Another curiosity of mine. My (boring) pick is Chopin.

So far Liszt and Berlioz.

Probably not surprisingly he is my first pick too. But I have days when my pick would be Beethoven and sometimes even other composers. It depends on my mood!

+1

I don't think anyone who identifies with one composer the most all the time is getting a full musical experience.

Well, of course.

What's your evidence for this? I have days where I'm not in the mood for Chopin, and I get plenty of satisfaction from the rest of the lot. That isn't the point.

I love a lot of composers.
I love playing new music because I love to be part of the process of composition to whatever extent I can. And because I like composers.

Out of all composers, I feel I understand Haydn best.
But I feel that Beethoven understands me the best.

That's exactly what I'm saying. There are days where I resonate more with, say, Sibelius or Beethoven than the two I mentioned. I wasn't making a comment about you, just agreeing with Polyphonist. But yes, in general Berlioz and Liszt are my guys.

It is not about "satisfaction". I have days when I totally feel Beethoven in me. I don't know what I would do on certain days if I didn't have his music to express what I am feeling inside.

Good point. I am trying to achieve this; however, I don't think it is necessary. I think it's OKAY to have a narrow selection of composers to which this feeling applies. Heck, Chopin worshiped Bach and Mozart and didn't care about anyone else.

Sometimes Chopin.
Then sometimes Beethoven.
Debussy.
Ravel.
Gershwin.

The list goes on from there!

Paul Hindemith, especially Ludus Tonalis.

(Naw, just kidding.)

If one was to resonate with a living composer, wouldn't that make more sense? I mean if you are to resonate with a composer, as much information as is available is needed...

I'm not sure if I could pick one honestly. I do my best to find the resonance of the composer I'm playing at the moment. However, I can say without question that my playing of Liszt resonates with my audiences better than other composers. Pieces like Sonetto del Petrarca 104, Au bord d'une source, and the Ballade No. 2 are ideal for me - not overly technical, boldly lyrical, with heart-wrenching moments.

I don't get it; Ludus Tonalis is amazing...

For me it's often whoever I'm playing, but I always seem to come back to Bach, Beethoven and Mahler.


-J

Not a bad choice, if you had not been kidding.

Ludus Tonalis is wonderful. I just discovered a couple of days a ago that there's a live recording of it by Richter on YouTube. I saving it for some time when I can give it some concentrated listening (which will be soon, I hope).

The one I seem to be most connected with is Scarlatti...it seems like he wrote his sonatas especially for me...he just didn't know it yet

Another composer who seemed to know exactly how to go straight into my core is Cesar Franck.

There are others, like Chopin and Scriabin, but not so universally and depending on my mood.

I must add that some 20th century composers resonate with me too. But I am not yet so intimately familiar with the music, not having played it myself much.

True. That is why I would have to say that I resonate most with myself, even though virtually everything I compose never makes it out of my head and into actual notation (a fact for which the world should breathe a grateful sigh).

My (un) boring pick is Chopin. By far.

Darling,

We should move our relationship onto the next level.

When, oh when will you trust me enough to share at least something by yourself? Even as an audio recording?



Really though. I'm SO curious to listen to something by you...

I've resonated with different composers through my life - and rarely is it from their piano/keyboard music either.

My first phase (before I learnt to play piano) was J.Strauss Jnr. - simply because the movie "The Great Waltz" was my first intro to classical music. Until then, the only music I heard was ethnic and pop (both Western and 'other') - and only what relatives brought to play in the car (cassette tapes). The amazing sounds of the orchestra, and their funny instruments fascinated me - not to mention the sight & sound of a group of people singing in harmony (in the movie, the choral version of The Blue Danube as J.S. originally conceived it was performed).

Then came Beethoven - because it was his piano music I first heard, via an imported series of Austrian TV programs (in b/w) of the complete sonata cycle played by Paul Badura-Skoda and Jörg Demus. No spoken introduction, and titles in German, of course, but as I knew hardly any English then (let alone German), that didn't matter . The amazing feats of virtuosity from the two pianists, and the sounds they got out of that strange black instrument (Bösendorfer, I think - all I can remember was that the name on the fallboard was unpronounceable...) were mesmerizing. I even sacrificed my sleep to stay up for those programs, which the national TV broadcaster apparently used to fill up the time before close-down at midnight . (I was eight or nine then).

And when I started learning the piano at ten, my uncle introduced me to lots more Beethoven from his LP collection - his complete piano sonatas (Wilhelm Backhaus) and symphonies (Otto Klemperer), which he transferred onto cassette tape for me, when I went to boarding school. But Mozart (introduced to me by my first piano teacher) was starting to make inroads into my affection - via his symphonies, starting with his 'great' G minor, which I couldn't get out of my head after I first heard it....

Mozart stayed a constant through my life ever since, first to listen to (symphonies), then to play for myself (after his juvenile pieces as a beginner, starting the sonatas with K545, which is still in my memorized rep), going on to his vocal music (masses and operas and songs) and chamber music. I later went through a Sibelius phase after visiting Finland, a Grieg phase (after visiting Norway), almost a Nielsen phase (Denmark), then Mahler (after an angst-ridden phase ). But even through all that, Mozart was still the one I always turned to when I was happy, sad, inspired, bored, fed up with life, fearing for my life.......

Well, I figure it's like that line "traveling hopefully is a better thing than to arrive". Similarly, being curious is a better thing than to know. Or, said differently, it is better to simply imagine how dismal and awful my compositions might be, rather than to know for certain.

In a way, that concept of preferring the process of getting there over being at the destination is related to what I like do with composing. It's more fun to keep the material in flux as ideas in my imagination rather than to have the horrible experience of attempting to nail it down in "real" time and space.

But you never know - I do sometimes toy with the idea of dropping something into the Composers Lounge, for everyone to ridicule, or for them to gape at like an accident on the side of the road. The most recent possibility (something that has even started finding its way into Finale) is a piano piece restricted to middle C, D, and E alone. With no octave displacements. It's basically an extremely dreary catalog of different ways to juxtapose those three tones, somewhat like a book of rudimentary percussion exercises. It's so simple-minded and dumb that it would make Einaudi seem as complex as Boulez in comparison. Sounds like fun, eh?

Exactly.

The premise seems questionable: why would or should there be a single composer a musician resonates with?

Sure, I imagine most of us have various composers we may feel closer to than others, over time. But I can't think of any good reason why I would want to narrow it down to one, or even a few. My usual impulse is to try widen my "resonance" with composers to include more of them and their music, rather than to restrict it.

Since childhood (and still) D. Shostakovich
Bach.
Handel.
Thelonious Monk
Ornette Coleman

There are many composers I love, to listen to as well as play, but the more I learn about Chopin... his life and his music, the more I resonate with Chopin. This is not a matter of narrowing down choices, but a feeling, like others have expressed when discussing resonation and their selection, that he wrote for me. It comes from deep in the soul.

OK, confession time.

Who else (besides me) who never heard of this piece thought at first that it said "Tonails"?

Back on topic: Chopin, easily. Well....like some of you said, it varies and at times it's been Scriabin, Scott Joplin, or my old teacher, Seymour Bernstein, but it always comes back to Chopin.

For me it's a tie between Bach and Beethoven. There's so much depth in both and there is so much the music teaches me. Playing each of their pieces is like biting into a huge, complex sandwich with many flavors, aromas, textures and colors.

I happen to be working on pieces by Bach (Chaconne for the left hand) and Beethoven (Opus 110 and 54) right now. Now that's happiness!

For a long time I would have said Chopin--but now I think I have to say Mendelssohn--especially as no one has mentioned him yet.

that's easy -- brahms.

Alkan

Liszt

Oh yes, definitely Mendelssohn too.

... Alkan too of course!

Ravel, unfortunately.

Definitely Beethoven.

Currently Granados. Unfortunately he did not write many easy pieces. Someday, within my life time, I would like to play Goyascas. However, I like his dances too which are more approachable. Every time I listen to Alicia D plays his pieces, I'm totally affected. It's out of the world. Maybe I get over the crush soon go back to Chopin / Beethoven. Who knows.

Brahms for me as well.

Schubert has been my favourite composer for quite some time now. Beethoven and Chopin also resonates with me.

Liszt definitely takes the first place.

Others who also highly resonate with me, but to a lesser degree than Liszt, would be Godowsky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and - Sorabji. Yes, Sorabji... many have criticized the OC, his most magnificent work, saying that "the music comes from nowhere and goes nowhere" and so forth. It makes me feel like I'm the only one in the world who understands what he meant with his music, and that it's not "just noise".

You're shutting out a lot of us by putting it that way.

(Offhand I have no idea what it is. Gonna look it up, but otherwise, no idea.)

Most abbrevs aint worth it.

I was referring to the leviathan "Opus Clavicembalisticum"(thought the abbreviation "OC" was more widely known, but oh well). Surely you have heard about it

No, that's not used, even in the country of its birth.

I thought you were talking about the Ordres pour Clavecin.......

Yes! But we don't necessarily have things like that on the tip of our mind....

Hi, Svenno -- Quite frankly, if there was a composer with whom I resonate LEAST, it probably would be Sorabji. For me, it's so relentlessly humorless and prolix that I actually find it amusing, in some perverse way.

Haha, I guess I am weird then

To add balance to the other side I'll say: by writing his absurdly long and dense "OC", Sorabji certainly opens himself up to ridicule (just as Cage did, in the opposite direction, with 4'33"). But I find myself frequently astonished, moved and overwhelmed by Sorabji. I can't make it through his giant works though. A three minute dose of Sorabji (for me, his Transcendental Etudes are perfect) is enough to send me reeling, uncomfortable and aesthetically charged. He's one of the most important finds for me in the last five years or so.

-J

Schubert.

Yesterday I saw Vivaldi on the youtube list we get on the right of the screen and thought that nobody talks of Vivaldi in piano circles (the few I am reading ). His works are not good for piano?

No.

Except when JSB did something with it .

Thank you, bennevis.

I was thinking JSB can't be Johan Sebastian Bach because he was much much older…so went to check and Vivaldi was born before! My wrong idea could be because Bach's works have been kept more in an old style and Vivaldi has been interpreted by more modern means?

You mean, like on an electric violin?

Here's what JSB did to good ol' Viv:

http://youtu.be/l7BFZeGTWpY

I am not understanding what you are implying there, bennevis.

I've found this pianist playing Vivaldi piano solo style and I like it. It sounds much more modern than when people play Bach!!! (I also like Bach, eh? But it is like he is recognizable to me in some fixed old style).

The Vivaldi pianist:

I'm just having a little fun .

There are plenty of transcriptions of The 4 Seasons around - for harp, mandolin, yes, even piano (there's a CD recording of it by Jeffrey Biegel, who is a PW member). But they don't sound like piano music. Not even like keyboard music.

Viv was, first & foremost, a violinist. JSB was, first & foremost, a keyboard player.

FarmGirl, when you get bored with Granados, you can try Joaquín Turina. This one seems to have written a lot of works for piano, and all have popular (as in Flamenco/Folk) names, so you could have fun experimenting with some. Wikipedia says his piano work is overwhelming ( "abrumadora", unlike Vivaldi, bennevis ):



He is not played much by Spanish pianists, so not like he is a hero here either. I've found someone playing one of his works and his name is like Russian.

Or this one! It doesn't have to be played fast…this could be played quite slow. I would prefer it!:

bennevis, one of my piano teachers tell us to listen to Debussy, but here only Az_Astro put him in his list. Does that mean Debussy is just his favorite and he could have told us to listen to Manuel de Falla (he was also a pianist)?

And what about poor Wagner? Nobody likes him?

Well, this is Pianist Corner, and poor old Wagner composed no piano music of any significance - only Liszt rescued him from piano obscurity .

If there are French posters here, no doubt Debussy would score more highly. Personally, I prefer Ravel - I haven't played any Debussy since I was a student.

Spanish music doesn't seem to travel very well. Even the greatest Spanish work, Albéniz's Iberia, is played by very few non-Spanish pianists. It's not even played by pianists from South America except Barenboim.......

I don't think Spanish pianists play the Spanish authors much either. Well, Rubinstein played lots of Falla, it seems.

Ok, here we have Maestro Rodrigo himself to see it doesn't have to be fast (how bad is the sound of these old recordings):




A video with sheet music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFA37-tGgBI

That's cool - but I don't think it works well on the piano. Like the various piano transcriptions of Viv's 4 Seasons, it sounds too much like a transcription.

Far better to play Granados's piano music - like his Danzas españolas, which aren't too difficult (unlike much of his Goyescas). For example, Andaluza is very pianistic, yet sounds like a guitar.

bennevis, people like me don't understand of transcriptions or whatever, we like it or not. I like what Joaquín Rodrigo was playing at the piano except for the huge noise

I've found two more cute videos, one with a Polish woman playing Turina, and another of a girl 10 years old playing Turina. I don't know when a piece is difficult or not… all are difficult for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR5eFAxYdAg = the Polish woman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vLK8qA70Eo = the little girl (I don't think she is Spanish from the comments hmmm though Celia is a Spanish name)

Maybe just no good period

Beethoven. Debussy. Ravel. Stravinsky. Bob Marley. Would run into a burning building to save their complete works for the benefit of all humanity.

Edgard Varèse.

I highly appreciate most of the great composers. But if I should pick one particular who touches my heart in a special way, it would be Gabriel Faure. Not only the Requiem or the famous Siciliano and Pavane, but also his piano music.

I feel very strongly about the first (Eb minor) Nocturne.

-J

Scriabin is the one for me, from early to late. I also love both Chopin and Rachmaninoff for solo piano (and others), but I'd pick Scriabin each and every day as my favorite composer for the piano.

Since the hole in my chest is covered with a rubber guitar sound hole cover, it's hard for me to resonate. 😜

Even if Vivaldi is "only" the 100th greatest or 200th greatest composer, that's still pretty darn good. If one looks at IMSLP it becomes clear that the huge majority of composers are completely unknown. I don't think comparing composers to one of the really great composers and thus concluding they're lacking makes much sense.

Oh, I never compare anyone to "the really great composers" (whoever they are). In fact I don't really compare much at all, I see no point in that. But I do classify. And in my classification Vivaldi belongs to the "nothing worth listening" category with a few other composers. Just my opinion of course.

The "Seasons" concerti are extremely good, the work just suffers from overexposure of the same few bars..