favorite composers

[h_chopin148]

Who are your favorite composers? Mine are Beethoven and Chopin, I also like Dvorak a lot too.

[patrickd]

For piano I would pick Medtner,and Alkan along with the standard favorites such as Chopin and Rachmaninoff etc. However overall it is between Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

[virtuoso80]

Gustav Mahler is the easy #1. He was the first 'classical' music I unreservedly loved. I appreciated Bach, had fun with Beethoven, but Mahler took a piece of my soul and never gave it back.

That's the key for me - there are many, many composers I enjoy, but only a few are able to penetrate and connect at that deepest level. Chopin would be an example of a composer I enjoy tremendously, but I ultimately don't love (It seems I just can't relate to the French sensibility for whatever reason. I have the same problems with Debussy, Saint-Saens, etc.)

Composers I do love would include the aforementioned Mahler, Schubert, Wagner, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, and Rachmaninoff.

Composers who I actively disliked, but started appreciating when I turned 30 or so: Brahms, Schumann

...and the one supposedly 'great' composer I still can't enjoy: Mozart

[worov]

My favorite piano composers (I include baroque music) :

Bach, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schumann, Prokofiev, Villa-Lobos

In non piano music : the same composers, plus Mahler, Shostakovich, Vivaldi, Mozart (especially the requiem, virtuoso80 should give a try to this one), Vaughan Williams.

[asuhayda]

Bach - the rest is just decoration

[h_chopin148]

but Mahler took a piece of my soul and never gave it back.

you are so poetic! But yes, Mahler is marvelous.

[stoudemirestat]

At this point: Liszt, Beethoven, Berlioz.

[j_menz]

Apparently everyones favourite composers are also their favourite decomposers.

Does no-one alive have a following anymore?

[virtuoso80]

Apparently everyones favourite composers are also their favourite decomposers.

Does no-one alive have a following anymore?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you elaborate?

[andreslr6]

Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff!! woohoo!!

[j_menz]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you elaborate?

The closest anyone has come to mentioning a living breathing person is Schostakovitch, and he died in 1975.

Where are the living composers?

[ajspiano]

Where are the living composers?

Albania Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bolivia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Cape Verde Chile China Colombia Congo (Kinshasa) Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Guatemala Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kosovo Latvia Lebanon Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malaysia Malta Mexico Moldova Mongolia Montenegro The Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Palestine Paraguay Peru The Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain The Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine UK USA Uruguay Uzbekistan Venezuela and Vietnam.......

https://www.composers21.com/

[andreslr6]

The closest anyone has come to mentioning a living breathing person is Schostakovitch, and he died in 1975.

Where are the living composers?

Leonardo Coral  . He's mexican too so that gives him a plus for me.

[virtuoso80]

The closest anyone has come to mentioning a living breathing person is Schostakovitch, and he died in 1975.

Where are the living composers?

Ahhh, I see. Well...Arvo Part is still alive, and I like him.

In some ways I feel that the spirit captured by my favorite composers is one that draws a line into other genres in the modern day. In other words, I feel like the Gustav Mahler of our time probably started a heavy metal band, instead of getting his PhD and writing academic music. I'm sure there are living composers I would enjoy if I were exposed to them, but much of what I heard in college was music that had gone far down the academic road; more interested in the accompanying lecture and theory paper than in expressing one's self. I like composers who have a Romantic spirit, if not necessarily a Romantic style - ones who write music a certain way because their heart and soul demand it that way. Academia doesn't seem to cater to such people, and those people tend to flow into other outlets nowadays.

[j_menz]

I feel like the Gustav Mahler of our time probably started a heavy metal band, instead of getting his PhD and writing academic music.

Evidently true:

https://www.spreadshirt.com/mahler-the-god-of-heavy-metal-C3376A8461876

EDIT:

https://www.heavymetalsociety.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4140&sid=42277100fa3e4653b7a23ed970cd0440 

[worov]

In the more recent music, I do like Arvo Pärt as mentionned by virtuoso80. Alan Hovhaness too (I know he's dead, but composed until the 2000's, so I guess this is recent music), Philip Glass, Howard Skempton, Richard Rodney Bennett (died recently too). I do enjoy some Elliott Carter too (dead too).

j_menz, you're right. I don't know breathing composers enough. Do you have any suggestions ?

[j_menz]

Do you have any suggestions ?

Go looking for them?

On my list would be:

Carl Vine
Peter Sculthorpe
Trygve Madsen
Ellen Taafe Zwillich
Ross Edwards
Stephen Hough
David Johnson
Scott Miller
Henry Martin
Frederick Rzewsky
Rodion Shchedrin
Boris Tschaikovsky
Sergei Slonimsky
Tan Dun

That's by no means a comprehensive list (nor in order of preference), but once you're started, one leads to another!

Oh, and let's not forget our own Alistair Hinton and Nicholas Sideras

Most active music publishers have a "stable" of living composers on their books - have a look around their site, search YT and support the ones that take your fancy.

[evitaevita]

Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Chopin
Ravhmaninoff

(in chronological order)

[whitebeagle]

I second Mahler.What a shame he didn't write anything for piano...I can never resist Chopin, and a very special place is reserved in my heart for Schubert. I enjoy playing Schumann and Prokofiev but don't necessarily enjoy listening to it. Also love Liszt.

Composers I haven't got into despite knowing they're supposed to be great-
Mozart (yet again!), Rachmaninov ~(probably the only person who thinks this), Brahms and blasphemy coming up...Beethoven!

[worov]

j_menz, thank you for the list ! I will certainly investigate these.

Composers I haven't got into despite knowing they're supposed to be great-
Mozart (yet again!), Rachmaninov ~(probably the only person who thinks this), Brahms and blasphemy coming up...Beethoven!

I'm not crazy about Rachmaninoff either. However I'm crazy about Beethoven (especially sonatas and string quartets).

[kriatina]

Bach - the rest is just decoration

Bach &  Haendel  -  the rest is variation...

[kriatina]

Bach  &  Haendel  -  the rest is variation...

[h_chopin148]

Sergei Slonimsky