至於處於十幾名以為的馬勒和布魯克納爾,先生用“Mahler is recognized better comparing to what had been 50 years ago. However, he is just one of the good symphonic composers. No more and no less.”顯然是忘記了自己欣賞古典音樂的宗旨和目的。這就如同大家逛博客。昭君是讀者欣賞的作家,你Philharmonic先生跑過來說,“她也就是一個好的博客作家,不多不少”。這又能說明什麼呢? 你可以爭辯說,從網上的統計結果看,她的博客不是最好的。你覺得作為她的粉絲們會在意嗎?粉絲就是粉絲,先生怎麼可以用所謂“established”的標準強迫別人接受呢。 所以說,當讀者個人的品味冒犯了先生你的所謂的公眾標準的時候,請先生最好代表自己說話,不要把自己弄得一副真理代言人的樣子。
Obviously you are not one of the main stream classical music lovers. The common consensus among critics and the classic music fan, Beethoven by far the most recognized composer. His symphonies had achieved a level no one can match up with. Beethoven is both deep and wide in his work. No one has achieved his level yet. If you are only talking about operas, Beethoven is not the best one, but I still doubt if Wagner can claim to be the best because his work is less performed around world than Verdi, Puccini and Mozart. Yes, there are some people prefer Wagner than other composer’s opera, as you are one of them, but there are a lot of other people enjoy Verdi more than Wagner. In addition, few people believe that Wagner’s operas can push him surpass what Beethoven had achieved. They were simply not in the same level.
Opera alone or symphony alone is not the key criteria to judge who is the better classical music composer. It is the overall composed work that really counts. If you do enjoy some specific pieces by specific composers that is perfectly fine. However, your own taste does not represent the classical music community where who is the better composer has been well established long time now. Yes, Mahler is recognized better comparing to what had been 50 years ago. However, he is just one of the good symphonic composers. No more and no less.
Believing Wagner had better achievements than Beethoven in classical music is not a common sense although I know that a lot of people like his work. Wagner had a good run for dramatic operatic works and some good symphonic poems. Unlike Beethoven, he did not have anything marvelous work in chamber music. Therefore, at least I can say is that Wagner's music creation was relatively narrow.
3B indicates Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Bruckner is an Austrian not a German composer though. He also only had narrow creation in symphony field, as well as Mahler, who composed some wonderful symphonies, but cannot be seen as one of the top 10 composers in Classical Music.
Thanks for sharing, again, how lucky you are! I grew up with and love classical music. For people who love only pop music, it may be challenging for them to understand the passion we have for the classical.
Wish you and your loved ones have more great concerts to go this year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! :)
He would certainly love to talk to you about music! Looks like you guys are about the same kind :))! I told him that he should write his own blog to discuss these topics, but he's too lazy to write in Chinese and I am not going to write for him!
I would like to speak with your husband about classic music. I am a classical music fan too. Last week, my wife and I went to SF for a concert of French composers, Debbusy's Le Mar and Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique by Armsterdam Concertwboug Orchestra, conducted by Jansons. It was a wonderful experiences. I wonder how can they play the pieces so well - the conductor was in full commend of the orchestra. It was full of details and the spacious feeling that I never experienced from litsening from sound system. I believe that Micheal Tilson Thomas should be even a more famous conductor and SF symphony Orchestra supposed to be very good. However, comparing with Armsterdam Orchestra, they are definitely not in the same level. Maybe it is the players made the difference. Or the cultural thing that Europeans understand Franch composor in a mor subtled way. This Orchestra definitely is one of the top 5 in the world.