Bach, Beethoven, Brahms ( & Mozart ? )

Just two days after Finland's independence day.

Thanks for the info TheronG12.

Thanks for the clip Ironmaidenb.

Hector Berlioz was born on this day in 1803. 

Oh Oh ! Someone is asleep at the switch ( van Beethoven born on Dec 16th, 1770 ).

Over on YouTube I found a video of Maria Callas doing " Habanera - Carmen " by Bizet. It is a very nice older video, recorded in black & white. 

Yesterday was a very sad day for music. Vechnaya pamyat' to the artists of the Alexandrov Ensemble.

Thanks for the post and the clip TheronG12.

Indeed it was an extremely sad day. I remember listening to them when I was in school.

As for the three greats of classical, I'd pick Bach, Mozart and Beethoven (the last of which I especially love with all my heart).  In fact, I'd pick anyone as long as Beethoven is number one, although there are many other composers that I adore and love as well (Chopin, Vivaldi, Sibelius, Glinka, Chaikovsky, Shostakovich, Copland, Glass, Winston, Liszt, Lanz and others  

Thanks for the posts.

Well here we get to start off the new year with the one and only Mozart ( Jan 27th, 1756 ).

And another great name for January is Schubert ( Jan. 31st, 1797 ). 

Today is the day for Mendelssohn, back in 1809.

Oh, what a wonderful thread! I only now discovered it. What a joy to hear so many wonderful composers mentioned, including most of my favorites.

I must mention Gustav Mahler, one of my top favorites. Yes, he is heavy. But he is so very romantic and complex. My favorite of his symphonies is his Third. I believe it's also the longest. Funny, but I'd never heard Mahler before and happened to hear that symphony only because somebody had two tickets to a performance of it that they couldn't use and I was the lucky recipient. From the very first notes, I was swept up by the melodies, the harmonies, the rhythms, the passion, the development. Mahler takes forever to say good-bye (as does Beethoven), but I loved every chord, every last phrase and was mesmerized all the way to the end.

As for Hector Berlioz (somebody mentioned him but couldn't remember what he was known for), he is probably best known for his Symphonie Fantastique, for which he got a coveted prize. The symphony actually depicts his life and his turbulent, unrequited love for an actress whom he subsequently married, but then later divorced. The calm third movement is what I've requested to have played at my memorial service -- at the beginning AND the end!. Besides that piece by Berlioz, he's also got a wonderful Requiem, several operas, and some delightful songs, notably Nuites d'ete (Songs of the summer?). (Not sure I got the French right.)

Unless I missed them (going through all 20 pages of this thread tonight), though, there seem to be four composers we missed:, Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten, Maurice Durufle, and Gabriel Faure. The last three wrote beautiful Requiems.

That's something else I'd like to mention. Though I am an atheist, my favorite kind of music to listen to is so-called sacred music. All the Requiems and Oratorios written by the Masters are exquisitely beautiful. I just discard the text and take in the beautiful sounds.  Besides the Requiems by the four composers noted above, Verdi, Mozart, and Brahms wrote beautiful ones. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis also falls into that category.

Sorry this post is so long, but I was so excited to find this thread. Keep on writing -- I'll check back again. And Happy Listening to all of you!!

Snapdragon: Thanks a lot for the very nice post, I truly enjoyed reading it.

@Snapdragon - have you listened to Russian choral sacred music at all?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn9JkJHRiZ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwujOGSLv6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzt7LYlj98o&list=PLPt7zqMDQ-wn3I5KvvS42K91R1Zy1wM_C

(I confess, I'm just hoping to find/create another oktavism enthusiast...)

That pun was in a class of its own.

Thank you, badenwurtca, for that comment. And thank you, TheronG12, for those wonderful links. I've heard plenty of Russian choral scared music -- but never enough! I have sent your post to myself in an e-mail so that I can listen to each of your links at leisure later. Thanks very, very much.

Thanks for the new posts.

Today I was in the mood for a lively piece of music so I went with Richard Wagner's " Ride Of The Valkyries ". The version that I found over on YouTube was by the Berliner Philharmoniker led by Daniel Barenboim ( quite interesting as he conducted entirely without a score ).