Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

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

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ChopinBroccoli

Leaving aside other genres and sticking to the umbrella of so-called "Classical Music"

No order:

Beethoven
Ravel
Debussy
Tchaikovsky
R. Strauss
Mozart
Schubert
Prokofiev
Stravinsky
Dvorak

My interests are primarily orchestral and piano music

I have no interest in vocal music or opera ... I have limited interest in chamber music (but am generally open to it completely)
"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!"
- Handel

Mirror Image

Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on December 11, 2019, 09:35:12 PM
Leaving aside other genres and sticking to the umbrella of so-called "Classical Music"

No order:

Beethoven
Ravel
Debussy
Tchaikovsky
R. Strauss
Mozart
Schubert
Prokofiev
Stravinsky
Dvorak

My interests are primarily orchestral and piano music

I have no interest in vocal music or opera ... I have limited interest in chamber music (but am generally open to it completely)

Just out of curiosity, how long have you been listening to classical music? I can sympathize with the ambivalence towards vocal music and opera as I was this way myself, but not anymore. I have an appreciation for all genres within classical, but I'd say if pushed into a corner and forced to choose, I would pick ballet, chamber, and solo piano as the genres I'm most drawn to, but, interestingly enough, so much of the music I've listened to over the past two or so years has been vocal music, especially songs/lieder/mélodies, requiems, and cantatas. I've also listened to more solo piano music than I ever have before.

ChopinBroccoli

Quote from: Mirror Image on December 12, 2019, 06:49:03 PM
Just out of curiosity, how long have you been listening to classical music? I can sympathize with the ambivalence towards vocal music and opera as I was this way myself, but not anymore. I have an appreciation for all genres within classical, but I'd say if pushed into a corner and forced to choose, I would pick ballet, chamber, and solo piano as the genres I'm most drawn to, but, interestingly enough, so much of the music I've listened to over the past two or so years has been vocal music, especially songs/lieder/mélodies, requiems, and cantatas. I've also listened to more solo piano music than I ever have before.

Around 25 years or so... I'm the pickiest bastard on Earth.  I'm a jazz lover as well and have the same bias there when it comes to singers.  No tolerance for them. 

Pop music, R&B, Rock n Roll, folk, bluegrass, whatever you like - I like singing just as much as the next person but the best you'll get out of me in classical or jazz is a musician's respect for the skill and talent of the vocalist.  I've explored these realms (listened to the great operas, lieder from Schubert, Schumann, Mahler etc, Cantatas) but they are simply unappealing to me.  A wordless choir (along the lines of Daphnis et Chloe) is a different story.  Used to good effect (as it certainly is in that dazzling masterpiece) I can enjoy something like that immensely.



"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!"
- Handel

Mirror Image

Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on December 12, 2019, 08:04:07 PM
Around 25 years or so... I'm the pickiest bastard on Earth.  I'm a jazz lover as well and have the same bias there when it comes to singers.  No tolerance for them. 

Pop music, R&B, Rock n Roll, folk, bluegrass, whatever you like - I like singing just as much as the next person but the best you'll get out of me in classical or jazz is a musician's respect for the skill and talent of the vocalist.  I've explored these realms (listened to the great operas, lieder from Schubert, Schumann, Mahler etc, Cantatas) but they are simply unappealing to me.  A wordless choir (along the lines of Daphnis et Chloe) is a different story.  Used to good effect (as it certainly is in that dazzling masterpiece) I can enjoy something like that immensely.

Very interesting to read. I'm also a huge jazz fan. I listened to jazz for about 15 years straight before venturing into classical music. My love for classical is predominantly for the Romantic Era and 20th Century. I especially am quite fond of the last decade of the 1890s up to around 1930. This 40 year period is absolutely incredible and the reason why I got into classical in the first place. No love for Debussy's mélodies or his opera, Pelléas et Mélisande? How about Ravel's Trois poèmes de Mallarmé or Shéhérazade?

ChopinBroccoli

Quote from: Mirror Image on December 12, 2019, 08:32:37 PM
Very interesting to read. I'm also a huge jazz fan. I listened to jazz for about 15 years straight before venturing into classical music. My love for classical is predominantly for the Romantic Era and 20th Century. I especially am quite fond of the last decade of the 1890s up to around 1930. This 40 year period is absolutely incredible and the reason why I got into classical in the first place. No love for Debussy's mélodies or his opera, Pelléas et Mélisande? How about Ravel's Trois poèmes de Mallarmé or Shéhérazade?

I love that period as well!

When I hear those, all I keep thinking is how much I'd love them if the singers were a violin or a cello or an oboe  ;D

I'm afraid I'm a lost cause on this subject
"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!"
- Handel

Mirror Image

Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on December 12, 2019, 08:41:59 PM
I love that period as well!

When I hear those, all I keep thinking is how much I'd love them if the singers were a violin or a cello or an oboe  ;D

I'm afraid I'm a lost cause on this subject

No problem. It doesn't hurt to ask. We simply like what we like --- there's no reason for any explanation. 8)

ChopinBroccoli

Quote from: Mirror Image on December 12, 2019, 08:45:03 PM
No problem. It doesn't hurt to ask. We simply like what we like --- there's no reason for any explanation. 8)

;)
"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!"
- Handel

Mirror Image

#1007
I suppose it's time for a bit of an update:

'Top 3' - Debussy, Ravel, and Bartók



The other 7 -

First row: Sibelius, Stravinsky, Enescu
Second row: Fauré, Poulenc, Britten
Third row: Takemitsu





vers la flamme

I'll try this, but it will be so tentative, given that I've only been really into classical music for about a year at this point.

In no particular order:

Maurice Ravel
Robert Schumann
Gustav Mahler
Ludwig van Beethoven
Anton Webern
Jean Sibelius
Johannes Brahms
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Alexander Scriabin
Johann Sebastian Bach

Composers who just barely didn't make the cut: Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Arnold Schoenberg. I'm rethinking my choices just writing this... Ask me again in a year and the list will be quite different.

steve ridgway

I first bought a couple of classical music CDs, Ligeti and Varese, three years ago, but have only really got into much in the last year or so since joining the forum. Some sort of milestone has now been reached in finding 10 composers that I enjoy enough to want to explore further. In alphabetical order -

Harrison Birtwistle
Pierre Boulez
George Crumb
Gyorgy Ligeti
Luigi Nono
Krzysztof Penderecki
Giacinto Scelsi
Alfred Schnittke
Toru Takemitsu
Edgard Varese

springrite

Quote from: 2dogs on December 26, 2019, 08:49:08 PM
I first bought a couple of classical music CDs, Ligeti and Varese, three years ago, but have only really got into much in the last year or so since joining the forum. Some sort of milestone has now been reached in finding 10 composers that I enjoy enough to want to explore further. In alphabetical order -

Harrison Birtwistle
Pierre Boulez
George Crumb
Gyorgy Ligeti
Luigi Nono
Krzysztof Penderecki
Giacinto Scelsi
Alfred Schnittke
Toru Takemitsu
Edgard Varese
That's a very exciting and attractive list!
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

steve ridgway

Quote from: springrite on December 26, 2019, 09:15:21 PM
That's a very exciting and attractive list!

I must have struck lucky in my ignorance ;D.

vers la flamme

^Never would have pegged you for a Verdi guy based on your affinity for chamber and solo piano music. I need to spend more time with his operas.

San Antone

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 30, 2019, 02:06:36 AM
^Never would have pegged you for a Verdi guy based on your affinity for chamber and solo piano music. I need to spend more time with his operas.

There was a time when I was listening to a lot of opera, and Verdi was always the composer whose works appealed to me the most.  Vocal music in general is a big interest to me, choral works more so than lieder.  I've been listening and thinking about Bach cantatas and then I plan on delving into the Wagner Ring, so returning to Verdi was a natural evolution.

Anyway, it may not last, but for now, it is nice to revisit some of the works I used to love.

8)

Mirror Image

Quote from: San Antone on December 30, 2019, 03:29:40 AM
There was a time when I was listening to a lot of opera, and Verdi was always the composer whose works appealed to me the most.  Vocal music in general is a big interest to me, choral works more so than lieder.  I've been listening and thinking about Bach cantatas and then I plan on delving into the Wagner Ring, so returning to Verdi was a natural evolution.

Anyway, it may not last, but for now, it is nice to revisit some of the works I used to love.

8)

There was a time I was listening to a lot of Tchaikovsky, too, but my tastes have become quite refined. Nowadays, I can't even listen to Tchaikovsky. I can't stand most of those Italian opera composers with Verdi rising near the top of this musical junk heap.

San Antone

Quote from: Mirror Image on December 30, 2019, 06:50:05 AM
There was a time I was listening to a lot of Tchaikovsky, too, but my tastes have become quite refined. Nowadays, I can't even listen to Tchaikovsky. I can't stand most of those Italian opera composers with Verdi rising near the top of this musical junk heap.

Yes, my taste is not nearly as refined as yours and I enjoy junk like Verdi.

8)

Mirror Image

Quote from: San Antone on December 30, 2019, 06:55:12 AM
Yes, my taste is not nearly as refined as yours and I enjoy junk like Verdi.

8)

Well, I didn't mean to sound so dismissive of Italian opera, but I never understood the attraction. And what I mean by 'refined' is that I have finally been able to cut away the excess fat and get to essence of what I love in classical music.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Mirror Image on December 24, 2019, 09:28:17 PM
I suppose it's time for a bit of an update:

'Top 3' - Debussy, Ravel, and Bartók



The other 7 -

First row: Sibelius, Stravinsky, Enescu
Second row: Fauré, Poulenc, Britten
Third row: Takemitsu





This is still a damn fine list and, if any changes I had in mind, I might substitute Poulenc for Schoenberg (or Berg).

Mirror Image

#1018
Time for an update:

'Top 3' - Debussy, Ravel, and Bartók



The other 7 (in no particular order) -

First row: Ives, Stravinsky, Enescu
Second row: Fauré, Schoenberg, Szymanowski
Third row: Britten




Christo

I think I gave my Eternal List once or twice already and considering my age I guess it won't change that much anymore, except for one or two names still entering my repertoire. That said, I realized that in reality we often listen to completely other lists, more actual, less eternal. Since December the composers I played most often include mostly names never found on it, yet 'the right music' to listen to now:

Pēteris Vasks
Hendrik Andriessen
Eugene Goossens
Ēriks Ešenvalds
Olav Kielland
Ola Gjeilo
Joseph Jongen
Johann Sebastian Bach
Joseph Reinberger

(And, as always, RVW, the 'eternally No. 1' on most of my lists and only one I cannot live without  8))
... 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