Composer Cagematch!: Rachmaninoff vs. Tchaikovsky

Schumann vs. Brahms was easily the weirdest Composer Cagematch! we’ve had yet.

I put up the Cagematch, and it was coming in all Brahms. Brahms, Brahms, Brahms, with nary a vote for Schumann for the longest time. And even then it was stuck at 14-2 in favor of Brahms for a seeming millenium. I had people in the comments accusing me of setting up a faultily weighted match.

Then a week later I posted about the upcoming BSO concert for that week, which highlighted Schumann. I playfully pointed out that this probably wouldn’t interest the average Ain’t Barocco if the voting was any indication. Somehow (and I think a pro-Schumann tweet from Kenneth Woods may have been related) this must have tapped into the previously silent Schumann-loving hordes, because the votes for Schumann began rushing in. This kicked off several days worth of flux, with the two composers tied on at least two occasions. Brahms did ultimately prevail 36-31, but my God, hats off to Schumann for being one hell of a late-closing competitor, no?

So there you have it: Brahms is the winner, Schumann the loser (or, putting it another way, you would rather have sex with Jesse Spencer over David Bamber, but you would have to think about it first). Whew. Next!

Doubtless Germany is tired after all this to-do, so let’s let it recover while we had over to that other classical music powerhouse, Russia. Prepare yourself for a schmoopy day — it’s a battle of some serious romantics.

In this corner, annoying the hell out of my mother, it’s

SEEEEEEEEEEERGEEEEEEEEEI RACHMAAAAAAAANINOFFFFFFFFFFF

And in this corner, annoying the hell out of my college music history professor, it’s

PIOTR! ILYICH! TCHAAAAAAAAAIIIIKOOOOOOOVSKYYYYYYYY

Okay. Okay. I can’t make this too negative. I can’t sway the votes. These are some darned big names; you can figure it out yourselves, no?