Top 20 composers

[gustavs9]

I am a baroque maniac and an Haendel addict;
I would nt have expected that Gould loved a good deal of baroque composer. I noticed he put haendel in this bunch anyway. So i am really sorry for Rod, but this is a victory for Haendelians anyway
gustavs italy

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Amalie:

...I am not really a film goer myself, but is is good to have some culture now and then. I am not a particular fan of Virginia Woolf, she was an undoubted stylist in her writing, but really the content I find is so slight and evanescent...

Amalie,

"The Hours" is about three other characters who do not know her personally and are not known to her, as much as it is about Virginia Woolf. I would not connect your reaction to her writing with whether or not to see this film. It is a very powerful and moving work, at least to me. I'm not much of a a filmgoer either. In a cultural wasteland where we look around us almost vainly for something being done TODAY which can stand alongside the works of the past, this (to me anyway) is one example.

Chaszz

[Amalie]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
Amalie,

"The Hours" is about three other characters who do not know her personally and are not known to her, as much as it is about Virginia Woolf. I would not connect your reaction to her writing with whether or not to see this film. It is a very powerful and moving work, at least to me. I'm not much of a a filmgoer either. In a cultural wasteland where we look around us almost vainly for something being done TODAY which can stand alongside the works of the past, this (to me anyway) is one example.

Chaszz

I agree with what you are saying Chaszz, It wouldn't be fair of me judge the film without really seeing it. It is very true we have to look to the past for a cultural lead. Goodness knows there is nothing in this barbaric present.
I have never understood, for instance, like Antony Trollope's Brilliant Novel's of the Victorian age have never been made into films, I am sure they would be blockbusters.
The stories about Victorian politicians, clergymen and busisnessmen are so true to life as to be astonishing and compellent.
Trollope profoundly understood man's acquisitive nature and the good and the bad side to that. I saw a brilliant version of Nicholas Nickelby last month on general release, it was just fantastic with charachters so life like, either proud or sad or funny that they seem more real than than the people around us now.
I seem to recall seeing a film version of Viginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, many years ago, unless I am mistaken, is about a woman losing her husband in the first world war, and it was very good.

Regards
Amalie

[This message has been edited by Amalie (edited September 22, 2003).]

[chicagomike]

I'm new to this discussion group, but I have decided opinions on this topic (of course).

First, yes, such a list is silly -- "greatness" to a large extent is a matter of taste.

I happen to rank Wagner very highly indeed, unlike many others here -- certainly in the "top five." My others in that group would be Beethoven, Bach, Handel and Mozart.

I'd lower the ranking of Brahms, Schumann and Mendelssohn, and drop Prokofiev and Shostakovich from the list entirely.

I'd certainly include Berlioz (top 10 -- if only for "Les Troyens") and Bruckner (top 20).

And, of course, Monteverdi -- the greatest composer before Bach, and definitely in the top 10.