Favorite Composer

Alright chill everyone, there are a lot of good composers but we all know that the greatest of all was Bach. :)

Brahms

1. JS Bach

2. Beethoven

3. Handel

4. Mendelssohn

5. Haydn

Muzio Clementi.... quite obvious for me right?

It's hard to just pick a few great composers as favorites, because they all are interesting and fun. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are great. Debussy is very exquisite and mysterious. Mussorgsky composed my favorite opera, "Boris Godonov", and that is a very intense and penetrating piece of material. On the lighter side, I like a lot of Johann Strauss. Strauss's "Die Flandermaus" is a very pleasant opera even though it runs out of steam in the third act. My favorite symphony is Dvorak's 9th ("From the New World"). It's a musical portrait of the United States through the eyes of a Czech visitor. For modern or 20th century composers I like Serge Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber and Turo Takemitsu. Igor Stravinsky composed a lot of very challenging pieces of 20th century music but I do like his "Firebird" and "Rite of Spring". There are so many great composers that it's hard to keep it short.

Bach. Art of fugue.

Am I the only one who has not heard of him, never mind his music? I feel so ignorant! Could you tell us a little bit about him, K-Huang?

Thank you, K-Huang.

Nobody's said Prokofiev yet? 

His cantatas are mind-blowing, the October Cantata in particular.  He was a big chess player, too, who beat Capablanca in a match.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=61923

Beethoven

Schubert

Mozart

Brahms

John Williams (he counts, doesn't he?)

Beetoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach, to name a few!

1. JS Bach and Stravisky 

2. Popper ( cellist) 

3. Schubert etc...

Rachmaninov, hands down

I love Spindler!

1. Bach

2. Rachmaninoff

3. Beethoven

4. Chopin

5. Rameau

6. Mozart

7. Ginastera

8. Liszt

9. Stravinsky

10. Prokofiev

Any Romantic would do.... From the greatest of all Ludwig Von Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, the only " modern " I can listen to and oh... while we are at it I personnaly am not responsive to any Maurice Ravel... in a nutsell: I am a Romantic through and through in matters classical... 

ok lets through in a couple of modern day names who are amazing...

John Williams and Phillip Glass

Well, it looks like J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven are the most popular here; they're definitely great composers! I'd like to add the 20th century composers Hindemith, Bartok, and Walton. They all wrote major works for my instrument (viola), though that's not the only reason I think they're great!