Classical composer talk and rankings

CyberGene

In another discussion I said:

I can categorize my favorite composers in two broad categories:

My favorite all the time composers
My favorite from time to time composers

I thought we might want to move the entire composer talk in its own discussion, and of course a fun and infantile ranking for our guilty pleasures 😀

To clarify, the first category is those composers that I love and listen to consistently often. The second category is those I don't consider worse in any way and I also love them equally but for one reason or another just listen only occasionally.

My Top 10 favorite all the time composers:

Scriabin
Chopin
Bach (He's absolutely the greatest in a more universal way, I just prefer Scriabin and Chopin)
Beethoven
Mozart
Bruckner
Shostakovich
Tchaikovsky
Stravinsky
Sibelius

My Top 10 favorite from time to time composers:

Mahler
Prokofiev
Debussy
Ravel
Handel
Nielsen
Vivaldi
Walton
Richard Strauss
Rachmaninoff

QuasiUnaFantasia

This is difficult, because reviewing your own habits over a long period of time is not easy. But here is my attempt at such lists. I won't attach numbers to them, because to do that honestly would take too much time and introspection. 🙂 But there are ten names on each (and this is for all kinds of music, not just piano).

The all-time list:

Beethoven
Richard Strauss
Tchaikovsky
Schubert
Mahler
Sibelius
Debussy
Grieg
Mozart
Liszt

The from-time-to-time list:

Nielsen
Brahms
Langgaard
Saint-Saens
Zemlinsky
Ravel
Glazunov
Elgar
Gershwin
Hindemith

CyberGene

QuasiUnaFantasia I have to check Langgaard and Zemlinsky, I am not even sure I’ve heard their names.

David B

Bummer. Not having a classical background, I can't play. Although, I've had Chopin, Mozart and Bach CD's/music for over 20 years, and since I started playing the piano a few years ago, I've added these composers to my iTunes library:

Schumann
Debussy
Liszt
Brahms

I don't really have a favorite it just depends on what I'm in the mood for.

God Bless,
David

QuasiUnaFantasia

Langgaard is in a certain sense Denmarks orchestral answer to Satie; not because of similarity of style (Langgaard wrote strictly in the Richard Strauss tradition), but because of their anarchic temperaments.

Zemlinsky was the teacher of Schoenberg and Korngold, and a composer in his own right. I can very much recommend his string quartets, and his "Die Seejungfrau" orchestral work (essentially a symphony).

Khuja Wangtishvili

It more or less looks like this:

All time:

Chopin
Rachmaninov
Scriabin
Debussy
Brahms
Grieg
Liszt
Ravel

From time to time:

Bach
Godowsky
Medtner
French baroque composers (Couperin, Rameau)
Kapustin
Prokofiev
Beethoven
Gershwin
Alkan

MHirsch

In my case, very straight forward.

Bach
Beethoven
Tchaikovsky
Rachmaninoff
Shostakovich
Scriabin
Prokofiev
Debussy
Chopin
Schumann

And from time to time, Mozart.

MacMacMac

Why is ZZ Top not on anyone's list. 😃

MHirsch

MacMacMac It's hard to tell if they play one song over and over again. With one exception - "Viva Las Vegas" is a different one. But not theirs.

QuasiUnaFantasia

MacMacMac ZZ Top did fine work in Back to the future III, but that's not enough to make the list. 🧔🏻

Johnstaf

Mozart
Bach
Beethoven
Ravel
Schumann
Handel
Chopin
Schubert

Liszt
Rameau
Albéniz
Haydn
Wagner
Prokofiev
Bartók
Tchaikovsky
Xenakis
Stravinsky
Gubaidulina
Ligeti
Monteverdi

I put Ravel on my first list, even though I don't listen to him all the time, but that's only because he didn't write a lot of music.

nhanzero

I come from classical guitar so my favourite ones are

Tarrega, Carulli and Sor

But being exposed to classical music from young age, and later listen to a lots of classical composers my favorite is Tchaikovsky, those ballets are just mesmerizing.

johanibraaten

These are the ones that I seems to regularly listen too, and also also often longing to listen to…..

Brahms
Beethoven
Bach
Mozart
Schubert

And these are some composers that I really like and listen to (with no particular ranking order) quite frequently but there are also many others I can't really make a useful selection here.

Chopin
Purcell
Händel
Haydn
Allan Pettersson
Messiaen
Stenhammar
Grieg
Tjajikofskij
Sibelius
Mendelsohn
Schumann
Prokofiev
Rachmaninoff
Shostakovitj
Dvorak
Mahler
etc…….

QuasiUnaFantasia

johanibraaten Stenhammar

I just got somewhat acquainted with Stenhammar's music last year; he is really overlooked. Too bad he was so busy playing piano that he never got to compose a lot of piano music.

johanibraaten

QuasiUnaFantasia I just got somewhat acquainted with Stenhammar's music last year; he is really overlooked. Too bad he was so busy playing piano that he never got to compose a lot of piano music.

Yes I agree. For some reason we don't have any International giant as you nordic neighbors have with Nielsen, Sibelius or Grieg. But if we had, I think Stenhammar would deserve to be it. He did compose two wonderful piano concertos though and the three fantasies and "sensommarnätter" (late summer nights) for piano are among his most famous works.

CyberGene

Our most famous composer is Pancho Vladigerov (the National Academy of Music in Bulgaria is named after him), however he is virtually unknown outside Bulgaria because of a very silly fact. His music is still copyrighted (he died in 1978) and for some obscure reason his descendants hold the rights and make it really difficult for anybody to record his music or even obtain sheet music. The guy has composed some fantastic solo piano music that has basically jazz chords even in 1930-s, and his piano concerts are reminiscent of Rachmaninoff but also integrate Bulgarian folklore themes. It's such a pity...

Here's a recording of his third piano concerto on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP-UpwLANhE

As someone in the comments noted, it's very Gershwinian but 10 years earlier 🙂

And here's one solo piece that I recorded some time ago on my N1X with the on-board sound (the binaural CFX):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVTu4TwKuqs

MHirsch

CyberGene very ear-catching

johanibraaten

CyberGene Our most famous composer is Pancho Vladigerov

Nice, well played🎶 I never heard of him, in a way it reminds me a little of Grieg but in another tonal language if it makes any sense. It's kind of a similar gesture and phrasing. I will listen to the Piano concerto when I have the time, thanks for sharing.

Johnstaf

CyberGene That's great! I love the way you bring the harmony to life.