Music Banter - Your top 5 Classical composers:

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Beethoven is ok. However, I myself find it amazingly frustrating that through centuries of wonderful music the entire classical genre is usually generalized to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Chopin... occasionally Tschaikowsky(whom I adore, but still). I feel if the true depth, and variance, of the genre were exposed to the world, there'd be a lot more fans.

In my findings, Beethoven definitely has his hits, and definitely has his misses.

My favorites vary greatly, depending on my frame of mind at the time, what I've been listening to...where I am...any number of things. There are times I may love Beethoven, but times he may be the last composer in the world I'd want to listen to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA (Post 991213)

However, when I listen to the piece (when I'm not playing it), I find myself getting bored. While I am intrigued that Beethoven was realizing the torture of his increasing deafness right around the time he wrote this sunny-sounding symphony in 1802, the music doesn't inspire me. I'd never want to sit through listening to others play the 4th movement, but I enjoy being part of the orchestra making the music.

This is one reason I'm not an ideal orchestra member. I like playing in the orchestra, but I don't really care about performances because if *I* were in the audience, I'd be daydreaming like mad during most of this piece to find something more interesting for me to think about:

To be quite honest, I've never been so much a fan of this whole piece in general, and not just the fourth movement - it doesn't really evoke any strong emotion within me. Then again, I'm really not in a Beethoven mood right now.

I'll say that my favorites (for the time being) are:

1.) Maurice Ravel
2.) Rachmaninoff
3.) Tchaikovsky
4.) Stravinsky
5.) Shostakovich

In particular, I've been listening to a lot of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.

A wonderful version of the third movement (Menuet) from this piece is:

The piece as a whole is wonderful, but that particular movement is superb. Easily one of my favorite compositions at present.

I'm also kind of obsessed with his 3 part piano composition, Gaspard de la nuit.

Here's the piece in its entirety, separated by movement into three separate videos:

Movement I: Scarbo

Movement II: Le Gibet

Movement III: Ondine

It's really a pretty dark, haunting piece, but I find it exceedingly beautiful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhanastasio (Post 991221)

1.) Maurice Ravel
2.) Rachmaninoff
3.) Tchaikovsky
4.) Stravinsky

Amazing choices, I've been finding myself enjoying quite a bit of all four recently.

Paganini
Pachelbel
Mozart
Bach
Steve Reich (not that sure he fits in)

God, in no particular order probably Händel, Rossini, Stravinsky, Copland and Brahms.
But I'm never really sure. It differs :)

Bach
Weiss
Mozart
Bethoven
Chopin

Schnittke
Bach
Mozart
Shostakovich
Beethoven

... and Berg

Felix Mendelssohn
Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Chopin

Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
C.P.E Bach (Bach's son)
Tchaikovsky

I honestly don't understand history's obsession with preserving Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, and Bach over all other composers. None of them are bad composer. Bach, especially, is really fun to listen to. I just don't feel they are truly amazing in the face of composers later which have evolved the sound of orchestral composition by lightyears.

Not to dis those guys, I just feel people need to dig a little bit deeper in the genre. I honestly am not that well versed in it. But, I think a lot of people are cheated out by it. It's almost as if you made a time capsule, and chose only to put Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, and Eric Clapton on the list expecting it to represent the entire plethora of stylistic quirks that consist of modern guitar for the past two centuries.

Updated List:

1. Bela Bartok
2. Franz Lizst
3. Rimsky-Korsokov
4. Gyorgi Ligeti
5. Sergei Rachmaninov

Special Mentions: Domenico Scarlatti, Edgard Varese, Igor Stravinsky, Harry Partch, Tchaikovsky, and Ravel.