Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[kyjo]

Thanks for the tip, Kyjo. Jeffrey will no doubt nod in agreement ! 

I'm sure he will! Here's the link to the fantastic recording of the 4th Symphony:

[asin]B00006B1KD[/asin]

[vandermolen]

Thanks for the tip, Kyjo. Jeffrey will no doubt nod in agreement ! 

Absolutely! 

I would say symphonies 1,2,3 and 4 and this very nice Naxos CD for starters:
[asin]B005YD11Q0[/asin]

[Chronochromie]

Monteverdi

Rameau

Mozart

Beethoven

Schubert

Berlioz

Debussy

Schoenberg

Messiaen

Ligeti

[Madiel]

Monteverdi

Rameau

Mozart

Beethoven

Schubert

Berlioz

Debussy

Schoenberg

Messiaen

Ligeti

Interesting and diverse list.

[kyjo]

Time to (slightly) update my list:

Atterberg
Sibelius
Dvořák
Shostakovich
Brahms
Braga Santos
Vaughan Williams
Rachmaninoff
Ravel
Hanson

...in some sort of order.

[Florestan]

My list hasn't changed but I'll arrange it differently (by geography, not by order of preference, mind you!):

1. The Viennese Connection: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms
2. The German Connection: Mendelssohn, Schumann
3. The Russian Connection: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff
4. The Odd Man Out: Chopin

[vandermolen]

Time to (slightly) update my list:

Atterberg
Sibelius
Dvořák
Shostakovich
Brahms
Braga Santos
Vaughan Williams
Rachmaninoff
Ravel
Hanson

...in some sort of order.

V much agree although rarely listen to Dvorak and Brahms. My older brother greatly admires both of them.

[flyingdutchman]

Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Smetana
Schumann
Brahms
Mendelssohn
Sibelius
Schubert
Glazunov
Gade

[Jaakko Keskinen]

A new list.

Wagner
Debussy
Berlioz
Nobuo Uematsu
John Williams
Puccini
Beethoven
Walton
Sibelius
Rachmaninoff

[amw]

Mozart [string quartets/quintets/piano concertos/piano quartets/violin sonatas]
Haydn [string quartets]
Cage [freeman etudes/prepared piano music/sonatas and interludes/string quartet/number pieces]
Donatoni [estratti/rima/souvenir/abyss/le ruisseau sur l'escalier etc]
Kurtág [....concertante/...quasi una fantasia/doppelkonzert/hipartita/kafka-fragmente/joszef attila fragments/scenes from a novel]
Schubert [D840/845/887/929/946/947/959/960]
Saunders (R) [most works but particularly molly's song 3/dichroic seventeen/solitude/fletch/cinnabar/a visible trace/stasis/skin]
Machaut [motets/messe de notre dame/lai de la fonteinne/lai de consolation]
Marenzio [madrigals books 1, 5, 6]

John Cage - pretty much the same things actually: prepared piano works, string quartet in four parts, number pieces, also some of the early non-prepared piano works and for some reason the organ works?
Domenico Scarlatti - mostly on piano, ideally an 18th century one
Johann Sebastian Bach - cantatas mostly with some harpsichord stuff
Chris Dench - various free stuff he put on his dropbox
Bent Sørensen - choral & chamber music
Guillaume de Machaut - all his stuff (looking into promoting Machaut into a permanent top 10 or 20 position)
Anon. - Ludus Danielis, Las Huelgas Codex, various Sequentia & Alla Francesca albums
Felix Mendelssohn - various compositions written by him between the ages of 16 and 21, also some of the Lieder ohne worte


Overall top 10:
Schumann
Beethoven
Schubert
Bartók
Mozart
Haydn
Dvořák
Brahms
Chopin
Cage

[vandermolen]

Favourites New List:

Vaughan Williams
Miaskovsky
Honegger
Braga Santos
Tubin
Rosenberg
Bax
Moeran
Diamond
Copland

+ Shostakovich 

[SymphonicAddict]

My current list:

Brahms
Dvorák
Tchaikovsky
Langgaard
Shostakovich
Puccini (yes, this one!)
VW
Martinu
Tubin
Villa-Lobos

Honorable mentions: Braga Santos and Rosenberg.

[Florestan]

My list of top 10 favorite composers (besides my top 10 favorite composers ---  ) is currently this, in no particular order:

Gabriel Fauré
Moritz Moszkowski
Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri Herz
Pablo de Sarasate
Sergei Bortkiewicz
Luigi Boccherini
Francis Poulenc
Anton Arensky
Enrique Granados

[Josquin13]

My 10 favorite composers:

1. J.S. Bach
2. Josquin Desprez
3. G.F. Handel
4. Guillaume Dufay
5. W.A. Mozart
6. F.J. Haydn
7. Claude Debussy
8. Maurice Ravel
9. L. V. Beethoven
10. Jean Sibelius

Honorable mention: Corelli, Lassus, Mahler, Schumann, Schubert, Du Caurroy, Prokofiev, Tallis, Byrd, Chopin, Wagner, Bruckner, Biber, Shostakovich, Brahms, & Vivaldi.

My 10 Favorite composers of the post WW2 generation (up to today):

1. Witold Lutoslawski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oobR6rf_dns&frags=pl%2Cwn
2. Vagn Holmboe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz8PuRo8Xyo&frags=pl%2Cwn
3. Joonas Kokkonen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkPXmUSdwqo&frags=pl%2Cwn
4. Samuel Barber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWtgxh34ifo&frags=pl%2Cwn
5. Einojuhani Rautavaara: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a159hrxRiso&frags=pl%2Cwn
6. Harri Vuori: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrpZMz28fM4&frags=pl%2Cwn
7. Per Nørgard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY0F8D6lIkA&frags=pl%2Cwn
8. Robin Holloway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk2iSclrwzQ&list=OLAK5uy_kRrj25Hw-_Ub4nKsBymgAnS2sJcN84OPc
9. Paavo Heininen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SORoR1wO76I&index=5&list=OLAK5uy_kZ1MZd1U-HeJstq4dAG1izXL75aidHfxs&frags=pl%2Cwn
10. Magnus Lindberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqOg-uDSER4&frags=pl%2Cwn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLVH2hUbOdY&list=PLfGPNeCLLY6uOHT6z1flVgJOhlF1XG22I

Honorable mention: Messiaen, Dutilleux, Boulez, Part, Peterrsson, Schuman, Ligeti, Penderecki, Tavener, Moody, Knussen, Piston, Rochberg, Persichetti, Nørholm, Harbison, Stout, Glass, Sørenson, Hillborg, McCabe, Sessions, Rorem, Englund, Tüür, Abrahamson, etc..

[Florestan]

Henri Herz?!  Beefing up on the Salonstücke, are we?

Charming as they are, I was thinking more about the piano concertos.

And yes, I do think that salon music is just like Schiller's Maria Stuart: besser als ihr Ruf.

[Christo]

Favourites that we share are at least

Dvorák
Tchaikovsky
Langgaard
Shostakovich
VW
Martinu
Tubin
Villa-Lobos
Honorable mentions: Braga Santos and Rosenberg.

Vaughan Williams
Honegger
Braga Santos
Tubin
Rosenberg
Moeran
Diamond
+ Shostakovich 

Dvořák
Shostakovich
Braga Santos
Vaughan Williams
Rachmaninoff
Ravel

.... and many more!~

[Madiel]

I popped in here just to see whether Sibelius had been on my list, given I'm going through an obsessive phase.

Indeed, he was there at the end of January. I'd completely forgotten the accusations that resulted about him having displaced Bach (though in truth he displaced Rachmaninov instead). 

I don't think I'm ready to try a complete revised list. Give me a couple of years...

[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.

Still no change in 2 years. Tchaikovsky and Scarlatti might be challenging Martinu for #10. Poulenc, Roussel, and Debussy are in the 11-20 range now.

[schnittkease]

Indeed, he was there at the end of January. I'd completely forgotten the accusations that resulted about him having displaced Bach (though in truth he displaced Rachmaninov instead). 

It was Schumann, then! 

[Madiel]

It was Schumann, then! 

Yup.

In the library with the candlestick.