I imagine 41 will get the most votes,and rightly so.
My personal love is no. 36 "Linz" played by the definitive
Mozart Band, the Vienna Phil., with the Great Istvan Kertesz at the helm.
Various releases on Decca . |
Jetexpro, listen to your wife ! |
The term Genius is GREATLY overused .
You do not have to be a genius to write works of genius nor
does being one mean everything you compose will be same .
Bach himself, the greatest of them all, said anyone could
do what he did if he worked as hard as he did.
Anyone is a stretch , and IMO he had he divine help-but his entire life he worked incredibly hard.As did other greats like Haydn. Beethoven and Brahms etc etc. All these were men of high IQ to be sure but Einsteins 99%/1 % ratio was in play.
The only composers I would consider true geniuses are
Mozart and Schubert. perhaps Mendellsonn as well.That these were all child prodigies seems telling IMO . |
A much under rated and overlooked Mozartian is Jane Glover
and her London Mozart Players .
If you enjoy sprightly performances she's right up there with the big boys . |
77jovian, IMO Mariner is good but Mackerras on Telarc is better and, if you like original instruments aka historically informed performances, Pinnock with his English Consort is the best of all . |
Learsfool, I bought the complete Hayden Sym. box on Sony (Stuttgarter Kammerorchester/ Dennis Russel Davies)few months back, been thru it and keep coming back to 6,7, 8.
Perhaps because the best Hayden live performances I've heard live were 6,7, 8 by Masur/Gewandhaus and Davies/ St Paul CO back in the 70's . |
Learsfool, I guess that's why I said perhaps with Mendelsssohn.
Obviously all you mention were great masters of the compositional art but I still maintain of all those you mention only Mozart and Schubert had true genius even
though Bach was the greatest .
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Lowrider, I don't know what version I had, I gifted my box to a young couple who wanted to play classical around their baby . A worthy cause if ever there was one .
In any event these days I'm pretty much a original instrument guy who listens to Pinnock and English Consort
and some long term faves like Kertesz and Jane Glover . |
Lear, I'm an oral communicator unable to express myself as well in written word, plus I'm elderly and have little energy .
I suspect we are more talking past each other than we would disagree in person . Your little toe has forget more about music than I know .
The only way I can think to expresses it is when you hear
a LvB or Bach masterwork you are excited about what a great work they have put together .
In hearing a Mozart masterpiece you remain calm knowing at some level it could be no other way .
BTW, I've heard a number of world-class German classical
players express great admiration for Brahms craftmanship,
would you put him below the composers you mentioned in that regard ? |
Yes, you have said what I mean but it seems apparent only
to SERIOUS listeners and musicians . Only a complete fool would think Mozart did not work to his limit, the difference is he could make his work sound as it just fell whole from heaven .
Schubert did not always have that, but his originality is overwhelming ,to me anyway . I've read long tomes
comparing Mozart and Schubert outputs to age 31 where acknowledged masterworks count fell in Schuberts favor .
At 8 years old the top teacher in Wein threw up his hands
saying he was learning more from the boy than he from him.
I've heart several of the worlds most famous pianists praise Schubert's late Pn. Sonatas to the skies, one said
to me personally they were the greatest in the canon .
I don't know if the most tragic early demise was Schubert
or Mozart but for sure they are the top two disasters . |
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Right, I didn't think you meant anything else ,that's why
I said serious listener.I must have heard D.960 live at least 20 times and I only bothered with the top-rank players. I've listened to it hundreds of times at home and have the score, and I think I still have a way to go but thank God for the journey .
God helps some composers , not in some mystical way, but by the fact that really devout composers don't waste much energy in worry, the most useless activity we humans engage in .
Poulenc wrote about this effect after his conversion .
Bach writing" To the Glory of God" on every work was no empty gesture .
I have a lot or respect for Symphony players, not least because I listened to a conversation where a half-dozen
Players from the Berlin RIAS Orch were bemoning the fact
they had a hard time just listening to music because they
were listening to technical matters in general and their parts in particular .
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