Thread: How many of you think mozart and beethoven are the best classical music composers who ever lived?

I love both of them and their music is great to listen to. I have very large collection of both you should see it. I am curious as to what you all think?

i prefer chopin and lizst though
if beethoven wasn't deaf then maybe he would be the best

I think they both blow balls.

I find their music moving... Bowel moving

The "best that ever lived" is a very subjective judgment. Clearly, they are among the giants of classical music. I value innovation more than you, so Bach would be in my top two along with Mozart. He was a pioneer in polyphony style music. Mozart for the breadth of musical styles in which he produced masterpieces. Not to knock Beethoven. He penned a large collection of classical masterpieces, and many of the most widely recognized classical melodies. Then there are the three "B's" Bach Beethoven and Brahms, thought to be the "big three" by some classical music lovers.

They were masters of their craft. I don't like the idea of "best" or "best two."

... remember that Bach would have almost certainly been lost to history if Mendelssohn hadn't started a revival of performing his works in 1829

Well at least they're both classical-era...though like everything else in your question, even that's debatable. (Beethoven is sort of a Classimantic composer.)

I like Mozart, and I like Beethoven. I also like Bach, Vivaldi, Palestrina, Brahms, Prokofiev, and Buxtehude. Who's 'the best'?

Beethoven destroyed much of his music. After Bach's death -he wasn't considered a particularly good composer in his lifetime- the family was forced to sell off many of his manuscripts. If I'm not mistaken -and I may be, someone call me on this if I'm wrong- Mendelssohn started the Bach revival when he got his hands on some scores...his meat from the butcher came wrapped in them.

It's interesting (and admittedly kind of useless) to take a minute and wonder how many great talents either censored themselves completely (good Lord, we could have lost Brahms that way) or didn't stand out in their day and simply died out.

I adore Beethoven - he is my absolute hero! Right now I am listening to the pathetique sonata - a really moving piece of music.

I like Mozart very much, but it really difficult to decide what to listen of his because there is such a huge volume of work.

They are often the two great composers beginners recognize and become devoted to.

There is certainly enough music from either to keep anyone busy with discovery and re-discovery upon repeated listening.

Your 'rating' however, is the proverbial comparison of apples vs. oranges. You really can not even truly compare Mozart to Beethoven / or Beethoven to Mozart!

I think Debussy and Stravinsky are also two of the 'greatest composers ever' and rank them as high, but on their individual merits. Others would name Monteverdi, Bach, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, etc. The list is long, the amount of great music a rich trove. You will later perhaps, find your taste expanding to other composers, recognizing their (equal) quality and genius.

best regards, p.b.

Mozart was classical era, whilst Beethoven was late classical/early romantic. Your thinking is technically correct....but...

My absolute favourite from the "Classical" genre is Ralph Vaughan Williams - listen to his Fantasia on a theme from Thomas Tallis and then say you're not totally moved.!

I do. And it's amazing because despite Beethoven's hearing impairment, he went on to create more symphonies.