Thread: Your Top 20 Favorite Classical Composers Of All-Time

20 is quite much for me, of course I like much more than 20 composers but I don't think I can call them my favourites.

So the current list goes like this:

Brahms
Mendelssohn
Beethoven
Mozart
Chopin
Grieg
Tchaikovsky
Berlioz
Paganini
Schumann
Liszt
Vivaldi
Bach

Many of my list of twenty are subject to change at any moment (Beethoven and Mozart excepted).

Handel
Mozart
Brahms
Mendelssohn
Beethoven
Dvorak
Sibelius
Rachmaninoff
Shubert
Schumann
Franck
Debussy
Saint-Saens
Tchaikovsky
Bruckner
Elgar
Grieg
Gershwin
Vivaldi
Bach

Originally Posted by Aramis

20 is quite much for me, of course I like much more than 20 composers but I don't think I can call them my favourites.

So the current list goes like this:

Brahms
Mendelssohn
Beethoven
Mozart
Chopin
Grieg
Tchaikovsky
Berlioz
Paganini
Schumann
Liszt
Vivaldi
Bach

Pretty conservative list with the exceptions of Berlioz and Grieg.

I'm not sure what do you mean by "conservative".

Am I the only one that thinks Beethoven is extremely overrated? His early works seem to imitate Mozart (but spoil it). Just how many arpeggios can you fit into a piano composition? But to his credit, he does improve the deafer he gets.

Originally Posted by Donboy

Am I the only one that thinks Beethoven is extremely overrated?

Yes.

His early works seem to imitate Mozart

Yes, and Mozart's works seem to imitate Haydn. It's the nature of classical style, every composer from that period can be accused for imitating another one.

Originally Posted by Aramis

I'm not sure what do you mean by "conservative".

con⋅serv⋅a⋅tive  [kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv]
–adjective
1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.
3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.
4. (often initial capital letter) of or pertaining to the Conservative party.
5. (initial capital letter) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Conservative Jews or Conservative Judaism.
6. having the power or tendency to conserve; preservative.
7. Mathematics. (of a vector or vector function) having curl equal to zero; irrotational; lamellar.
–noun
8. a person who is conservative in principles, actions, habits, etc.
9. a supporter of conservative political policies.
10. (initial capital letter) a member of a conservative political party, esp. the Conservative party in Great Britain.
11. a preservative.

Why with exception of Grieg then? He wasn't part of new wave, his music is strightly romantic, just like Chopin's, Tchaikovsky's, or Schumann's.

Liszt definitely wasn't musically conservative though.

Originally Posted by Aramis

Why with exception of Grieg then? He wasn't part of new wave, his music is strightly romantic, just like Chopin's, Tchaikovsky's, or Schumann's.

Some of your choices were conservative. I don't think you've really explored much classical outside of those composers, because none of them are uniquely individual choices. It just seems like you're following popularity trends with your choices. You didn't even pick a late-Romantic or early 20th Century composer. You don't enjoy music from these time periods?

Originally Posted by Dim7

Liszt definately wasn't musically conservative though.

No he wasn't. I'm more or less talking about his Aramis' choices being conservative.

Originally Posted by Mirror Image

Some of your choices were conservative. I don't think you've really explored much classical outside of those composers, because none of them are uniquely individual choices. It just seems like you're following popularity trends with your choices. You didn't even pick a late-Romantic or early 20th Century composer. You don't enjoy music from these time periods?

Well, if I would follow the popular trends according to this board (the only one place where I discuss and share classical experiences) I would pick Mahler, Sibelius, Bartok and others, since this is the most popular classical music here. No, I don't really enjoy XXth century, as you may know - if you are reading my posts around other threads. I like only few of them: Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, recently Faure too. That's for for example. And I absolutely can't stand Bruckners, Holsts, Brittens, Stravinskys INC. Yes, I know their major works very well. I attempted to listen to them, but I disliked their music. I'm just like Brahms - kind of extreme traditionalists when it comes to arts, so I guess this is the reason of my choices.

Did I explore much music outside of them? Well, I would say I did explore enough to say that these composers are my choice. Knowingly choice. I won't deny that I have still a lot to explore - but the composers which I'm about to know and fall in love with, will be composers similiar to those which I have listed here.

Originally Posted by Aramis

Well, if I would follow the popular trends according to this board (the only one place where I discuss and share classical experiences) I would pick Mahler, Sibelius, Bartok and others, since this is the most popular classical music here. No, I don't really enjoy XXth century, as you may know - if you are reading my posts around other threads. I like only few of them: Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, recently Faure too. That's for for example. And I absolutely can't stand Bruckners, Holsts, Brittens, Stravinskys INC. Yes, I know their major works very well. I attempted to listen to them, but I disliked their music. I'm just like Brahms - kind of extreme traditionalists when it comes to arts, so I guess this is the reason of my choices.

Did I explore much music outside of them? Well, I would say I did explore enough to say that these composers are my choice. Knowingly choice. I won't deny that I have still a lot to explore - but the composers which I'm about to know and fall in love with, will be composers similiar to those which I have listed here.

Well, like I said, I think you're choices are rather conservative and I also think they don't really reveal any kind of individuality on your part.

I would hardly call Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Bruckner, Bartok, or Holst popluar around here. It seems that you're still very much into "mainstream" classical, which I guess is okay, but it does show that you have much to explore.

Originally Posted by Mirror Image

I would hardly call Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Bruckner, Bartok, or Holst popluar around here.

I'm basing on the fact that you can easily find recently active discussions about them and, at the other hand, there is not too much talking about, as you call it, "mainstream classical". Composers which I have listed are more famous in general, but in classical listener's environment modern composers, such as those, are much more regarded and popular.

Originally Posted by Aramis

I'm basing on the fact that you can easily find recently active discussions about them and, at the other hand, there is not too much talking about, as you call it, "mainstream classical". Composers which I have listed are more famous in general, but in classical listener's environment modern composers, such as those, are much more regarded and popular.

First of all, this is a classical music forum. The only people that come here are the ones that are serious about this music. Even these people who listen to Bartok or Stravinsky, don't step outside of these composers that often. Just like people who listen to Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart don't step outside of those composers very much.

Me, on the other hand, I listen to a wider compositional variety and I'm more into the less-recorded composers that don't get as much attention like Delius, Langgaard, John Ireland, Bliss, Bax, Arnold, de Falla, Vitezslav Novak, etc.