Who are your top 5 composers, in order?

[Hollywood]

My top 5 composers is not an easy one to answer. I am not going to list my top 5 classical composers but an eclectic mixture to say the least, so here we go:

1. Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
3. John Philip Sousa
4. Scott Joplin
5. Glenn Miller



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"God knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."
- Beethoven 1804.

[earzz]

Tough to make such choices:

Beethoven
Bach
Stravinsky
Mozart
Brahms

[Johan]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
I'd just like to add a word on Sibelius, a word of praise for his violin concerto. If you've never heard it, and you respond to Romantic music, I highly recommend it. In my opinion he never wrote anything else approaching it. It is one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertory.

Yes I agree totally. His own instrument was the violin.
You know, his parents and grandparents lived in Lovisa. He spent there his summers with his grandmother and aunt. In the town, near the church is the so-called Sibelius-house. The ancestors of the Sibelius family came from a farm called Sibbe quite near Lovisa. Lovisa was my home-town for 27 years.

[Johan]

Originally posted by PDG:
Hey, Johan. What happened to nos. 2-5? Is Sibelius' birthday still a National Holiday in your Finlandia?

Hey PDG! Numbers 2-5 are reserved for the tremendous impact of LvB.
Sibelius birthday a National Holiday? It never was one. Near it on the 6th of December we celebrate our independence. But a lot of people remember the birthday of Sibelius.

[gprengel]

Those who I listen to most are:

1. Beethoven
2. Schubert
3. Mozart
4. Mendelssohn
5. Bruce Springsteen

other favourites: Tschaikowsky, Handel, Verdi,
Bob Dylan, Neil Young

I must admit that I do not really love Bach with the exception of his piano works, some slow concerto movements, a few chorals and the Dona Nobis from the b-minor Mass

Gerd

[Peter]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
I'd just like to add a word on Sibelius, a word of praise for his violin concerto. If you've never heard it, and you respond to Romantic music, I highly recommend it. In my opinion he never wrote anything else approaching it. It is one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertory.

Wasn't he supposed to be in a drunken stupor for weeks when he wrote it?!! I agree it is a fine work, not as great as Beethoven's violin concerto, but I prefer it to Tchaikovsky's. I also love the modal 6th symphony which is less frequently performed.

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'Man know thyself'

[HaydnFan]

I think I have said this before but i find Beethoven's Violin Conc. hard to listen to...I am so bored by the end of the drawn-out first movement that I can't listen to any more...

[Johan]

Originally posted by HaydnFan:
I think I have said this before but i find Beethoven's Violin Conc. hard to listen to...I am so bored by the end of the drawn-out first movement that I can't listen to any more...

The Beethoven Violin Concerto is by far the most sublime of ALL concertos!

[Chris]

The Beethoven concerto is often performed too slowly, making it seem boring, I have found.

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Johan:
The Beethoven Violin Concerto is by far the most sublime of ALL concertos!

I agree, except that I would have it in a tie with the Emperor Concerto (the 5th piano concerto).