Did You Hear What I Heard, 2012

As a year-in-review exercise, Mark Berry at Boulezian recently counted what music he had heard in the past year, ordered by composer. The results were interesting, in a cross-section of the classical music world sort of way, so here is the same tabulation for my listening in 2012 -- with concerts and operas considered together (plus dance, if the music was performed live) , just my reviews, in Washington and elsewhere. If a performance featured at least one piece by a composer (not including encores), that composer scored a point.

The process of making the tabulation was tedious, but it did reveal some interesting things. I had assumed most of these things were true, but here it is in cold, hard data. First, many thanks to all of the musicians in Washington and those who visit Washington, for feeding me an extensive and varied diet of music. The numbers give me an awareness of just how well nourished I am. Classical composers fared the best in my year, with Ludwig van Beethoven (23) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (19) leading the pack, backed up by Joseph Haydn (10). After that, again no surprise, were the Romantics, led by Franz Schubert (15), Johannes Brahms (11), and Frédéric Chopin (10), with representation from Robert Schumann (6), Antonín Dvořák (6), Franz Liszt (5), Pyotr Tchaikovsky (4), Richard Wagner (3), Felix Mendelssohn (3), Georges Bizet (3), Anton Bruckner (3), Gabriel Fauré (3), Camille Saint-Saëns (3), Giuseppe Verdi (2), César Franck (2), Jules Massenet (2), Vincenzo Bellini (2), Jean Sibelius (2), and Bedřich Smetana (2).

Baroque composers were next in line, led by J. S. Bach (15) and George Frideric Handel (7), with Antonio Vivaldi (3), Georg Philip Telemann (2), François Couperin (2), Louis Couperin (2), and Domenico Scarlatti (2) in the mix. Composers of the 20th century were at the end of the list as far as individual popularity, but there were strong showings from Richard Strauss (11), Béla Bartók (8), Claude Debussy (8), Dmitri Shostakovich (7), Maurice Ravel (7), and Igor Stravinsky (7). A centenary festival pushed the dark horse John Cage (5) up even with Sergei Rachmaninoff (5) and beyond Benjamin Britten (4), with smaller showings from Samuel Barber (3), Philip Glass (3), Leoš Janáček (3), Sergei Prokofiev (3), Henry Cowell (2), Charles Ives (2), Lori Laitman (2), György Ligeti (2), Roger Reynolds (2), and Kurt Weill (2). I believe that what they call the honor roll of composers above, with a few exceptions, is a classical canon.

No less striking to me was the vast array of composers whose music I heard on at least one concert program during 2012, rounding out a list of 204 names (!) in all. They range from the very prolific and generally quite venerable Anonymous up to babes in arms like Sean Shepherd (b. 1979). They are listed below in alphabetical order. The worst omission, and it is shocking, is that I apparently heard not a single work by Gustav Mahler.

Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco Carl Friedrich Abel Adolphe Adam Thomas Adès Isaac Albéniz Jean-Henri d'Anglebert Steve Antosca Robert Ashley Claude-Bénigne Balbastre Francisco Barbieri Alban Berg Irving Berlin Hector Berlioz Leonard Bernstein Oscar Bianchi Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber Chester Biscardi Ernest Bloch Roger Boutry Frank Brickle Lew Brown Ferruccio Busoni William Byrd Thomas Campion André Campra Pablo Casals Alfredo Catalani Jehan Chardavoine Marc-Antoine Charpentier Ernest Chausson Carlos Chávez Frederic Chopin Johannes de Ciconia Francesco Cilea David Claman Anna Clyne Aaron Copland Arcangelo Corelli Armand-Louis Couperin Céleste-Thérèse Couperin George Crumb Mario Davidovsky Jon Deak Léo Delibes Josquin Desprez Gaetano Donizetti John Dowland Henri Duparc Jacques Duphly Marcel Dupré Maurice Duruflé Jan Ladislav Dussek Henri Dutilleux Rinde Eckert Edward Elgar Gerald Finzi Diarmid Flatley Carlisle Floyd Antoine Forqueray David Fulmer Francesco Geminiani George Gershwin Detlev Glanert Alexander Glazunov Osvaldo Golijov Charles Gounod Charles Griffes Georg Friedrich Haas Reynaldo Hahn Jake Heggie Ray Henderson Ferdinand Hérold Hildegard von Bingen Peter Hilliard Anthony Holborne Tobias Hume Engelbert Humperdinck Jacques Ibert Carl Jacobi

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre Leon Kirchner Zoltán Kodály Dina Koston Fritz Kreisler Friedrich Kuhlau David Lang Ana Lara Ramon Lazkano Sébastien Le Camus James Legg David Leisner Fred Lerdahl George Lewis Peter Lieberson Jean-Baptiste Lully Witold Lutosławski Charles Macdowell Guillaume de Machaut Steven Mackey Louis Marchand Pietro Mascagni Missy Mazzoli Mediolano Harold Meltzer Olivier Messiaen Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny Claudio Monteverdi Paul Moravec Moritz Moszkowski John Musto Michael Oberhauser Mark O'Connor Julián Orbón Niccolò Paganini Giovanni Paisiello Giovanni da Palestrina Arvo Pärt Thomas Pasatieri Scott Perkins Douglas Pew Amilcare Ponchielli David Popper Cole Porter Francis Poulenc Giacomo Puccini Henry Purcell Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Féry Rebel Licinio Refice Ottorino Respighi Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Ned Rorem Gioachino Rossini Albert Roussel Giovanni Battista Sammartini Giuseppe Sammartini Ahmet Saygun Arnold Schoenberg Gustav Schreck Sean Shepherd Adam Sherkin Stephen Sondheim Gaspare Spontini Johann Strauss, Jr. Josef Suk Jacob Sundstrom Jenő Takács Ambroise Thomas Paolo Tosti Jan Václav Voříšek Liam Wade Carl Maria von Weber Jörg Widmann Randall Woolf Carolyn Yarnell Eugène Ysaÿe Efrem Zimbalist