# Your desert island omissions



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

So…off you go to that desert island, punishment for voting wrong in the innumerable games here. Tough luck! But you’re allowed to take a limited amount of music with you. Question: What composers are unlikely to make it into your desert island listening library? Why is that?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Handel would be the biggest name on my casualty list. His music simply does nothing for me. Some other famous composers would be limited to one work only (e.g. Verdi's Requiem, Bartok's violin concerto).


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Englebert Humperdinck: his output was too limited, essentially one notable work.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Most composers would not make it to my island, the most famous of them being Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi and Grieg. Grieg is a relatively recent no-show based on listening to much of his music through the TC games.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Wagner. I would want music to uplift me


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

KenOC said:


> So…off you go to that desert island, punishment for voting wrong in the innumerable games here. Tough luck! But you're allowed to take a *limited *amount of music with you. Question: What composers are unlikely to make it into your desert island listening library? Why is that?


Limited is?
________


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

The thing is that time marooned on a desert island might be well spent getting to know and appreciate composers who are widely loved but not (yet) by me.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Well, being a night owl, I refuse to comment on my desert island nocturnal omissions.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Cage and Feldman would likely make the cut here.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

A lot. Lully, Bach, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Grieg, Sibelius, Stravinsky, for starters.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Elgar and Wagner for a kick off......

oh and Puccini and Verdi.....


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> A lot. Lully, Bach, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Grieg, Sibelius, Stravinsky, for starters.


Dr S.-I am intrigued as to who you would take!


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## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

KenOC said:


> So…off you go to that desert island, punishment for voting wrong in the innumerable games here. Tough luck! But you're allowed to take a limited amount of music with you. Question: What composers are unlikely to make it into your desert island listening library? Why is that?


You read my mind, The thought came to mind, of starting a topic to be entitled 
*which composers/or fav compoers works, would you not take to a deserted island , confined for life,,,cause if you did have these compoers, or works of a fav, you would wish to walk off into the ocean and drown yourself, if all you had was that one compoers or just 1 or 2 of your fav composers works as your sole source of entertainment?*

Although I love greatly all of Ravel, his Bolero would give me strong desires to just walk off into the ocean. Yet it achieved famed, popular status. 
Do people actuallu listen to it all the way through any more?
It was a complete gimmick, yet folks fell for it hook, line and sinker. At its height in popularity, Ravel must have been like ROTFLOL


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## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> , Ravel, , for starters.


No no, man, You must have read the OP wrong, the Q is NOT which ,,wait the Q is which composers you would NOT take,,,yes that s it,,,
You typed in Ravel.

Are you sure that's not a typo error?
Or perhaps a lapse of memory,,,maybe you've only heard Ravel's Bolero, ,,and that via Karajan/Berlin...Yes that's it, you and I both would never take Bolero anywhere with us. 
Got ya, Just cking.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Debussy: A revolutionary composer, with well-crafted music, but I don't have a deep connection with his style.

Grieg: I can't ignore that his music is lovely, bucolic, strongly rooted in his native Norway, but again, I feel his music rather bland and doesn't move me that much.

Bach: I regard him as a great composer, but he wouldn't be on my list. I often feel his music is too academic, especially his keyboard works. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.

R. Schumann: His style is not as strong as other romantic composers IMO. I can only appreciate some handful of his works, among them his 2nd Symphony, the Overture-Scherzo-Finale Op. 52, the Piano Quintet, some piano music and that's all. I've never been a fan of his overrated _Piano Concerto_.

Scriabin: He's been a blind spot for me over the years. His style eludes me.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

These are among the more popular composers that will have to stay home: 

Bach,Beethoven,Berlioz,Britten,Bruckner,Chopin,Liszt,Shostakovich


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Einaudi.
All the rest is fine. If I don't like/get their music now, I'll have plenty of time to give it another chance on the island!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Haydn67 said:


> These are among the more popular composers that will have to stay home:
> 
> Bach,Beethoven,Berlioz,Britten,Bruckner,Chopin,Liszt,Shostakovich


Hey, dibs on your Shostakovich! :tiphat:


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

most likely all of the minimalists


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Based *on this list*, I think that some of the most important omissions for me at this moment would include names such as Monteverdi, Schoenberg, Palestrina, Berg, Nielsen, A. Scarlatti and Wolf.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

paulbest said:


> You read my mind, The thought came to mind, of starting a topic to be entitled
> *which composers/or fav compoers works, would you not take to a deserted island , confined for life,,,cause if you did have these compoers, or works of a fav, you would wish to walk off into the ocean and drown yourself, if all you had was that one compoers or just 1 or 2 of your fav composers works as your sole source of entertainment?*
> 
> Although I love greatly all of Ravel, his Bolero would give me strong desires to just walk off into the ocean. Yet it achieved famed, popular status.
> ...


Bolero was written as dance music for a ballet. How was that a gimmick? And yet without looking into its background, it's assumed to be one because of its popularity. "Ravel had demonstrated an interest in composing re-styled dances, from his earliest successes-the 1895 Menuet and the 1899 Pavane-to his more mature works like Le tombeau de Couperin, which takes the format of a dance suite." Arturo Toscanini did the American Premier of Bolero and it became hugely popular because some listeners associated its long build-up and shattering climax with sex. Lol!


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

They will not fit in my suitcases: Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Sibelius, Janacek, Britten, Stravinsky, Puccini, Orff and Mussorgsky. They are very bad guys and they shall make my living very difficult. :lol:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Larkenfield said:


> ...Arturo Toscanini did the American Premier of Bolero and it became hugely popular because some listeners associated its long build-up and shattering climax with sex. Lol!


An association played for all that it was worth in the movie "10" with Bo Derek. Is this movie ever seen these days?


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

KenOC said:


> An association played for all that it was worth in the movie "10" with Bo Derek. Is this movie ever seen these days?


Oh my. Beautiful!


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Haydn, Handel, and everything after R. Strauss.


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## Guest (Apr 30, 2019)

paulbest said:


> No no, man, You must have read the OP wrong, the Q is NOT which ,,wait the Q is which composers you would NOT take,,,yes that s it,,,
> You typed in Ravel.
> 
> Are you sure that's not a typo error?
> ...


I wonder which composers would be missing from your list, or are you a fan of them all including Beethoven?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

On my desert island, there are no late 19th-century or early 20th-century composers of interminable, portentous, gaseous, turgid, turbid symphonies.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> On my desert island, there are no late 19th-century or early 20th-century composers of interminable, portentous, gaseous, turgid, turbid symphonies.


Flatulent symphonies? That's a thread in itself isn't it?


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## Agamenon (Apr 22, 2019)

No Beethoven, no Mozart and no Verdi.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Regarding Ravel and _Bolero_, if my memory serves me well, Henry Miller somewhere in _Tropic of Cancer_ writes of walking down the Paris street where Ida Rubenstein is dancing to _Bolero_ and he remarks that "Ravel could have driven us all mad.". I happen to like _Bolero_, heard sparingly.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Peter Maxwell-Davies, Tubin and Britten.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Merl said:


> Peter Maxwell-Davies


A common mistake that I made myself for decades. His family name is Davies, his given names are Peter Maxwell.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Poulenc, Stockhausen, Locatelli, Schutz, Rott


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Paganini, Rossini, a lot of the minimalists, Satie, Field, Gluck, the Couperins, Tan Dun, Parry, Gottschalk, Bellini, Bizet, Widor, Nono, Stockhausen, Cherubini, Clementi, Khrennikov, Glinka, Weyse, Grofe, Tartini, Locatelli, Sammartini, Arne & Boyce are some of those I could quite easily do without.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Ooh, my island must have Couperin and Satie, and maybe Bizet. But I agree all the others must leave.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Well, if you knew who provoked I've been by some of the previous posts. 
As regards omitting Satie, Poulenc for example will still be there for me; I'd prefer that. 
Also, I prefer Rameau - and Lully to some extent - for Couperin.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

I would actually be okay with Poulenc, on blue moons and Friday the 13s, etc, but for some reason he was the first to come to mind...

Reynaldo Hahn is definitely welcome any time.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

My desert island would probably lack Mendelssohn and Mahler, and certainly Wagner.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Haydn. Zzzzzzzzzz


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I think if I managed to get myself stranded on a desert island where I had nothing more to worry about than which music I shouldn't have brought along, I would just enjoy the silence. 

That said, let's say I could bring along only 1 hour of music. I think it would be Bach's Goldberg Variations, performed by Van Asperen. All other composers would be omitted. 

If I got a second hour, I would add Brahms' German Requiem, conducted by Klemperer. All other composers would be omitted. 

If I got a third hour, I would add Kleiber's recording of Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies. All others omitted. 

A fourth hour... I would try to hold out for a fifth and six hours and take along Giulini's Don Giovanni. All composers except Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart omitted. 

A seventh hour: well, if the hold-out worked out in the last go, I would do it again to get Bach's Mass by Richter. Same composers omitted. 

Presumably, if I'm getting nine, I'm getting ten, so now I'll add Handel's Messiah, perhaps by Davis. That means all composers but Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel and Mozart omitted. 

I'll continue this fun exercise at a later date.


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## Guest (May 1, 2019)

This is a desert island disc for me, providing there is electricity: Brahms Piano Concerto 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 83 - Vienna Philharmonic/Curzon/Knappertsbusch and recorded in 1955. Absolutely brilliant!!


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## Guest (May 1, 2019)

I would need a more precise definition of a "limited" amount of music before I could attempt a response to this question.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

All these desert island threads are making me phobic about travelling. I wouldn't greatly miss Mendelssohn or Liszt (looks around to check Dimace is not here) and could do without Telemann and a whole raft of "2nd tier" Baroque composers. So long as I had operas by Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner I could do without other pre-20th century operas. After that I might sacrifice quite a lot of Shostakovich's orchestral music ... but I would need to keep quite a lot, too!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

If forced to choose, I could do with 50 composers, but I'd hate less. Haven't counted, but would estimate that my collection has maybe 40x-60x that amount.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I could also restrict myself to less than 3 recordings of any work.


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## Resurrexit (Apr 1, 2014)

I wonder how many of those so enthsiastically claiming what composers they'd leave off their playlist on a desert island actually listen to those composers with any regularity, or even at all, when they aren't stranded.


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## Guest (May 1, 2019)

Resurrexit said:


> I wonder how many of those so enthsiastically claiming what composers they'd leave off their playlist on a desert island actually listen to those composers with any regularity, or even at all, when they aren't stranded.


I would assume that such composers don't get much attention, if any at all. Seems logical.


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## Resurrexit (Apr 1, 2014)

Partita said:


> I would assume that such composers don't get much attention, if any at all. Seems logical.


Exactly. It's already a self-imposed desert island anyways.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Resurrexit said:


> Exactly. It's already a self-imposed desert island anyways.


Self knowledge is a virtue .


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Brahmsianhorn said:


> Haydn. Zzzzzzzzzz


Brahmsianhorn. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


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