Who's the Best Composer of All Time!? 

This battle would look very different if they were pianists instead of violinists

0:00 Wagner ride of the valkyries 0:28 Dvorak new world symphony 4th mvt 0:42 Bach Toccata and fugue 0:50 and 1:17 Debussy La Mer 1st mvt 2:30 Debussy Clair de lune 2:49 Bach air on the G string 3:05 Mozart symphony No.25 3:18 Mozart queen of the night aria 3:23 Chopin etude op.25 no.6 3:47 Mozart violin concerto no.3 4:05 Chopin ballade no.1 4:11 Mozart eine kleine nachtmusik 4:32 Mozart symphony No.41 4:51 Chopin etude op.10 no.4 4:59 Mozart symphony No.25 5:08 Paganini la campanella 5:18 Vivaldi summer 5:33 Vivaldi spring 5:36 (Brett’s singing) Paganini violin concerto no.1 5:42 Vivaldi autumn 6:14 Vivaldi winter 6:23 Shostakovich symphony no.5 6:38 rachmaninoff prelude op 23 no 5 6:50 Shostakovich 8th string quartet 7:35 Shostakovich symphony no.4 finale 7:46 Beethoven symphony No.5 1st mvt 7:59 Beethoven symphony no.9 (ode to joy) 8:35 Beethoven symphony no.6 1st mvt 8:50 Beethoven symphony no.4 finale 9:03 Schubert unfinished symphony 9:43 Brahms tragic overture 9:49 Tchaikovsky swan lake 9:56 Dvorak new world symphony 4th mvt 10:04 Bach prelude from cello suite no.1 10:15 Bach jesu joy of man's desiring 10:27 Shostakovich symphony no.11 2nd mvt 10:35 Beethoven symphony no.9 2nd mvt 11:09 Brahms violin concerto 1st mvt 11:40 Bach harpsichord concerto No.7 in g minor, BWV 1058 III.Allegro 11:47 Beethoven symphony no.8 finale 12:18 Bach double

I loved everything about this video but the casual dismissal of Rach and Chopin struck deep into my pianist's heart lol

TSV: Spends 80% of video on Bach vs. Debussy. Also TSV: Spends 1 second on Bach vs. Mozart.

If there were cellists doing this Bach would win automatically. Idea: maybe you guys can get a bunch of other musician friends to serve as the judges, and you each take turns trying to convince them who's better.

We forgot who the real best composer is Brett Yang. Notable pieces: Relaxing chill beats Lo-Fi to study Random horror movie piece I don't even know

I love how they started so formal, dividing compositional and overall skill to individuals, and halfway through they were tired of it.

„Bach composed for God. Mozart for the World. And Beethoven for freedom.“ -some famous person who I can’t remember

They made it sounds like a boxing match between composers LOL

10:46 Fun fact: Tchaikovsky once disliked Brahms as he thought his music was too formal and didn't have enough expression of emotion. However, after meeting Brahms in person and drank with him, he changed his opinion on his personality and thought he was a nice person, but remained disapproved on his music.

Here is the money I saved from not drinking bubble tea today lol This is for my tuition fee here at Twoset Academy! Thank you Prof Chen and Prof Yang, for lecturing me about these awesome composers and for lowering my consumption of bubble tea (too much sugar lah lol) And of course, for pushing me to practice!

I wouldn't have minded a 30 minute video 😅 The analysis you were doing at the beginning was fine and informative, I think you could have continued, especially for the finale! But it was a great video, as usual!

This is my favourite type of TwoSet content. Nerding about classical music and going in depth about why they rate things a certain way! It's just a pity this video is so short!

Beethoven himself said it best: "Nicht Bach, sondern Meer sollte er heißen." "Bach" is also the german word for a small river, so this roughly translates to "He shouldn't be called Stream, but Sea."

Chopin: Invents the mirror reprise in the Ballades, arguably the most critically acclaimed variation on sonata form in history Eddy: "I'm not that familiar with Chopin's form"

4:58 of course ,violinists. 7:38 of course ,violinists. 9:50 of course ,violinists. (Kinda agree though)

My pianist bias really showing😅 Justice for Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Liszt!

Well, after all he's a "master of polyphony, structure and tonality". You can even say he's "in a different league, you can't even touch him". I wonder, what would "Mozart vs Chopin" diss track would sound like...

Anyone else notice that Dvoark's 9th symphony started playing as background for the quarterfinals? Seems like a nod to Dvorak since he wasn't considered at all.

A push for the the piano gang here: can we just appreciate how the vast majority of the most well-known composers in classical music were pianists and/or significant composers for the piano (yes, keyboard for baroque composers? Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Mozart, Chopin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Schumann, Schönberg, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, …

When the third matchup is the Devil’s Violinist vs. literally a Catholic priest…

Props to Editor-san giving the whole video a pokémon-game vibe.

Shostakovich is my fave not only for the sheer drama but also because of the pettiness of this man, not releasing his 10th Symphony after the death of Stalin (albeit, it is said that he wrote it after Stalin’s death). He stood against Stalin and was denounced twice by the regime. I can feel the despair in this man. Breathtaking.

Where is Dvorak??

Bach is always our number 1, but I was so offended about Rachmaninoff lol, guys you should listen to that composer more. His harmonies, techniques and just overall music is astonishing and ingenious !

I'm recently listening to Vivaldi's 12 concertos and man I love ALL OF THEM!!! I know Vivaldi is famous but mostly because of his four seasons, and there are just many more of his work that the world should appreciate!!

Chopin was quite the master with forms. He explored a massive variety of forms, especially waltzes, mazurkas, etudes, polonaises, sonatas, concertos and scherzos. More about that last one - he basically pushed the definition of Scherzo beyond a simply small light jokey work.

Bach transcends his time and frankly classical music like no other before or after him.

Eyyy notif gang. Also, IM STILL IN LOVE WITH THE SET UP

Me as a Pianist, really love Chopin. For me, he’ll always be the number one of all time. His music is not just technically challenging but also musically really challenging. I am absolutely sure, that if they were pianists, they’ll appreciate Chopin more as well. Also, I actually think, that they forgot Mendelssohn… I just love his music.

Loved this video but Haydn over Brahms. Haydn was the mentor to Beethoven AND Mozart. He essentially created the standard for string quartets and was a master of form for future generations of composers. A very tough decision between Bach and Beethoven but I would put Beethoven as the winner. To do what he did musically while deaf is beyond my imagination. A true genius and phenomenal composer.

Mozart always makes me feel happy and at ease. Even if his pieces weren’t the most complex or dramatic, to me they all have this perfect quality to them. Maybe other composers were capable of more, but Mozart didn’t even need more. And that is why he is the best in my book.

Beethoven definitely would have won for me, but this was a lot of fun to watch. As others have mentioned, you should repeat this but with specific subgenres (symphony, concertos, piano, violin, etc) or with musicians who play different instruments!

I think they should do this in a poll, so that twosetters and the audience will a contribution and interaction with the votes... The real winner should be decided through a vote!!

as a harpsichord player, i'm really happy that you guys chose Bach. he is my favourite composer and i really enjoy playing his music. :)

Brett choosing Shostakovich & Mozart, Eddy choosing Bach & finding ways to praise Paganini.....this video is the origin story of B2TSM.

This being TwoSet, I knew that Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt wouldn't stand a chance in this :) But, Bach rules! His chamber music, the Brandenburg concertos, and the Italian concerto, ... I can listen to them forever!

That's pretty sad that people only see in Rachmaninoff a good pianist, but they don't care of his outstanding symphonies and concertos

"Mozart is the incarnation of music." Joseph Haydn "If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity." "The fact that most people do not understand and respect the very best things, such as Mozart's concertos, is what permits men like us to become famous." Johannes Brahms "I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death." Ludwig van Beethoven "Mozart is sweet sunshine." Antonin Dvorak "Oh Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how infinitely many inspiring suggestions of a finer, better life you have left in our souls!" Franz Schubert "Does it not seem as if Mozart's works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them?" Robert Schumann "Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music." "Mozart is the musical Christ." Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky "Give Mozart a fairy tale and he creates without effort an immortal masterpiece." Camille Saint-Saens "Mozart's music is particularly difficult to perform. His admirable clarity exacts absolute cleanness: the slightest mistake in it stands out like black on white. It is music in which all the notes must be heard." Gabriel Faure "I believe in God, Mozart, and Beethoven." "Certain things in Mozart will and can never be excelled." "The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters, in all centuries and in all the arts." Richard Wagner "The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective ... Listen to the remarkable expansion of a Mozart melody, to Cherubino's 'Voi che sapete', for instance. You think it is coming to an end, but it goes farther, even farther." Richard Strauss "I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And I am proud of it!" Arnold Schoenberg "Play Mozart in memory of me." "Mozart encompasses the entire domain of musical creation, but I've got only the keyboard in my poor head." Frederic Chopin "In Bach, Beethoven and Wagner we admire principally the depth and energy of the human mind; in Mozart, the divine instinct." Edvard Grieg "Beethoven I take twice a week, Haydn four times, and Mozart every day." "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the only musician who had as much knowledge as genius, and as much genius as knowledge." Gioachino Rossini "Mozart, prodigal heaven gave thee everything, grace and strength, abundance and moderation, perfect equilibrium." Charles Gounod (copied from a comment in Inside The Score's "Why is Mozart a Genius? Part 2")

The thing about Bach is that the harmony and poliphony are so modern in a way, that musicians of all styles can enjoy playing his music. His music can be played staccato, rubato, using pedals or none, if you just manage to hear clearly the harmonies and voicings, it's simply outstanding. Probably most other composers are more constricted to their time and style. So Bach has a HUGE advantage over all other musicians regardless of their style and taste. Just messing around with his pieces amd then messing around and improvising is just pure joy to me.

Brett never forgets to say "Don't forget to practice". And it is unusual to watch your video from the new studio.

Bach can definitely be dramatic and very expressive. I’d reccomend listening to the St. Matthew Passion which is his greatest work. It is very introspective and heavy but easing at the same time. For a work a bit easier to get into I’d reccomend the St. John Passion which is a bit more dramatic than the St. Matthew. Also his Mass in B minor is great and he has about a 100 other great cantatas, organ works and concertos which are top level. If you’re interested, go to the Netherland’s Bach Societys channel. They have ad-less periodically accure presentations of many of Bach’s repetoire and a lot of informative videos about baroque music and intruments in general.

As always, Twoset (and the comments!) leave me hungry for great performances of wonderful classical pieces. I spend the night chasing down great Mozart arias, Beethoven quartets, Mahler symphonies, Brahms Lieder. Always an inspiration.

For me Beethoven is the best, he changed music forever, I know Bach is like the one who found the bases for music but Beethoven was a revolution…

Because of this video, I can imagine all of these composers just fighting with their pieces as powers

If you can battle slowly, you can battle quickly

@11:02 Thumbs up for playing the violin.

I just discovered this channel yesterday and Ive been binge watching for 24 hours. These two guys are natural presenters. Im not a musician but I thoroughly enjoy this content. The channel is creative and informative and the hosts are quite funny, very personable and entertaining to watch. I understand they're pretty good violinists, too.

You should do this for specific pieces in different genres of music! Like the battle of the Sibelius violin concert vs Tchaikovsky violin concerto;) I had fun watching, thanks for posting!

Nah we all know Brett is the best composer. I mean, look at all the shit he's made man. Fucking masterpieces.

As a pianist, I love love love playing Chopin, but I would've chosen Mozart too

Hello TwoSet Thank you for your videos. It has inspired me to learn to play violin. I promise to practice 40 hours a day. Hope to share myself playing a piece by the year end. Kudos, keep up the good work

I love how Brett and Eddy agreed on almost every point even though they were mostly subjective decisions:)

As Russian, I feel really proud seeing two Russian composers in the semi-final. I mean, we all have already known who will be in the final so I feel like it's a big deal to see Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky go so far🥰

JSB totally... and I'm a non musician... my very earliest memory of music is Bach. It has a kind of easy "order"(if that's the word) that makes it somehow very complete and yet also oddly infinite. Please do some more of these.

Well, i really disagreed that putting Shostakvich over Rachmaninoff though. Rachmaninoff's harmonies and probably the most impressive and sophisticated one in music history probably and his concertos and symphonies really proved that how good is his orchestration

The twoset mastermind *Jordon He* deserves more appreciation can I just say.

Upload a Monday? What a wonderful way to start my week before uni

Rachmaninov makes me feel a way I can’t describe with words, maybe I’m biased but his 3 concerti give me chills every time I listen to them

This is a cool format. You could do this with different categories Like violinists or pieces by specific composers

Bach composed so much, with so much complexity, he created so much from scratch and his music works in all instruments. He is the king.

Hi TwoSet, i'm 11 years old and i recently got interested on learning the violin and you both were a great inspiration for me! Thank you a lot! (Sorry for spelling mistakes, i'm not a native english speaker)

I knew who would win as soon as I saw the thumbnail! But I just had to watch anyway just for the enjoyment of it. Great video guys, loved the storytelling and commentary on why you made your choices.

Where’s Dvorak, Mendelsohn??!

OMG didn't expect a vid on Monday!!! Thank you so much!!! But I really wish u guys wouldn't worry about the video getting too long as we love to hear you nerd about classical music! And it's very bold of editor-san to use New World Symphony when Dvorak's not even on the list (sorry he's my favorite)

Bach wasn't popular in his lifetime, it was over 50 years after his death until most of his works were even published. It would be an interesting exercise to see what composers were actually more famous after they died compared to those popular during their lifetimes.

Felt like I just had a buffet of composers served up to me - this video is such a treat😍 Love Twoset’s nerdy music content!

I am very new to classical music, and so found the stylistic comparisons between the composers at the beginning of the video very helpful. I was a bit sad when the decision was made to cut the better part of this analysis for brevity's sake...'Cause "everybody" already knows this. Speaking as an ulta-elite member of the unwashed, ignorant masses of "nobodies", we most definitely do not! Love your content and looking forward to learning much more!

It’s actually very interesting that the top composers that came after Bach always paid tribute to him in their pieces. His genius in musical composition is truly unmatched.

Lol I won free tickets to see the Houston Symphony and I gave them as a gift to my parents for Mother’s Day, and when they came home from the concert, my mom told me, “You should get a degree in music, then try out for the Houston Symphony, or at least try out for the understudy.” 🤦🏽‍♀️ I’m never gonna give them free tickets again 😂

As a pianist and Twosetter (who admits her biases lol), this hurt my soul a bit. I played both classical piano and violin growing up (but was much worse on violin lol), and I HAVE to 1000000% choose Liszt over Tchaikovsky. Same with Chopin over Mozart for me; also, clearly also Rach over Shosty… honestly, Rach over everyone, imho. However, this is where I note that I recognize I’m def a better pianist (am a pro studio/touring keys player now and write classical crossover compositions) and was a subpar high school violinist at best / don’t even play violin anymore, so my choices are partially reflective of my instrument bias. I’m also a sucker for Romantic-era melodies, harmonies, and chord progressions, they’re just SO moving and beautiful to me and I have a ton of nostalgia tied to many Romantic-era compositions. That said, I do agree with their assessment of choosing polyphony-king Bach over Debussy (despite my romantic-era composer love); I’m also a sucker for the Bach Double… BUT Bach v Beethoven?! Easily Beethoven for me. Bro went DEAF and continued composing epic symphonies. (Also biased here bc I took a Beethoven class towards my music minor back in college and it was my fav class ever; learning how petty Beethoven could be -eg. Fur Elise - gave him points for me too, LOL). Interesting concept of comparing such varied composers though …and nice background :)

Editor-san was on point with the background music! Every new piece was just *chef's kiss*. Also, am I the only one who finds the 1st movement of Mozart Symphony no. 25 haunting?

*_Honorable Mention: Jordon He, the genius composer_*

I love the way the guys broke down each category so it was a fair comparison. They didn't just choose their favourite composers each round, and it surprised me which composers got picked. Keep up the good work!

This video single-handedly broke my heart and pride as a pianist, but deep down in my musicians soul I know that you are right; Bach for sure.

I’m biased because I was a ballet dancer. I just love the composers of the original classical ballets. (Mainly because it brings back fond memories I guess.)

Got goosebumps when Eddy said: "Shostakovich had better command of Harmony."

i would watch the one hour version of this duel with detailed breakdown for sure owo

Seems like being enjoyable is a death sentence in this battle.

Who else noticed that so often the composer who wins "enjoyment" loses the match? You should think about that. After all, the most important part of making good music is enjoying the final result. Not good form, not technicalities.

I love how they played dvorak new world in the background during 10:00 and 11:36 and 11:53 when dvorak wasn’t even part of the brackets

I think they should do a contest between composers of the same period or nationality (baroque, classical, romantic. french, etc...). Because all of the composers were so different, it wasn't really fair.

As a pianist, I am so sad to see some of the pianist composters just destroyed, especially Liszt

These guys are fabulous

They are judging the composers but hey "... don't judge us...". I love it😁

I say this as fondly as possible, but you're such violinists! Haydn, yes, "did write a bunch of symphonies" and "some nice quartets", but as a choir singer, I love him especially for his great choral works, his masses and oratorios. (Also, even apart from his quartets, his chamber music is lovely and he wrote a couple of great concertos for solo instruments that are not the violin) I'm not even dissing on Brahms, he actually also wrote great things for vocalists and his chamber music is beautiful (although for chamber music specifically, I prefer Haydn by a lot!), but there's more to music than iconic violin concertos and epic symphonies. I'd genuinely love to know the music-related reasons behind why you immediately went "Brahms, definitely" instead of Haydn, or at least why it wasn't even a question - side note: your videos can never be too long, especially when you go into detail on your opinions about music, that's always so interesting and educational even if I don't always agree - because it was obvious even before this video that when it comes to which kind of music you personally prefer and enjoy playing or listening to, Haydn would always lose to Brahms, but in this video, you weren't really going for personal preference (I mean, you eliminated Debussy in the first round!)

There's more to Saint-Saëns than just Carnival of the animals. Check out his symphonies, piano concertos, organ works and many more pieces u haven't even bothered to discover.

I usually play the harmonica and guitar. After watching 2set for so long. I finally brought my first violin. It's just a cheap violin, about USD 80. The strings are quite old right out of the box. When tuning it, as expected I broke the first string. So I brought a new set of strings. Feeling quite proud to be able to string it up nicely. I must say it's a lot harder to string comparing to a guitar.

For me, it will always be Beethoven as my top favorite. His iconic music pieces and tragic life story will always make the listener tearful..I'm a hopeless romantic, so Beethoven will always win in my heart. Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff will also be some of my top faves.

Mahler would've made it higher had he not been paired with Beethoven

The introductions were everything 🔥

Mussorgsky and Samuel Barber are two of my favourites. But no1 Bach, especially his organ works.

And the first prize for the greatest violin youtuber who expanded my knowledge of classical music goes to the twosetviolin👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

thank you guys !! you inspired me to play piano 4 years ago and i was practice 2 hours every day till now :D

10:55 Is that Brett being cheeky? He's secretly very funny when sarcastic

Now I'm definitely pulling out the Brandenburg Concertos for practice later. ❤ Bach is hands down my favorite composer of all time, but that doesn't mean that everyone else can't come in second place! Brett and Eddy are spot on when they say we need all of the colors of the different composers. Except Beethoven. 😅🤣 I feel like listening to Beethoven is like reading endless run-on sentences. He's got more excruciating detail than Tolkien, and writes it twice as long. We get the picture already, dude! ::Prepares for the angry Beethoven fans:: 😅

As soon as you see Bach on the list, the winner is obvious! I feel like Haendel, Mendelssohn, or Palestrina could have made one of the brackets though.

the way we all watched a 13 minute video knowing the winner would be bach all along

Absolute hat's off to editor-san. That captioning for each round *chef's kiss*

I wish Mahler wasn’t matched with Beethoven , he really should have been in the quarter finals. Any of his symphonies can easily be too 3, he really takes the listener on a colorful yet dark trip