Top Ten Composers

For me Elgar and Mendelssohn have to be in the top 10. Otherwise my choices are pretty obvious and have been covered.

Call it blasphomy but I'll take Handel over Bach. Bach doesn't make my top 10.

 

None Dare call it blasphomy

Heretic!

Bring the comfy cushions . . .

 

Brahms "Posthumous" works—from the Op. 111 String Quintet to the end, with the late chamber and keyboard works—is his best, deepest music.

Raises him in my estimation by at least a notch. The Klavierstücke Op.116-119 is beautiful and simple in a way that earlier Brahms is not.

Never met a recording of these late, shorter, keyboard works I didn't adore. Glenn Gould had one of his finest moments in this music, along with Van Cliburn, Radu Lupu, William Kempff—I'd include Nicholas Angelich in that crowd, with a very recent and beautifully recorded set on the Virgin label. I recorded a pianist in Kensington, CA, named Julian White, many times. He always included some of the late Brahms keyboard works in his concerts, if only as an encore. They do not require the ultimate in keyboard technique, they do require sensitivity and musicality.

 

Not the comfy chair!!!!!!!

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition....

 

I'M THE GREATEST AND YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT, BABY!

Hey? Who does?

Here's a link to part two of Anthony Tommasini's series on the Top Ten composers. Today's episode is entitled "The Greatest"

YOU know that a new year has truly arrived when critics stop issuing all those lists of the best films, books, plays, recordings and whatever of the year gone by. These lists seem to be popular with readers, and they stir up lively reactions. Like other critics I enjoy recalling the pieces and performances that struck me as exceptionally good, or exceptionally bad, during the year in classical music.

Yet in other fields, critics and insiders think bigger. Film institutes periodically issue lists of the greatest films of all time. (“Citizen Kane” seems to have a lock on the top spot.) Rock magazines routinely tally the greatest albums ever. And think of professional tennis, with its system of rankings, telling you exactly which player is No. 1 in the world, or 3, or 59.

Imagine if we could do the same in classical music, if there were ways to rank pianists, sopranos and, especially, composers. The Top 10 composers of all time. Now that’s the list I have secretly wanted to compile. It would be absurd, of course, but fascinating. . .​

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/arts/music/09composers.html?ref=arts

 

What? No Buxtehude?

Everybody knows Bach ripped off Buxtehude!



My top ten, in no particular order:

of course, Buxtehude
Bach
Haydn
Schubert (my 5 & 6 year-old daughter's fave)
Vivaldi
Froberger
Dvorak
Johann Strauss
Handel
Tchaikovsky

I guess you could throw those other two guys in there...Mozart & Beethoven but really there are so many I am still discovering...it's hard to pass up .25 & 1.00 classical lps at my favorite vinyl outlet!

 

Sheep go to heaven, kids grow up to be goats . . .

So—what does your organ look like?

Well, the Beatles have been compared to Schubert and everybody knows that those young kids love the Beatles . . .

Amen to that!

 

Who is missing from this lineup? C'mon, who?

 

Back when I owned a Hammond that was the running joke. "Would you like to see my large organ?"

But yeah, good call on the organ!

 

These are the composers I listen to and love the most, in no particular order.

Elgar
Debussy
Mahler
Schubert
Beethoven
Sibelius
Brahms
Tchaikovsky
Chopin
Delius

Composers like Bach and Stravinsky I admire but are maybe too snappy for me. I like a romantic wallow.

I also feel like I need to apologise for loving Elgar more than Mozart because it reeks of deluded national bias. What can I say, his music is just so... Elgarian, you know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS9DJbVDBvQ

 

You're listening to the "Magic Bowel Movement" in C-Minus by. . ."

Igor Ivonovitch Metesky?

 

This post with your avatar looks like Sarah Palin is shooting at the great composers at a carnival. weird image.

 

I think she's more the Toby Keith/Alan Jackson type.

 

As of 10 minutes ago, my "favorite" 10 were:

Beethoven
Haydn
Bach
Mozart
Boccherini
Dvořák
Copland
Ravel
Monteverdi
Handel

 

"Thanks for the insurrection . . ."

Correction—That's Igor Amadeus Metesky.

As regards missing composers, I'd rather listen to Dvořák than Tchaikovsky.

 

Ian MacDonald (Revolution In The Head author) described Tchaikovsky as history's greatest tune maker.

Dvořák wasn't a bad tune maker either.

 

You're right. That's hysterical. And awful.

I think I'll change the one I can change. I'm going to go avatarless for awhile. I don't want to give anyone cooties.

 

I fully agree, though since his interpretation is unconventional (surprise! ) I didn't think it wise for him to be an intro to these works.

BTW, as for Kempff's Brahms, the mono is preferred, right?

 

No love for Telemann?

I always wanted to say that phrase.

 

Interesting his name was brought up, I really think he is an underrated composer. On my top ten list, outside of the usual suspects like Mozart and Bach, would be Johann Strauss. Waltzes do not tend to get the respect, but some of them are just masterful.

 

I would move Schubert up in the list

If you like string chambre ensembles,I dont think anyone does it better than Schubert. You did hit them all however.

 

Who Knew?

Perhaps the most boring composer—ever.

However, I understand that he's fun to play.

 

Wow! Let us know what recordings to avoid.

 

Sounds like he? suggests avoiding them all.

 

Too much of a muchness

"If you like this sort of thing, you'll like this sort of thing."

Anyway, that's what I'd say if I was still working in a record store.