# what is your favorite classical composer so far?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Matsudaira: i want to hear more frrom this guys the naxos cd is ain't enought

Mazuyumi: what can i say my favorite composer

Isang Yun: was wonderfully suprise by him

Giancinto Scelsi: is a god

Claude vivier: is essential

These guys get many airplay from my stereo

In the more notorious list

Satie: i could ain't live whiteout la gnossienne

Debussy: same thing has satie

Grieg: Wake me up in the morning

Bartók: universe is rich

Lutoslawsky: for some of his work darkness


And that about it :tiphat:

What your lis of essential , composer you could not live whiteout?


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2015)

Shostakovitch. No, wait, Boulez. Sorry, I'm confused, I meant Saint Saynz, er Senf, dammit, Saint-Saëns! No! Debussy. OK, I give up.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

I ment what is your favorite composer*s*(whit an s) so far,i pointed out a list of name and why


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## Fagotterdammerung (Jan 15, 2015)

_Olivier Messiaen._ Nobody comes close. ( Even though I wish they did. )


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I do not know.

Currently the top ten composers in my library are:

Beethoven
Liszt
Britten
Stravinsky
Hindemith
Holst
Chopin
Barber
Elgar
Carter


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

No...............................

I can't think of a favourite. I would be forced to undervalue all of my favourites, but one, in order to name one.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

brotagonist said:


> No...............................
> 
> I can't think of a favourite. I would be forced to undervalue all of my favourites, but one, in order to name one.


He really means composers, plural. See his list?

C'mon, don't be afraid. WE WANT TO KNOW.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> C'mon, don't be afraid. WE WANT TO KNOW.


See my _Hearem_ on my latest blog entry :tiphat:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

brotagonist said:


> See my _Hearem_ on my latest blog entry :tiphat:


Oh, all right. I'll do the work.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

J.S. Bach. Nobody else even comes close. Brings me to a spiritual dimension nobody else can, except maybe the posts of clara s.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

A 'roughly thought out' favourite XI. If only I could line them up on defense in the Super Bowl tomorrow. 

(I guess Phillip theoretically could play, lol).

Mozart 
Beethoven
Mendelssohn
Schubert
Brahms
Bruckner
Mahler
Tchaikovsky
Rachmaninov
Sibelius
Glass


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My top13:

Hors concours (1):
Johann Sebastian Bach

The immortals (3):
Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert

The geniuses (9):
Claude Debussy, Antonin Dvorak, Felix Mendelssohn, Ernest John Moeran, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Dmitri Shostakovitch, Jean Sibelius, Richard Wagner


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I cite my middle school teacher, "people who are satisfied to play favourites, are not open to the delights of surprise!" And I thrive on banging my head in the general direction of surprise without forgetting my back bone!

/ptr


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Same pantheon of Teutonic gods as before: Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Schumann, Bach, Haydn, Strauss, led by the most Teutonic one of them all


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Here's the list of my favorites, who are all "_immortals_", all of 'em _geniuses_, and all of them _Hors concours_ to someone. ;-)

1. Ludwig van Beethoven 
2. Gustav Mahler
3. Franz Schubert
3. Johannes Brahms
4. Claude Debussy
4. Arnold Schoenberg
Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartok, Chopin, and Bruckner in no meaningful order (as I haven't listened to enough yet to decide!)


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I give up. My short list had 20 composers, and even that was excruciating.


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## spokanedaniel (Dec 23, 2014)

J.S. Bach. No contest. I was probably somewhere in my early to middle teens when I first heard his first keyboard partita on the radio. I was in the car with my mother, and we were both so captivated by it that we sat in the car until the end, to hear the announcer say what it was. Since that moment, half a century ago, he has always been my favorite. His music affects my brain in a way I am at a loss to describe. It brings me a peace and tranquility and at the same time is intensely exciting and fascinating. I revere people who can play it well.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

This is, I think a very youthful question, or youth as the person is young to classical music.

That is why there are already a number of somewhat odd 'answers.' It does not take long before those newer to music who have first latched on to one composer as 'the greatest,' before they discover another, and another, and that excitement and appreciation also spreads out over several centuries or more of classical music with its different composers in such distinctly different styles. I have so many 'favorites,' that the word, really only meaning "one." has become such a cover for a plurality of composers that it no longer means anything.

Many composers, from the 12 or 13 hundreds to present, are 'my favorite.'


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2015)

I think my favorite active composers are Saariaho and Haas. Favorite overall is too much thinking right now.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

PertB im fairly new to classic, the list i put is what i dig the most, not that i dont like the 3 B or the 4 B if you count Bruckner
and i like Mozart...My father his a teuton godz worshiper in classical so i heard em a lot in my youth.I know im judge by that criteria.

Or maybe...i dont know, i lisen to mayuzumi and matsudaira each day, im like a junky that need is dose i guess.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

deprofundis said:


> Matsudaira: i want to hear more frrom this guys the naxos cd is ain't enought
> 
> Mazuyumi: what can i say my favorite composer
> 
> ...


Why do you like Claude Vivier so much? My favourite composer today is probably Weckman, because Foccroulle's new recording made me want to genuflect. Yesterday it was Froberger because of the noble spiritual way Leonhardt plays the music on his Teldec CD.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

well i like my claude vivier ''wo bist du licht!'' cd, it is innovative ,striking , powerfull(gong section), may i dare say spooky but i enjoy it.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Gun to my head - Brahms. Just the right balance of emotion and architecture. Deep, oaken textures... consistently impresses me.


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## Fagotterdammerung (Jan 15, 2015)

deprofundis said:


> well i like my claude vivier ''wo bist du licht!'' cd, it is innovative ,striking , powerfull(gong section), may i dare say spooky but i enjoy it.


You should come to Vancouver. The VSO's conductor worships Vivier - you can hear him fairly regularly around here, which, interestingly, couldn't be said as much ten years ago.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

So many that I love, but having said that:

Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert are important "old school" composers to me.

My 20th century favorites are:

Sibelius
Messiaen
Prokofiev
Hindemith
Barber

More recent composers that have really been exciting to me are:

Adams
Rihm
Ades
Maxwell Davies

If I were forced to name one composer who is the MOST special to me of them all, I would say Prokofiev.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

deprofundis said:


> PertB im fairly new to classic, the list i put is what i dig the most, not that i dont like the 3 B or the 4 B if you count Bruckner
> and i like Mozart...My father his a teuton godz worshiper in classical so i heard em a lot in my youth.I know im judge by that criteria.
> 
> Or maybe...i dont know, i lisen to mayuzumi and matsudaira each day, im like a junky that need is dose i guess.


The "need that" is something I still have, and I started as at age six and am now probably old enough to be your grandfather, I still have a very strong 'need that' about music.

I meant no criticism of those 'young' to classical, and many who are older and been listening for so many years, read such posts with a smile, remembering how exciting discovering the 'new' composer or piece was. I'm still at that, with older repertoire I never got around to or the latest piece written last year. Telling you, that 'want that' and new excitement in front of you can never have to go away, because _there is so much fantastic classical music from the medieval to the present day,_ no one person in a lifetime could possibly get to it all!

I only first dropped in to somewhat explain why those first few answers are as they are -- I think they could sound either sarcastic or jaded, i.e. world-weary with music. They are not. They come from those who have listened for some while, and find it truly impossible to choose a favorite out of so many favorites.

One day, having a coffee out, an acquaintance doing a crossword puzzle who was stuck gave me the clue, "name of a composer," showed me the few letters around it and without needing time to think said "Lalo." When I was back at home, out of curiosity I sat down to write out 'from my head' a list of names of composers I knew. I stopped somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes, and had written down over 200 names -- Now, think about how "what is your favorite composer / piece" seems from that point of view 

I remembered your mentioning the Mayazumi, and recalled owning the original LP recording way back in the late 1960's. A few years ago, I recalled it and found it on Youtube, and listened to it again. May something like this happen to you years later after all the listening you have yet to discover and have in front of you.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Bach is the king!!!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> Bach is the king!!!


You are right!!!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Every composer I like except Havergal Brian.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

There are simply too many, but J.S. Bach is #1.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Morimur said:


> There are simply too many, but J.S. Bach is #1.


Completely agree. Agree completely. In total agreement.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

On 7 February 2015 at 11:05:20am PST it was Sibelius. I can't speak for any nanoseconds since then.


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## karenpat (Jan 16, 2009)

This is difficult. There are so many composers I like and sometimes I can get really into an era or style instead of single composer.
*
Mozart, Bach & Händel* - probably the composers I've listened to the most through the years and what got me into classical music.
*Monteverdi & Cavalli* - because I love early opera. *Landi* is also someone who should be included in that category.
*Rameau & Lully* - my first encounters with French baroque and still the composers I listen to the most from that era/style.
*Rossini* - I'm a sucker for coloratura and vocal pyrotechnics, I can't help it. I don't care if people think Rossini isn't serious (or whatever) enough.
*Glass & Nyman *- fell in love with Glass when I heard Metamorphosis Two and have loved Nyman's film music since I saw A Zed and Two Noughts at art school (we were told to pay special attention to the music).

Other random favourites - *Zelenka, Vinci, Hasse, Schubert*... plus *Max Richter* and some film composers like *Einaudi* and *Arnalds.*


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Tchaikovsky and Mahler will probably always be my two favorites. I listen to classical music over a period of about 400 years, but it's hard for me to not see either of these two as the greatest composers of all time.


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## Aleksandar (Feb 21, 2015)

I'm fairly new to the genre. I have listened to some pieces for a couple of years like Mozart's Requiem, Swan Lake, Tristan and Isolde and The Firebird. Started collecting and listening obsessively for the last three months.

So far my favourites are Beethoven and Wagner, followed by Mozart and Bach, then Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, and last but not least Sibelius, Rachmaninofff and Barber.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I could never make an ordered list of my favorite composers, as there are too many and I love them in different ways.

One composer, however, easily takes the number one spot, and that's J.S. Bach.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

^^^Bach towers over all the rest.

According to Schrödinger, there is a quantum decline in quality, dropping down from the No. 1 spot to the No. 2 spot.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

In rough order:

Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Rossini, Dvorak, Hummel, Schumann, Shostakovich, Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Saint-Saens, Liszt, Grieg, Gershwin, Scarlatti

That list is a bit old, now, so there may be a few new composers who have snuck in to join the other greats.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: I love the "so far" in the thread title. One never knows if the greatest composer ever has yet to come along.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I don't have a favorite but lately I've been digging lots of Bach.

Bach, bach, bachhhhhhh.

p.s. at least before my monthly dose of Morton Feldman in March.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I am sorry to disappoint all you Bach lovers, but there is one superior to him:devil:


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Haydn man said:


> I am sorry to disappoint all you Bach lovers, but there is one superior to him:devil:


Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww .


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Haydn man said:


> I am sorry to disappoint all you Bach lovers, but there is one superior to him:devil:


The devil is certainly *not* superior to Bach!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Ingélou said:


> The devil is certainly *not* superior to Bach!


True but how many hours of Bach can you listen to bach to bach?

LOL


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## Dave Whitmore (Oct 3, 2014)

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Brahms, Haydn, Dvorak, Mahler, Mendelssohn. They're the ones I've listened to and enjoyed the most.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I plan to check in here daily.

So far, no changes over the past day; still J.S. Bach.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

albertfallickwang said:


> True but how many hours of Bach can you listen to bach to bach?
> 
> LOL


Not too many. Maybe a couple of hours a year.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Impossible to narrow down to one.

On my short list, today at least, are:

Stravinsky
Bartok
Elliot Carter
Barber


Ask again tomorrow, and the list may be a bit different.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

My favourite remains Jean-Baptiste Lully.
I'll have mine Baroque, with a French twist. 
But I like most early music & Baroque music, and am discovering more every day.
Such as Jean-Marie Leclair's violin concertos - absolutely brilliant!

*Vive la France!*


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Noooo idea.
A few of my favourites, in vague chronological order

Tallis
Purcell
Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
Saint-Saens
RVW
Elgar
Schnittke
Ligeti


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I have several favorites: Mozart JS Bach, Schubert, Handel, Haydn, Brahms, Chopin, and few of the most well-known Russian composers; but I guess out of those Mozart's been my favorite the longest so I know most of his works pretty well and have favorite performances I like to return to when not exploring other music.


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## pierrot (Mar 26, 2012)

I like to stay with the basics: Bach.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

starthrower said:


> Not too many. Maybe a couple of hours a year.


Penalty box time... you are now to listen to 200 hours of Bach in a row


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Daddy Bach is 'till my favorite.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> Daddy Bach is 'till my favorite.


"Daddy" Bach! :lol::lol:

Go Daddy Go!!!:clap:


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Sorry guys but let's not forget the 'Papa'
Bach was great but I feel he was the starter course in classical music before the main man arrived.

On a more serious note I just couldn't pick a single composer and put him above all others, but Haydn gives anyone a run for his money.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn man said:


> I am sorry to disappoint all you Bach lovers, but there is one superior to him:devil:


F. J. Haydn - for me he's no. 1. So much greatness there.

I really like Bach's Christmas Oratorio and his Brandenburg Concertos and Mass in B minor are very good, but I can't somehow 'connect' to him. Maybe this needs a bit more time. But in any case, Haydn always delivers.

Other greats that stick out for me so far: Beethoven, Telemann, Schubert, Chopin, Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Handel, Tchaikovsky. Wagner, Smetana and Rimsky-Korsakov are also very good.


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## Haydnn (Feb 22, 2015)

I think that one will find it's a tie if one takes the top ten compositions of any composer. That's because the compositions are perfect. The real question then becomes who has done it most; and most often. Of course they all have their garbage!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Haydn man said:


> Sorry guys but let's not forget the 'Papa'
> Bach was great but I feel he was the starter course in classical music before the main man arrived.
> 
> On a more serious note I just couldn't pick a single composer and put him above all others, but Haydn gives anyone a run for his money.


Indeed, you are right.

For that, you get penalized with nearly 200 straight hours of Haydn then.


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## pentaquine (Mar 4, 2015)

Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Ravel...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Duplicate post. System screwup.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Checking in for latest at the moment real time update:

My favorite composer up to the moment is J.S. Bach with Copland, Bartok, Schuman, Persichetti and Prokofiev closely behind in second place.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Duplicate post. Messed up system.


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Baroque: Bach, Telemann, Francois Couperin, Handel

Classical: Pleyel, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert

Romantic: Beethoven, John Field, Chopin, Liszt


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## Revel (Feb 25, 2015)

I haven't listened to as many composers as most, but I'll throw my favorites out there. I like both Romantic & Classical era, and of course Mr. Crossover himself...Beethoven.

These are in no particular order. They all have "moments" for me:

Wagner , Bruckner , Beethoven , Tchaikovsky , Vaughan Williams

Haydn , Mozart

Currently exploring DeBussy, Ravel & Sibelius... based on recommendations I've read on these forums. Eventually, I'll attempt more obscure composers. For now, I'm sticking with wildly popular legends.

P.S. - I've yet to give Baroque much of a chance. I need to give Bach his due listening time one of these days. Seems I must be cheating myself out of something pretty significant on that front. There are just so many composers and so much info posted on these forums that it can become overwhelming. I need to pace myself.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

My list would go on way too long if I stepped outside the "classical" composers. But, neatly, if I choose to limit myself to that era have a clear winner - *Haydn*.


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