Win Great Composers Finger puppets!

[maureen]

yep

[Despina41]

My favorite composer is Mozart. :-}

[CPE Bach]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEsuJRP3wBM"]YouTube - Magnificat by Carl Philippe Emanuel Bach[/ame]

[Florestan]

Show-off!

[Jeff]

Oh man... From what era??

I don't think I can pick one, so here we go.

Renaissance - If you twisted my arm.... Luca Marenzio. If I were to pick a favorite sacred composer, I still couldn't decide between Victoria and Palestrina...

Early Baroque - Here is Monteverdi all the way.. The master... The "Moses" of music, bringing us across the sea from Renaissance to Baroque. (A saying I coined in my music history class freshman year, much to the dismay of my mormon/born again christian friends...)

Late Baroque - Of course, J.S. Bach... I could even make a case for my all time favorite... But man it'd be a tough call.

Classical - Once again, I am too damn indecisive... Haydn is on my short list of all time favorites... But, he is competing with Mozart here... So I reluctantly go with Mozart.

Early Romantic - Heres where things get extra sticky... Being a tenor, and one who excells at German lit specifically, I am in love with Schubert. However, Beethoven is again on this short list of all time favorites, but I can't really stick him alone in either of the two previous categories... So, I love Beethoven very much... But then to, I love Robert Schumann, specifically lieder, and just in general. And to perfectly honest... I am a little IN love (as opposed to just loving) with Clara Schumann. She seems like the perfect woman... So yeah, I can't really pick a favorite here.

Late Romantic - Brahms... Hands down, and probablly right behind Bach on my short list, and maybe right before Beethoven? Hah I don't even know, its so hard!

20th century - Hmm... Not as well versed in this area. I can tell you I do enjoy Ives. 20th century music I do listen to often is the choral music. Out of this, I really like Durufle. And Herbert Howells. But if I had to pick a 20th century favorite, I would go with Francis Poulenc.

So yeah, there is my best attempt to answer an impossible question... Normally when people ask me this, I don't even try... But I want those puppets!

So if you are still with me, thanks for reading. I just joined this site, and I must say I am pretty excited.

Jeff

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by Jeff

But if I had to pick a 20th century favorite, I would go with Francis Poulenc.

Me too. Poulenc and Rampal:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7QTyUaH2OE"]YouTube - Poulenc flute sonata, mvt. 2[/ame]

[haydnguy]

How did I miss this thread??? :sad2:

My #1 fav is Bach by a mile. Haven't listened to much Brahms yet.
Haydn second. I listen to his string quartets every morning and it gets my day going!
Chopin #3. May not be the third best composer, but he's great for romance so he gets extra points.
Mahler #4. Just starting my journey with him but he's already on my heavy rotation list for a long time.
Debussy #5. My wife likes him and I'm getting to like him more and more.

[Despina41]

hey haydnguy,
Allow me to proselytize on behalf of Brahms (in my top 3). It's true he can sound like overblown Romantic and/or pedantic nonsense if you pick up a bad recording of a symphony. A lot of people will recommend symphony #4 as an example of his ability to blend romantic and classical-baroque elements. Well yes, there's a passacaglia for a last movement, but who cares if you accidently picked the recording with the conductor trying to treat every note like an epiphany?

I'd recommend the chamber music. Coming from Haydn string quartets, you'd probably lke a nice light Heifetz-Piatigorsky-et al recording of the string sextet no 2 in G. Or the third string quartet which always reminds me of Haydn.
Of course, coming from the Debussy side of things there's the late piano music, especially the op. 119 set. I think Katchen's pretty trustworthy on the Brahms complete piano music, although a lot of people like Radu Lupu on the late stuff.
Brahms is pretty versatile. He can write the big bombastic nonsense or the charming folk song. You can usually find a piece to suit any mood, although I am partial to his particular brand of major-key melancholy. Try the G major violin sonata for that affect.
http://frankalmond.com/mp3/Sonata78.mp3

[haydnguy]

Thanks for the taste of Brahms, Despina41! I'll definitely be delving into Brahms in the near future as it does sound like I would like a lot of his music. I've saved your recommendations for future reference.

At the present I'm "deep into Mahler" so have all I can handle at the moment. Looking forward to hearing Brahms offerings though.

(The G major is very nice. I enjoyed it all the way through!).

[Philidor]

Draw Closes Midnight Today!