Your Top 3 Classical Composers

[KukriKhan]

We always have popular music surveys and polls; I just thought it'd be informative if maybe we'd try the classical genre', for those who listen/play such:

For me:

Tchaikovsky
Beethoven
Bach

in that order.

Your's?

[Strike For The South]

Willie Nelson
Merle Haggard
Johnny Cash

[nokhor]

Tchaikovsky for arabian dance, followed by the rest of nutcracker

beethoven primarily for moonlight sonata

handel maybe, if i had to choose a third

[Lorenzo_H]

Willie Nelson
Merle Haggard
Johnny Cash

Classical music, not Classical Rock.

I like most good Opera pieces, like La Donna e Mobile and Barcarolle. Bach is great, Rodrigo the blind Spaniard is also quite good.

[Banquo's Ghost]

For a single piece of music, Gregorio Allegri. (The Miserere, in case it's not clear). Without parallel, especially in its evolved state.

Judged over a body of work:

Tommaso Albinoni.
Antonio Vivaldi (because I adore the cello, and his concertos and sonatas for the instrument are sublime).
Johann Sebastian Bach.

(Very honorable mentions to Henry Purcell and Joseph Haydn).

In the later world of banging, scraping and blowing music (aka the Romantic period):

Johannes Brahms
Ludwig van Beethoven
Camille Saint-Saëns

Over all and not subject to classification, only to genius:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

[Beirut]

Willie Nelson
Merle Haggard
Johnny Cash

Pour moi?

Tchaikovsky - for the depth of soul
Beethoven - to see into the mind of God
Wagner - when I want to invade another country

There are a bunch of pieces by Mendelssohn that are really nice, though I haven't a clue what any are called. When I used to work the graveyard shift in Montreal light years ago, I always listened to French CBC in the morning when I came home. The chick on the radio had the sweetest voice and always played lots of Mendelssohn. Fell asleep with the two of them soothing my mind many a morning.

[Hepcat]

It's hard to choose only 3, but I'll go with:
Mozart
Elgar
Wagner

[Togakure]

1) Frederic Chopin
2) Johann Sebastian Bach
3) Franz Liszt

Ludwig van Beethoven, strong honorable mention

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Beethoven
Mozart (I especially like his flute concertos)
Vivaldi/Bach (tie)

[Tristuskhan]

Haendel
Purcell
Debussy

[Ramses II CP]

1. Bach (Can't pick a favorite piece. If Bach isn't on your list, you haven't heard enough Bach. Personally if I were forced to choose between the collected works of every classical composer in history and the works of J.S. Bach it would be a very difficult choice.)

2. Mozart (K465 'Dissonant')

3. Vivaldi (The Four Seasons and for his influence on Bach)

Third place is an absolutely agonizing choice. I won't list everyone whom I think should probably share third place, but I will say that without Vivaldi and Pachelbel, there may not have been Bach; without Hayden, there very likely would not have been Mozart.

[Conradus]

Mozart
Beethoven (especially his V'th)
Bach/Tsaichovsky (sp?)

[Big_John]

prokofiev - greatest musical genius of the 20th century. his music is clever and modern yet never unpalatable as is sometimes the case with modern 'classical' music.

tchaikovsky - the height of romanticism. responsible for several of the most 'romantic' melodies ever written, and possibly more well-known pieces of music than any other composer.

bach - probably the greatest musical genius of all time. has shaped 'classical' music like none before or since. some actually argue that all true musical innovation died with him.

[Faust|]

1. Prokofiev

prokofiev - greatest musical genius of the 20th century. his music is clever and modern yet never unpalatable as is sometimes the case with modern 'classical' music.

I find his music actually more pleasurable to the ear than the more "household" classical names.

2. Dvorak

3. Grieg

Honorable mentions: Chopin,Bizet,Stravinsky

However, I am more of one that has favorite pieces rather than favorite composers.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Liszt
Bach
Tchaikovsky

I also love Eric Satie.

[Kuni]

Bach
Mozart

can't choose a third..

[Samurai Waki]

Vivaldi
Mozart
Wagner/Leopold/Tchaikovsky

[Fragony]

Don't like too much fanfare, Sati and Chopin is where it's at for me. Some of Dvorak and mussorski, I especially like moussorgski because of the fairytale vibe. "Gnome" is my favorite, one nasty creature.

[doc_bean]

Bach
Beethoven
Vivaldi

though my knowledge of classical music is certainly lacking.

[Fragony]

Doc_Bean you breezah

Kewl, found a clip of Gnome, everybody knows Night on the bald mountain I guess, but this is easily the most sinister piece he ever wrote.

http://www.pefs.us/viewvideo.php?id=xMWS7rv7U-0

Somebody send that Gnome to whoever keeps spamming me with that Casino crap on that site I just linked.

[Bijo]

I find (conventional) classical music generally boring and uninteresting but occasionally enjoy it. There is after all a lot of good music there. I don't really have have three top classical composers on my list, but perhaps Wagner could be one.

But Schönberg is certainly one who is interesting and has good (refreshing) music:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

Now that's my kind of classical music. There are people aplenty who find his music unbearable.

[doc_bean]

Doc_Bean you breezah

I'm a what now ?

[Marshal Murat]

1. Dvorák
2. Bach
3. Tchaikovsky

[Big_John]

I find (conventional) classical music generally boring and uninteresting but occasionally enjoy it. There is after all a lot of good music there. I don't really have have three top classical composers on my list, but perhaps Wagner could be one.

But Schönberg is certainly one who is interesting and has good (refreshing) music:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

Now that's my kind of classical music. There are people aplenty who find his music unbearable.

schoenberg's 12-tonal music is surprisingly accessible, at least compared to the atonalism and other modern art music trends that followed. his earlier expressionist stuff was very similar to richard strauss' work, and both were basically following in wagner's footsteps at that point. a trail strauss never deviated from (schoenberg became a great critic of strauss after he 'discovered' 12-tonalism).

if you haven't already, try the music of schoenberg's students, alban berg and anton webern. webern took schoenberg's 12-tonal technique a little further and essentially developed serialism. whereas berg's music is much more wagnerian/straussian/mahlerian/etc.

try mahler and strauss also, if you like wagner. they are basically followers of his. and bruckner, a contemporary, has a very similar style.

[Orb]

In order:

Mussourgsky
Rachmaninov
Tchaikovsky

Mozart is one of the few classical composers that I really dislike. Beethoven and Holst are probably four and five.

[Moros]

Beethoven, the best by far especially his 14th sonata, "quasi una fantasia" opus numerus 27 number 2.
Tchaikovsky, that man definatley could write a piece of music. I like the 1812 overture especially, the total war fan I am.
Stravinsky-Mozart, tie.

[Martok]

Oh my, so many choices. I guess I'll have to go with the following names:

1.) Bach
2.) Beethoven
3.) Handel

Dvorák, Mendelssohn, and Vivaldi also receive honorable mentions in my book.

[Innocentius]

I don't know of too many so I'll stick with the most famous ones:

Mozart,
Vivaldi,
and Bach.

[Don Corleone]

I don't know if I can pick just three, as I think the world of so many different works by so many different composers.

Rather, why don't I give 3 composers who haven't been mentioned yet that deserve some recognition:

-Smetana: If you haven't listened to the entire Moldau played by a full philharmonic, you don't know what you're missing.

-Berlioz: If it wasn't for the Symphonie Fantastique I may have given up on classical music all together.

-Rachmaninoff: Words fail me.

Edit: sorry, Orb, just noticed you posted Rachmaninoff in your list as well. Well, I'm keeping him anyway. He deserves a little more recognition.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Edit: sorry, Orb, just noticed you posted Rachmaninoff in your list as well. Well, I'm keeping him anyway. He deserves a little more recognition.

Absolutely.