Classical music fans who are your favorite composers or artists or compositions or al

[Ogandydancer]

Just thought this might be fun. What are some of your favorite composers or artists or compositions? Here's my list.

Anything by Johann Strauss Jr or for that matter any of the Straauss family. Franz Liszt especially his Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and some of his other things . Beethovens Fifth symphony and his Violin Concerto w/ Anne Sophie Mutter soloist Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and some of his other stuff, Saint-Saens Poet and Peasant, Samuel Barbers Adagio For Strings, Rach Maninov Piano Concerto No.3 with Martha Argerich soloist and almost anything else with her as soloist. Some of Emile Waldteufel's music George Enescu's Hungarian Rhapsody No.1 Ciprian Porumbescu's Roumanian Poem. There are too many others to make a complete list.

 

[kimporter]

Copeland,Barber,and also a lot of the works commissioned by the louisville orchestra in the 40s and 50s

 

[shouldazagged]

So many...

Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the finest examples of program music ever written, and composed when he was seventeen or eighteen.

The Mozart Requiem.

Much of Dvorak, especially some of the string quartets.

The Bruch Scottish Fantasy.

Prokofiev's score for the ballet Romeo And Juliet.

I have arranged for the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto's slow second movement to be played at my memorial service, in a recording by Isaac Stern--not because he was the best violinist ever, but because he was a teacher and promoter of music and the saving of Carnegie Hall.

Almost any choral music by Schubert.

And on and on and on...

 

[zzzippper]

Years ago when I was into the scene I could enjoy almost anyone except Mozart, dude was like chloroform to me.

 

[captorquewrench]

Arvo Pärt, Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, John Rutter, Benjamin Britten, Penderecki, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Percy Aldridge Grainger, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Mahler, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, the Bachs, Grieg, Elgar, Wagner, Iber, Heiden, Haydn, Creston, Paul Maurice, Josquin, Rodrigo, William Byrd, Fisher Tull, Brahms, Hildegard von Bingen, Palestrina, Bartok, Gabrieli, Vivaldi, Still, Copland, Bernstein-both Leonard and Elmer, Nino Rota, Reich, Glass, John Adams, John Cage...

It's easier to ask who I don't like, which is basically webern, berg, schoenberg, and even then I still get into some of them but I have to be in the mindset for it.

 

[captorquewrench]

Years ago when I was into the scene I could enjoy almost anyone except Mozart, dude was like chloroform to me.

I enjoyed reading his letters more than his music...impish child star whotel loved his sister, beer, and toilet jokes.

 

[cmort666]

• John Adams - His "Fearful Symmetries" and "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" are simply amazing. I dislike most "modern" classical music, but Adams is an exception. I'm surprised his music has never been used in a science fiction movie.
• Richard Wagner - A train wreck as a human being, but an incredible composer. I never tire of the overture to "Rienzi", "The Ride of the Valkyries", and the overture to "Tannhauser".
• Franz Liszt - I first heard "Les Preludes" as part of the soundtrack to the third Flash Gordon serial. It's so majestic and moving that it keeps turning up in everything from cheesy sf serials to the British comedy mini-series "Private Schultz".
• Erich Korngold - Probably the best film composer who ever lived. The themes to "Captain Blood", "The Sea Hawk", "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "Objective Burma" and "King's Row" stand by themselves as musical pieces, apart from the movies.
• Ludwig van Beethoven - "The Eroica", etc.
• Gioacchino Rossini - The movie "A Clockwork Orange" just drags along... until the fight with the SS gang set to "The Thieving Magpie".

I could go on...

 

[rwsmith]

There isn't very much......

There isn't much I don't like from the Medieval period onward. If something bad has been produced in that time, it most likely has been weeded out of the catalog and your average listener won't encounter it except as maybe a revival performance.

 

[Bush Pilot]

I enjoy most classical music, Edvard Grieg in particular. I have a dog in the fight, he was a distant cousin.

 

[jbull380]

Love most all of the classical composers. I listen to the local NPR station that is nothing but classical music. I used to get comments about my music coming over the police radio when responding to a call. Very calming on the way to a bad call.

 

[Aticus]

Are you all saying there should be classical composers I shouldn't like?

 

[loutent]

Way back in the 70's & 80's Stereo Review Magazine would publish the "Basic Repertoire" for those dipping their toe into classical music (like me at that time.) It was a the 100 best recordings by who they considered the best artists at that time. If you scroll down this page you will see a summary:

AudiogoN Forums: Basic Repertoire

Mozart - I must disagree with the naysayers - probably the greatest composer of all time or at least up there with the top 5 or so. I think that I must have 90% of his 600+ compositions on my I-pod

 

[cmort666]

Stereo Review Magazine

I remember when there were decent stereo magazines, not all this "home theater" garbage. There isn't one in a thousand movies I'd go to the theater to see. I don't want to see them at home either, much less spend a LOT of money to do so. I have a couple of receivers so that I can listen to MUSIC.

I remember when my Sansui 7900Z receiver gave up the ghost some time around 2007. I went to the store to pick up a STEREO magazine and found just about NOTHING, with the except of ONE extremely high end magazine which discussed mostly systems that would rival a decent used car in price.

 

[GhostMutt]

Tchaikovsky - Winter Daydreams No 1 in G Minor & the Marche Slave.....of course the 1812.

Wagner....oh the power. As mentioned before....Barber Adagio for strings and........
FRANK ZAPPA

 

[loutent]

Tchaikovsky.....of course the 1812.

But I thought this thread was about Classical music

 

[JohnSW]

I only have a couple CDs, Beethoven's 9th, and Mahler's 2nd.

 

[italiansport]

Just about anything by the big three Bs. Bach Brahms and Bethoven.
A personal favorite is:
Toccata in E Fugue which I had the pleasure of hearing played on the fantastic organ in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir auditorium in Salt Lake City a few years back.
Jim

 

[shouldazagged]

I enjoyed reading his letters more than his music...impish child star whotel loved his sister, beer, and toilet jokes.

I did enjoy the movie "Amadeus", fiction though it was in most respects. Murray Abraham was splendid as Salieri, and it was beautifully filmed.

I enjoy a lot of Saint-Saens, and I think I prefer Bruckner to Mahler--heresy, I know.

Very fond of Scarlatti, and was fortunate to attend a concert of his solo piano works performed by Lee Luvisi, who was brilliant.

 

[wheelgunguy]

I've always loved Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
The Telarc disc by the Boston Symphony Orchestra is a gorgeous recording.

 

[scdjr]

New World Symphony......