resurrect one composer

[nanabush]

Yeh I know he has one... a second concerto would be great though.

[njalli]

There are a few

Beethoven: no one knows what he would do now, he was years ahead of his time and was one of the greatest composers of all time, if not the best; and he was deaf!

Chopin: i always find it wierd how he could compose some of those pieces that he did compose, someone would have to live a whole life to tell a story like most of his pieces do, exspeccially the late pieces. He allso died so young and nobody would know what he might do now.

Liszt: I would like to see him play, said to be one of the greatest pianists of all time.

Mozart: he was a genius, his sonatas are wonderfull but i think they are really underrestimated, on a 35 year span, he composed over 600 works i think!

Bach: one of the most underrestimated musical geniuses of all time.

Shubert: wonderfull some of his work.

A. Vivaldi: so underrestimated in his time!

Rachmaninoff: great pianist and a composer, would like to see him perform life today, alive!

Brahms

Schumann

[smithreeseii]

First and foremost JS Bach, at least long enough to rewrite all those pieces that have gone lost after his death (some 100 church cantatas, dozens of secular ones, tens of concertos, chamber works and whatnot and, of course, finish the Kunst der Fuge).
Monteverdi, to rewrite his lost operas.
Beethoven, who knows what he might have done with another 20 years or so.
Schubert, who knows what he might have done with another 50 years or so.
Bruckner, to finish the 9th and, who knows, give us a 10th.
Mahler, at least enough time to write his 15th symphony.
Pettersson, a few more symphonies would be good.
I guess you mean Elliott Carter? By the look of the thing, he'll still be composing in another 20 years or so. Wouldn't mind that, actually!


Now how about composers who are, as such, dead but still composing? Such as Philip Glass?

Gep

I agree completely with Gep, expecially about Bruckner and Schubert.

[prongated]

I wouldn't resurrect a composer so he could write more music.  I would want to resurrect a composer to learn more about him...

Actually, couldn't agree with you more. In choosing Schubert, I wasn't even thinking about him writing more music! I should really like to know more about the spirit that was the "little mushroom", the centre of the warm, wonderful Schubertiade. Then again, one can argue one can gather much about Schubert through his music...

I would bring back Schubert. He didn't live love enough to reach his mature idiosyncrasy, like Beethoven. And a Schubert piano concerto would be nice.

Um, if "mature idiosyncracy" is not evident in, say, the D960 Sonata (which many musicologists argue was the finest work for piano to come out of the 19th century, often compared with Liszt's and Chopin's b minor sonatas), then I can only shudder to think how immensly powerful and heavenly such a mature work would be...

[personally I am of the opinion that had Schubert lived longer, or more specifically had Schubert not endured the physical and emotional challenges following his return from Graz in autumn 1827, we pianists probably would never enjoy something so immensely human as his D958-60, D940, D946, op.142, the A major rondo...]

[retrouvailles]

Actually, now that I look back on this thread, and think more about it, I don't think many of these composers would want to write any music once they are resurrected. The first thing they would probably do is want to get up to speed on all of the music history they were dead for!

[synthex]

?

[smithreeseii]

Yeah, kind of an "...excuse me?"

[slow_concert_pianist]

if you could resurrect one composer from the dead, who would it be?

Scriabin definitely 

Alexander or Julian?

[retrouvailles]

Alexander or Julian?

I think he meant Alexander, but why not both? Both seemed extremely promising, especially Scriabin, who was working on Mysterium at the time of his death, which was supposed to be a week long piece that would supposedly end the world, hah.

[rienzi]

I've always wondered what Gershwin would have produced had he lived into the middle years of the last century. Would he have incorporated ideas from the popular music of the 1950s and 1960s into his work or would they still have the feel of the 20s and 30s? I think he might well have revised the Piano Concerto and the Second Rhapsody and excised a few passages which seem structurally poor.
Of course it would be interesting to know just what paths the music of Mozart and Schubert might have taken had their lives been longer but, as "Only the good die young", I wouldn't wish any of them back into a state of purgatory!

[thalbergmad]

I would like to bring back Ernst Mielck.

22 years was not long enough and he could have been one of the greats.

Thal

[argerichfan]

Julius Reubke.  (1834-58)

On the basis of his organ sonata (written at age 23), he might easily have been one of the greats.  The sonata shows no sign of diminishing popularity with organists, especially the last movement with its stunning fugue.

[retrouvailles]

Julius Reubke.  (1834-58)

On the basis of his organ sonata (written at age 23), he might easily have been one of the greats.  The sonata shows no sign of diminishing popularity with organists, especially the last movement with its stunning fugue.

The piano sonata is very good as well. His smaller piano pieces leave a lot to be desired, but that happens with many of the greats as well.

[pianisten1989]

Schumann, so he could torture all of you schumann-haters

On a more serious base, I'd pick Schubert. His lieds are among the most beautiful pieces ever written.

[lolstein]

I would bring back Schumann, shoot him and then bury him again.

Thal

I lol'd. I reserve those sentiments for Brahms

As much as I'd love to see what Bach, Beethoven and Mozart would do, I'm going to go with Norbert Burgmuller. Maybe Mendelssohn

[thalbergmad]

I am convinced Burgmuller would have produced great things if only he lived a little longer.

Not sure about bringing Mendelssohn back.

Thal

[m2r]

Chopin, his life was wayyyyy too short.

[adaubre]

I'm a big Mendelssohn fan, but I think it would be more interesting to see what Chopin or Wagner would do.

[point of grace]

Mozart who also had a very short life, and Prokofieff.

[argerichfan]

Mozart who also had a very short life, and Prokofieff.

At the time of Prokofiev's passing, he reportedly had a number of future compositions ready to go.  It would have been just a matter of notating them.  Wonder what we missed? 

[retrouvailles]

At the time of Prokofiev's passing, he reportedly had a number of future compositions ready to go.  It would have been just a matter of notating them.  Wonder what we missed? 

There are some fragments of the pieces he was starting, such as the 10th sonata, which has a rather mysterious opening to me. However, it's almost impossible to see where it was going. He also did some work on a concerto for two pianos and string orchestra, but only a few bars of that were ever notated.