Composer Quotes About Other Composers

[kickassclassical]

Composers certainly are opinionated about other composers, whether it's being complimentary or insulting... or both!

Here's a few of our favorite quotations by composers on their fellow composers:

Beethoven on Himself:
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth." - Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven on Rossini:
"Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on the backside." - Ludwig van Beethoven

Brahms on Bach:
"Study Bach. There you will find everything." - Johannes Brahms

Gounod on Bizet:
"Take the Spanish airs and mine out of the score, and there remains nothing to Bizet's credit but the sauce that masks the fish." - Charles Gounod on Bizet's "Carmen"

Grieg on Bach, Beethoven, Himself:
"Artists like Bach and Beethoven erected churches and temples on the heights. I only wanted... to build dwellings for men in which they might feel happy and at home." - Edvard Grieg

Liszt on Brahms:
"Brahms' variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his." - Franz Liszt

Rossini on Bach, Beethoven:
"If Beethoven is a prodigy of man, Bach is a miracle of God." - Gioachino Rossini

Rossini on Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart:
"Beethoven I take twice a week, Haydn four times, and Mozart every day." - Gioachino Rossini

Rossini on Wagner:
"Wagner has wonderful moments, and dreadful quarters of an hour." - Gioachino Rossini

Rossini on Wagner:
"One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time." - Gioachino Rossini

Stravinsky on Mozart:
"I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt like de Kooning, who was asked to comment on a certain abstract painting, and answered in the negative. He was then told it was the work of a celebrated monkey. 'That's different. For a monkey, it's terrific.'" - Igor Stravinsky

Tchaikovsky on Mozart:
"Mozart is the musical Christ." - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Wagner on Beethoven, Mozart:
"I believe in God, Mozart, and Beethoven." - Richard Wagner

Can you think of any? Share them here!

[Cerebral Classical]

Here are some:

Rossini on Mozart

He roused my admiration when I was young; he caused me to despair when I reached maturity; he is now the comfort of my old age.
- Gioachino Rossini

Dvorak on Mozart

Mozart is sunshine.
- Antonin Dvorak

Copland on Mozart

Mozart in his music was probably the most reasonable of the world's great composers. It is the happy balance between flight and control, between sensibility and self-discipline, simplicity and sophistication of style that is his particular province... Mozart tapped once again the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breath-taking rightness that has never since been duplicated.
- Aaron Copland

Beethoven on Haydn

Though I had some instruction from Haydn, I never learned anything from him.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven on Handel

He is the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

Mozart on Handel

Handel understands effect better than any of us -- when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Chopin on Liszt

When I think of Liszt as a creative artist, he appears before my eyes rouged, on stilts, and blowing into Jericho trumpets fortissimo and pianissimo.
- Frédéric Chopin

Beethoven on Bach

The immortal god of harmony.
- Ludwig van Beethoven


And here's me favorite from Tchaikovsky, obtained from:http://www.musicwithease.com/brahms-quotes.html

Tchaikovsky on Brahms
I have played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard!
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1886