comparing Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann Liszt

[dizzyfingers]

These 4 pillars of 19th century piano were all born within 2 years of each other.

Mendelssohn - 1809 Feb
Chopin           - 1810 March
Schumann     - 1810 June
Liszt               - 1811 March

How did these composers react to the romantic spirit of the early 19th century?

Mendelssohn - uncannily talented but too burdened by the shadows of the Viennese classicists?
Chopin - off in Poland, wise teachers, free to develop his own unique style?
Schumann - there are two Schumann's:  before marriage and after ... before we hear a young man exuberant with new ideas, free of years of formal training in composition; after - someone more interested in tradition?
Liszt - plenty of freedom in his youth to develop an original style, less beholden to tradition than any of the above?

[dizzyfingers]

surprise no one is interested in comparing these 4 composers ...

[essence]

This forum seems to be far more interested in the last post rather than anything to do with piano or music.

My view - Chopin, Liszt and Schumann were all first rate, maybe Mendelssohn in the second rank. I'm not saying he never wrote decent music, I once enjoyed singing 'Elijah', but if I never hear another note from him in my life it wouldn't bother me.

Liszt of course had a much longer life.

Has anyone followed up on their style? Maybe Scriabin followed Chopin in early works, but maybe he followed Liszt more in his later works!

Schumann is maybe unique in his quirkiness.

Comparing the quality of those three as composers is pointless. But maybe they are different in how the influenced later composers (and pianists). Has anybody ever written anything and said 'that sounds like Schumann'?

[liszt-and-the-galops]

This forum seems to be far more interested in the last post rather than anything to do with piano or music.

It looks like it's currently speeding towards someone (or multiple someones) getting doxed, so I wouldn't expect it to last much longer.
I hope.

maybe Mendelssohn in the second rank. I'm not saying he never wrote decent music, I once enjoyed singing 'Elijah', but if I never hear another note from him in my life it wouldn't bother me.

I don't really listen to much Mendelssohn, but I will say that his Op. 104b Etudes are something else; particularly no. 1.

Comparing the quality of those three as composers is pointless. But maybe they are different in how the influenced later composers (and pianists).

Agreed.

[dizzyfingers]

Comparing the quality of those three as composers is pointless. But maybe they are different in how the influenced later composers (and pianists). Has anybody ever written anything and said 'that sounds like Schumann'?

Given that they all supposedly grew up in the same "spirit of the age", whatever that might be, something others could articulate better than me, but something to do with Romanticism, the question in my mind is how did they react to it differently and similarly?  Comparison is rarely pointless.  Comparison with the goal of a final outcome perhaps is.  If you assume I'm looking for a "who is the best" discussion, nothing could be further from the truth.  I'm curious to think about the influences that, given a common underlying Romantic Spirit, make each unique ... something to do with pedagogy, both formal, informal, direct, indirect.  It appears to me that the one with the most formal training, and from an early age - Mendelssohn - turned out to be the least original.

[essence]

Agree with all you say.

In terms of their own compositions, they are very different. I struggle to think of any works by one of them which might have been composed by another. That is a mark of their uniqueness and originality.

I am no music historian, but possibly Liszt responded most to the 'spirit of the age'? By that I mean he had some response to political and social movements (and musical movements, of course), whereas Chopin and Schumann were more attuned to their inner voices?

I don't know.

Which influenced future music? The obvious answer is Liszt, but could Debussy/Ravel/Faure and then Messiaen  have written what they did without Chopin? At times Chopin seems to throw us into a totally new world - for example in his late nocturnes op. 62. Indeed, in his op 15 no 2 in F# major, the second section to my ears looks forward to Debussy's Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses.