Your First Favorite Composer?

[Florestan]

Who was your first favorite composer? Is he still in the same position?

My answers: Beethoven. No.

[Brian]

I think the only "number one" favorites I have had are Dvorak and Beethoven, and they are still the top two. Have not had a composer in or near my favorites who then fell out of that rank, although I did have a Khachaturian phase around age 20.

[Sergeant Rock]

Wagner was my first, and he is still part of my musical trinity.

Sarge

[Jo498]

Not so easy to answer for me. The closest is probably Beethoven and Yes. But I could argue that Tchaikovsky was a favorite before that because the handful of pieces that got me into classical music was dominated by Tchaikovsky but there was also Grieg, Dvorak and other usual suspects. But within the year or so I got to know more music, Beethoven emerged as a clear favorite and there were times when I hardly listened to anything else. Nowadays I sometimes don't listen to Beethoven for many weeks but it's still the clearest favorite, if I have to name one.

[Elgarian Redux]

Berlioz for a few weeks (Symphonie Fantastique was all I knew).

Then Rimsky Korsakov for a few weeks (Scheherezade was all I knew).

Then Elgar for the rest of a lifetime, and he's still top dog.

[Draško]

Tchaikovsky (violin concerto) and Rachmaninov (piano concertos 2 & 3).

They are still among my top favorites.

[NikF]

Prokifiev. Nyet.

[vandermolen]

Rimsky-Korsakov. No, but I still enjoy his music.

[ritter]

Wagner. Yes, yes, YEEEESSSS!

[MN Dave]

Beethoven. And yes.

[The new erato]

I had a serious Bruckner binge when I discovered classical in the 70ies. Now I prefer smaller scale sorks and find Anton slightly too repetitive.

[flyingdutchman]

Tchaikovsky and yes.

[71 dB]

Berlioz for a few weeks (Symphonie Fantastique was all I knew).

Then Rimsky Korsakov for a few weeks (Scheherezade was all I knew).

Then Elgar for the rest of a lifetime, and he's still top dog.

John Williams (80's) & Mussorgsky (early 90's).

Then Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov (mid 90's). At this point I listened to classical music very little as a curiosity. I had no clue how much classical music had to offer.

Then I heard Elgar's Enigma Variations on radio and everything changed (December 1996). It was a shocking experience and I was totally blown away. Half a year later J. S. Bach hit hard and those two composer still are my top favorites. The last 20 years has seen changes in my top ten, but not in my top 2.

[SymphonicAddict]

Beethoven. Sometimes, it depends on my mood, but generally, he stands like my "god" in music.

[Ken B]

Tchaikovsky. No.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Beethoven. Yes, although it used to be for the symphonies and now it is for the string quartets and piano sonatas.

[TheGSMoeller]

Richard Strauss. Yes.

[Christo]

Antonin Dvořák - no. but still love his music.

[amw]

Beethoven, and I'm not sure, because my relationship to his music has changed significantly over time, but not so much in terms of "favourite" or "less favourite" and much more in terms of influence, critical appraisal and how I see my own compositional ambitions in relation to his work.

To be slightly less opaque: when I started out as a baby classical listener (age 7ish) I considered the works of Beethoven to be perfect, to have a sense of unpredictability about them that gave them great energy but paradoxically, in retrospect, felt inevitable—I believed every note he chose to be the only possible one to maximise acoustical perfection whilst also using our expectations as part of his canvas to subvert or fulfil for maximum effect. Obviously as a seven year old I would have said this in different, smaller words (Leonard Bernstein's Joy of Music programmes, which we had on VHS cassettes, gave me some of the language to describe it). My goal in starting to write music was to reach and surpass this high water mark, to essentially become "better than Beethoven."

Nowadays my views on Beethoven's music have changed significantly: I don't think "inevitability" is entirely real but rather something that can be constructed within a given tonal language, can see & appreciate the structural and musical flaws in Beethoven's work as well as the positive aspects, and understand him within his cultural and social context rather than as a "universal" composer divorced from worldly considerations. I do not see the flaws as "making Beethoven greater" or whatever—simply as a realisation that there is no such thing as an ars perfecta. Many of his works are still very important to me & among my favourites within their genres, and his music gives me a lot of enjoyment and emotional connection, but not necessarily more than that of some other composers. (nothing by Beethoven has ever moved me to tears, for instance.) I also don't think of him as "the one to beat" anymore. Still he is far and away the most important composer in my life due to driving my engagement with classical music & decision from an early age to pursue it as lifestyle and career choice.

[Judith]

Tchaikovsky. Loved his Piano Concerto no 1(still love Tchaikovsky and the piano concerto).  When I was a teenager, had a soft spot for Andre Previn and knew this piano concerto because of him🎼🎼