Why No British Classical Greats?

[doctordb]

Ok, there are some works of holst, Elgar, Williams and Britten that are exceptional but nothing to compare to the greats of European classical music.

In all the other arts we are up there. Why not classical music?

[Mosaic]

Ralph Vaughan Williams 'Lark Ascending' is pretty damn good. And as British as can be.

[FredPuli43]

What great painters do we have? Turner is one, but Constable or Gainsborough? Those two are feted here, but not much elsewhere. They don't rank above Claude in world estimation.

Music has always puzzled me too. We haven't produced a single composer who ranks with Sibelius, and he was a Finn. Holst came close, on the strength of one work but that is it.What is now Germany has produced several, including that lesser- light Handel.

It may be that the economics and culture of other countries were more conducive. Germany/Austria demanded music in great abundance for every occasion, both church and secular, and it had the people who would sponsor it and demand it. Italy was somewhat similar There are literally dozens of German and Italian composers whose work is still recorded yet who are unknown to anyone other than late night and morning listeners to Radio 3. This is especially so with baroque music. For all we know, we had hundreds of potential composers who never got the chance.

[doctordb]

Hard to say ric, but if I could only take one composers work to the desert island it would be Mahler.(I'd smuggle Dvorak in too)

I'm no expert either. :)

[Peter Pedant]

The first fella to support himself with music without patronage,
was Schubert apparently.

[doctordb]

He made nice dips Peter.

[shoota]

This is my current 'can't get enough of...'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywp1v8zYopo

[doctordb]

Is the operatic disparity purely down to the sound of the language?

[shoota]

My desert island composer however would be Vivaldi because of the beauty and extent of his oeuvre.
Just search for 'Vivaldi motet' on Youtube for examples.
Some people say that he wrote one piece of music 100's of times but when you are required to produce several new pieces each week then some will inevitably be similar. Go beyond 'The Four Seasons' and there is a lifetime of incredible music.
Shame he wasn't a Brit though....

[doctordb]

Oops, forgot delius.

[Zacs-Master]

Is she still on the board at Norwich?

[doctordb]

Zacs, I loved her 'where are you' speech.

[Zacs-Master]

I work on the 'people in glass houses' principle on that dr b.

[shoota]

Tilly:
Holst was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the elder of the two children of Adolph von Holst, a professional musician, and his wife, Clara Cox, née Lediard. She was of mostly British descent,[n 1] daughter of a respected Cirencester solicitor;[2] the Holst side of the family was of mixed Swedish, Latvian and German ancestry, with at least one professional musician in each of the previous three generations.
Thanks Wiki

[doctordb]

Good point, I've had a few at half time myself.

[FredPuli43]

Poor Vivaldi, much mocked for the similarity of his works, but most unfairly. He had a certain 'sound', in a lot of them, but so did the Bach family and Mozart; you can spot a bit of JSB or Mozart in a few bars, because they put their signature on it, just as much as Phil Spector did.

Everyone seems to know the Four Seasons, without having been bored by a full performance (Yes, Vivaldi, we get it. No need to repeat the damn themes ad nauseam). L'Estro Armonico has none of the bracketed defect and is a really great work, up there with the Brandenburg Concertos, but is not played as much. It needs Nigel Kennedy in a Villa shirt to promote it!

[jomifl]

When you consider the population size of the rest of Europe I think the UK does OK. There are a few European composers ( of the headup @rse variety) that though well respected are fairly unlistenable to..

[shoota]

Aaargghh!!!!
Not Kennedy please....

[FredPuli43]

shoota, mine was not a post about the Lang Lang of the violin. It was merely a humorous reference to the power of his popularity.

[shoota]

Phew....

[shoota]

There is some stuff towards the end of this you might like Fred:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1289921.html