# Photographs of composers



## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Sometimes seeing a photograph of a composer, especially a composer of days long past, can be interesting since the world is so used to famous painted portraits of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Putting a face to the sound isn't necessarily a very useful piece of information at all I suppose, but I also suppose that it can help recognise sounds as coming from a human creator rather than a name on the corner of a score.

However I think this photo of Arturo Fuentes trumps all photos of any living composer










For older composers, this photograph should definitely be more famous


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## ArtMusic

Charming photo of Ms Deutscher.


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## KenOC

Liszt, warts and all. No Photoshop in those days.


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## KenOC

I helped old Franz out a bit.


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## ArtMusic

This one of Wagner looks a bit disturbing to me, not sure why.


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## Arsakes

The winner photo of a composer:


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## KenOC

V-W with a cat? Hah! Here's Shostakovich with a pig!


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## elgar's ghost

The picture of Fuentes is a good case of 'classical's the new rock 'n' roll' - nothing at all wrong with that as he seems to be a very photogenic subject but a small problem is when people are pictured showing off their cool 'I'm so now' gizmos. As technology moves so fast these days the one he is brandishing will probably look 'soooooo passé' in the not too distant future that he will run the risk of looking about as cool as a guy from the 1980s using a mobile phone the size of a brick.


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## Heliogabo

Scriabin, with military attire, is the second on the left. Rachmaninoff is the fourth from the right.

Two more Scriabin photos, with his mistress Tatiana and musicologist Leonid sabaneyev at the Oka river in Siberia.


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## Art Rock

Roxanne Panufnik.


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## elgar's ghost

Offenbach. He always seems to be smiling, bless him. Not exactly a fashionable trait with mid-late 19th century portrait photography.


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## Orfeo

^^^
So true, even in the 20th Century (except Lehar, Prokofiev, however rare).


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## Heliogabo

Mahler´s daydream


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## elgar's ghost

^
^

Probably wishing that the photographer would hurry up and sling his hook. :lol:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Ive been listening to Britten, so here is his strategically placed leg


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## elgar's ghost

ArtMusic said:


> This one of Wagner looks a bit disturbing to me, not sure why.
> 
> Perhaps it's the gang sign he's giving with his right hand.


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## Alfacharger

Arsakes said:


> The winner photo of a composer:


One composer, Bernard Herrmann, tried to copy the RVW photo with his dog Twi.










I wonder what Hitchcock was thinking in this photo with a sleeping Herrmann,










More composers and their dogs!

http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2012/09/composers-dogs.html


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## QuietGuy

This picture of LB (conducting Mahler #5 at Tanglewood, I believe) is the quintessential Bernstein.


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## Vronsky

Igor Stravinsky and Florent Schmitt


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## Heliogabo

Brahms with Clara Schumann










Brahms in Clara Schumann´s funeral


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## Heliogabo

The racket side of Schoenberg


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## GreenMamba

Richard Strauss sledding.









A goldmine for this sort of stuff:

http://composersdoingnormalshit.tumblr.com/


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## clavichorder

The old boys going for a stroll, Rachmaninoff and Medtner.


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## Albert7

Anna Clyne looking hipster and dapper in her music studio.


























One of the few composers with awesome looking hats in every photo I have seen her in. Also an underrated genius. Britain should be proud of her contribution to society.


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## Albert7

Lera Auerbach committing herself to a draft of her latest.


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## Balthazar

Heliogabo said:


> Brahms with Clara Schumann


That chap looks suspiciously like Clara's husband, Robert...


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## DeepR

How about videos?

Rachmaninoff with kid at 4:00






Aawww..


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## Alfacharger

From the great Newman clan, Maria Newman.










and her Viola Concerto.


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## SimonNZ

Balthazar said:


> That chap looks suspiciously like Clara's husband, Robert...


Brahms was clearly getting desperate enough to try anything.


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## ArtMusic

Jay Greenberg


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## SimonNZ

Kaija Saariaho. Tech and haircut circa '84.


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## BlackKeys

The last known photograph of George Gershwin:


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## starthrower

Varese and Villa Lobos










Igor & Edgard










Xenakis


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## ArtMusic

Conrad Tao (born 1994)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Tao


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## Albert7

K.S. in her studio... a good one too.


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## Avey

Now *this* is where you want to be...


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## Cosmos

I love this photo of Rautavaara from back in the day. Maybe because I'm a fan of the sweaters-over-shirts combo


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## GioCar

Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna and Karlheinz Stockhausen - Darmstadt 1955









Luciano Berio, Cathy Berberian and Karlheinz Stockhausen (Luigi Nono in the background) - Darmstadt 1956









Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen - Darmstadt 1956









Luciano Berio, Cathy Berberian, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Rognoni - Darmstadt









Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez - Darmstadt

Karlheinz is the real star of the group...always there!


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## Skilmarilion

Minimal intentions, maximal power.


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## TurnaboutVox

James Dillon










Krzyzstof Penderecki










Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor, Kathleen Markwell (his wife), Benjamin Britten,
Ethel and Frank Bridge: 12 August 1935
(Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor, from the website 'Frank Bridge - A Life in Brief')


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## Weston

I might not have recognized this younger visage of a well known composer.


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## Cosmos

Weston said:


> I might not have recognized this younger visage of a well known composer.


Jeff Goldblum?!


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## Heliogabo

Balthazar said:


> That chap looks suspiciously like Clara's husband, Robert...


Of course! What I was thinking?


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## Eramirez156

Weston said:


> I might not have recognized this younger visage of a well known composer.


Looks like a younger Copland?


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## joen_cph

A couple of very touching ones of Rued Langgaard









Gösta Nystroem









Harald Sæverud









Lucia Dlugoszewski









Betsy Jolas


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## Weston

Weston said:


> I might not have recognized this younger visage of a well known composer.


Wow! I thought everyone but me would get it. I guess he's more recognizable with white hair and sans glasses, but the lip shape is clearly the same.


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## starthrower

A young Nancarrow. Dig the 16th century Euro facial hairstyle.


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## starthrower

Eramirez156 said:


> Looks like a younger Copland?


Ligeti was much better looking than Copland. But that's not saying much.


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## Itullian

Mr Cool


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## ptr

Some more or less decomposing Swedes!

*Bo Nilsson*









*Anders Eliasson*









*Claude Loyola Allgén*









*Karl-Erik Welin*









*Sten Broman*









/ptr


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## Manxfeeder

Henry Cowell and his cat. This explains all the crazy notes.









Erik Satie and Francis Picabia playing bouncy-house around a weapon of mass destruction.









And Nashville composer Connie Ellisor.


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## GreenMamba

Honegger looking cool in his leather jacket.


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## Albert7

Happy b-day Mr. Cage.


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## TurnaboutVox

Three more composers of fine chamber music:

Grazyna Bacewicz










Elizabeth Maconchy










Rebecca Clarke


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## ArtMusic

The great Bernstein


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## Arsakes

Heliogabo said:


> Brahms with Clara Schumann
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> Brahms in Clara Schumann´s funeral


Brahms looks kinda short, if we consider the guy in front of him average...


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

ArtMusic said:


> The great Bernstein


He was probably quite happy that the photo above is a little more well known than the photo below.


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## Weston

Amy Beach might have composed more passionate works and been a good deal more attractive if only she had let her hair down. Still she is not without her charms.


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## Skilmarilion

And now to venture into the mainstream.


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## Lord Lance

*Thou'st forgotten thine's noblest men!*

Here's Joachim Raff:









Rubinstein looking characteristically somber:









Arvo Part:


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## QuietGuy

Ravel ..............


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## Albert7

Chin but I don't like it when a fan is used to blow hair away like that.










Okay, I have concluded on a sour note this morning.

So a double portrait of Charlotte Bray:










and










a rare smile in today's composition world. Most of them want to look as dour as Rubinstein on acid (not a reference to chemicals with low pH).


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## Lord Lance

Albert7 said:


> Chin but I don't like it when a fan is used to blow hair away like that.
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> Okay, I have concluded on a sour note this morning.
> 
> So a double portrait of Charlotte Bray:
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> a rare smile in today's composition world. Most of them want to look as dour as Rubinstein on acid (not a reference to chemicals with low pH).


From what I've read, Rubinstein was a humble man and pianist. He got along with the conductor and fellow chamber musicians. Perhaps the expected level of ego aside, he was certainly no Celibidache. Dour? Rubinstein photographs would indicate otherwise. Noble? Perhaps. Then again, the Polish folk look noble. As far as I know, Rubinstein didn't take acid. But, hey, that's a fan's take on the Master.


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## senza sordino

Brahms and Joachim 1855, twenty years before the violin concerto was composed. They were friends for a long time.
View attachment 72292


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## Balthazar

A very dapper Albéric Magnard, Guy Ropartz (seated), and Eugène Ysaÿe.


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## Bastian

Enescu and Menuhin








Komitas








Rachmaninov


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## KenOC

Noted on another forum: Liszt in 1843. Is there any earlier photo of a major composer?


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## Manxfeeder

Balthazar said:


> A very dapper Albéric Magnard, Guy Ropartz (seated), and Eugène Ysaÿe.


The OCD in me is wanting to reach in and straighten those pictures.


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## elgar's ghost

KenOC said:


> Noted on another forum: Liszt in 1843. Is there any earlier photo of a major composer?


I asked the same question some time back and then I saw this one of Paganini which, if genuine, must have been taken early in 1840 or before. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere there is doubt over its authenticity.


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## Pugg

ArtMusic said:


> This one of Wagner looks a bit disturbing to me, not sure why.


That look on his face and watch the finger pointing.


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## Enthusiast

View attachment 102305

Bartok looking a little hungry (no pun intended).

View attachment 102306

Saint-Saens looking well fed and ready for bed.


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## RICK RIEKERT

John Cage contemplating mushrooms.








Mahler asking for directions.


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## Huilunsoittaja

DUDE don't get me started on photographs... I'll start myself instead 

From my collection of handsome composers (in no particular order)

Anton Arensky








Selim Palmgren








Glazunov








Prokofiev








Sergei Taneyev


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## Huilunsoittaja

Some other funny ones I've collected over the years

Arensky, Taneyev, and some other guy in the middle doing something weird with a tuning fork and a bow, I don't understand








Gretchaninoff and Kalinnikov having fun with a camera, I guess 








Glazunov and Stasov boating. _What?_ Glazunov being _athletic??_ 








Young student Prokofiev pretending to be blown away by that girl's magic finger in an acting skit (really)


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Me dressed for a night out


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## Pugg

​Mr. Maurice Ravel .


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ He would look much better in dark glasses


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## Pugg

​
The great Mr. Rossini


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## Enthusiast

View attachment 102343

Brahms with some ladies.


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## Enthusiast

View attachment 102346

Ligeti makes an important point to Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

View attachment 102347

Prokofiev seems to be struggling in a chess match with David Oistrakh.


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## Enthusiast

Two for the price of one. Gershwin paints a portrait of Schoenberg.
View attachment 102382


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## Pugg

​The great Mr. Verdi.


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## Pugg

​Mr Bartok.


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## Taplow

A 20th century master ...


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## Pugg

​
*Claude Achille Debussy* (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 22th August 1862 - _Paris, 25th March _ 1918)


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## joen_cph

Taplow said:


> A 20th century master ...


Same looks as when he became older - BB


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## joen_cph

Impossible to guess, unless you know it ...

wrote a small piano trilogy, _Menus propos enfantins _ (1913)


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## joen_cph

Karl Weigl in the Alps ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Weigl


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## Score reader

I don't think anyone has posted this yet. Frederic Chopin in 1846:


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## LezLee

Debussy could have someone’s eye out with that thing!


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## Pugg

Gaetano Donizetti.

Bergamo 29-11-1797 † Bergamo 08-04-1848.


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## Art Rock

Back on topic, here is a *photograph* of two opera composers (Boito and Verdi).


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## elgar's ghost

Alban Berg - reluctant soldier? _Wozzeck_ was to follow once he was discharged.​


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## Pugg

​
Paul, Marie, Théodore, Vincent d'Indy, né à Paris le 27 mars 1851 et mort à Paris le 2 décembre 1931


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## Pugg

​
Remembering Mr, Walton's birthday.

William Walton (Composer, Arranger, Conductor). Born: March 29, 1902 - Oldham, Lancashire, England Died: March 8, 1983 - Ischia, Italy. The eminent English composer (and arranger), William (Turner) Walton, born to a musical family, was a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, and later studied at the university.


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## Pugg

​
Sergej Vasiljevitsj Rachmaninov (Russisch: Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов; zelf schreef hij Sergei Rachmaninoff) (*Novgorod, 1 april 1873* - Beverly Hills, 28 maart 1943


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## Pugg

​
Ferruccio Busoni (*1 April 1866* - 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher.


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## Pugg

​
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 - 16 March 1968) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he immigrated to the United States


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

.


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## elgar's ghost

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Ive been listening to Britten, so here is his strategically placed leg
> 
> View attachment 72119


I've only just noticed this photo and it has seriously put me off my dinner...


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

elgars ghost said:


> I've only just noticed this photo and it has seriously put me off my dinner...


Put me off my lunch 

No wonder I don't like his music


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> Liszt, warts and all. No Photoshop in those days.


He looks a bit like the original Doctor Who


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## jdec

KenOC said:


> Liszt, warts and all. No Photoshop in those days.


A courtesy to Mr. Liszt...


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

A further "improvement" Reggae Liszt


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## Pugg

​
Eugen (originally Eugène) Francois Charles d'Albert *(10 April 1864* - 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> ​
> Eugen (originally Eugène) Francois Charles d'Albert *(10 April 1864* - 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer


Did he have an Axe?


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## Pugg

​
Richard Strauss


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## vesteel

Composers and their Mustaches


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## elgar's ghost

Strauss's is just bumfluff, really - THIS is a moustache! :lol:


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## Selby

Enthusiast said:


> View attachment 102346
> 
> Ligeti makes an important point to Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
> 
> View attachment 102347
> 
> Prokofiev seems to be struggling in a chess match with David Oistrakh.


I adore Ligeti. He was painfully unattractive.


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## Selby

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sometimes seeing a photograph of a composer, especially a composer of days long past, can be interesting since the world is so used to famous painted portraits of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Putting a face to the sound isn't necessarily a very useful piece of information at all I suppose, but I also suppose that it can help recognise sounds as coming from a human creator rather than a name on the corner of a score.
> 
> However I think this photo of Arturo Fuentes trumps all photos of any living composer
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> For older composers, this photograph should definitely be more famous


This is amazing.


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## Pugg

​
George Gershwin


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## KenOC

Gershwin stopped playing, and half-hung over his piano, saying 'I wonder if my music will still be heard a hundred years from now'. The reaction: 'Of course - should you still be alive then'. -- Oscar Levant


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## Pugg

Federico Mompou; *16 April 1893* - 30 June 1987) was a Spanish composer and pianist. He is remembered for his solo piano music and, to a degree, his songs.


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## Larkenfield

Heliogabo said:


> Brahms with Clara Schumann
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> Brahms in Clara Schumann´s funeral


Actually, this looks like Clara at the piano with her husband Robert and not Brahms rather than a funeral related picture. Someone may have missed labeled it. Robert often had that pursed lips look.


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## Kieran

I love this photo of Salieri:


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## Pugg

*Frederik Magle 17 April*






​
Happy Birthday to Frederik Magle, composer and our generous host.


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## KenOC

Ludwig van Beethoven in mid-career. One of the earliest known color photographs.


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## Pugg

I wonder how long it take till someone is pointing out that this just for real pictures.


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## Enthusiast

Pugg said:


> I wonder how long it take till someone is pointing out that this just for real pictures.


You just did, didn't you?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Another Reggae convert


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## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Another Reggae convert
> 
> View attachment 102973


Toward it or away from it.


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## Pugg

Enthusiast said:


> You just did, didn't you?


Just a matter of time and another thread ruined.


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## Pugg

Franz von Suppé or Francesco Suppé Demelli (*18 April 1819* - 21 May 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music


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## KenOC

Henry Litolff, nowadays a one-hit wonder. But he led the kind of life Berlioz could only dream about! See his Wiki entry.


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## regenmusic

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Another Reggae convert
> 
> View attachment 102973


He looks like he's into a genre that hasn't been invented yet.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

regenmusic said:


> He looks like he's into a genre that hasn't been invented yet.


Possibly Baroque Blues


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## Kieran

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Possibly Baroque Blues


Didn't Blind Willie McTell have a song called Baroque Down Engine Blues?


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## elgar's ghost

The Upper Crust - finest purveyors of Baroque 'n' Roll:


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## brianvds

KenOC said:


> Henry Litolff, nowadays a one-hit wonder. But he led the kind of life Berlioz could only dream about! See his Wiki entry.


Went to look up his one hit on YouTube, and recognized it. I wonder why though. Where have I heard it before? I have no idea.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> Just a matter of time and another thread ruined.


I think COAG would have approved


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## regenmusic

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Possibly Baroque Blues


I was thinking more like the 32nd Century.


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## Pugg

Leonard Bernstein, in his 100th birthday year,


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

regenmusic said:


> I was thinking more like the 32nd Century.


It might make a come back after it goes out of fashion in the 23nd Century


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## Selby

George and Martha


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## BiscuityBoyle

Shostakovitch, the Chris Hayes years


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## Pugg

Nikolaj Jakovlevitsj Mjaskovski (Russisch: Николай Яковлевич Мясковский) (Nowogeoriewsk, 20 april 1881 - Moskou, 8 augustus 1950) was een Russisch componis


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## KenOC

BiscuityBoyle said:


> Shostakovitch, the Chris Hayes years
> 
> View attachment 103008


The Harry Potter years?


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## brianvds

KenOC said:


> The Harry Potter years?


I was going to point it out myself. He was studying at the Hogwarts School of music then.


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## Pugg

For our Belgium members.
Clement D'Hooghe


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## Vronsky




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## Pat Fairlea

Vronsky said:


>


And just moments later, the Bosendorfersaurus slammed shut its terrible jaws...


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## Pugg

​
Francis Poulenc


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## Pugg

​
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (/prəˈkɒfiɛf, proʊ-, -ˈkɔː-, -ˈkoʊ-, -jɛf, -jɛv, -iəf/; Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Прокофьев, tr. Sergej Sergejevič Prokofjev; 23 April 1891 - 5 March 1953)

Remembering Mr Prokofiev birthday.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pugg said:


> For our Belgium members.
> Clement D'Hooghe


I don't see any Reggae potential here but the others hmmm....


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## Botschaft

Johannes Brahms, January 1859 (note the engagement ring):


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## KenOC

Did I post this already?


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## Steve Mc

John Williams, circa the early 70s (on the right).
I'm not sure about who is on the left


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## ribonucleic

brianvds said:


> I was going to point it out myself. He was studying at the Hogwarts School of music then.


String Quartet No. 8?

10 points for Gryffindor!


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## Botschaft




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## Yabetz

Mahler having a cigar. I don't know who the others are in the picture.









And Mahler with his daughters:


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## Torkelburger

Steve Mc said:


> View attachment 109582
> 
> 
> John Williams, circa the early 70s (on the right).
> I'm not sure about who is on the left


He is with Lionel Newman.









Lionel Newman - IMDb


Lionel Newman. Music Department: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Lionel Newman was the youngest of a triumvirate of accomplished virtuosos, composers and conductors, who dominated the music department at 20th Century Fox for more than four decades. Already a highly regarded pianist by the age of 15...




www.imdb.com


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## Rogerx

ArtMusic said:


> The great Bernstein


This is a great picture,


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## RobertJTh

Too bad the majority of the links in this (old) thread don't work anymore. Always the same with those external sites.
Here's some lesser known pics of ever-so-handsome Max Reger, courtesy of maxreger.info


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## Thelonious 58

ArtMusic said:


> This one of Wagner looks a bit disturbing to me, not sure why.


I always see a distinct resemblance to Mendelssohn (on a very bad day ) in this photo. Wagner looks hounded , watching out for creditors or agents of the Kingdom of Saxony


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