Your favorite classical composers/works?

I think one reason classical is not as popular as it used to be (although live concerts continue to sell out) is the drab, emotionless recorded performances? today of even the popular classics not to mention some of the unusual. Where are the Reiners, Szells, Bernsteins, etc., etc. Most contemporary recordings of familar works are almost unrecognizable to my ear compared to what I am used to.

Case in point: The Naxos recording of Chadwick's Symphonic Sketches. Listen to that recording then go listen to Howard Hanson's. Or better still, listen to Hanson conduct his own works and compare with other recordings (Schwarz, etc.)of his works. They are just playing the notes.

As to where classical is going I don't make a distiction among composers such as Bach, Mozart, Mahler, Debussy, etc. Like someone once said, "There are only 2 kinds of music, good and bad". It's not the music itself, it's the way it's being played.

Xiek, I also am a big fan of Debussy and eqally Ravel. I say equal, for it seems Debussy is the more popular of the 2. I posted a topic on Gramophone concerning "which ONE (not 2) composer do you feel in not-as-yet-recognized for his genius?" The topic was to point out how I felt the orchestral and piano music, not to mention his lone trio and sq , as the one composer that stands out to my mind as un-recognized. ie, seldom programed in concerts. Also classical forums can go on pages about Beethoven and Chopin's piano solo, hardly a word about Ravel. ...As I hear Ravel's solo piano, to my ears it is the pinnacle of the entire romantic movement. IOW Ravel achieves in perfect form all that went before him....Debussy was the first modern, with scertain passages in Wagner's 3 great operas as a fore-runner to Debussy. "death of classical in 50 yrs". No I believe there is a rival taking shape as we write. You do not see it unfolding as it is like all movements, underground. With the music of Schnittke and Pettersson will be the 2 great stars and among many past greats of the 20th century. The concert halls will be thin and the music a bit stale, but there is new life being born in a new generation....like myself.
Mozart will never be forgotten as his music has the fabric and spirit of eternity.
Muzcal, agree that the conductr is extremely important to the composer's genius.
I just posted a topic on friday, "conductors, and the trouble they create for composers works of genius"...Schnittke somewhere (I'm still looking for the passage) said that Stravinsky felt conductors should not attempt to take on a role as shaper of the score. Schnittke disagreed and felt conductors were equal in the creative process. The replies this morning should be of interest. For as I said in my post, most recordings can be trashed. Yet another controversial comment from me, but for the most part these guys on gramophone have shown much greater level ogf tolerance for my radical views than the grouches and trolls over at Good Music Guide.
Of my 500+ cd collection, all have been through a process of critical listening. More than 1000 were eithrer sold off, given away, or thankfully lost to Katrina, before which they did not sell on amazon.
Conductors are equal to composers. btw "big names" in conducting do not impress me. As each recording is judged accordingly.
Although I will say I tend to go with french orchs/conductors in french music, russian forces in russian music , etc. AS a general rule it seems to be the case for excellence.
Bryden Thomson/London SO is my choice in RVW's syms. Though Mitropoulos/4th and Stokowski/6th both with the New York take a place of excellence. Haitink/London PO is pretty good in Shostakovich , but feel no need to have a 3rd copy when there is Rozhdestvensky and Kondrashin around. This is some of the process involved in building my collection for the past 5 yrs. Thousands of hours were involved in seeking out which recordings were best to my ears.
I've finsihed my collection last month. I may buy one or 2 cds this yr, and so on.

Paul
Baton Rouge

hi bartokfan. do i detect an implicit opinion of yours that classical music is superior to other genres ?

why are you obsessing about this subject. don't take this subject so seriously.

classical music is just another type of musical expression.
people like what they like.

i think it is more interesting to understand why certain genres are preferred over others.

as to your topic, my favorite composer is js bach. i like musch of his opus for hartpsichord. i really enjoy listening to the sound of this instrument. in my cd collection i would say that i have more music featuring the harpsichord than any other kind.

why do i like bach so much. his harmonies are very interesting and complex.

i think people may not be attracted to classical music because it is not an egalitarian genre.

the idea of comparing composers and suggesting that one is better than another is ludicrous. the attitudes that pervade many classical music lovers does not motivate listeners of other types to take an interest in this music.

i also notice some rigidity and sensitive egos when it comes to the subject of sound quality. this situation is not conducive to the viability of the hobby we love so much.

my advice: stop taking yourself, the hobby the music and life so seriously. stop being so judgmental of others who disagree with you.

if the above applies to anyone who reads my posts, i mean no ill will, but hopefully you will consider what i have said. it's good for your health.

I don't necessarily have Resphigi as a favorite composer but the Toscanini vinyl of his Fountains of Rome is just astounding. I have rarely heard an orchestra play in what seems like such lock step precision. The opening few bars literally explode out of my speakers, Legacy Focus 20/20's so much so that the speakers disapear. They don't on other records as a rule but this one is worth hearing if only for the sonic display. It may have helped that both Toscanini and Resphigi were not only Italian but also good friends.
Having said all that, the piece is only part of it, the conductor can make or break a piece. The soloist's can do the same. Iona Brown on Vaughn William's The Lark Ascending is without peer on that piece to my ears. Brendel in the 1960's was fantastic, to my ears he did not continue to be so. Listen to Brendel's version of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, and his music making abilities are superb. Or listen to Ivan Moravec do Debussy, I heard him live once and his playing is both intimate and magical. Just some thoughts. Enjoy the music

Classical music has been always the music of the elite, be political, economic or cultural. Once, in the renessaince and barokk period, when the composed music became a genre own its own, was primarily the music for royal families and for their courts, and for landlords copying the royal courts (beyond churches). Haydn worked during almost of his life to the Esterhazy family. The Archbishop of Salzburg treated the young Mozart as one of it servants. Actually, it was the period of Mozart when classical music spread beyond the court of feudal landlords and the emerging merchant and industrial burgoise and the new educated - future to be middle class -elite. But still, the unfortunate economic troubles of Mozart illustrated how difficult was thhe transition from being servant to try to serve a wider 'market'. Of course, this was the period, when classical music was still fairly close to "popular" music - they used similar instruments, there was an exchange of forms and tunes between the two music genres. Mozart wrote not only operas and symphonies but dance music for festives (for the discos of his time).Schubert, at the beginning of the XIXth century was foremost known for the Viennises as a popular song writer. During his short life he composed more than 600 songs (I guess he composed more songs than Madonna ever recorded), but his symphonic output was practically unknown for his contamporaries - and for a few decade after his death. In our days, the technology advance (cheap studios, cheap portable music repreduction means - be ipod or car cd-player - made only that popular music also became 'composed' music and traditional folk music has been replaced by easy tunes. In the ocean of aritifical cheap tricks, classical music seems to be a small rain drop - but it has been always. There is one difference, however. Classical music once was a living music. Operas of Mozart, Verdi, Erkel, (a Hungarian romantic composer), music of Bartók and Shostakovich were not only pieces of fair music and aesthetic pleasure but represented political and cultural revolutionary ideas, be Italian independence, against traditional conservative society, dictatorship - and rallied partisan elites - be political, economic or cultural. As did poetes in the XIXth-early XXth century. This kind of role art has been disappeared in our island of overconsuming and comfortable world. But in the third world still maybe there are music and poetes who expresses new popular ideas and partisan world view, and elite music has more importance than a factor of pleasure and reason to buy newer and newer more and more expensive gear to get closer to the music, altough we are hardly able anymore to really feel the human tragedy and need of expression what composers of different ages wanted to express.