Oh, my, this could be a good debate. But lest anyone resort to fisticuffs, I might offer the following.
The top tier - so far above all the others it is incredible - are Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.
I think how you rank those three if you want to get into nuances is almost a subjective opinion. Sort of a preference for what you value as a great composer.
Hashing this out is good and fun, but, I would suggest, that absolute reconciliation is not going to happen because the big 3 are all wildly great in their own ways...an objective ranking which should be universally agreed upon is impossible.
That said, I would reiterate that objectively, you must have the big 3 at the top. Then you have a pretty big jump down to number 4....as for me, I think I will focus on the big 3 for the rest of my life. That is a lifetime's work, really.
Just for the record, I put Bach at the top, followed by WA and then Ludgig Van. In my book, the guy who composed to the Glory of God and who fathered 20 kids (most of whom died) is simply one of the greatest men who ever lived.
His cantata productin in Leipzig is one of the most unbeleivable explosions of creativity in a short time period inthe history of art in the west. I think the author comparing it to Shakespeare doesn't quite do it justice....
I also don't agree when the author describes the music as "forward looking stoicism". For me, I hear joy...pure joy. I guess the fugues sort of sound like forward looking stoicism, but the rest of it is pure joy. Mozart is more like...play. Beethoven, good heavens, what can one say?
Well said. Bach, Beethoven and Mozart comprise over 80% of my classical collection. I could spend a lifetime exploring their works alone. The other composers aren't even in the same league. That's not to disparage them, just an indication of the brilliance of these three.
There is a second tier of composers who are also sort of "in their own league" and I would definitely put in that tier Handel, Monteverdi, Haydn, Wagner, Verdi, Mendolssohn, Mahler, Schubert, and perhaps even Vivaldi and Telemann. Arguments could be made for a few others to join this select group as well.
The composers listed above have thousands of compositions between them. A vast ocean of music that one could not possibly have time to discover in just one lifetime. So I'm hoping heaven has an extensive music library with a good set of headphones!