Your favorite classical composers/works?

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- be ipod or car cd-player - made only that popular music also became 'composed' music and traditional folk music has been replaced by easy tunes.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.

Ajahu:
Enjoyed reading your thread.
"But in the third world still maybe there are music and poets..." Immediately the music of Bob Marley comes to mind and he now is regared as almost a prophet by many in the islands.

Ajalar has made some raised some interesting ideas on several funtions of classical music to the individual. Shostakovich is the best exapmle of a composer fulfilling the role of a poet who speaks for the sufferings of a entire nation. Whereas prokofiev felt it necessary to ignore most of the great evil taking shape in his country and around the world, and instead gave us works of stunning melodies. Though of course he does touch on some of the evil surrounding him, 2nd sym specifically, opening movement. Schonberg gives us insight into the neurotic mind, a disease that would strike at the jews and the world in general. This is represented in his Pierrot Lunaire and others. Schonberg also reveals to us his profound spiritual understanding of a few events in the old testament, which lets us know of his ties to the kaballah.......2 composers that stike me as being of supreme importance for modern man and the great dilema he finds himself in, all the mysterious evils cropping up daily,, are Allan Pettersson, 1911-1980 and Alfred Schnittke, 1934-1998. ...Which is why i really have no interest in the classicists and romantics, with Mozart and 3 operas from Wagner being the exceptions in the era 1791-1875(Debussy) Even 20th century composers like Sibelius syms 2-7 and all of Stravinsky I find to be a form of entertainment but not dealing with the greater issues facing the individual. Classical music should help the individual in dealing with his current world otherwise its just a simple form of entertainment, like Chopin, Tchaikovsky and hundreds like them.

Bartokfan, I realize that your statement is just a personal view, but since it may have the effect of devaluing music by composers you do not mention and thereby effect others when approaching modern music, I feel it is necessary to ask a question or two.

How, exactly, does the music of Pettersson and Schnittke, or any other modernist, "help the individual in dealing with his current world". Do I have to do a lot of reading to understand how they interperpert historical events and transcribe them into music, or will I be able to just listen and understand?

In my observation, most of the modern music that is held dear is music which is someone's interpertation of a tradegy. Why would we want to exclude from the collective exposure of folks new to 'modernists' those composers who see musical expression differently? I think we call them neo-romantics, but by any name they are modern composers who just may not see the need to translate into music the events of their times.

Personally if I MUST read to understand a musical composition, let alone learn to appreciate it, I'll pass. Note I'm not negating the value of reading about a composer and from such reading coming to understand his music, if fact in the case of Mahler for example, its very enlightening, but its not necessary.

Just a couple of random thoughts and my personal POV.

Recently, I have seen a very interesting version of Monterverdi The Coronation of Poppea in Budapest, Hungary where I am living. This is one of the first operas ever written in 1643. This version was staged by Iván Fischer, the principal conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra with a professional theatre director, Andor Lukács. The actors were the members of the class of Lukács in the Budapest based Drama Theatre College. The actors sung the opera in italian as was written originally by Monterverdi and were accompanied by a small ensemble consisting one clavicord, violin and cello. Of course, as the student are learning Drama and not opera, their quality of singing was not that good, and now I am very polite. But they were, of course, very good actors - a quality which is very rare in any opera stage. The opera was also directed by a very talent director, so he was able to really dig in and show the drama of the play. The most interesting feature of the play was, that parallel singing the opera, three actors (who represented virtue, honesty and amor - the three main theme of the original opera) told the text in Hungarian (which is the leanguage which the audience was most familiar). Now, in this Wagnerian style gesammkunstwerk the text, the drama and the music got almost equal role. Due to this nature of the stage play, one could sense, once not the beauty of music was on the front, but the drama - really how modern and still relevant was the plot of the Poppea despite the fact that it was written some 400 years ago - and how the music served to underpin the drama. It was a really revealing event even for me (I say this as I really like Opera, etc) and demonstrated that sometimes we, classical music lovers, are forgetting the drama in operas for the sake of beauty of music and singing.
Now as far as modern music concerned, I really like some of the modern music. For example, I fairly like Ligeti. I have heard his music in several times in live concerts. One of the best concerts I ever heard was when the Keller quartett played Ligeti. Than I bought some of its cd-s. Still, I almost never put them at home to play. Somehow, this type fo music, which does lack the easy beauty of earlier music, is requires the concentration of the listener and the intesity and human factor of life performance. This is opposite of Bach Johannes Passion. I had it for ages on CD. I played a few times, but never really got it. A month ago, I heard it in a live concert by the Le Petite Band, led by Sigiswald Kujkinen. It was such a wonderful concernt. Since than practically, I am only playing it at home. And I think it is a qualitative difference between old and modern classical music.
And of course, modern classical music not always has "modern' message. A prime example for me the Castle fo Bluebard by Bartók. This is already an old classical, but many of its messages would be considered today as politically incorrect. Of course, this is the responsibility of Balázs Béla, who wrote the poem - which is not that great, not even in Hungarian - and not that of Bartók. But still, as a music wonderful. (MAybe the best version of this opera is actually produced by Fischer Iván with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philips).