Classical Top Five


If most will concede Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Brahms as " the given" top 4, who would you choose as number 5? 
jpwarren58
I do like some Wagner quite a lot, but I just can't put him among my favorites. Part of the problem for me is that his stuff just goes on too long.  Eventually, a sameness creeps in.  There's also a pomposity that can rub me the wrong way.  Yeah, I do have my share of Wagner on the shelf. But apart from the Siegfried Idyll and the first side of Die Meistersinger I probably haven't put any Wagner on the stereo this century.
Wagner. One of the greatest composers, and inarguably the most influential since Beethoven. 
Slightly off-topic, but I picked up Britten and others thanks to KDFC which also does a great job of showcasing diversity in classical music, from modern Women composers to fantastic movie and game scores.
One can certainly dislike Wagner -- much of his music occupies a psychological/emotional space that many can find uncomfortable.  We are each entitled to our preferences.  But I think it's far more likely that Wagner is generally underrated than overrated.  

This is because many people come to Wagner's operas with so much extra-musical baggage -- based on mostly his despicable anti-Semitism, and his posthumous adoration by Hitler -- that it's difficult for him to get a fresh hearing.  

But Wagner's music can be surpassingly beautiful (e.g., the love theme from Tristan and Isolde), or tremendously exciting (e.g., the storm scene from Die Walkure).  

As a musical dramatist, Wagner arguably has no peers.  The Ring cycle is one of the great family dramas, a work that profoundly welds terrific music with penetrating psychology --in my view, just a notch below the works of Shakespeare and Tolstoy.  

For those unfamiliar with Wagner's work (apart from the Ride of Valkyries, used in the film Apocalypse Now and too many commercials), I suggest you try conductor Georg Solti's recording of Wagner's Ring -- a fabulous sonic feast, and one of the greatest recordings ever made.