8 composers you can live without

[Beef Oven!]

I doubt that I could possibly "know" anything then!

Epistemologically challenged?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Epistemologically challenged?

I haven't touched a drop!

[Jonathan]

Ok then:
Mahler (yes, I have tried)
Britten (again, I have tried)
Rutter
Lloyd Webber
Verdi
Stockhausen
Scriabin (on my list to try again soon)
Bernstein

Er...this was actually really hard - much more difficult than 8 composers I really like!

For the record, I like Anton Rubinstein, Reinecke, Fibich and any of the others mentioned earlier in this thread by Pabmusic. I also like Reger.

[ahinton]

As we're friends, Mr Saint, I shall pretend that such a suggestion has not been made.

But if you'll pardon my saying so, esteemèed Geliebte Ferneyhoughische, TS did not make a suggestion but merely asked a question!

[Beef Oven!]

I haven't touched a drop!

[Nick Armstrong]

No; I can't limit either list to eight, but there's such a vaster choice in the "can live without" category that it's even more difficult to select eight from that list than it is from the shorter one of "can't live without".



I should point out that this made sense when I wrote it.

(I think I know what you mean though )

[Anna]

Very difficult question, but first reaction:

K. Jenkins
Rutter
Britten
Strauss II
Delius
Liszt
Alkan
Probably Glass - although he started off well

[scottycelt]

All these composers mentioned on this thread previously unknown to me I can quite clearly live without.

I have had a strange (and no doubt unjustified) aversion to Brahms all my life yet when I heard Andrew McGregor play bits of the symphonies this morning I thought it was all rather pleasant, bordering on the interesting. Music can do very strange things to you at times.

Apart from the ubiquitous Johannes among my other main 'deaf spot' composers are :

2. Mozart
3. Mahler
4. Haydn
5. Schubert
6. Nielsen
7. Delius
8. Britten


Not necessarily in that particular order of lack of appreciation.

[AmpH]

Wagner
Bruckner
(about 80% of) Mozart
Handel
Hindemith
Saariaho
Taverner
Zemlinsky

[ahinton]

Wagner
Bruckner
(about 80% of) Mozart
Handel
Hindemith
Saariaho
Taverner
Zemlinsky

John Taverner (c.1490-1545) or John Tavener (1944- )?

[BBMmk2]

Ah yes, Anna! how could I forget! J Strauss II! thank you!! :)

[MrGongGong]

(Like Anna says)

Glass is in contention for everything after Einstein with everything before and including in the other list !

and

Andrew LW (I wish he would STOP , "Musical Theatre" is an idea on a par with the Amstrad Emailer )
Einaudi (goes without saying and poor Luciano )
Mendelssohn (even the sublime octet doesn't excuse Elijah)
Elgar (as with Felix the wonderful symphonies don't excuse DOG)
Bob Dylan (OK not really a composer in the same way more a poet who writes songs but no thanks)
Paul McCartney (just STOP it now and go and live on your Scottish Estate growing neeps for EVER)
Johann Strauss II (I guess it's ok as a prelude to the Ligeti with black slab but otherwise ......... nope)

[Anna]

Like Anna says

You know it makes sense!!
Cannot believe some have nominated A. Lloyd-Webber. when did he become a composer?

[ahinton]

(Like Anna says)

Glass is in contention for everything after Einstein with everything before and including in the other list !

And quite a lot before it, too! - there's plenty of earlier stuff that ought to be beached...

and

Andrew LW (I wish he would STOP , "Musical Theatre" is an idea on a par with the Amstrad Emailer )

I didn't realise that he'd even started...

Einaudi (goes without saying and poor Luciano )

Indeed.

Mendelssohn (even the sublime octet doesn't excuse Elijah)

Not a whole lot does, but put beside that octet, the six quartets (especially the last one) and several other works dwarf it to such an extent that one could almost be forgiven for forgetting that he'd eve written that thing...

Elgar (as with Felix the wonderful symphonies don't excuse DOG)

They don't need to; all three symphonies and DoG are wondrous, as are the two concertos, Falstaff, Alassio and the final three chamber works! (although I could live happily without the uncharacteristically pompous and tiresome Cockaigne and as for the exceendily ungood Kipling piece Fringes of the Fleet and the even more comically dire Crown of India the less said the better!)...

Bob Dylan (OK not really a composer in the same way more a poet who writes songs but no thanks)

Quite.

Paul McCartney (just STOP it now and go and live on your Scottish Estate growing neeps for EVER)

What business has he in my country, pray?

Johann Strauss II (I guess it's ok as a prelude to the Ligeti with black slab but otherwise ......... nope)

Can't agree with you there! - but why not try Marc-André Hamelin's Godowsky CD that includes the three Symphonic Metamorphoses on Strauss waltzes and see what you make of them? (if you've not already done so).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But if you'll pardon my saying so, esteemèed Geliebte Ferneyhoughische, TS did not make a suggestion but merely asked a question!

Indeed - and made a wittily satirical point in so doing. My response was "nat for but to pleye".