So I'm in the middle of a chronological survey of music from post-Schubert to the 20th century to rectify what was a pretty big hole in my classical awareness, since until now I've mostly been a listener of stuff from Josquin to Schubert (which is a lifetime in itself of course!). It's been great so far. In the early part of the Romantic period I've spent time with Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Berlioz and Alkan, in opera listened to Rossini and Bellini (who is AMAZING) bel canto and some early Verdi, then moved on to Brahms (pretty much everything he published is brilliant, my latest favourite composer), a few of Wagner's orchestral works and excerpts, Bruckner's symphonies 4/7/8, Smetana's Ma Vlast, and am now listening to Dvorak starting with his late string quartets.
The problem is that I'm becoming slightly lost about what to listen to next, because after 1860 or so it seems as if there's a great increase in the number and variety of composers and works, with a stylistic fracturing along the lines of nationalist schools and responses to Wagner. So it's become quite difficult for me to follow a coherent chronological narrative of which composers to go through compared to the early Romantic period. So I was wondering if TC could help: what would you say are the 'essential' composers of the late 19th century, and their best introductory works? If you like, 'essential' defined as something like 'works/composers one would expect a literate aficionado of classical music to be familiar with'. Thanks for any tips. :tiphat:
The problem is that I'm becoming slightly lost about what to listen to next, because after 1860 or so it seems as if there's a great increase in the number and variety of composers and works, with a stylistic fracturing along the lines of nationalist schools and responses to Wagner. So it's become quite difficult for me to follow a coherent chronological narrative of which composers to go through compared to the early Romantic period. So I was wondering if TC could help: what would you say are the 'essential' composers of the late 19th century, and their best introductory works? If you like, 'essential' defined as something like 'works/composers one would expect a literate aficionado of classical music to be familiar with'. Thanks for any tips. :tiphat:
