Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Symphonic Addict]

My almost-never-changing list:

Beethoven (happy birthday!!!)
Brahms
Shostakovich
Nielsen
Sibelius
Dvorak
Martinu
Vaughan Williams
Prokofiev
Respighi

[kyjo]

My almost-never-changing list:

As opposed to MI....

[Mirror Image]

As opposed to MI....

[Symphonic Addict]

As opposed to MI....

Indeed, but you also must admit to have fixation for some special composers of yours: Atterberg (K), Debussy (J), Dvorak (K), Schoenberg (J), (Bartók) (J), Lloyd (Kyle), and so on. Your respective lists have 4 or 7 mandatory composers out of 10 for you, at least.

[Florestan]

Time for an update

Mozart
Schubert
Chopin

Then chronologically

Vivaldi
D. Scarlatti
Haydn
Rossini
Donizetti
Bellini
Verdi

Kicked out Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Beethoven. 

And now that I think of it, all 10 above have something in common which is perhaps not coincidental.

[Mirror Image]

Kicked out Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Beethoven. 

You kicked all the best composers, Andrei! I'm seriously surprised to see Rachmaninov get the boot. Beethoven, too.

[ritter]

Time for an update

Mozart
Schubert
Chopin

Then chronologically

Vivaldi
D. Scarlatti
Haydn
Rossini
Donizetti
Bellini
Verdi

Kicked out Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Beethoven. 

And now that I think of it, all 10 above have something in common which is perhaps not coincidental.

What, no Lanner? 

[Florestan]

You kicked all the best composers, Andrei! I'm seriously surprised to see Rachmaninov get the boot. Beethoven, too.

I genuinely feel sorry only for Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. 

[Florestan]

What, no Lanner? 

Not yet. 

[Florestan]

This of course is not a definitive list. Except the holy trinity of Mozart, Schubert and Chopin everyone else save Haydn might be kicked out at some point in time.  It's just that we're living in dire, grim and ugly times and I've been needing more than ever music which is joyful, witty, tuneful, unpretentious (in the ssense of not pretending to philosophize) and life-affirming --- I found exactly such music in those composers' output. I've been listening to very little Schumann and Beethoven this year, and it's been probably more than a year that I haven't listened to any Brahms. Rachmaninoff's melancholia and humourlesness and Tchaikovsky's neuroticism and sentimentality can be tiresome even to me. Mendelssohn is all right but I had to make place for Scarlatti.

[Karl Henning]

As opposed to MI....

On the other hand, and I'm not saying I haven't posted a list in the past (I may well have) while I can easily rattle off ten favorites, I immediately afterwards regret the omitted favorites.

[Mirror Image]

On the other hand, and I'm not saying I haven't posted a list in the past (I may well have) while I can easily rattle off ten favorites, I immediately afterwards regret the omitted favorites.

Which is why such a list is just a fun little game and nothing serious. I can do a "Top 5" because, for me, this means that these composers are the absolute essentials in your own musical journey, whereas, if you start going to 10, 20, 30, etc. each composer becomes less and less important to you.

[Florestan]

Which is why such a list is just a fun little game and nothing serious.

Fun, of course. Yet it's also serious in the sense that it can offer an accurate picture of a particular moment in one's own life which can vary in length (the moment, that is) but is always limited.

I can do a "Top 5" because, for me, this means that these composers are the absolute essentials in your own musical journey, whereas, if you start going to 10, 20, 30, etc. each composer becomes less and less important to you.

The only top I can do with certainty is Top 3: Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, ie the only composers whose music I never tire of, or get bored from, listening to.

[Mirror Image]

Fun, of course. Yet it's also serious in the sense that it can offer an accurate picture of a particular moment in one's own life which can vary in length (the moment, that is) but is always limited.

The only top I can do with certainty is Top 3: Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, ie the only composers whose music I never tire of, or get bored from, listening to.

A "Top 3" for me would be pretty easy: Debussy, Mahler and Strauss.

[Florestan]

A "Top 3" for me would be pretty easy: Debussy, Mahler and Strauss.

No Martinu, Sibelius or Enescu? 

[staxomega]

Beethoven
Boulez
Schubert
Chopin
JS Bach
Mahler
Schoenberg
Stravinsky
Rachmaninoff
Webern

Shostakovich and Webern was the 10th spot I was going between, but I like everything Webern composed and Shostakovich isn't batting that high. I wish polling station wasn't a subforum, I always forget to look at it until I see it in most recent posts on the homepage. Also leaving off a bunch of other favorites feels like a bit of a crime, a very tough poll, something nice to ruminate about

[kyjo]

You kicked all the best composers, Andrei! I'm seriously surprised to see Rachmaninov get the boot. Beethoven, too.

+1

[kyjo]

Indeed, but you also must admit to have fixation for some special composers of yours: Atterberg (K), Debussy (J), Dvorak (K), Schoenberg (J), (Bartók) (J), Lloyd (Kyle), and so on. Your respective lists have 4 or 7 mandatory composers out of 10 for you, at least.

Yep, and I don't see those composers you mention getting bumped off my list anytime soon!

[vers la flamme]

Beethoven
Boulez
Schubert
Chopin
JS Bach
Mahler
Schoenberg
Stravinsky
Rachmaninoff
Webern

Shostakovich and Webern was the 10th spot I was going between, but I like everything Webern composed and Shostakovich isn't batting that high. I wish polling station wasn't a subforum, I always forget to look at it until I see it in most recent posts on the homepage. Also leaving off a bunch of other favorites feels like a bit of a crime, a very tough poll, something nice to ruminate about

Love that list. Mine would include many of the same names.

[staxomega]

Love that list. Mine would include many of the same names.

Did a ctrl+f and saw your list from 2019, has it changed much? Is Mozart still on it