Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Rank: 1 | My Play Count: 32659 | Scrobbled: 24720805 times | Total listeners: 1114779

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Photo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart; 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) is among the most significant and enduring popular composers of European classical music. His enormous output includes works that are widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire and are widely recognized as masterpieces of music.

Tags: classical instrumental composers classic piano

Antonio Vivaldi

Rank: 2 | My Play Count: 5588 | Scrobbled: 12979483 times | Total listeners: 794232

Antonio Vivaldi Photo

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was a Venetian composer in the baroque era. Vivaldi was born on 4th March 1678 in the Republic of Venice, today part of Italy; his father was Giovanni Battista, a baker before becoming a professional violinist, who taught his son to play violin. They subsequently toured Venice playing violin together. Vivaldi suffered from what was called "chest tightening" which might have been asthma; this did not, however, prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing and taking part in the prescribed musical activities.

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Johann Sebastian Bach

Rank: 3 | My Play Count: 4634 | Scrobbled: 25330957 times | Total listeners: 1028026

Johann Sebastian Bach Photo

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685, Eisenach, Germany – 28 July 1750, Leipzig, Germany) was better known as a virtuoso organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities of his compositional style still amaze musicians today.

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Ludwig van Beethoven

Rank: 4 | My Play Count: 3844 | Scrobbled: 20682330 times | Total listeners: 1393425

Ludwig van Beethoven Photo

Ludwig van Beethoven (16 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a composer of the transitional period between the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He was born in Bonn, Germany. Beethoven is widely regarded as one of the greatest masters of musical construction, sometimes sketching the architecture of a movement before he had decided upon the subject matter. He was one of the first composers to systematically and consistently use interlocking thematic devices, or “germ-motives”, to achieve unity between movements in long compositions.

Tags: classical instrumental composers classic romantic

Franz Joseph Haydn

Rank: 5 | My Play Count: 1584 | Scrobbled: 3920706 times | Total listeners: 473373

Franz Joseph Haydn Photo

Joseph Haydn (31 March or 1 April 1732–31 May 1809) was a leading of the period, called the "Father of the " and "Father of the ". The name "Franz" was not used in the composer's lifetime; scholars, along with an increasing number of music publishers and recording companies, now use the historically more accurate form of his name, rendered in English as "Joseph Haydn".

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Frédéric Chopin

Rank: 6 | My Play Count: 1121 | Scrobbled: 17905689 times | Total listeners: 792271

Frédéric Chopin Photo

Frédéric François Chopin (1810 –1849) is one of the most famous, influential, and admired composers and virtuoso pianists of the Romantic era. He was born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, of Polish and French parentage, on 1st March 1810 in the village of Żelazowa Wola, Poland. In Warsaw he was hailed as a child prodigy and as the "second Mozart" for his piano and composition skill, for which the composer Robert Schumann complimented the talented pianist: "Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!" Due to the political situation in Poland, he left his country for France at the age of twenty.

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Georg Friedrich Händel

Rank: 7 | My Play Count: 874 | Scrobbled: 5869286 times | Total listeners: 572162

Georg Friedrich Händel Photo

George Frideric Handel (as he was known after his change of nationality, as he signed himself, and as he is known in the English-speaking world) (23rd February 1685–14th April 1759) was a German/English composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas, and oratorios. Born Georg Friedrich Händel in Halle an der Saale (Germany), Handel lived most of his life in England, and became English by Act of Parliament in 1727.

Tags: classical baroque composers german instrumental

Magdalena Kožená

Rank: 8 | My Play Count: 743 | Scrobbled: 101868 times | Total listeners: 13047

Magdalena Kožená Photo

Magdalena Kožená (b. 1973) is a Czech mezzo-soprano. She was born in Brno in 1973. After having studied at the Brno Conservatoire and at the College of Performing Arts in Bratislava, she graduated in 1995. In 1996-97 she was a member of the Vienna Volksoper. Miss Kožená’s recordings include Bach arias, Handel’s Roman Motets and Italian Cantatas and “Messiah” with Marc Minkowski for DG/Archiv, and her first solo recital disc (Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů with Graham Johnson - Gramophone Solo Vocal Award, 2001) for Deutsche Grammophon, with whom she has signed an exclusive contract.

Tags: classical opera czech female vocalists mezzosoprano

Gabriel Fauré

Rank: 9 | My Play Count: 506 | Scrobbled: 1892732 times | Total listeners: 335801

Gabriel Fauré Photo

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, often seen as a transitional figure between the Romantic period and Impressionism. In contrast with his harmonic and melodic style, which pushed the bounds for his time, Fauré’s rhythmic motives tended to be subtle and repetitive, with little to break the flow of the line, although he did utilize subtle large scale syncopations, similar to those found in Brahms works. Aaron Copland referred to him as the ‘French Brahms’.

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Anna Netrebko

Rank: 10 | My Play Count: 409 | Scrobbled: 358661 times | Total listeners: 43693

Anna Netrebko Photo

The Russian soprano Anna Netrebko (born 18 September 1971) is a well-known opera singer. She is much admired for her sumptuous voice, her fine technique, and her great personal beauty. Netrebko was born in Krasnodar. She began her career washing floors at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre (home of the then Kirov Opera). There, she attracted the attention of conductor Valery Gergiev who became her vocal mentor.

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Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Rank: 11 | My Play Count: 389 | Scrobbled: 150698 times | Total listeners: 31395

Johann Nepomuk Hummel Photo

Johann Nepomuk Hummel or Jan Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 1778 – 17 October 1837) was a composer and virtuoso pianist of Austrian origin who was born in Bratislava (present-day Slovakia). His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era. Hummel was born in Pressburg (also known as Pozsony, in what was then Hungary but is now Bratislava), Slovakia. His father, Josef Hummel, was the director of the Imperial School of Military Music and the conductor of the Theater Orchestra.

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Chamber Choir of Europe

Rank: 12 | My Play Count: 316 | Scrobbled: 17372 times | Total listeners: 1505

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Rank: 13 | My Play Count: 274 | Scrobbled: 508309 times | Total listeners: 117556

Christoph Willibald Gluck Photo

Christoph Willibald (von) Gluck (2 July 1714 - 15 November 1787) was a German composer, one of the most important opera composers of the Classical music era, particularly remembered for Orfeo ed Euridice. Gluck's operatic reforms, eliminating all that was undramatic, were a turning point in the history of the medium. Gluck's musical legacy was around 35 complete operas, together with numerous ballets and instrumental works.

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Rank: 14 | My Play Count: 274 | Scrobbled: 7654390 times | Total listeners: 661509

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Photo

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайковский)(7th May 1840-6th November 1893; Old Style 25th April 1840–25th October 1893) was a Russian composer. He wrote some of the world's most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

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Herbert von Karajan

Rank: 15 | My Play Count: 269 | Scrobbled: 838037 times | Total listeners: 89681

Herbert von Karajan Photo

Herbert von Karajan (April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989) was a Greek-Austrian conductor. He was one of the most prominent conductors of the postwar period and is widely regarded as the world's most recorded conductor. Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for thirty-five years. Biography Karajan and the compact disc Karajan played an important role in the development of the original compact disc digital audio format. He championed this new consumer playback technology, lent his prestige to it, and appeared at the first press conference announcing the format.

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Johannes Brahms

Rank: 16 | My Play Count: 259 | Scrobbled: 4694942 times | Total listeners: 574507

Johannes Brahms Photo

Johannes Brahms (7th May 1833–3rd April 1897) was a composer of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Germany, he eventually settled in Vienna, Austria. Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including two serenades, four symphonies, two piano concertos, a Violin Concerto, a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and a pair of orchestral overtures, the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture.

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Ennio Morricone

Rank: 17 | My Play Count: 255 | Scrobbled: 15290501 times | Total listeners: 718462

Ennio Morricone Photo

Ennio Morricone (born 10 November 1928 in Rome) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series. Although only 30 of these are for Western films, it is for this work which he is best known. Morricone's sparse style of composition for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtracks of the classic spaghetti westerns The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) and Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968).

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Georg Philipp Telemann

Rank: 18 | My Play Count: 251 | Scrobbled: 1754054 times | Total listeners: 242175

Georg Philipp Telemann Photo

Georg Philipp Telemann (14th March 1681–25th June 1767) was a German Baroque composer, born in Magdeburg. Self-taught in music, he studied law at the University of Leipzig. The most prolific composer of his era, he was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach and a life-long friend of Georg Friedrich Händel. While in the present day Bach is generally thought of as the greater composer, Telemann was more widely renowned for his musical abilities during his lifetime.

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David Daniels

Rank: 19 | My Play Count: 226 | Scrobbled: 35139 times | Total listeners: 9947

David Daniels Photo

There appears to be two artists with the same name: See below I & II I. David Daniels (born 12 March 1966) is an American countertenor. Youth: Daniels was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the son of two singing teachers. He began to sing as a boy soprano, moving to tenor as his voice matured. His father, Perry Daniels, was one of the pre-eminent members of the performing faculty during each summer at Brevard Music Center, linked to the School of Music at Converse College in Spartanburg. He studied music at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

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Luciano Pavarotti

Rank: 20 | My Play Count: 209 | Scrobbled: 2371059 times | Total listeners: 252106

Luciano Pavarotti Photo

Luciano Pavarotti (12 October 1935 - 6 September 2007), an Italian tenor, was one of the most famous singers, not only in the world of , but across all genres. He was born in Modena to the family of a baker. After abandoning the dream to become a professional football goalkeeper, Pavarotti spent seven years in vocal training and began his career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy. He sang in houses in The Netherlands, Vienna, London, Ankara, Budapest and Barcelona.

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