Classical composers. Who for you are the best?

Sorry, the accented "c" in Janacek seems to have come out oddly!

Not who's, I meant whose. Doh!

Richard Strauss (my name a giveaway!)
Mozart (an obvious but unavoidable choice)
Britten (centenary year coming up)
Mahler
Schubert

I love classical music too!
For me, it has to be Bach at the top of any list. His music is the nearest to spirituality that I get. Then....
Vaughan Williams
Brahms
Debusy
William Walton.

Dozens of others.
I came to Brahms quite late - he grew on me. If I were stuck on a desert island, it would only be Vaughan Williams who would remind me of home.

Beethoven
Mozart
Vaughan Williams
Elgar
Gershwin if he counts

Just seen your post artygran
We lived in Hongkong from 1974 - 1984 and listening to my LP of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields playing Vaughan Williams and Elgar would reduce me to tears......

I am not a big classical music fan..I find some pieces extremely tedious! However I do like some pieces by

Shostakovich

Mendelsohn

Vaughn Williams

Pucinni

Do not have a number 5!

Beethoven

Bach

Brahms

Mahler

Such a hard one! Here are mine...

Gerald Finzi
Richard Strauss
Mahler
Prokoviev
Vaughan Williams

But there are lots more I adore - particulary 20th century English composers.

There are far too many to mention. Top of my list -

Mahler
Wagner
Chopin
Mendelsohn
Schubert

Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Mozart

Debussy
Dvorak
Wagner
Elgar
Rossini

Mozart
Debussy
Vivaldi
Choral arrangements of John Rutter
Loads more!

Interesting - of the OP's list, only one is Classical (Haydn) - the others are mostly Romantic Nationalists. I don't know what Tippett would be...

Brahms
Sibelius
Beethoven
Mozart
Vaughan Williams

I think the person on the Clapham omnibus would call all my 5 classical. Are you saying the only one Classic FM or R3 would play is Haydn? Perhaps you'd call Beethoven, Elgar and Tchaikovsky "romantic nationalists". Out of interest, in what way do you find the term useful?

In no particular order
Mozart
Verdi
Beethoven
Bizet.
Puccini.
Not hot on J S Bach. Oops that is almost blasphemy!
I dont "get" Philip Glass

Eee! Isthisall It was you who started this thread! I have just wasted spent a very happy hour digging out the Choir midi learning files for the Music we are doing at choir. Great fun but not what I sat down at the computer for. Blissful

PS. Has no one got a Generally Dislike category apart from my blind spot over Brahms (and Wagner). And Elgar.

I'd say the term Classical gradually acquires more composers and pieces as they stand the test of time.

That is the opinion of someone else on the Clapham omnibus. Afficionados might think us a bit ignorant though.

PPS nelliemoser if we were allowed ten not five, Philip Glass might make my 2nd five. How to help you "get him"? Hmmmm. It'll need thought, I find writing about music much more difficult that say writing about painting. I think one problem is that I lack the vocabulary. But I'll think over why I like Glass.

I find him relaxing but involving. And somehow, I never find the repetition element boring! The slight changes and modulations are exciting when they come and, for me, are like Mozart or Dvorak developing a musical theme. Exciting doesn't have to be big (so to speak!) There is more........ now where are my Philip Glass CDs!

Unfortunately Beethoven does not do it for me, even though my passion is classical music. There are moments in his writing that are simply sublime; but for me there is far too much of the Germanic ponderoursness - what a friend used to call "Beethoven crashing about with the pots and pans." His writing for voice is not good as it does not sit comfortably in any voice - he understood the limitations and possibilities of instruments better than the human voice.

And I do find it very tiresome when he ends pieces with repetitive crashing chords and sit thinking "Oh, for goodness sake, get it over with!"

And going back a good few posts, I don't find Mozart an unavoidable choice! There are, of course, wonderful things in Mozart but generally I prefer Haydn.

Oh dear - I love oratorio and chamber music as well as big orchestral pieces, particularly concerti and some opera. Difficult to choose since few composers do all these equally well!

OK, but tomorrow the list might be quite different:

Schubert
Mozart
Handel
Beethoven
Shostakovich

Puccini, Puccini, Puccini then Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Shostakovich, Bizet, Bach ,Rachmaninov and a lot of others but am not that well up on classical music to identify them.