8 composers you can live without

[Serial_Apologist]

Apart from the "CFM school", Einaudi, Glass, and the man whose name I can't recall (senior moment) who wrote the music for "The Piano", not to mention those thus far listed of whom I haven't heard, or ditto works by them, I find myself unable to name one composer who has not written at least one work which I like, (Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique being an example) ...

Sorry about Bruckner, I've tried and tried but it all seems so pointless - meandering on and on.
Interesting that nobody has chosen Mahler, so far.......

... even Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, where (for me at any rate) he finally came into his own.

[Rolmill]

Wagner (not sure why I feel the need to apologise, but I do!)
Bliss
Magnard
Khachaturian
Schutz
Scriabin
Roussel
Sweelinck

Restricted to composers where I have made an effort or had decent exposure (performing or listening) - the list would expand hugely if I allowed my ignorance free rein!

[EdgeleyRob]

Reger
Hindemith
Sibelius
Nielsen
Bach
Vivaldi
R Strauss
Verdi

[Rolmill]

...and the man whose name I can't recall (senior moment) who wrote the music for "The Piano" ...

Michael Nyman - and I agree, he should have been on my list!

[Serial_Apologist]

Michael Nyman - and I agree, he should have been on my list!

[makropulos]

Bellini
Glass
Medtner
Petterson
Schnittke
Shostakovich
Simpson
Vivaldi

[ahinton]

Michael Nyman - and I agree, he should have been on my list!

Mine, too, but that would have made it ten!...

[Pabmusic]

An interesting phenomenon is apparent. Not a single poster seems to share my views on:

Sterndale Bennett
Holbrooke
Reinecke
Rubinstein
Macdowell
Fibich
Draeseke
Mackenzie

Does this mean that I'm the only person to have listened to their music in the last x years? Or that their music is so banal that it doesn't even merit consideration? Or that theirs is music of real worth and I'm just not getting it?

[Nick Armstrong]

Mine, too, but that would have made it ten!...

Nyman, Glass and Copland were jostling for eighth position on mine

[Nick Armstrong]

Does this mean that I'm the only person to have listened to their music in the last x years? Or that their music is so banal that it doesn't even merit consideration? Or that theirs is music of real worth and I'm just not getting it?

For me it meant that it sort of goes without saying that one could live without those, and that you had possibly chosen your liszt with tongue in cheek... It's the bods with the bigger reputations who perhaps warrant more comment in the current context

[ahinton]

Nyman, Glass and Copland were jostling for eighth position on mine

Well, Copland wouldn't be too far from my list but his best work would be sure to keep him off it and all that he did for other American composers' music has ensured his stature as one of the last century's most important American musicians, I believe...

[Pikaia]

Interesting that nobody has chosen Mahler, so far.......

I did! (post 16)

[Black Swan]

Interesting forum.

For Me
Shostakovitch
Delius
Bruckner
Haydn
Verdi
Brahms
Turnage
Eric Whitacre - really currently my least favorite composer.

My lack of interest is well represented by the lack of recordings in my CD/DVD/Blue-Ray collection.

[Thropplenoggin]

Bruckner
Berlioz
Glass
Prokofiev
Stockhausen
Handel
Gorecki

Sorry about Bruckner, I've tried and tried but it all seems so pointless - meandering on and on.
Interesting that nobody has chosen Mahler, so far.......

I had that 'Bruckner Problem', too. What finally resolved it for me was a couple of individual movements: the 'adagio' from Bruckner 7/Kurt Sanderling/SWR Stuttgart (Hanssler). A chance encounter with the coda of the final movement of Bruckner 4 performed by Celi/Munchner Philharmoniker. And the first movement of Bruckner 8 performed by Knappertsbusch/Munchner Philharmoniker. These accounts were so revelatory that they encouraged me to re-visit each symphony from start to finish. I finally gleaned what all the fuss was about.

[LeMartinPecheur]

An interesting phenomenon is apparent. Not a single poster seems to share my views on:

Sterndale Bennett
Holbrooke
Reinecke
Rubinstein
Macdowell
Fibich
Draeseke
Mackenzie

Does this mean that I'm the only person to have listened to their music in the last x years? Or that their music is so banal that it doesn't even merit consideration? Or that theirs is music of real worth and I'm just not getting it?

pabs: I think the thread demands a substantial exposure to, and engagement with, the sidelined composer's work. Sadly, all your eight just might still be a big discovery for me if I ever got round to buying loads of their CDs. OK, I doubt that, but I don't know enough to write them off just now. I'm guessing this will be true for other posters?

Haven't done my 'Big (small?) 8' yet. Will save time by printing a recipe.

Take a few good handfuls of random Italian baroque composers of trio sonatas and/or concerti grossi, add a seasoning of early C19 Italian opera composers (but NOT Rossini). Blend, put the tasteless mush into an eight-hole baking tin, cook in a hot oven till browned off (not long), then feed to dog.

Or, if you care about your dog, put it straight into dustbin!