Top Five
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 7:26PM
This thread won't be weighty enough for everyone's taste, but here goes:
Planet Earth is about to be destroyed and you have been given a place on the last spaceship. You can take the works of just five composers with you. Everything else will be obliterated. Which do you take?
Here's mine, in no particular order:
1. Bach
2. Mozart
3. Schubert
4. Bruckner
5. Beethoven
It wasn't easy, by the way. I thought it would be when I started, but it wasn't.
I ask, for those of you who need a justification for everything, simply because I would be interested to see what everyone else would choose...........to see where their interests lie and what they really value. (Hopefully some really odd choices will turn up so Parla can pour scorn ont them all.........)
And no cheating: five and only five.
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 9:19PM
#2
RE: Top Five
Jane, five composers! How generous you are. I thought we were only going to get five works! :)
I'd probably be able to get by with Haydn, Beethoven, VW, Sibelius and Shostakovich. Can Kaleva Aho also travel with me to write new stuff? And I'd need my Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath discs...
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 9:35PM
#3
RE: Top Five
Great topic Jane. And Bazza great minds think alike...and I'm with a couple of yours Jane and Chris.
In no particular order, I'm in with Beethoven, Haydn, Sibelius, Shostakovitch and Lutoslawski.
I've got to be really honest, it's Bach versus Haydn for that place. Hmm...I'll go Haydn, what with 104 symphonies there'll never be boredom! Plus some glorious masses of course.
Mark
PS Bazza you can take Led Zep 1V!
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 9:49PM
#4
RE: Top Five
I almost agree with Jane's original list (oh, and Led Zep 4). But I think, on balance, I'd have to replace Bruckner with Wagner. Much as I enjoy Bruckner (and have just written about him on another thread), I think the Ring, and Tristan, just have so much to offer long term. And I suspect Bruckner himself would approve of my choice!
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 9:54PM
#5
RE: Top Five
...what with 104 symphonies there'll never be boredom! Plus some glorious masses of course.
Yes, if we can take a man's entire oeuvre then obviously the more prolific he is the better. No space for the Edgard Vareses of the world!
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 10:03PM
#6
RE: Top Five
And not just for that reason!
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 10:29PM
#7
RE: Top Five
I'm gonna be a big bore and just chose the 5 composers that I think are the greatest who ever lived. Nothing but the best for my deserted space island.
Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Wagner, in alphabetic order.
If fate would grant me 2 more, I'd add Schubert and Bruckner.
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 10:37PM
#8
RE: Top Five
It might make it more interesting if we had to include at least one who wasn't German/Austrian!
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 10:45PM
#9
RE: Top Five RE: Top Five
If fate would grant me 2 more, I'd add Schubert and Bruckner.......
Cheat.
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 10:55PM
#10
RE: Top Five RE: Top Five
If fate would grant me 2 more, I'd add Schubert and Bruckner.......
Cheat.
Not at all, Jane. See, our spaceship just entered an alternative dimension, where every value is multiplied by 1.4 ;)
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 11:03PM
#11
RE: Top Five
1. Beethoven
2. Mozart
3. Janacek
4. Prokofiev
5. Mahler
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 11:25PM
#12
RE: Top Five RE: Top Five
Well, assuming that compiling a set of representative recordings for mankind is NASA's duty and not mine, my personal selection would be:
Mozart & Beethoven - for comfort, inspiration and to remind me about what it is to be human;
Rossini - for sheer fun and to provide enough of a warm glow to make me not want to start a log fire on the spaceship
Liszt - because listening to Nuages Gris while looking out into space seems to be a pretty fine idea (though to save weight and make room for a bottle of 1949 Delord Bas-Armagnac I would leave behind most of Liszt's choral works!)
Ligeti - because while I know a few pieces well I need something new to get my teeth into and he fits the bill
(with apologies to Nono, Berg and Haydn... close but no cigar)
I should add that Mahler is possibly my favourite composer but he is permenantly in my head - I wouldn't be lost without him strangely enough.
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 11:29PM
#13
RE: Top Five
Double post deleted - apologies all!
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 11:22PM
#14
RE: Top Five
1. Beethoven
2. Mozart
3. Janacek
4. Prokofiev
5. Mahler
SK - great call on Janacek! What a fine composer...
Sun, Feb 17 2013, 11:46PM
#15
RE: Top Five
My choice would be (in no particular order)
1. Bach
2. Verdi
3. Schubert
4. Bruckner
5. Beethoven
Well my favourite orchestral works are symphonies so I have chosen my composers with that in mind, the other great works that they would provide would be a bonus.
1. Vaughan Williams
2. Beethoven
3. Sibelius
4. Bax
5. Mahler
I'm not actually the greatest fan of Mahler, but maybe I should be, and everyone should have a challenge!