He is probably well known for his Dramatic expressions and lush Phrases.

His well known Symphonies are, but not limited to. ALL are well known, but the most popular ones are 2, 4, 5 and 6. 1 and 3 are not neglected but they are near this. All three of his Piano Concertos are a right goer. 2 and 3 being my Favourite. 1st Piano Concerto being the most Popular.

As far as Operas go, give Mazepa a listen you will never hear anything as great as this. Iolanta is great, Eugene Onegin is better. Queen of Spades is awesome.

His Ballets are incredible, having just performed Nutcracker a month ago is the most over-performed of the 3. Swan Lake is fantastic (which I’m performing in less than 3 months) Sleeping Beauty is to die for.

As far as String Quartets go his are neglected. His Tone Poemes are thru the Roof.

And a very well Cantata called ‘Moscow” is very neat.

Francesca di Rimini is a good Tone Poeme.

So before you actually post something you have no experience in revisit your facts.

And as far as John Williams is considered Film Scores would not be as it is today if it wasn’t for our friend Erich Wolfgang Korngold. He is the one who has shaped Film Scores. John Williams has purged so much music in his own from so Many Composer.

These are yes, incredible composers but I feel they are and nor will be worthy as true composers.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mick? These are not the “Top 10 Composers.” As the title says, these are the “Top 10 RICHEST Composers.” Big difference there.

While this has been found to be true of many successful film composers, it has found to not be true of John Williams, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann. But classical critics usually don’t bother to find out, they just disapprove of these widespread practices in film music enough to paint all film composers with the same broad brush.

Also, a similarity does not equal a ripoff. You know that everything written is similar to something else. I personally never heard the Holst in Star Wars (maybe any kind of symphonic military rhythms in space in 1977 were seen as a reference to Holst), but Williams has made obvious references to other composers. But if a reference is a ripoff, I don’t think any composer has a clean record. One CAN write a Tchaikovsky-esque Christmas piece, and STILL be writing original music in their own voice, and those focusing only on those kinds of examples by Williams are really ignoring how original and unique his voice is as a composer.

John Williams writes beautiful music, no doubt about it. However, when his music is compared to the academic structure of pieces by composers like Machaut, Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Debussy and Shostakovich, his music doesn’t come close to being as great.

I agree that his music is and can be extremely difficult…but that doesn’t mean it’s well written music. There are pieces of music that Mozart wrote that are WAY easier to perform than the Imperial March, but are WAY more intellectually composed.

Having said that, I think John Williams does a great job with his movie scores. The themes are beautiful and memorable, and there’s something to be said for that. But he hasn’t done anything innovative enough to be remembered for more than writing music to accompany a movie.

The only thing remotely intellectually interesting that I can remember Williams doing is overlaying Short Rounds theme over the Raiders March in the end credits of the Temple of Doom. However, that’s nothing new to the music world. If you could provide any other examples in his music I;d be very interested in seeing that.

The converse is also true; how much of he music we currently consider “classical” was actually “popular” in its day?

Granted the mechanism of popular music distribution were not available to Haydn. But his music was published (and pirated) all over Europe. When he went on “tour” to Paris and London he was ecstatically received.

In music, the term classical has many meanings, but broadly speaking it is either,

A. Music composed between 1750 and 1825ish. or..

B. Not pop. Or more specifically, music that is preserved through the medium of musical notation.

The danger of this kind of discourse is that it tends to confuse quality with intent. “Classical” does not mean “good”, it is a style capable of being outstandingly good (much but no all of Mozart), or downright awful (Galuppi Sinfonia in D anyone?).

Time tends to sift the Galuppis of this world to the bottom and brings the best bits of Mozart to the top. This is an ongoing process, therefore we will know if Williams is classical in about 80 or 90 years.

It can be argued that Williams is not classical for the same reason The Beatles or Miles Davis or Duke Ellington are not classical: all of this music is primarily preserved in recorded form. The definitive rendition exist in recorded format, rather than in an idealized abstract form – the score. The great strength of classical music is that is music designed to be recreated, the perfect rendition does not, and will never, exist. This is not true Williams”, The beatles or Duke Ellington.

As for John Williams…I’m proud to be ignorant enough to feel the incomparable thrill of hearing a John Willams piece. I mean, I’m far more a movie buff than a classical composer buff, but…hey, if Williams samples other folks melodies, he’s got great taste. I think it’s a little shallow to call his music “beginner”…even the most seasoned musician might still sit up in his seat upon hearing the first blasts of the trumpet section in “Star Wars: Main Title” and feel a swell of emotion when the rest of the orchestra joins them.

Besides that, this isn’t a list of the best classical composers, just the most financially sucessful…I’d say Williams is as classical as Gershwin, certainly.