Rafael. I hope everything is well with you. Yeah, you know I do love Claude, but the balance was tipped in Ravel's favor for the afore mentioned reasons. But, you know, we certainly can't control what we like --- we just have to accept what are ears happen to be drawn to. :)

Mirror Image

Quote from: André on January 24, 2018, 12:17:56 PM
+ 1

I admire Debussy (a lot), but I abandon myself to Ravel  :D

Can't argue with this! ;D

kyjo

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Undersea

At the moment:

Bach
Beethoven
Shostakovich
Prokofiev
Tchaikovsky
Sibelius
Chopin
Brahms
Mendelssohn
Debussy


Madiel

Quote from: ørfeo on February 06, 2015, 05:53:26 AM
In chronological order:

Bach, J.S.
Haydn
Beethoven
Chopin
Brahms
Dvorak
Faure
Rachmaninov
Ravel
Holmboe

I think this is the only previous attempt I've made. Today I came up with:

Haydn
Beethoven
Chopin
Schumann
Brahms
Dvorak
Faure
Sibelius
Ravel
Holmboe
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

schnittkease

Quote from: ørfeo on January 27, 2018, 03:45:41 AM
....Today I came up with:

Haydn
Beethoven
Chopin
Schumann
Brahms
Dvorak
Faure
Sibelius
Ravel
Holmboe

You chopped off Bach!?

Madiel

I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!