Greatest Composer of all time?

[Dr. Nick]

Mussorgsky!

[Datajack Franit]

Please don't all vote J.S. Bach just because he appears as a wonder in Civ III

I voted fore Vivaldi btw

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by monkspider
Bollocks, Johann composed "Die Fledermaus ".

What do you think is the best classical music record label Bori?

Depends. Overall, Deutsche Grammophon is consistently excellent and anything with the label is guaranteed to be of good quality. Decca is best for opera, IMO. EMI also has an excellent classical label.

The ones to avoid are the cheapies like Naxos. Blech.

The best budget brand is Phillips, I think. They have some stellar recordings at relatively inexpensive prices, including 2-CD sets that sell for the price of 1.

I tend to rank my CD purchasing choices by the following criteria:

1) Artist. First and foremost, you want a great interpretation. Label means jack if the artists are mediocre. This includes Conductors, Singers, Soloists, etc.

2) Orchestra. Certain orchestras are bound to be exceptional. The Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics continue to be the 2 best in terms of symphonic repetoire. However, even lesser-known orchestras can turn out great recordings.

3) Historical recordings. Certain recordings are legendary and must-haves for a collection. EMI is currently doing an entire series of such recordings. Examples are Otto Klemperer conducting "Ein Deutsches Requeim" and Andre Previn conducting Carmina Burana." It's important when getting historical recordings to consider digital remastering. The analog recordings can be remastered to an incredible sound level, as the above CDs show. Perhaps the most amazing remasterings I have heard are the RCA Victor's set of Toscanini conducting the NBC orchestra in 1950. These are astoundingly good, and with the exception of very slight tinniness from the strings, sound like they could have been recorded last year. It helped that Toscanini insisted on using a studio with no reverb whatsoever.

4) Then consider label. The labels listed above are the most likely to produce quality recordings with superb sound. Their remasterings are usually the best.

5) Then price. As much as I may want to have that complete set of Abbado conducting the 9 Mahler symphonies, I'm not paying $85 for it.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by BustaMike


True, but The Rite of Spring was a little different than what had been done before. I guess I should have clarified. Obviously "dissonance" has and always has existed in music, but Stravinsky in The Rite of Spring used it in an incredibly powerful way that hadn't been heard before.

I guess I just really like that piece and that's why I voted for him. Just one guys opinion.

What I like about the Rite of Spring (besides its all-round awesomeness) is that it sparked a riot at the premiere in Paris in 1912. Yet another indictment of the prevalent French musical taste of thr times.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
Please don't all vote J.S. Bach just because he appears as a wonder in Civ III

I voted fore Vivaldi btw

If you had to go for an Italian, you should have at least picked Verdi.

I agree with the man who once said that listening to too much Vivaldi makes one feel like one is trapped inside a sewing machine.

[monkspider]

Aww man, you don't like Naxos? I actually like them a lot more than some of the more name-brand type stuff like Sony Classical. They are dirt-cheap, plus they seem to have a pretty huge catalogue, including lots of more rare, exotic stuff.

They admitteldy seem to be lacking in terms of historic recordings, like the Furtwangler/Brahms recordings you mentioned a while back.

Are there any good stores in particular you can reccemend? Thus far, I have only done my shopping at Barnes and Nobles type places.

[molly bloom]

Old Father Bach. But not the greatest of all time, but rather, the best so far.

Mozart's relatively early death makes him a 'what if' candidate.

http://www.btinternet.com/~rubberneck/gesualdo.html

Carlo Gesualdo is really the first to use expressive dissonance and chromaticism to a great extent- but his troubled psyche may have had something to do with that.

Also- another great 'what if'- Henry Purcell- an astonishing facility for matching music to words, and again another tragically early death.

You also have the early composer brigade- Lassus, Josquin Desprez, Ockeghem whose contributions should not be ignored.

I like the Archiv, Harmonia Mundi and Oiseau Lyre labels.
But that's because my preferences are better served by them....

[Tuberski]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Greatest Composer of all time?

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
That hardly compares to the contributions of Mussorgsky, which include two perrenial concert warhorses--Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bald Mountain, as well as Russia's undisputed greatest opera, Boris Godunov

This is really disappointing!!!

I find out now that you have no culture at all!!!!

You're name isn't a take on Boris Badinov from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

[monkspider]

Rocky and Bullwinkle *was* the J.S Bach of cartoons.

[Ethelred]

Voted for Beethoven but I really can't pick one as the best.

I would go for

Johann Sebastian Bach
Beethoven
Stravinsky.

I too love the rite of Spring. My first LP was the Rite of Spring Stravinsky conducting. He can handle that mess of horns better than most, which at points, can run together with many conductors even when I like the overall performance.

And to me classical includes some of the Film Composers.

Bernard Herrmann
Jerry Goldsmith


There are other good film composers including Prokofiev but those two are by far my favorites. Its amazing some of the sounds Bernard Herrman achieved.

Prokofiev is a favorite of mine but he comes after these others and Aleksander Nevsky is not his best so he doesn't get up for film. I grew up with Prokofiev on an LP that had a the Illiad and Greek myths for for children and I guess they didn't have to pay Prokfiev. I remember there was lot of Love of Three Oranges in it.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by monkspider
Rocky and Bullwinkle *was* the J.S Bach of cartoons.

Bach is little complex to compare with Rocky and Bullwinkle. Besides Bach is not exactly funny and Rocky and Bullwinkle most certainly were. However when I saw it on Laser disc about five years ago I remember laughing at the animation. So little actual animation in it. The show depended on dialogue.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by monkspider
Aww man, you don't like Naxos? I actually like them a lot more than some of the more name-brand type stuff like Sony Classical. They are dirt-cheap, plus they seem to have a pretty huge catalogue, including lots of more rare, exotic stuff.

They admitteldy seem to be lacking in terms of historic recordings, like the Furtwangler/Brahms recordings you mentioned a while back.

Are there any good stores in particular you can reccemend? Thus far, I have only done my shopping at Barnes and Nobles type places.

The Naxos lose sheerly on recording quality. The sound ranges from passable at best to terrible. Good luck finding any decent remasterings on that label. The best thing I can say for it is that they do give exposure to a lot of relatively unknown but still talented artists and orchestras.

Tower records is an excellent resource in most regards. Of course, I have the luxury of being in a city with access to pretty much anything available. I frequent a used CD store on 17th street where you can listen to the CDs on discmans in the store. I was in there briefly a few nights ago, and they had 2 shelves worth of Furtwangler recordings...

Generally, here are the conductors and orchestras to keep an eye out for:

Contemp:

Abbado/Vienna Phil
Kleiber/Berlin Phil
Solti/Chicago Symphony
Ozawa/Boston Symphony
Szell/Cleveland Symphony
Ormandy/Philadelphia Symphony
Bernstein/New York Phil
Mackerras/Scottish Chamber Orch
Dutoit/Montreal Symph
Sawallisch, London Phil


Historic:

Furtwangler/Berlin Phil
Toscanini/NBC Symph
Reiner/Royal Phil
Klemperer/Philharmonia Orch
Walter/Columbia Symph
Leinsdorf/Vienna Phil
Bohm/Vienna Phil
Mitropolous/New York Phil
Stokowski
Knappertsbusch/Vienna Phil
Sanderling/Dresden Staatskapelle
Weingartner/London SO

[Boris Godunov]

Hmm, I have heard the Stravinsky conducting Stravinsky recordings...I wasn't impressed. He doesn't have the kind of control over an orchestra needed for his own works, and his tempos are very sloppy at times.

[MRT144]

bach...by far for me

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
He doesn't have the kind of control over an orchestra needed for his own works, and his tempos are very sloppy at times.

Could be. Its an LP and I haven't listened to it in well over a decade. It was specificly a particular stretch horns that I have heard others get muddled. In fact it was my brother that pointed this out to me.

I had been mostly listening to the CD I have because that poor LP had been listened to many dozens of times. If I had let someone else touch my LPs it would have been scratched to hell and gone. Even with utmost care the thing was showing signs of wear. I had it since 1969 and that is long time before CDs. Might have 1970 but I think I got it for Christmas in my first year in College. I annoyed everyone by shaking the walls with it few times. After that I only played it when there was no one to disturb.