The MusicWeb Message Board: Re: A post from Michael Bullivant

Definitely best to ignore these things, they're just opinions after all, except...opinions can ossify, and if people keep seeing Britten at the top of the tree every time these things come around, without ever being questioned, that can't be healthy, especially to those of us puzzled by his canonization!
I'll give him this, he had amazing PR.

Previous Message

The only sensible thing to do is to ignore these lists altogether, as they mean very little. For one thing, every composer is capable of writing something rubbishy, and you don't have to listen to much of Mozart's, Bach's or Beethoven's music to have this confirmed! Second, who's the arbiter of greatness anyway? Surely the only thing that really matters to anyone, even those in the performance or production industries, is that the music or music-making gives pleasure or some other stimuation to listeners and performers? (Otherwise, how do you explain Classic FM's Hall of Fame?!)
Whether classical or pop, I like what I like, don't like what I don't like, and am neutral about everything in between - and I don't care whether critics agree, and their opinions won't alter my feelings or appreciation!
The other thing is, you don't have to like a composer's whole oeuvre just because you like one piece by him/her - buy the single, not the album or the merchandise, was always my motto in my schooldays!
For the record, I find Britten's music overwhelmingly dull. But I'm happy for anyone else to love it!

Previous Message

I wonder if other MusicWeb regulars were as astonished as I was by BBC Music’s list of ‘the greatest British composers of all time’, especially bearing in mind that one of the criteria was ‘sheer enjoyability to listen to and perform’.

I suppose that it was inevitable that Britten would come out on top and that his exact contemporary George Lloyd wouldn’t feature, nor Havergal Brian, though I’d give Birtwistle’s entire output for Lloyd’s Fourth Symphony. But no Bax, no Parry, no Stanford? And, one might add, no Maxwell Davis, Rubbra, Robert Simpson and a good many more. Then there’s Malcom Arnold languishing at 22 and Handel, one of the greatest of all composers, at 9 behind Adès and Tippett, for goodness’ sake!

These lists are pretty pointless and everyone has their own opinion but this one really does seem extraordinarily wrong-headed!

I might have added that I never understand why Purcell always ranks so highly with music critics. An agreeable and attractive composer but surely not in the same league as, for example, Handel?

With thanks and admiration for all you and others do on MusicWeb!

Michael
P.S. And I’d put Cipriani Potter above Samuel Coleridge Taylor, too!