Greatest Composers of All Time

Brownsfan, Thanks for your response. Until Lewis I had been relying on Goode, Brendel and Perahia for most, but not all, of my Schubert. I've never heard Richter's recordings of Schubert - I checked and found the Argo disc's on Arkiv and have ordered three of them. Do you have any specific recommendations for the Impromptus' and Wander Fantasy by Richter?

"Beethoven's Romanticism is often greatly exaggerated - formally speaking, he is a Classical composer through and through."

Agree Learsfool but stylistically his symphonies transcended the classical era and are strongly influenced by what was going on around him socially and politically, the 5th is the quinessential example of his romantic inclinations. There is none of this with the symphonies or music, for that matter, of Hayden and Mozart. So in that respect he is the composer that is primarily responsible for introducing the Romantic era, unless there is another composer that I am unaware of that you may be. I am aware of your formidable knowledge of music and look forward to your response.

Newbee,
Take a look at this. http://www.talkclassical.com/ 21995-who-your-
favorite-schubertian.html. Apparently I am not alone in thinking Richter
has a way with Schubert. To your question, I do not own a Richter
recording of the Wanderer and only have a couple of the impromptus by
Richter. There are a couple of recordings on the Alto label for sale on
amazon. Archivmusic appears not to carry this label anymore.

Hi Tubegroover - the main thing about the 5th symphony is what I alluded to in my previous post. Instead of a longer melody, the "theme" that is developed is simply that four-note motif at the opening of the work. This was the radical aspect of it, if you will, though interestingly there is nothing "Romantic" about that part of it - in fact, it is a concentration of a very Classical procedure. It also has the expanded codas, and the interesting transition between the scherzo and final movement. But despite these things, it is a very Classical work, in form. A better choice for your argument would have been the Eroica symphony, with it's vague association with Napoleon, and the "heroic" concept, though again, very Classical in form. Or the Pastoral symphony. But even with those two examples, Beethoven was very insistent that there was not real "program," as there would be in Berlioz Symphony Fantastique, a much more "Romantic" work, or the tone poems of Liszt. These are the sorts of steps Beethoven pointedly refused to take into the Romantic era.

In style, yes he is quite a bit different from Mozart and Haydn, though Mozart also foreshadowed the Romantic era in many ways in his operas, especially in Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute. In his symphonies, Beethoven used a wider range of dynamics and a wider variety of articulations, and took full advantage of new innovations in the instruments themselves, deliberately pushing these boundaries, and in this way he is closer to the Romantic era in spirit. And of course there is the innovation of the chorus and soloists brought into the realm of the symphony. But that said, he is essentially a Classical composer - he did not experiment in new forms, as the early Romantics did. In fact, a great many early Romantic composers decided Beethoven had done all that could be done with what they considered an essentially Classical form, the symphony, and avoided it altogether, Wagner being the most famous case in point. Others disagreed, particularly Brahms, who is of course considered a very conservative composer because he stuck to the Classical forms.

Sorry for the rambling post, need to get to bed.

Not much that I can add to Learsfool's excellent posts. I would simply further stress a couple of points:

The importance of Wagner cannot be overemphasized. As Learsfool points out, his influence on the direction of music was greater than just about any other composer. What is seldom pointed out is the vast influence that he had on other art forms; notably literature. His music and compositional style was one of James Joyce's primary influences which led to the lyricism and "orchestral" gestures in his writing. Wagner was an artistic giant of the highest order and undoubtedly deserving a place in a
"greatest" list.

The subject of Beethoven is a particularly interesting one. I completely agree that his Romanticism is exaggerated; he was a Classicists more than anything and a key transitional figure on the way to true Romanticism. The idea that one composer "introduced" the Romantic era in music is missing the point of how music (and all art) evolves. The move away from the clarity and order of Classicism to the more emotion-driven and eventual programatic aspects of Romanticism was not a sudden one. For me, one of the more interesting facts about Beethoven and how his music points to a slow move away from Classicism is the fact he was the first major composer to make a living as an "independent contractor" (in modern parlance). He was the first to not be employed by a noble or court as "composer in residence" and made his living selling his works and teaching. If that independence, with all it's uncertainty, doesn't inspire romance, I don't know what would.