# Is There A Composer's Music You Will Hope To Know Bettter In 2018?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

A new year's resolution, perhaps? Is there a composer whose music you definitely would like to know much deeper of?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I will want to listen to more music by Chopin. Admittedly I do not know his music as well as I should, I do know and love his better known pieces but I feel his vast art is still not well known enough to me.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I love this question, and I’m all about making plans to broaden my horizons.

My New Years resolutions for exploring music:
Messiaen: Organ Music
Bach: general exploration
Bruckner: Symphonies
Milhaud: general exploration
Thomas Ades: The Tempest, general exploration
Electronic Music
Schubert: Chamber music
And always new music too


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I've been meaning to listen to Malcolm Arnold more comprehensively: every time I explore some new facet of his large oeuvre, I seem to find a new gem. I'm optimistic for more!


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I'm going to continue deep diving into Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, and possibly Tchaikovsky.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

So I voted undecided because there is so much music and so many composers and sometimes I just want to hear some disco or death metal


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I just got the Delius 150th Anniversary boxset, and I hope to get a deeper understanding of this composer. 

Last year's composer was Egan Wellesz, and it took me almost a year to squeeze all his symphonies in between all the other things I was listening to, but I did it. There's something to be said for committing publicly to a goal.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Currently I don't own a single track by Delius, Milhaud, Martinu, or Szymanowski. I would like to get music by all of them in 2018


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Yes, definitel , exploring new things, always, more baroque, less Xenaxis.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

My first project for the year will be listening to about 1/3 of the Bach Cantatas (1 per day) following the music and focusing on the counterpoint. I bought the Kuijken box set for this as the OVPP should help me follow the voices more readily.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Each year I try to add to my library music by composers who have a significant birth or death anniversary. I assume that, as usual, I won't do as well as I've planned!

Don't need much from the likes of Debussy or Rossini at this stage, but I intend to explore lesser-known composers including Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Kozeluch, Rochberg, Zimmermann...


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I don't have a big list or very specific goals, but one that I'm curious about at the moment is Hosokawa.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

I am in the process anyway of expanding my music knowledge. Listening to pieces that am not familiar with and getting ro know them.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

I've been giving Bruckner another attempt. It's probably getting somewhere this time. I've been listening to his 4th symphony in the evening all this week. There's no doubting the rich orchestrations, but I still find it a bit disjointed and the top and tail movements too long.
However, I'm finding things in there that I enjoy. It's more than before. 

In the second half of 2017 I started listening to the complete works of William Walton. It's a very diverse body of work, though not enormous. I was surprised to discover his early string quartet influenced by the 2nd Viennese School. It's nowhere near as much recorded as the 2nd quartet, I found it on a Chandos CD. 

To complete Walton's works I have to listen to his single opera Troilus and Cressida... there's always a downside.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

eugeneonagain said:


> I've been giving Bruckner another attempt. It's probably getting somewhere this time. I've been listening to his 4th symphony in the evening all this week. There's no doubting the rich orchestrations, but I still find it a bit disjointed and the top and tail movements too long.
> However, I'm finding things in there that I enjoy. It's more than before.
> 
> In the second half of 2017 I started listening to the complete works of William Walton. It's a very diverse body of work, though not enormous. I was surprised to discover his early string quartet influenced by the 2nd Viennese School. It's nowhere near as much recorded as the 2nd quartet, I found it on a Chandos CD.
> ...


Love Bruckners 9th symphony especially 2nd movement. Wasn't so familiar with him at first but have a box set of his symphonies so going to explore further.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Pugg said:


> Yes, definitely . . . less Xenaxis.


I think I'm with you on that one.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

I'm going to give Mahler more attention. Of course, I'm coming to the age that leaves me needing to abstain from fluids some hours beforehand. :lol:


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2017)

I reverse the question,I am happy to say that I explored the music of Ligety and Dutilleux to name just two and it was very rewarding and enjoyable.
For next year? More Bach ( inevitable ) Delerien Walzer,the period between Sweelinck and Bach (Scheinn,Weckmann ) and I hope to find the energy to listen to more opera.
Gluck,Mozart and Bizet ( Carmen)
More music from the middle ages and what comes my way,I can enjoy music of all periods.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I would like to discover more of the music by the Swiss composer Frank Martin.


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

I’ve been procrastinating my planned Mahler and Bruckner deep dive because DSCH has been seriously getting in the way. If the 7th and 10th symphonies and all those string quartets weren’t enough, there’s the intriguing enigmatic nature surrounding his motives that I want to just break down and understand. Curse you for being so interesting, Shost. Now I can’t stop stalin. Too bad you couldn’t either.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Yes I definitely want to expand my listening in the coming year
Problem is my plans keep changing!
I have just acquired a set of Bruckner Symphonies so he is definitely on the list for 2018
The string quartets of Haydn are calling me, and the new thread we have on contemporary composers I plan to keep up with
Oh and I want to give more time to Scandinavian composers and..........
Too much music too little time


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## Orpheus (Jul 15, 2012)

I'm pretty sure I'm going to invest some time into tackling Medtner. He's a composer who has rather slipped off my radar, but who I think it might be worth taking the trouble to get to know better.

I may also try to get into one of the big-name opera composers who I don't currently appreciate all that much - probably Wagner, who so far has proved more appealing to me in principle than in practice. This is to say that I find much to admire in his conception of what music drama should be, his use of powerful mythological themes and archetypes, etc, but tend not to be all that enthusiastic about the actual _music_ when I hear it. Das Rheingold is really the only of his operas I can listen to with something like satisfaction at present, so it would be nice to expand my appreciation of his work a bit further.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I haven't really ever given much time to Mendelssohn. Don't own much either outside the violin concerto and two of the symphonies. Time to catch up and see what I've been missing all these years. Last year was a Schumann year - what a delight that was!


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## Melvin (Mar 25, 2011)

20centrfuge said:


> I love this question, and I'm all about making plans to broaden my horizons.
> 
> My New Years resolutions for exploring music:
> Messiaen: Organ Music
> ...


Nice choices, I would suggest the Messiaen organ 4 disc set called "Par lui-meme" in which Messiaen performs; It is available at a good price!

I wish I could go back and re-hear Schubert for the first time again, you are lucky!


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Di Lasso, Froberger, Penderecki, Louis Couperin, maybe Esa Pekka-Salonen and Steven Ades


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

I cannot plan for the whole year, but for the time being, I intend to listen to all Schumann symphonies (what I heard so far I liked) and explore some more Berlioz beyond the Fantastique symphony (Harold en Italie, Requiem etc.) and listen to other Saint-Saëns symphonies beyond the organ symphony, because I liked that a lot.


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## Robert Gamble (Dec 18, 2016)

Composers I want to know better in 2018:

1) Mahler (I've listened to all of his symphonies, but mostly at work.. only the 5th has really stayed with me)
2) Brahms (Listened to a few of his works, they're starting to connect with me.. especially interested in his symphonies)
3) Farrenc (I love her 1st Symphony. I need to explore more of her other works, especially the chamber works)
4) Barber (It intrigues me that I love his Adagio for Strings but that I know none of his other works)
5) Shaheen Farhat (I like his Persian Gulf symphony.. downloaded the other works onto Google Play that are available)
6) Handel (Literally have no music of his...)
7) The unknown to me... (Spohr, Piston, Diamond, William Grant Still, Hummel, Lebrun)
8) And the big names' chamber/solo works which I've mostly ignored (Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn)

Hey, I'm nothing if not ambitious...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Three composers I really need to explore more: Boris Tchaikovsky, Boris Tishchenko and Mieczysław Weinberg.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I will continue exploring contemporary composers with the TC thread that started recently. While I'm looking forward to listening to more music from all the composers we select, I'm especially interested in Salvatore Sciarrino and Kaija Saariaho whose music is less familiar to me.

I'd also like to delve more into Renaissance and Baroque music. Some of the composers of interest are:

Antoine Brumel 
Johannes Ockeghem 
Tamas Luis de Victoria 

But really there are works I want to hear by many composers from this era.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Art Rock said:


> Three composers I really need to explore more: Boris Tchaikovsky, Boris Tishchenko *and Mieczysław Weinberg*.


I recently acquired 2 CDs of his string quartets, second-hand. The music is somewhat like Shostakovich and this is acknowledged on his Wikipedia page and other reviews. The annoying thing about the CDs is this business of not putting them in order on ascending volumes. So I have volumes 1 & 2 with quartets 4 and 16, then 7, 11 and just ONE movement of quartet 13! Infuriating.

Edit: after checking it seems quartet 13 only has one movement.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

mbhaub said:


> I haven't really ever given much time to Mendelssohn. Don't own much either outside the violin concerto and two of the symphonies. Time to catch up and see what I've been missing all these years. Last year was a Schumann year - what a delight that was!


Great music. Underrated. There are a couple of big box sets (30 CD and 40 CD) but neither gets everything.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Beethoven: non-piano music (will use the TC Top Beethoven list for guidance)
Kodály: general exploration
Lachenmann: works from the 80s and 90s (I've somehow only heard his very early and very late stuff, nothing in between)
Stockhausen: LICHT
Liszt: continue dipping in and out of Leslie Howard's complete piano music box set
A major Romantic-period opera (will probably use Liszt's opera transcriptions to decide which one)
Electronic music


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

There isn't one single composer I'd like to explore more, there are several. 

I know almost nothing of Beethoven's solo piano music, I will take a listen to a few piano sonatas. Not all 32 of them. Where should I start?
I want to listen to some more Elliot Carter, and get to know his music a little more, particularly the string quartets.
I will listen to a couple of Bruckner's symphonies. 
I will listen to some Peter Maxwell Davies
I will listen to some more Ligeti
I will continue with my listening projects, and perhaps another ambitious month long one, this time French music. 
I want to get to know the CDs I bought in 2017.
And perhaps most importantly, play my violin more than I did in 2017. I will soon begin with a new teacher to learn a few pieces from the 20th Century.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

senza sordino said:


> I know almost nothing of Beethoven's solo piano music, I will take a listen to a few piano sonatas. Not all 32 of them. Where should I start?


Listen to the last ten here, starting from no. 23, performed by Ronald Brautigam on a fortepiano.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

No particular composer -- just reading posts on TC opens many doors to listen to unfamiliar composers for instance -- Herzogenberg and Merlartin. But also listening to more string quartets of the more familiar composers who wrote so many in that genre: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Yes, more Bruckner and Sibelius. And Handel.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Yes, I never really listened good to Xenakis and many others.


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