Classical Top Five

Sing a lullaby to Brahms. Maybe he'll enjoy a snooze.

Top five in what respects? If I had to pick the single greatest composer it would be J.S. Bach, but, in terms of influence on other composers, one could argue his son C.P.E. Bach was more influential (pioneer in early classical form) with dad sort of stuck in the baroque.  I don't think Brahms was that influential either as a neoclassicist in the romantic period.

For personal favorites, Schubert would easily be in the top five.  I would hate to have to choose between the likes of Haydn, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, etc. for position outside of my top four: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert.

@larryi I hear that comment about J.S. Bach being "stuck in the Baroque."  In a sense it is true, in that he persisted writing High Baroque after everyone else had moved on.  

The reality is that while remaining true to the baroque style for 2 decades after everyone else began to move on, that late High Baroque music went to the pinnacle of western music.  In that sense, he most certainly was not stuck anywhere.  The Matthaus passion is the greatest piece of music ever written by a human being.  If that is stuck, then give me more stuck. 

As for influence, while it is true that J.S. Bach's music was largely lost to the public until Mendelssohn reintroduced it to the public, it is not true that his work was unknown to the cognoscenti.   His influence on Beethoven is well documented as is his influence on Mendelssohn.   I'd argue that apart from Beethoven's early exposure to J.S., Beethoven would not have become the Beethoven he became in his maturity.   Beethoven didn't get the late quartets and piano sonatas from Haydn or Mozart.

For many of us, the music of J.S. Bach is the standard against which all music is judged.  C.P.E. Bach?  Not so much. 

brownsfan,

I agree with you about Bach.  I was just raising an argument about what counts as greatness and whether influence of future composers can arguably be the main measure.  I also agree with you about the greatness of the St. Matthaus Passion, although I might still favor the B Minor Mass.  The only thing he didn't do was opera, but, his vocal works certainly show that he had what it took to do opera if he had thought it a worthy endeavor.  

The only knock against Bach and it is completely hypothetical. He composed for roughly 40 years. Mozart composed for 20. If you could switch that would you? And would it have made that much difference in our appreciation of Bach?