Classical Composers - It's A Knockout (Winner: Johann Sebastian Bach)

[Corki]

Time to wrap this up!

 

Mozart won the battle of the heavyweights, defeating Tchaikovsky by 3 votes to 2.

 

And Sergei Rachmaninoff won by 3 votes to 2 to mean there is at least two Russians in the 2nd Round.

 

The remaining ties of Round 1 are on the way.

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 6

 

Two very different types of composers clash for a place in the 2nd Round.

 

Camille Saint-Saens

Camille Saint-Saens was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, who was best known for his piece of work called The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saens' style is regarded as elegant and technically flawless, but sometimes dry and lacking emotion. Saint-Saen fought the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss, and started his career while Chopin and Mendelssohn were at their prime, and then ended as the Jazz Age took hold.

Links:

and

 

vs.

 

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, and is one of the great names of the world of Classical music. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He gained the reputation of being a virtuoso pianist. His deafness is well known to the world, but he still  continued to compose, conduct, and perform. His work spanned a broad range of genres, and a variety of instruments. His main works were for the piano and string instruments.

Links:

and

 

 

Voting ends Tuesday 25th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 7

 

Two very different styles go head-to-head in the seventh tie of the 1st Round.

 

 

Carl Orff

It is rare that a composer can create a piece of music so great that it can and will thoroughly overcome the stigma that its associations attach to it. Carl Orff succeeded.  His most famous piece - in fact, the only piece of his that I know of - is the immensely popular Carmina Burana. The work is based on a collection of Medieval poetry about the cycle of a man's life. This cyclical nature is reflected in the work, which opens and closes with the same movement. The piece was commissioned by the Nazi party of Germany, and it met with some rather embarrassed silences from them, too, as much of the text is, quite frankly, more than suggestive. However, this association with the Nazi party has not had the usual effect that such an association generally entails, and Carmina Burana is one of the post popular pieces performed today. It is on the strength of this piece alone, about which the composer is said to have stated, "Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana, my collected works begin," that I nominate Carl Orff.

Link:

 

vs.

 

Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist, whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. He has a wide range of music known to the world, which are renowned for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty. During his lifetime, he was  respected as an organist.

Links: Air on a G String and

 

 

Voting ends Tuesday 25th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 8

 

Two Romantic composers go up against one another for a place in Round 2.

 

George Frederic Handel

Handel was a German-English Baroque composer who is famous for his operas, oratorios, and concertos. Born in Germany, he became a naturalised British subject through living in the UK. His best known works include Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks.

Links:

and

 

vs.

 

Frederic Chopin

Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of French-Polish parentage. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music. The great majority of Chopin's compositions were written for the piano as solo instrument, with all of his work featuring the piano somehow. They are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to many pieces of piano music.

Links:

and

 

 

Voting ends Tuesday 25th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[dapianoplay3r]

Frederic Chopin

Carl Orff

Ludwig Van Beethoven

[Bela_theDo]

Chopin

 

Bach

 

Beethoven

[Corki]

Saint-Saen

 

Bach

 

Handel

[Majsju]

Beethoven

Bach

Chopin

[Jeannaisais]

Chopin

 

Bach

 

Beethoven

 

Agreed!

[Corki]

I will be wrapping up these ties at around 11pm tonight - so in about 3 and a half hours time. So if you haven't voted, do so now!

 

All 2nd Round ties will be going up.

[Corki]

Wow! Not one of the composers I voted for went through! Curse all of you!  :P

 

So, Beethoven triumphed over Saint-Saen 4-1 to book his place in the 2nd Round from tie 6.

 

Tie 7 saw Bach beat Orff 4-1 to take his place in Round 2.

 

And the final tie of the first round saw Chopin defeat Handel by 4 votes to 1.

 

Round 2 ties are on the way!

[Corki]

Round 2, Tie 1

 

One of the world's great composers takes on a composer well known for their piano compositions.

 

Frederic Chopin

Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of French-Polish parentage. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music. The great majority of Chopin's compositions were written for the piano as solo instrument, with all of his work featuring the piano somehow. They are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to many pieces of piano music.

Links:

and

 

vs.

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

First of all, it's Mozart? Why wouldn't you nominate one of the most prominent and well known composers? And he didn't just do piano compositions, he often created symphonic compositions as well, including some of the great operas. Mozart's versatility as a composer allowed him to advanced the technical sophistication and emotional reach of the different genres he composed.

Links: Piano Concerto No. 5 and Mozart's Requiem

 

 

Voting ends Thursday 27th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 2, Tie 2

 

Two Russian composers go head-to-head for a place in the semi-finals.

 

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, very nearly the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music. His initial style was similar to Tchaikovsky, but he developed his own. These involved brutal gestures and uncompromising power of expression, flexible rhythms, sweeping lyricism and stringent economy of thematic material were all features he kept and refined in subsequent works.

Links:

and

 

 

vs.

 

 

Modest Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky happens to be one of my favourite composers. He was one of the set of Russian composers known as "The Five". Russian history and folklore were heavy influences on his work. His best known works are Night on a Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition. Both are full of great orchestral music that give the listener fantastic images as they listen.

Links:

and

 

 

Voting ends Thursday 27th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 2, Tie 3

 

Baroque battles Romantic for a place in the semi-finals!

 

Edvard Greig

Edvard Greig was a Norwegian composer, whose most famous work is the music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. His other well known piece is Piano Concerto in A minor. Norwegian folk music was heavy inspiration for Greig, and he produced much music for the piano, leading him to be nicknamed "the Chopin of the North". He actually didn't like the composition he made for In the Hall of the Mountain King, claiming it to be "something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction!".

Links:

and Morning from Peer Gynt Suite

 

vs.

 

 

Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist, whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. He has a wide range of music known to the world, which are renowned for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty. During his lifetime, he was  respected as an organist.

Links: Air on a G String and

 

 

Voting ends Thursday 27th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 2, Tie 4

 

Another great Classical Composer takes on a late-Romantic artist for the final place in the semi-finals.

 

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, and is one of the great names of the world of Classical music. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He gained the reputation of being a virtuoso pianist. His deafness is well known to the world, but he still  continued to compose, conduct, and perform. His work spanned a broad range of genres, and a variety of instruments. His main works were for the piano and string instruments.

Links:

and

 

vs.

 

Claude Debussy

A brilliant impressionist composer, Debussy was a master in the French and European music scene in the late 19th century. His music is noted for its sensory component and how it is not often formed around one key or pitch.Often Debussy's work reflected the activities or turbulence in his own life. His music virtually defines the transition from late-Romantic music to twentieth century modernist music. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.

Links:

and

 

 

Voting ends Tuesday 18th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Krakalakachkn]

Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninoff

[Jeannaisais]

Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bach and Debussy

[Quibby]

Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Beethoven

[Corki]

Mozart

 

Mussorgsky

 

Bach

 

Beethoven

[Majsju]

Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Beethoven

 

 

Btw, Corki, it is Grieg, not Greig.

[Bela_theDo]

Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Beethoven

 

Agreed.

[Corki]

I will wrap this up tomorrow morning at work. You have until then to vote if you haven't done so already!

 

[Corki]

Time to wrap this up!

 

Mozart eases through in the first tie with a 5-1 victory.

 

Rachmaninoff won with a similar scoreline - 5-1 in the battle of the Russians.

 

A 6-0 thrashing for Grieg by Bach!

 

And Beethoven won through with another 5-1 scoreline.

 

Semi-Finals are on the way!

 

[Corki]

Semi-Final, Tie 1

 

A late Romantic composer takes on a mighty German composer.

 

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, very nearly the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music. His initial style was similar to Tchaikovsky, but he developed his own. These involved brutal gestures and uncompromising power of expression, flexible rhythms, sweeping lyricism and stringent economy of thematic material were all features he kept and refined in subsequent works.

Links:

and

 

 

vs.

 

 

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, and is one of the great names of the world of Classical music. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He gained the reputation of being a virtuoso pianist. His deafness is well known to the world, but he still  continued to compose, conduct, and perform. His work spanned a broad range of genres, and a variety of instruments. His main works were for the piano and string instruments.

Links:

and

 

 

Voting ends Saturday 29th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Semi-Final, Tie 2

 

Two great composers clash for a place in the final!

 

 

Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist, whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. He has a wide range of music known to the world, which are renowned for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty. During his lifetime, he was  respected as an organist.

Links: Air on a G String and

 

 

vs.

 

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

First of all, it's Mozart? Why wouldn't you nominate one of the most prominent and well known composers? And he didn't just do piano compositions, he often created symphonic compositions as well, including some of the great operas. Mozart's versatility as a composer allowed him to advanced the technical sophistication and emotional reach of the different genres he composed.

Links: Piano Concerto No. 5 and Mozart's Requiem

 

 

Voting ends Saturday 29th May 2010 at 11pm (BST)