It doesn't get better than this shit: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Romantic Composers

But Brahms. Listening to his first piano concerto prompted this thread. I don't really agree with the sentiment in the title to be honest. I haven't listened to as much of thoe peoplke's work as I should have, it's mostly BEFORE and AFTER.
These guys get a bad rap these days.

I like Chopin, some Wagner, the Brahms Violin Concerto, Schumann. I could take or leave Liszt, Verdi, Mendelssohn.

The Schubert songs. And he's really like a song writer in such a contemporary, almost tin pan alley kind of way, too. Even in the longer pieces. Also, The Trout Quintet, supposedly super-lightweight, but always a good time.

Tchaikovsky. The Operas. The Ballets. "The Serenade for Strings," another unfairly slagged off piece, I think, just because it's so unabashed.

Wagner, you can't deny. Although I don't find myself listening to it in day to day life. It's not really that kind of music I guess.

I never used to like Bruckner, but now maybe I think I do. It's often like a lot of big static hunks of sound, transposed over again often with an almost weird lack of development. Reductionist, but it's like a kind of metal or something. On some level, Isis is thoroughly Brucknerian.

I'll climb out of my own ass now.

But, hell yeah, he's my man too. The composers who follow steal
from them (harmonic daring + melodic beauty from Franz, power/bombast and rhythmic thrust from Ludwig).
None of them measures up to them IMO.

You could say Chopin was the most original (though the late Beethoven piano sonatas are a massive influence on him).
Also Mendelssohn's stuff (particularly the early stuff like the octet and the string pieces) are better than everyione thinks.
I'd say he was a Schubert (and Mozart) disciple.

Wagner is probably the most successful of all the copyists
in that he synthesises all his influences, mixes them in a big broth so it only sounds like him, and achieves some kind of grotesque perfection. Which reminds me my Pot Noodle's ready.

Brahms, Verdi and Chopin are probably my picks from the list.

In general, I'm not a big fan of concertos, but Mendelssohn's violin concertos are the finest of their kind (that I have heard).

(I kid)

Ever hear the Charles Mingus recording of All The Things You Are where they use a Rach prelude as an intro? Pretty cool.

Didn't Eric Carmen borrow some of that stuff for All By Myself as well? My upstairs neighbor was playing it the other day.

Is this the thread where I can ask is anybody old enough to remember the old TV commercial where the guy sells the TV-only-offer classical music compilation and he says "but did you also know that many of today's popular melodies were actually written by the great masters"? If it's not, feel free to ignore me.

:-(

(weeps)

Chopin - Preludes, Waltzes, Nocturnes, Polonaises - I esp. recommend the Arthur Rubinstein recordings - I have to admit there is often a sorrowful streak, but that is part of what makes it so great for me

Mahler - Symphonies 2 & 3, Das Lied Von Der Erde, probably a bunch of other stuff I haven't heard - takes tonality about as far as it could go

Yes — and for the melody of "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" as well, I believe. Not recalling which pieces, though...

From AMG: Between January and April of 1900, Sergey Vassilyevich saw Dr. Dahl, a Moscow specialist in "neuropsychotherapy," daily, and was urged under hypnosis to compose the new piano concerto that a London impresario was asking for. Trance-therapy roused the composer from his lethargy; indeed, he worked with great facility on an excellent new concerto — the Second, in C minor, Op. 18 — dedicated to Dr. Dahl in gratitude.