In Reply to: Are there any 20th century composers who are not "second rate"... posted by genungo on January 22, 2016 at 08:20:46:
One thing that should be clarified here - when Boulez calls Shostakovitch both excellent and second rate, he is being very serious. Shostakovich is an excellent composer, and I like him very much. But he IS in the second rank when we compare him to the other truly great composers. He is not in the ranks with Bartok, Stravinsky, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven, etc.(and that's not a ranking order, LOL!) This does not mean that he was not an excellent composer - he was. I would place him above most of Chris' list below, for instance, though not Prokofiev, who I would also consider in the second rank. But we already had that discussion.....my point is you can indeed be both second rate and excellent - second rate NOT being a derogatory term in this case.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Are there any 20th century composers who are not "second rate"... - learsfool 10:19:44 01/24/16 (5)
- RE: Are there any 20th century composers who are not "second rate"... - ivan_terrible 04:33:00 02/01/16 (0)
- RE: Are there any 20th century composers who are not "second rate"... - faskenite 13:55:57 01/24/16 (3)
- RE: Are there any 20th century composers who are not "second rate"... - learsfool 22:38:46 01/27/16 (2)
- RE: Are there any 20th century composers - Add Britten (n) - goldenthal 18:53:09 01/31/16 (1)
- RE: Are there any 20th century composers - Add Britten (n) - learsfool 17:41:38 02/02/16 (0)