Resolved Question: What do you know about the Composers?

I want to know every single little fact you know about any composer. Any facts that will make that composer stand out. I give you a few facts that I know: Wagner, as is well known, was a favourite composer of the Nazis. What is not as well known is that half a before Hitler's rise to power, in 1881, Wagner was advocating 'racial cleansing’ (Rassenreinigung). His polemical book 'Das Judenthum in der Musik' was written because of his deep-seated resentment of any Jews who achieved success in his field. Even Hitler’s concept of the Final Solution was adapted from Wagner’s term ‘Die grosse Losung’, though Wagner called only for the expulsion of Jews from Germany. Chillingly, he also suggested that during a performance of Lessing’s pro-Jewish play ‘Nathan der Weise’, the theatre should be filled with Jews, locked and burnt down! The Nazi slogan ‘Deutschland erwache!’ (‘Germany awake!’) was coined by Wagner â€" Hitler was merely quoting. The faeces-coloured uniform worn by Hitler’s brown-shirt thugs was inspired by the title of Wagner’s diary, ‘The Brown Book’. Not a pleasant fact, but unfortunately true. (What’s your opinion of Wagner now?) Another fact is that Verdi was a fervent supporter of the Risorgimento, the movement for the reorganization of the numerous small Italian states into one country. The theme of resurgent nationalism in his early operas, the frequent clashes with the censor (who suspected him of revolutionary tendencies), his political career in the 1860’s when he sat reluctantly for five years in the new Italian parliament â€" all these things endeared Verdi to the general public. The symbolic leader of the nationalist movement was Victor Emmanuel, the future king of Italy â€" Vittorio Emmanuel, Re d’Italia. Thus all over Italy the initials V.E.R.D.I. were to be seen, the cries of ‘Viva Verdi’ heard vociferously in the opera house as they were in the street. After the premiere of ‘Falstaff’ in 1893, Victor Emmanuel, by then king of a united Italy, offered to ennoble Verdi, but he declined. ‘I am a peasant’, he told the king. And yet another fact is that Prokofiev was an outstanding chess player. In 1909 he drew with Emanuel Lasker â€" world chess champion for an astonishing 27 years â€" in an exhibition in which Lasker was playing several opponents simultaneously. Later, in 1914, Prokofiev played in three simultaneous exhibitions given in St Petersburg by the future world champion, the Cuban player Jose Raul Capablanca. After losing in his first two attempts, in his third try Prokofiev beat Capablanca. They are just some of the many of thousands of facts I know about the great composers. What do you know? Those are some interesting facts, del_icious_manager. I am aware of some of them. The facts I'm not familiar with are the ones about Chausson, Alkan, Stradella and Paderewski. They are very intriguing. Let's hope you can extend your list. (Please forgive my mistakes in this question. I did not have time to overlook it. If you find anymore spelling and grammar mistakes, please don't hesitate to let me know). It should be 'I will give you a few facts that I know' and 'half a century before Hitler's rise to power...' I am very strict when it comes to composing a question. All mistakes must be corrected. del_icious_manager: That is very strange about Percy Grainger. I knew we has abnormal but not that abnormal! And speaking of Shostakovich, for a creative life lived in the shadow of state terror, it is hardly surprising to learn that Shostakovich was of a nervous disposition. Se certain was he that he was about to be arrested in 1948 that he would wait outside his on the landing in order that the family, at least, would not be disturbed. According to his daughter Galina, he was 'obsessed with cleanliness'. He insisted on all the clocks in his apartment being synchronized and regularly sent cards to himself to test the efficiency of the postal service. Shostakovich was a dedicated sports fan. Uniquely among the great composers he was also a qualified football referee.