Mozart and Beethoven: Sunk by "Titanic"

[Michael]

Predictable, I suppose.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-25-years.html

The full "classical" top 300 can be seen at Classic FM.

[Peter]

Indeed but who cares what the public likes or doesn't? Beethoven never did!

[Humoresque]

I'm not convinced about Beethoven's antipathy for the public; it would be paradoxical for a composer of music to feel this way. I'm sure Beethoven didn't compose merely for a handful of aristocrats and musicians! Were this the case he wouldn't have been so eager to go into print.

[Peter]

Obviously he was aware he had to make a name for himself and a living, but even as early as the Op.1 piano trios Haydn is supposed to have warned him that the C minor trio was 'too difficult' for the public to understand and Beethoven reportedly was furious at this. As Beethoven grew older and with increasing deafness he was not concerned with the difficulties for either performers or the public - works such as the last sonatas and quartets were hardly going to compete with the fashion for Italian opera and Beethoven considered they were for a later age. He went as far as suggesting Op.95 should not be performed in public. I didn't mean he had 'antipathy' for the public, only that he didn't regard pleasing the public as his primary aim.

"I have never thought of writing for reputation and honour. What I have in my heart must out; that is the reason why I compose."

[Quijote]

Predictable, I suppose.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-25-years.html

The full "classical" top 300 can be seen at Classic FM.

Still, not a bad tune, hey?
Actually, there is some good film music out there that knows how to press the right buttons, such as the music composed by Howard Shore for the film Lord of the Rings. It "does the job" in the context it was written for...

[Michael]

Still, not a bad tune, hey?
Actually, there is some good film music out there that knows how to press the right buttons, such as the music composed by Howard Shore for the film Lord of the Rings. It "does the job" in the context it was written for...

I love quite a lot of film music but should it be called "classical"? I know Classic FM have to beef up their charts but, apart from compilations like "The Absolutely Greatest and Most Fantastically Amazing Classical Music of All Time" which are scattered all the way through the chart, there are very few famous composers in there. Mozart has a couple of entries near the bottom 300 and somebody else halfway up but that's it.

[Sorrano]

I love quite a lot of film music but should it be called "classical"? I know Classic FM have to beef up their charts but, apart from compilations like "The Absolutely Greatest and Most Fantastically Amazing Classical Music of All Time" which are scattered all the way through the chart, there are very few famous composers in there. Mozart has a couple of entries near the bottom 300 and somebody else halfway up but that's it.

Another genre to consider these days is the music scored for computer games. Some of it I think is quite good, for example I find myself listening to the music in some of the Bethesda Elder Scroll games more than I am playing the game.

[Michael]

A couple of years ago, some of this music knocked a few famous composers out of the annual "Classic FM Hall of Fame" top ten. Game music still features highly in the top 300 of this poll.

[Quijote]

Well, well, here's a timely article about the Titanic soundtrack being a gateway to classical music:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/sh...l-music-greats