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Roll Over Beethoven, Survey Picks Brahms

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You are exiled to the proverbial desert island and may take only a few works by your favorite composers. Forced to choose, would you pick Brahms? Bach? Mozart?

These three composers--with Beethoven close behind--garnered the most top picks in an informal survey of musicians conducted by Stephen Shelton of North Hollywood.

“It started out as a parlor game, really,” said Shelton, a retired financial officer and former bass with the William Hall Chorale. But what began as a lark became a three-year project involving the surveying of more than 100 local musicians, composers, conductors, vocalists and teachers.

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“The big surprise is that Tchaikovsky is not first on anyone’s list,” Shelton said. “I asked one person why he didn’t name Tchaikovsky at all and he said: ‘He’s a lightweight.’ But with this person, well, (Alban) Berg was one of his favorites and some people would go out of their way to avoid a concert of Berg.”

For those who want to try this at home, the rules are simple: First pick your top 15 or 20 favorite composers--not those you feel are “important” but those whose music most affects you. (A composer may not qualify for the list unless several compositions can be named.)

Once the top names are selected, assign a point value to each choice. First place is worth 13 points, 12 points are given for second place and so on through honorable mentions, worth one point each.

Shelton’s results: Out of 104 composers, Bach was chosen most frequently as the No. 1 favorite. But when Shelton tabulated the weighted scores, Brahms bumped Bach to No. 2, followed by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Debussy, Tchaikovsky and Handel.

Shelton admits that the results of the survey are completely subjective--more a musical Rorschach test for individuals than an accurate analysis of the most popular composers.

When Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John La Montaine was surveyed, he insisted that Bach occupy every one of his Top 10 slots, calling him the “greatest adventurer of all composers.”

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“He wrote in E-sharp minor,” La Montaine said. “I mean, who would have thought of that?”

But Nick Stremple, music director of Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, didn’t list Bach in his Top 10. “I have to be in a very special mood to listen to Bach,” Stremple said. He ranks Beethoven as the “the most fulfilling composer.”

James Low, a Mozart and Bach fan and former regional and district judge for the Metropolitan Opera auditions, blames Beethoven for the end of “purity and perfection” in classical music, asserting that since his time compositions have been increasingly “cluttered up with dead weight.”

“Beethoven brought music into the realm of human passion at the expense of the high level of spirit where Bach and Mozart dwell,” Low said.

To participate in Shelton’s composer survey or for more information: 4022 92nd Ave. S.E., Mercer Island, Wash. 98040, or call (206) 232-7780.

NOTES: American Ballet Theatre will celebrate its 50th anniversary at the Metropolitan Opera Jan. 14, with a gala performance featuring ABT principal dancers and guest appearances by stars from the first half century including Gelsey Kirkland, Fernando Bujones, Twyla Tharp, Natalia Makarova, Alicia Alonso, Agnes de Mille, Eliot Feld and Jerome Robbins. A notable name missing from this cast: former artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov, who had widely reported clashes with both Kirkland and Bujones. The program, conceived and directed by Tony award-winner Michael Smuin, an ABT principal dancer from 1966-73, will include rare film footage as well as live performances of portions of more than 30 ballets from the repertoire. The U.S. tour of the Peking Acrobats has been canceled due to “the current political situation” in China. The troupe, scheduled to perform at El Camino College on Jan. 31, has been replaced by the Soviet Acrobatic Revue. . . . The San Francisco Symphony 1990 European Festival tour will include concerts in Dresden, Leipzig and East Berlin, making the symphony the first U.S. orchestra to schedule performances in East Germany since border restrictions were lifted. Music Director Herbert Blomstedt, led the Dresden Staatskapelle for 10 years before his appointment to the SFS, announced 10 additional concerts including the East German dates. Other newly added appearances include concerts in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne and London. . . .

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