The Musical Tastes of Great Composers

J. S. Bach held Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Friedrich Fasch, and Jan Zelenka in particularly high esteem. Haydn appreciated Adalbert Gyrowetz and C. P. E. Bach.

Mozart thought highly of Joseph Eybler, Johann Schobert (ca. 1720–1767), and Jiří Antonín Benda (1722–1795). Beethoven held Luigi Cherubini in the highest regard (considering his *Requiem* superior to Mozart’s) and was also very fond of the music of Muzio Clementi.

Schumann, too, admired Luigi Cherubini—something noteworthy, since Robert was usually not generous in his judgments of Italian composers, among them Donizetti. Yet was Cherubini truly “Italian,” or rather French, as Lully was, or English, as Handel and Clementi eventually became?

Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Liszt also admired Karl Reinecke. Rossini held Simon Mayr in high regard. Berlioz, Verdi, and Liszt considered Meyerbeer’s *Les Huguenots* a genuine masterpiece—though Schumann did not: he rejected it entirely and, among other things, described Meyerbeer as “the most cunning of composers.” Yet during the twentieth century the opera largely disappeared from the repertory.

It is well known that Schumann, Berlioz, and Liszt were enthusiastic admirers of Paganini. Wagner was captivated by hearing a quintet by Sgambati in Rome, and the Parisian public reacted similarly at the Exposition of 1878.

Evidently our present tastes are not entirely in tune with those of the figures we regard as “great composers.” Were they perhaps great composers but poor judges of the music of others? The question invites serious consideration.