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Top 20 Most Performed Composers

Here, in the order they have been most played in the US and Canada in 2009-10, are the composers performed most frequently by symphony orchestras. How many can you name?
The top 75 composers, listed in alphabetical order, can be guessed at Composers Performed Most Often
Quiz by TenThousand
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Last updated: December 10, 2019
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First submittedJuly 13, 2014
Times taken26,320
Average score40.0%
Rating4.07
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#
Nationality
Composer
226
German
Ludwig van Beethoven
219
Austrian
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
128
Russian
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
115
German
Johannes Brahms
75
Russian
Igor Stravinsky
72
German
Richard Strauss
64
German
Felix Mendelssohn
61
Austrian
Joseph Haydn
61
Czech
Antonín Dvořák
57
Finnish
Jean Sibelius
#
Nationality
Composer
57
French
Maurice Ravel
56
Russian
Sergei Rachmaninoff
48
American
Samuel Barber
48
Russian
Sergei Prokofiev
48
Italian
Antonio Vivaldi
47
American
Aaron Copland
47
German
Richard Wagner
46
Russian
Dmitri Shostakovich
44
Bohemian
Gustav Mahler
42
German / British
George Frideric Handel
+4
Level 63
Jul 13, 2014
What is your source for this? Is this just orchestral performances? Impossible that the numbers are so low, if this is supposed to be all performances in the US and Canada!
+1
Level 76
Oct 26, 2014
It's all of the orchestras who participated in this survey.
+2
Level 76
Jan 21, 2015
Have added a quiz of Top 20 Most Performed Opera Composers - only five names appear in both quizzes.
+1
Level 57
May 6, 2015
Thats interesting. BTW this year - 2015 - is 150 years since the first birthday of Jean Sibelius. There will probably be more of his concerts this year than in an average year.
+1
Level 89
Oct 8, 2018
In other words he's 151 like rum.
+9
Level 67
Jul 14, 2014
Surprised not to see Bach. Or Wagner. Or Puccini.
+2
Level 76
Oct 26, 2014
Comparing this quiz with.Composers Performed Most Often gives some interesting results. They show that we quiztakers collectively expect that the 20 most performed composers would include six who did not make the list - Bach, Verdi, Chopin, Schubert, Debussy, and Puccini. The corresponding six who we do not expect would be played more often, but actually are, are Mahler, Barber, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Copland. This might be useful information for orchestral program directors.
+13
Level 74
Nov 18, 2016
Nobody expects the Russian composition!
+1
Level 76
Nov 18, 2016
Cue this quiz...
+6
Level 90
Nov 15, 2014
If it is a survey or orchestras and what they perform(ed), makes sense Bach isn't listed because Bach isn't really orchestral music. Chamber Orchestra, yes, but 'full orchestra', no.
+5
Level 63
Nov 15, 2014
Exactly. Symphony orchestras don't play Bach, because his music is scored for much smaller forces. Puccini wrote operas - same goes for Verdi, with the exception of his Requiem, which orchestras play rarely because of the huge forces involved. Chopin only has two piano concerti in the orchestra rep, and they aren't played frequently. For Schubert to be missing is a shame, but only a couple of his 9 symphonies are popular and therefore scheduled. Same with Debussy. Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov have eternally popular symphonic and concerto repertoire, which is why they're on there. I suspect that because the instructions don't specify that this is orchestral performances only, people are just guessing famous Classical composers in general
+1
Level 76
Nov 15, 2014
Fair enough - we've updated the instructions to reference symphony orchestras.
+1
Level 59
Sep 25, 2020
Bach, and baroque music in general, is also less expressive and free-flowing, with more notes. Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Tchaikovsky all had much more musically demanding but technically less demanding music. Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Prokofiev also wrote popular violin concertos. Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Shostakovich, Dvořak, Haydn and Tchaikovsky had popular symphonies, while Wagner, Stravinsky and Strauss had famous operas. Bach has some famous concertos, but most of them can be played pretty similarly by an amateur and a professional, because of the lack of space for interpretation, where professionals shine.
+3
Level 85
Jul 14, 2014
I thought most orchestras are performing Cage's 4'33" most of the time.
+10
Level 76
Jul 14, 2014
Mahler's 2nd symphony requires a five minute pause between the first and second movements, so if the conductor does his job correctly you'll get the Cage piece included for free.
+1
Level 69
Oct 13, 2014
Some more time would be nice
+2
Level 76
Oct 13, 2014
Ok, here you go - an unlimited time version of this quiz. Good luck!
+1
Level 82
Nov 15, 2014
you're too accommodating. They can just turn off the timer if they want to so bad.
+1
Level 76
Nov 15, 2014
Ah yes, but there are no stats kept for people who simply turn off the clock. From this, we can see that people are averaging 13/20 on the unlimited time (OK, 20 minutes), compared with 8/20 here.
+1
Level 86
Oct 21, 2014
No Schubert? This is not serious...
+1
Level 82
Nov 15, 2014
I was most surprised to not see Bach, but I guess I can understand some reasons why, even if he's more famous than most of these composers, he doesn't get performed as often.
+7
Level 63
Nov 15, 2014
He does get performed as often, probably even more so - just not by symphony orchestras.
+3
Level 72
Mar 7, 2018
Yup. Just like Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Liszt... Lots of piano stuff, not that many orchestral.
+1
Level 34
Nov 15, 2014
Woahhh didn't read in the description that this was for orchestral pieces only.. wasted so much time on composers of opera/vocal music
+1
Level 73
Nov 16, 2014
Man, symphony orchestras (or, more appropriately, symphony orchestra audiences and programming directors) love Rach 2, and the Four Seasons, and the Adagio for Strings...

I'm not sure if the data exists, but it would be fascinating to see what composers had the most different works performed in a given year. Beethoven/Mozart would still top the list I'm sure, but I'm sure at least Vivaldi would drop (unless there's some orchestra somewhere making transcriptions of L'estro armonico or something)

+1
Level 71
Apr 22, 2015
Good quiz but tricky, trying to remember names that you know so well that slip away when you have a time limit. I love Dvorak's music so much and I couldn't think of his name ........ grrrrrrrr , and no Bach or Bruckner ah well.
+1
Level 34
May 4, 2015
Richard Strauss was German and not Austrian. He isn't in any way related to the Austrian Strauss family of 'Waltz king' Johann Strauss.
+1
Level 76
May 4, 2015
So he is! We'll get that amended - thanks.
+1
Level 27
Jun 11, 2015
I loved this quiz! But...no Schubert?
+1
Level 46
Jan 6, 2016
I lost too much time trying to get the right spelling for Tchaikovsky. Could more variants be accepted, please? Vivaldi is performed more than Schubert or Schumann? That does not seem right!
+1
Level 89
Oct 8, 2018
Where is Rossini? Tons of famous classical music by a guy who nobody knows his name. Yeah, yeah most of it's written for opera, but nobody listens to it with the singing. Bugs Bunny relied on hima a lot!
+1
Level 76
Oct 8, 2018
There's a link in the instructions to a quiz for the Top 75 Composers - what chance do you think that Mr Rossini will appear in that one?
+1
Level 83
Feb 9, 2023
"nobody listens to it with the singing" in professional performance I think you'll still find Rossini mostly in the opera-house
+1
Level 89
Oct 8, 2018
Uhh....Hammett and Hetfield? I've seen a lot of symphony work by them.
+1
Level 45
Apr 5, 2020
I can't believe Bach isn't on this list.
+1
Level 76
Apr 5, 2020
See a link to the Top 75 in the instructions - take that one, and you might find him there
+1
Level 31
May 29, 2020
Some of these composers were actually from the Holy Roman Empire.
+1
Level 66
Mar 20, 2021
Fibonacci and Panini are underrated.
+1
Level 67
Oct 2, 2023
I'm surprised Mahler is so low. Well, I should have guessed it judging by the music he wrote. Glorious, but extremely depressing at times, music.