# Apart from Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms and Wagner what else do you listen to?



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

It seems to me that every second or third thread is about one of the above-mentioned composers (Mahler too) and I wonder if these few really take up so much listening time, or if the picture is skewed by the threads.

I can't imagine (well I can) that people have a large CD collection only consisting of this limited palette. So which other composers do people here listen to on a regular basis? Let's leave people like J.S. Bach out of this because he's a giant and most people listen to him.

As a starter, among the things I like are Scarlatti and C.P.E Bach and also Couperin's harpsichord suites; French music of the later 19thC particularly Satie, Debussy's later works; British music like that of Elgar, William Walton, Britten (but not so much Delius or Tippet). I also listen to a lot of Jean Francaix because it's uplifting music with humour.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

All those you listed, plus Mozart and Bach are now less than 10% of what I listen to. There isn't much more to get out of the music I've been so familiar with. I play it more for the experience like watching an old movie. Most of the music I listen to is to stretch my musical limits both in modern and renaissance. Personally I look at music like a journey. I used to just rely on certain pieces to get those thrills, emotional wallops, and adrenaline rushes, but felt I wasn't progressing, like watching a certain movie or scene over and over.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I listen to many different composers. Here's a list of the twenty composers that I listen to the most frequently:

1. Beethoven
2. Haydn
3. Mozart
4. Schubert
5. Chopin
6. Debussy
7. Tchaikovsky
8. Ravel
9. Schumann
10. Dvořák 
11. Brahms
12. Mendelssohn
13. J.S. Bach
14. Handel
15. Liszt
16. Saint-Saëns 
17. Franck
18. Respighi
19. Sweelinck
20. Fauré


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> All those you listed, plus Mozart and Bach are now less than 10% of what I listen to. There isn't much more to get out of the music I've been so familiar with. I play it more for the experience like watching an old movie. Most of the music I listen to is to stretch my musical limits both in modern and renaissance. Personally I look at music like a journey. I used to just rely on certain pieces to get those thrills, emotional wallops, and adrenaline rushes, but felt I wasn't progressing, like watching a certain movie or scene over and over.


Well, I added the names really to avoid it being vague. The large majority of music I listen to now is by people I've mostly never heard of, or by those whom I didn't like so much a decade or two ago (because they were modernists), but have now grown to like.

I don't mind saying that I still listen to Mozart and Beethoven and Bach quite regularly among the other stuff. It's a bit pretentious when people say they 'only or mostly listen to modern or traditional or whatever'; sometimes about projecting an image of listener sophistication. I'm not accusing you of this, just remarking on the things I hear people say in real life.

It's comparable to those people who, when asked if they saw such-and-such a programme on the telly, reply: 'oh I don't own a television'.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Other than those mentioned by the OP, the overwhelming portion my classical listening is to:

Haydn
Mozart
Vivaldi
Schubert
Schumann
Mendelssohn
Dvorak
Sibelius
Grieg
Tchaikovsky
Mahler
Borodin
Prokofiev
Rachmaninoff
Debussy
Ravel
Vaughan Williams
Butterworth
Barber
Respighi


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Whenever we are asked this question I provide the following:
Mahler
Stravinsky
Holst
Hindemith
Chopin
Britten
Elgar
Vivaldi
Carter
Prokofiev
Bax
Shostakovich
Mozart
Liszt
Copland
Sibelius
Martinu
Dvorak
Hovhaness
Debussy
Morton Gould
Tchaikovsky
Persichetti
William Schuman
Rautavaara
Granger
Schoenberg
Ives
Vaughn Williams
Bartok
Corigliano
Webern
Bernstein
Bach
Strauss
Respighi
Milhaud
Alwyn
Arnold
Nielson
Chavez
Berlioz
MacMillan
Ginastera
Hanson
Lutoslawski
Maslanka
Villa-Lobos
Harbison
Saint-Saens
Holmboe
Rimsky-Korsakov
John Williams
Piston
Daugherty
Ravel
Simpson

And that is when I am sober.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I listen to Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Bartok, Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc, Martinu, Respighi, Rautaavara, Shostakovich, Sibelius, and some up-and-coming composers such as Schumann, Mozart, and Bach. Puccini also.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Maybe it's worth starting a few threads from that long list.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Johann Sebastian Bach


Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert


Claude Debussy, Antonin Dvorak, Felix Mendelssohn, Ernest John Moeran, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Dmitri Shostakovitch, Jean Sibelius, Richard Wagner

William Alwyn, Samuel Barber, Arnold Bax, Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Benjamin Britten, Anton Bruckner, Frederic Chopin, Gabriel Faure, Edvard Grieg, Sofia Gubaidulina, Joseph Haydn, Modest Mussorgsky, Carl Nielsen, Sergei Prokofiev, Giacomo Puccini, Joachim Raff, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Ottorino Respighi, Camille Saint-Saens, Aulis Sallinen, Richard Strauss, Josef Suk, Toru Takemitsu, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Peteris Vasks, Ralph Vaughan Williams

John Adams, Kalevi Aho, Hugo Alfven, Anton Arensky, Malcolm Arnold, Kurt Atterberg, Grazina Bacewicz, Carl P.E. Bach, Granville Bantock, Amy Beach, Alban Berg, Luciano Berio, Max Bruch, Gavin Bryars, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Frederick Delius, Alphons Diepenbrock, Edward Elgar, George Enescu, John Field, Gerald Finzi, Cesar Franck, Luis de Freitas Branco, Robert Fuchs, George Gershwin, Philip Glass, Alexander Glazunov, Reinhold Gliere, Henryk Gorecki, Alexander Gretchaninov, Howard Hanson, Hamilton Harty, Paul Hindemith, Vagn Holmboe, Gustav Holst, Alan Hovhaness, Hans Huber, Johann Hummel, John Ireland, Giya Kancheli, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Charles Koechlin, Erich Korngold, Leopold Kozeluch, Jon Leifs, Douglas Lilburn, Franz Liszt, Sergei Lyupanov, James MacMillan, Bohuslav Martinu, Peter Maxwell Davies, Olivier Messiaen, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Goesta Nystroem, Arvo Part, Hans Pfitzner, Astor Piazzolla, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Max Reger, Steve Reich, Ferdinand Ries, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Christopher Rouse, Franz Schmidt, Alfred Schnittke, Robert Schumann, Peter Sculthorpe, Valentin Silvestrov, Bedrich Smetana, Louis Spohr, Charles Villiers Stanford, Igor Stravinsky, Karol Szymanowski, Eduard Tubin, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Antonio Vivaldi, Carl Maria von Weber, Charles-Marie Widor, Alexander von Zemlinsky

and many others.......


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

In alphabetical and chronological order:

BACH!!!


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Martinu, Ravel, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvorak and oodles more.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

All in alphabetical order!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

eugeneonagain said:


> All in alphabetical order!


A fine list!

I bet your favorite movie is "The Invisible Man."


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

hpowders said:


> A fine list!
> 
> I bet your favorite movie is "The Invisible Man."


On what presumption may I ask?


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## AClockworkOrange (May 24, 2012)

I won't go into all of them (too many indeed) but I would give some examples- especially in a British music.

I have found exploring British works particularly satisfying. Composers such as Malcolm Arnold, Arnold Bax, Edmund Rubbra, Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Arthur Bliss, Frederic Delius, William Alwyn, Granville Bantock, Havergal Brian, Arnold Cooke, Gustav Holst (outside of the Planets), Moeran and Robert Simpson. Very recent discoveries through the Gamba/BBC NOW recordings on chsndos include Frederic Cowen, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Alan Rawsthorne and Arthur Sullivan (in his own right).

These are in addition to the more recognised Elgar and Vaughan Williams. I listen to very little Britten, hit and miss for my tastes but some pieces stand out.

Other standouts in my regular listening include (in no order) Martinu, Saint-Saens, Berlioz, Faure, Suk, Dvorak, Sibelius, Nielsen, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, CPE Bach, Haydn, Shostakovich, Wolf, Mendelssohn (Felix & Fanny), Liszt, Stravinsky,Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Dohnanyi, Schumann, Schubert, Khachaturian, Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, Honegger - I could go on and on so I'll have fall back on et al.

Martinu is a relatively recent discovery and a favourite and I'm surprised he isn't more recognised. 

I also prefer CPE Bach over JS Bach by a hair, his influence on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven is invaluable and very much as a Composer in his own right.

Of the Warhorses listed,only Beethoven and Brahms would make my top 10 (unless you wanted to put Haydn and Mozart I. That group). I do regard Mahler, Bruckner and Wagner highly but if I were picking a top 10 it would be based purely on personal taste which has evolved as I have listened to more and more music. I don't feel duty bound to squeeze them in. It wouldn't be too heavily British either.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

eugeneonagain said:


> On what presumption may I ask?


On the presumption that your list is invisible.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

hpowders said:


> On the presumption that your list is invisible.


I did list some composers in the first post. Not a list, but it wasn't necessary to list every scrap of music I've listened to.


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## Melvin (Mar 25, 2011)

It's really fun, after you've heard most of the standard repertoire enough, when you get to start digging through all the nooks and crannies. For me it seems that there is always another composer on my list to get to in the future, but I also like to take my time and not get too far ahead of myself, and focus on enjoying and familiarizing myself with a few composers at a time.
Couperin and CPE Bach are definitely two from my list that will warrant further exploration some day.

Sometimes I go by niche:

Suppose if you (like me) really like Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven... then there are composers like Weber, JN Hummel, Eberl, Berwald, and Ries. Currently I am exploring Berwald with great relish, and I have yet to explore Ries. Hummel's Op. 74 is a masterpiece.

If you like French Impressionism, this is a rich vein to explore. Faure, Chausson, Roussel, D'Indy, Ropartz, Francaix, Schmidt, Vierne, and many many others. These I will never be finished exploring.
Or the great Spanish and Basque Impressionists. Do not miss Turina or De Falla, they are excellent. I love Turina's piano trios.

Or american music. Right now I am really enjoying Samuel Adler and Benjamin Lees.

Also their is a ton of 20th century British music that I have hardly even scratched the surface of yet! I've recently just heard some great pieces by Walton, Arnold, and Tippet, and I am excited to explore further!


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

________________


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

I rarely listen to Bruckner. Or Brahms. A lot of Strauss and Sibelius though. And Schubert.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Like some others have said, I listen to a lot of stuff from different eras. I've been listening to a lot of Italian/Czech Baroque/Classical era stuff lately. Some of this is by composers who are known here on TC, but they usually aren't discussed frequently. There's a few composers who I search for on here and nothing/barely anything comes up. Oh well. One of the problems with Baroque/early Classical composers is that they wrote so much surviving stuff. It's possible to listen to a lot from a particular composer and still be just scratching the surface of what that composer wrote. That can make it difficult to intelligently "Talk Classical" about some of these composers.

Some other composers I've been listening to recently include Christoph Graupner , Michael Haydn, and of course CPE Bach. Christoph Graupner is someone worth checking out if you have not before. I find his music has a bit of an unusual, but likeable, texture.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

My favorite composers not in the "giant" category:

Scriabin
Taneyev
Myaskovsky
Weinberg
Gade
Froberger
Buxtehude
Scheidemann
Herzogenberg


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

I'd put composers like Bartók, Domenico Scarlatti, Finzi, Rameau, Gesualdo, Villa-Lobos, Janáček, Monteverdi right up there with the Mozart's and Beethoven's and Bach's of the world as some of my favorite composers.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Art Rock said:


> Johann Sebastian Bach
> 
> Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert
> 
> ...


Man. you have some from my drunk list and some from my Vicodin list


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

eugeneonagain said:


> I did list some composers in the first post. Not a list, but it wasn't necessary to list every scrap of music I've listened to.


Okay. I must have had my distance glasses on, instead of my reading glasses....both separate from my rum shot glasses.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

I have few composers to add from others' lists, but I will say that I try to listen to _much_ more than those composers. My recent listening (past month or so):

Lots of music by Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Bach, and Messiaen. Also some music by Mompou, Biber, Dukas, Xenakis, and Cage. I actually very rarely listen to Wagner and Bruckner.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

arpeggio said:


> Whenever we are asked this question I provide the following:
> Mahler
> Stravinsky
> Holst
> ...


No Haydn!
The boys will be visiting later to 'educate' you


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

arpeggio said:


> Whenever we are asked this question I provide the following:
> Mahler
> Stravinsky
> Holst
> ...


I am anxious to see the list when you are not sober.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Haydn man said:


> No Haydn!
> The boys will be visiting later to 'educate' you


This is one of the reasons I tend to avoid these lists. No matter who is on it someone will make a remark about who is missing. You forgot to mention that Handel, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Mendelssohn and Schubert are missing as well. There is no way that I could list all of the composers that I enjoy listening to. That was the point of my ridiculous list. Many of the missing are on Art Rocks' list.

And all the time I am learning about new composers who are being added to the list like Felix Alexandre Guilmant. I play with a community orchestra, the McLean Symphony, and we will be performing his _Symphony for Organ and Orchestra no 1 in D minor_. Our soloist is awesome. I was getting so excited during the dress rehearsal yesterday I kept getting lost.

FYI I am a big fan of Haydn's string quartets.

I am waiting for jokes about some of the ones who are on it.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Though there are certainly many favourite composers who I've listened to a lot over the years, that doesn't necessarily mean I've listened to them recently. I tend to be eclectic and exploratory in what I listen to.

Here's a list of my 30 most recently played composers:

Marc Mellits
Per Nørgård
Rodion Shchedrin
Terry Riley
JS Bach
Max Richter
Mieczyslaw Weinberg
Michael Ippolito
John Adams
Gustav Mahler
Gottfried August Homilius
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Kurt Weill
John Luther Adams
Georg Philipp Telemann
Ernest Chausson
Julia Wolfe
Joseph Haydn
Orazio Vecchi
Maurice Ravel
Elena Kats-Chernin
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Antonín Dvořák
Ted Hearne
Howard Skempton
Alexandre Tansman
Pavel Haas
Leopold Kozeluch
Carl Heinrich Graun
Ludwig van Beethoven

The presence or absence of any particular composer on that list has no significance for the general question "what do you listen to?"


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Liszt
Prokofiev
Mozart
Debussy
Händel


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> The presence or absence of any particular composer on that list has no significance for the general question "what do you listen to?"


Great remark :tiphat:


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Which don't I listen to would be an easier question.


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

PALESTRINA

Thomas Tallis

Hildegard von Bingen

Schoenberg

Webern

Berg

Cage

Stockhausen

Henry Cowell

Harry Partch

Mozart

Handel


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## dillonp2020 (May 6, 2017)

The following is my order of composers I listen to the most

Beethoven (by a mile)
Bach
Puccini
Verdi
Shostakovich
Mahler
Chopin
Prokofiev
Mozart
Vivaldi
As you can see, I listen primarily to composers other than those the OP listed, with the exception of Beethoven, and I make no apologies for that.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Besides Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner (I don't listen to Wagner), I listened to these composers recently: Croce, Daniel Corral, Seixas, Cage, Peter Garland, Abel, Chausson, Schoenberg, Fricker, J. L. Adams, Schubert, Bolcom, Haydn, Pizzetti, Forqueray, Hába, Mayuzumi, Lou Harrison, Creshevsky, Nyman, Dusapin, Finnissy, Pohle, Rudhyar, Frey, Stradella. And compilation albums of Medieval~Baroque (mostly keyboard and vocal music) and modern~contemporary composers (Donaueshingen, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Redshift, koto by Yoshimura, Yarn/Wire)


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: Talk radio.


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

10 most listened to over the last few months:

Beethoven, Wagner, Palestrina, Handel, Bach, Debussy (pretty much just piano), Schumann (mostly piano), Janacek, Lully, Vivaldi


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Some composers are great to listen to.
Some composers are great to talk about at TC.
These groups may overlap but they are not identical.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Mendelssohn and Mahler and tons of opera!


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

hpowders said:


> OP: Talk radio.


You mean like BBC Radio 4? Explain please.


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

_Sometimes _I don't listen to music of J.S. Bach (Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms, Wagner...)


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

A bit of everything from the most popular 100 classical composers, plus some pieces by the neglected composers.


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