# Favorite Classical Composers



## MarkfromMD

I am looking at buying tickets to a handful of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts this spring and am just wondering who your favorite composers are. Any specific symphonies or concertos would be welcome also. 

Thanks in advance,
Mark


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## Joe Frances

Very difficult to match favorite composers with concert schedules. Whereas my favorite composers are the three "Bs" Beethoven, Bach and Brahams, I don't hear more than one piece by any of the three a season. No, I tell a lie, I think there's at least two of them represented in a given season, but that doesn't make the concerts less worthwhile.

Better to tell us what's on the schedule for the season, and perhaps comments could be elicited.

I am too tired tonight to check the Baltimore calendar myself, perhaps another night.


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## ajo

Mahler if the 2nd or 3rd is on the menu they are a must see. 

Bartok. Mozart.

I guess it depends upon two things level of stimulation you want in an affective manner. And above all learn to appreciate what your experiencing it goes beyond the intellect, to fully appreciate classical ( and for that matter any music ) learn the art of listening. Aside from that try and pick up a CD of the work your planing to see/hear.


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## KenR

Handel, Bach, Albinoni. But Baroque concerts can often be harder to find.


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## epicuresquire

I particularly like Debussy's Clair de lune.


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## rip

ajo said:


> Mahler if the 2nd or 3rd is on the menu they are a must see.
> 
> Bartok. Mozart.
> 
> I guess it depends upon two things level of stimulation you want in an affective manner. And above all learn to appreciate what your experiencing it goes beyond the intellect, to fully appreciate classical ( and for that matter any music ) learn the art of listening. Aside from that try and pick up a CD of the work your planing to see/hear.


 Not a lot of orchestras are are up to performing Mahler. I think it's a good idea to try to match your favorites to an orchestra's ability to perform them.


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## nosferatu

Mahler is definitely a good bet, particularily his first "Titan" symphony. I am not sure I would recommend Bartok if you aren't that into classical music yet, because his stuff can be hard to listen to at times. But definitely anything by the 3 B's would be great. And anything Mozart that is in minor is a great bet too. Just look to see on the schedules for like Symphony in Whatever minor. etc. I think it's cool to see people on AAAC are interested in classical music!


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## Xhine23

Although he wasn't a classical composer Felix Mendelssohn is my favorite.


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## Phileas Fogg

Probably too many to list them all as almost every composer of some relevance wrote some good music and even some obscure ones have written good music.
Still, I would say George Frideric Haendel is my favourite composer.
Yours,

Phileas Fogg


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## NZNorm

I have to agree with the fans of Mahler, but I like 5 and 6, especially the old Solti recordings. Other favorites: Prokofiev, R. Strauss, Bruckner.


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## Dhaller

My hands-down, desert island favorite is Bach. Talk about a force of nature!

After that it comes down to mood, but looking at my collection I see tons of Chopin, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert. I've always loved the playfulness of Mendelsohn and Saint-Saens, and if I'm in a grand mood Tchaikovsky and Mahler.

I like the delicacy of Faure and Lully.

I could go on, but that's the off-hand core.

D.


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## Mariuslt

Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Holst, Bernstein and other late romantic/modern composers are my favourites


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## DCLawyer68

Mark - Hillary Hahn is playing with the BSO this Saturday - don't miss her.

In addition, they have some _superb_ programs coming up for the 2009-2010 season, so check them out. They include an all Gershwin program in Nov., and a Feb Beethoven / Mozart program among others. Their programing for this season has some real gems.

Good luck.


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## Lebewohl

Marin Alsop's strengths lie in late Romantic and Modern music. Check out her Brahms especially. Her concerts are perfect for neophytes because she's very comfortable with talking to the audience, making them feel comfortable and helping them understand the music she's about to conduct. She's a dynamic conductor and musician. 

As for branching out in classical music, I would take one piece or composer you already like and create a Pandora station for it. See if you like the selections that Pandora comes up with.


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## obxsouth

*Composers*

Vivaldi, Copland, Gershwin, Mozart, Bach.


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## anglophile23

Handel esp. Messiah
Bach
Mozart 
Rimsky-Korsakov
Mussorgsky
Elgar

If you go on Youtube you can hear recordings of these composers and others.


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## TMMKC

For me, Haydn...hands down.


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## S. Able

If you are browsing a schedule, I would first scan the concerto selections. If you see a seminal work for a particular instrument (i.e. Dvorak cello concerto, the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, Bartok viola concerto&#8230 I would highly recommend attending the show. 

In terms of specific composers, I always enjoy Brahms, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Mahler&#8230;


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## Mad Hatter

Dhaller said:


> I like the delicacy of Faure and Lully.


Myself. I also like Debussy and Ravel. _Gymnopedie_ and _Introduction/Allegro for Flute,Harp,Clarinet and Piano _are my two most-favorite pieces. I kinda like a little Scribian, but in small doses.


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## gordion

Frederic Chopin And his Nocturnes










The only known photograph of Chopin​


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## Ricardo-CL

gordion said:


> Frederic Chopin And his Nocturnes
> 
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> The only known photograph of Chopin​


Flawlessly played by Claudio Arrau...


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## ajo

Ricardo-CL said:


> Flawlessly played by Claudio Arrau...


Have a listen to Ivo Pogorelich play Chopin.


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## Ricardo-CL

ajo said:


> Have a listen to Ivo Pogorelich play Chopin.


Thanks for the tip, will see if the any of the local record stores have it.

:icon_smile_wink:


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## AscotWithShortSleeves

I also love Baroque; Telemann (who was to Bach as Salieri was to Mozart) is highly underrated.

Borodin is great as well; I really dig the main anthem of _From the Steppes of Central Asia_.

Mozart will put anyone in a good mood--as will most of Vivaldi's _Four Seasons_.

I also like that one Boccarinni piece that everyone knows when they hear it.


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## Cardcaptor Charlie

I'm very into Handel.

I discovered this gem on YouTube:






Also, I discovered Monteverdi:


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## DukeGrad

Gentlemen

Enjoy all classical. I also add Keith Jarrett!
Starting with the Koln concert .
I was fortunate to hear him play in Denver in the early 1970. At the Brown Palace actually, if still there.

Not in the league with Mozart, Bach etc. But a great pianist in my eyes
Nice day
The gym!


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## DukeGrad

Or was it the Brown Derby?


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## Earl of Ormonde

Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Bax, Harty, Wood, Arnold, Ireland, Bliss, Grainger, Delius, Satie, Moeran, Parry, Britten, Tippet, Bartok, Bridge, Walton, Alwyn, Warlock...and etc in that vein.


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## Exquisite Decay

Earl of Ormonde said:


> Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Bax, Harty, Wood, Arnold, Ireland, Bliss, Grainger, Delius, Satie, Moeran, Parry, Britten, Tippet, Bartok, Bridge, Walton, Alwyn, Warlock...and etc in that vein.


OMG, someone else who knows of Bax! He is one of my favorites. I also have many recordings by the other composers listed.

The first concert I ever attended (at age 13) included Bartok's _Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta_, and Dvorák's Symphony No. 9. I had my mother take me to a record store the next day so I could buy recordings of both pieces. Music by other lesser known composers I like that are worth a listen are

*Diamond, David(American) Symphonies 2-4, _Psalm_, _Concerto for Chamber Orchestra_, T_he Enormous Room_.

*Villa Lobos(Brazilian): He was very prolific and not all of it was top notch, but pieces worth hearing are the _Bachianas Brasileiras; Chôros_; String Quartets; Symphonies, and tone poems such as _Gênesis, Amazonas & Dawn in a Tropical Forest_. His music is just over the top; imagine an orchestra designed by Dr. Seuss including all sorts of unusual instruments, counterpoint that would have Bach's approval, dripping with the Brazilian tropics and on LSD. It is not as scary as it sounds; just do not expect Mozart, Haydn of Brahms, but be prepared for Mr. Toad's wild ride.

BTW: Tonight I am attending the San Francisco Symphony performing Holts' _The Planets_ and Walton's Violin Concerto. I am looking forward to the Walton as I have never heard it live.


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## Earl of Ormonde

Exquisite Decay said:


> BTW: Tonight I am attending the San Francisco Symphony performing Holts' _The Planets_ and Walton's Violin Concerto. I am looking forward to the Walton as I have never heard it live.


You're in for a treat (or have you already been?) I've heard both works live, in London, early 90s at The Barbican.

I've listened over the last 30 years to everything from medieval sacred (Von Bingen) to Italian Rennaisance to Baroque to Classical to the National Romantics to Modern classical.

And although Tchaikovsky and Brahms were my favourites for many years, they were deposed nearly 2 decades ago when I first re-acquainted myself again with some of the music I recognised in the recesses of my memory from my childhood i.e. Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Holst and mates! 
So nowadays, as far as classical goes, I rarely listen to anything other than British Modern. Of course the odd bit of Prok, Shosh & Strav creeps in,:icon_smile_wink: along with some Sibelius, Larsen, Petterson-Birger, Stenhammar, and Alfvén to mention just a few of the modern Russians and Scandinavians.


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## Lord Berners

Hmmm...if I had to narrow it down to a few. In no particular order:

Mahler
Scriabin
Schoenberg
Webern
Bruckner
Ravel
Gesualdo
Schubert
Berg
Richard Strauss
Wolf
Zemlinsky
Busoni

and so on and such like...


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## sjghr

Much like everyone else, it seems, I'd find it very hard to narrow down the list. So I'll stick to my top-three. Or, at least as of this moment, it's always changing.

Tchaikovsky
Holst
Handel
Beethoven

There you go, I couldn't even limit it to three...


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## Earl of Ormonde

sjghr said:


> Much like everyone else, it seems, I'd find it very hard to narrow down the list. So I'll stick to my top-three. Or, at least as of this moment, it's always changing.
> 
> Tchaikovsky
> Holst
> Handel
> Beethoven
> 
> There you go, I couldn't even limit it to three...


That's a very interesting & comprehensive list, when you put those lads in chronological order, because they each represent a different period of music

Handel - Baroque & early Classical
Beethoven - Classical & Romantic
Tchaikovsky - Nationalist romantics
Holst - British modern


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## The Dandy

Waltzes by Strauss mainly. I also adore Chopin.


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## Persephone

I also love waltzes by Johann Strauss, Emile Waldteufel, and C.M. Ziehrer.
Other favourite composers are Tchaikovsky (I dance classical ballet and Swan Lake is truly magical), Beethoven, Offenbach (Les Contes D'Hoffmann), Mozart, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff.


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## bkdc

Ricardo-CL said:


> Flawlessly played by Claudio Arrau...


I own all the recordings, but when it comes to the Nocturnes, my ranking is
1) Ivan Moravec
2) Maria Joao-Pires
3) Tamas Vasary
4) Claudio Arrau

It's all subjective, but bkdc owns over 3000 classical CD's... and of course, my favorite composer is Chopin.


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## lovemeparis

*Great Classical Composers...*

Here is my list... for now


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## Svenn

Cardcaptor Charlie said:


> I'm very into Handel.


+1, the soothing dignity of french horns and hornpipes is very unappreciated I think... I too love Handel's Water Music, and 
Lully
Charpentier
Any other baroque horn/royal fanfare specialist.

Then again maybe I just like the imagery of a society long past...


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## sjghr

I think I may have upset an Austrian a couple of months ago... Standing under the 'Flying Mozart' gondola in the Austrian Alps (Altenmakt or Wagrain, I cannot remember), a local was extolling the virtues of Austria's greatest composer. To which I replied that I was always more of a Beethoven person...

It would be fair to say that it was a good job that I could ski better than he could.


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## Pirendeus

For composers in General, I prefer Beethoven's dark musings. But my favorite individual piece is Vivaldi's Spring.


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## topbroker

Earl of Ormonde said:


> Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Bax, Harty, Wood, Arnold, Ireland, Bliss, Grainger, Delius, Satie, Moeran, Parry, Britten, Tippet, Bartok, Bridge, Walton, Alwyn, Warlock...and etc in that vein.


I like that crowd too. I am also very fond of the more aggressive modernists such as Schoenberg, Varese, Gerhard, Ives, etc. This would seem to be a contradiction, but I do not feel it as such. On your list, Bartok and Tippett might be considered intermediary between the two groups.


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## topbroker

Lord Berners said:


> Hmmm...if I had to narrow it down to a few. In no particular order:
> 
> Mahler
> Scriabin
> Schoenberg
> Webern
> Bruckner
> Ravel
> Gesualdo
> Schubert
> Berg
> Richard Strauss
> Wolf
> Zemlinsky
> Busoni
> 
> and so on and such like...


This is a great list, too. Bruckner and Busoni! I approve much.


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## MikeDT

Brahms and Liszt.


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## Scotch&Cigars

All of my favorite classical classical composers have been mentioned, and a big thumbs up to the person that mentioned Felix Mendelssohn!

Lately, I've been listening a lot to two more modern composers:

1) Frank Ticheli. Particularly, his arrangements of Shenandoah and Amazing Grace, as well as his composition Blue Shades

2) Eric Whitacre. Particularly his work entitled October (and an arrangement of it for string orchestra)


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## Earl of Ormonde

At this very moment on Friday afternoon, listening to a BBC Radio 4 play about the tortured life of poor old Moeran.


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## AZTEC

bkdc said:


> I own all the recordings, but when it comes to the Nocturnes, my ranking is
> 1) Ivan Moravec
> 2) Maria Joao-Pires
> 3) Tamas Vasary
> 4) Claudio Arrau


Isn't Maria João Pires just wonderful? I am not familiar with her chopin but her Mozart sonatas are played exquisitely.

My list changes every few months...but at the moment:

to play (piano): scarlatti, handel, mozart, beethoven, schumann

to listen: beethoven, schubert, scriabin, rachmaninoff, Arvo Pärt

AZTEC


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## racebannon

Bach
Mozart


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