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These forums are being phased out. The new, improved Favorite Composers & Recordings Forum is at classicalmusicforums.com.
Posted by Eric David Anderson on February 11, 19102 at 22:52:34:
Wagner was the composer who revolutionized musical expression, and pumped up it's emotional power to almost unbearable levels. If I had to pick "the greatest" I'd have to say Wagner. But many who followed in his shadow are also worthy of worship, and yet they've been ignored or mocked by modernist critics who hate anything that dares to be romantic. Most were contemporaries of the icons of verismo and expressionism--Puccini and Strauss. Among the verists (besides Puccini), I especially love Franco Alfano, Ottorino Respighi, and Riccardo Zandonai. Among the expressionists (other than Strauss) I can't get enough of Eugene d'Albert, Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Karol Szymanowsky, and Erich Korngold. All of these guys to a greater or lesser extent took the example of Wagner, combined it with impressionist and Straussian harmony, veristic lyricism and drama, and mixed them into an emotional witch's brew which can nearly drive a listener mad!! Try them--you'll like them....