GMG 2014 Composer of the Year Award

[Mandryka]

Louis Couperin; Brian Ferneyhough

[Jay F]

I mainly listened to chamber music from Schubert and Beethoven this year, but Mahler is my composer of the year every year. Thanks to whoever suggested the Honeck/Pittsburgh SACDs, btw. I'm now enjoying the First, and the others are on their way.

[Pat B]

Mahler.

Shostakovich is preparing for a big 2015 at my place.

[NorthNYMark]

Shostakovich for me.

[milk]

Morton Feldman

[Moonfish]

Richard Strauss is my choice for the GMG 2014 Composer of the Year Award. The soundscape he creates is fascinating and allows one to truly wander into a dreamlike landscape of music. "Eine Alpensinfonie" is astounding in its power and beauty! Fascinating! His tone poems evoked many such moments for me this year and made me journey further into his discography. I suspect that this journey will continue in 2015 and for the rest of my life. 

[Philo]

Grieg

[The new erato]

Nothing has given me more pleasure than the great new recordings of Alan Petterson by Christian Lindberg, prompting me to discover works I didn't know well and discovering that they are great too (no 4, 16 and 9).

[ritter]

In my personal case, 2014 has been marked by a sort of renaissance of two major figures of the Italian post-WWII avant-garde: Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna. My nomination goes ex aequo to them....

   

[snyprrr]

In my personal case, 2014 has been marked by a sort of renaissance of two major figures of the Italian post-WWII avant-garde: Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna. My nomination goes ex aequo to them....

Really? Have you the Neos Maderna Cycle? Bracing stuff...

[Ken B]

My guesses.

EigenUser......Ligeti
snyprrr.........Shostakovich
Mirror Image..Richard Strauss
Ken B...........Stockhausen CPE Bach
Gurn............Haydn
Discobole......Haydn
GSMoeller.....Bruckner
Brian...........Schubert

Good guesses! I think with Brian you peeked ...
You are out of date with John of course. I guess JLA, so that I can be out of date too.
CPEB is a good guess for me, but I have been listening to him a lot for several years. I will give it a few minutes thought.

[Ken B]

Seems like it's been Haydn year from here... I don't know that the big man's ever gotten so much attention from a bunch of Mahler-Shostakovich-Pettersson-Havergal Brian addicts as in 2014.

Like MI I have a new composer every week but if I had to name one from this year I'm strongly tempted to say JN Hummel.

Hummel would have been my clear choice in 2009. Until then he was just a name and a trumpet concerto for me.

[Ken B]

Richard Strauss is my choice for the GMG 2014 Composer of the Year Award. The soundscape he creates is fascinating and allows one to truly wander into a dreamlike landscape of music. "Eine Alpensinfonie" is astounding in its power and beauty! Fascinating! His tone poems evoked many such moments for me this year and made me journey further into his discography. I suspect that this journey will continue in 2015 and for the rest of my life. 

Fickleness thy name is Moonfish

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[Ken B]

The composers I have listened to most this year are Mahler, Brahms, Schubert, ten Holt, Bruckner. But there is one composer, whose music I have sought out in bits for decades  and which I have found good but not great, who came through with a vengeance this time,  the first new entry in my Top 10 list in some time, The Feast of Love. So I pick Virgil Thomson.

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Sorry Brian!

[snyprrr]

Still, in a broader sense, Shostakovich IS the Composer of the Year, because, at least in the country i live in, many of the signs of creeping


nevermind


all the surveillance - the terror state- the paranoia-  2014 is definitely a Shostakovich year!

[Karl Henning]

[...] 2014 is definitely a Shostakovich year!

That is just exactly what 2015 wants you to think . . . .

[Que]

Composer of the year 2014 is IMO CPE Bach:



Not only was 2014 the year of the 300th anniversary of his birthday, which led to multiple valuable issues of recordings of his music.

But all this attention - more importantly - actually worked: there has been a considerable surge at GMG in interest and appreciation for his music - which is well deserved! 

Happy anniversary CPE, your star is rising.

Q

PS And please no nominations for Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius or Shostakovich..... it is their anniversary every day, here at GMG...

[Linus]

Not only was 2014 the year of the 300th anniversary of his birthday, which led to multiple valuable issues of recordings of his music.

But all this attention - more importantly - actually worked: there has been a considerable surge at GMG in interest and appreciation for his music - which is well deserved! 

Happy anniversary CPE, your star is rising.

I've completely missed out on this.

Where would you fellows say CPE is situated in the Classical "pantheon"? Top 20? Top 50?

[Que]

I've completely missed out on this.

Where would you fellows say CPE is situated in the Classical "pantheon"? Top 20? Top 50?

That is always hard to say. These short lists are highly dependable on personal taste.

CPE is not a Mozart, and shouldn't be compared with his dad, but I would say CPE defintely belongs on any comprehensable short list of 2nd tier composers.

The significance of the whole CPE revival is that CPE, as (one of)  its most significant representative(s), gives a face to the period between the Baroque and the First Viennese School (Haydn, Mozart et al) - a period known under names as Galant, Rococo, pre-Classical, often here dubbed as the "Transitional period". The many names shown its many faces and guises. I guess the difficulty to "pigeon hole"music from this period as led to its underappreciation.

Fortunately music from  that period is undergoing a huge revival!

Q

[Linus]

Thanks for the info, Que, much appreciated.

I think CPE will be one of my new discoveries of early 2015.