# Composers' Favourites



## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

So much for everyone here telling the world who our favourite composers are, what do our opinions matter? How about those composers which other composers admired? For example, did you know that Beethoven said Handel was: "the master of us all... the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb"? That's right, Beethoven lovers! Forget the competition with Mozart, you must go on a pilgrimage to Handel.

What other compliments do you know have been paid from one composer to another? Any that you find surprising?


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

"...The Passion-music, almost exclusively the work of great *Sebastian Bach*, is founded on the Saviour's sufferings as told by the Evangelists... What wealth, what fulness of art, what power, radiance, and yet unostentatious purity, breathe from these unique master-works! In them is embodied the whole essence, whole spirit of the German nation; a claim the more justified, as I believe I have proved that these majestic art-creations, too, were products of the heart and habits of the German people..."
Richard Wagner, "On German Music"


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I was reading about John Field and his nocturnes the other day, and did not realize before that he was Chopin's predecessor. I thought he came after Chopin. Well, apparently Chopin held Field in VERY high regard, and purposefully modeled his nocturnes after field, and of course added some new elements. The interesting thing is Field did not think much about Chopin's talent and works. Ironic when you see in musical history who is considered the greater of the two.

And of course I think most of us know how much Mendelssohn liked Bach's work.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

Bach kept Buxtehude and Sweelinck in high esteem.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Mephistopheles said:


> For example, did you know that Beethoven said Handel was: "the master of us all... the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb"?


I've read about that quote, "the master of us all", but I read it was Haydn who said it. He was in England and saw a performance of Händel's Messiah, which prompted that quote. This event was also said to have inspired Haydn's own oratorio The Creation.

Bruckner's favourite Beethoven symphony was not the Ninth but the Eroica.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Puccini admired Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' and also Berg's 'Wozzeck.'

Stravinsky admired Schoenberg's 'Pierrot Lunaire.' He called it "the solar plexus of 20th century music." I always remember that quote somehow.

Liszt said that Saint-Saens' 'Piano Concerto #4' was the best since Beethoven's ones.

Britten so loved Berg's music that he wanted to study with him. But that did not happen.

Aaron Copland and Carlos Chavez liked eachother's music. Copland conducted Chavez's music in America, and Chavez did the same with Copland's in Mexico.

...and so on. There's a lot of these, so hard to remember them all. I guess that if a composer is influenced by another, or his friend or colleague, he is bound to admire the other guy's works. & all composers are up to date on the latest musical trends of their day.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

My favourite composer is *Ligeti.*


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Sorabji's favorite composer was Medtner, and he claimed the Night Wind sonata to be the greatest piano sonata of the 20th century. I love Medtner's music, but as far as Sorabji, I've only liked the rare shorter piano piece of his. 

Medtner thought most highly of the music of Beethoven and Wagner, although he was very diverse in his musical tastes concerning the past, though considered Rachmaninoff to be one of the few carriers of the flame of music with integrity in the modern age.

Handel greatly admired Telemann and Muffat, and probably a great many others. The latter composed a large collection of keyboard suites that Handel literally borrowed themes from for his operas and really, Muffat themes can be found in plenty Handel's works. 

I don't know if Scriabin admired any one else besides himself past a certain point. His early music certainly shows an interest in Chopin.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Speaking of Ligeti, he admired Rued Langgaard's 'Music of the Spheres' which pointed forward to aspects of his own music.

Bizet admired the music of Mozart and Schubert. No surprises there, given Bizet's own considerable talents as a vocal composer and melodist.

The American Minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass where big fans of jazz - esp. bebop - and rock n'roll. It informed their style far more than what was going on in the European avant-garde of the 1960's. So too did world music.

Wagner published an edition of Palestrina's 'Stabat Mater' in the 1870's. Debussy and Bruckner where also fans of Palestrina.

Stravinsky admired a number of younger composers. He praised Boulez's 'Le Marteau sans maitre' and also Takemitsu's 'Requiem for strings.'


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I heard that Wagner was amazed at Palestrina's remarkable capability to compose long melodies that seemed to go on forever. So what Wagner did was copy out Palestrina's music on manuscript paper to see how he did it, and it helped his melody writing a lot!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I've been reading the Berlioz memoirs. So far I'm only 48 pages in, but the most mentioned composer in this account of his early days as an enthusiast is Gluck. Berlioz seems to have adored Gluck's music.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Glazunov _loved _Baroque/Renaissance composers (mostly end of his life), also Wagner for a time, but favored Brahms in the end. He loved pretty much everyone great from the past, from Mozart to Chopin, although he reportedly didn't like Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata. He of course highly esteemed Liszt, and the many Russians who came before him. He also liked Sibelius and Busoni to my farthest knowledge. Overall, well varied in his tastes, far more than me! :lol:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Janacek was a fan not only of his fellow Czechs, Dvorak and Smetana, but also Tchaikovsky. Janacek was a friend of Dvorak, actually (who encouraged him to do what he was doing, even though it upset the conservatives). After a piano concert given by Bartok, Janacek told him that he enjoyed the performance. They spoke in German.

Brahms so admired J.S. Bach's 'Chaconne,' that he said he would most likely kill himself if he had composed that piece himself (due to the intensity of emotion involved in doing that). A surprising thing is that Brahms was at a performance of two movements from Bruckner's 6th symphony, and he was clapping wildly at the end. Hanslick was there and he sat motionless like a statue.

Shostakovich and Britten shared a mutual admiration for eachother's music. I know Britten premiered some of Shostakovich's music in the UK at Aldeburgh.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Stravinsky gave high praise to Takemitsu's Requiem For Strings.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Hayden said to Leopold Mozart "As I am an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me".


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Wagner loved Beethoven. He wrote out the Beethoven symphonies into piano reductions to learn how he composed them and orchestrated them.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Wow! Wagner appreciated music by others than his? I'm astonished. hehehehhehe (i'm just kidding)

I think Mahler said that there are only two composers in Germany: Beethoven and Wagner.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Liszt's three musical idols where Beethoven, Weber and Schubert. His apartment museum in Budapest has a music stand with the heads of those three guys sculpted on it.

It's widely known John Cage like the music of Satie, and was much influenced by him. CAge even organised the first complete performance of Satie's _Vexations _(around 24 hours long!). Satie's contemporaries, Debussy and Ravel, where also much influenced by him, as where the 'Les Six' group between the wars (consisting of Poulenc, Honegger, Milhaud, etc.).

Elliott Carter was early on influenced by many composers, knew them personally and went to concerts of their music. Intially it was Copland, but also Ives and the Viennese atonalists, also Ruth Crawford Seeger and the harpist Carlos Salzedo. Copland paid tribute to Carter as being one of the most significant of all American creative artists, in any field, in the 20th century.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

It will be quicker if everyone reads here:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart#Quotations_about_Mozart


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

drpraetorus said:


> Hayden said to Leopold Mozart "As I am an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me".


I agree with him - but that quote would carry more weight if had been said to someone else - Salieri for example - and Salieri had reported it in a letter.


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## Krisena (Jul 21, 2012)

drpraetorus said:


> Wagner loved Beethoven. He wrote out the Beethoven symphonies into piano reductions to learn how he composed them and orchestrated them.


 Love letters would be more effective, I think


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