
Ask any self-respecting classical music aficionado who the greatest composer of all time is, and they’ll usually whittle down a shortlist of three key names: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and J.S. Bach.
Press them further on the issue and they will probably, though by no means inevitably, place Beethoven at number three and Mozart at two, before giving Bach the lion’s share of the plaudits in that coveted number one spot.