Unusual movement indications.

[alberto]

And (in Walton Sym. 1) after "presto con malizia" (mov.2) there is "andante con malinconia" (mov.3).
Odd is Walton indication in Viola Concerto, mov. 2 "vivo, con molto preciso". I think he meant "con molta precisione" ("with great, much precision").
Odd is the indication in Reznicek Violin Concerto, mov. 2, "Allegretto con commodo, capriccioso". I think he would mean "allegretto comodo, capriccioso".
Myaskovsky uses, and uses it very properly, a rich Italian vocabulary. Other Myaskovsky examples : Piano sonatina op.57, mov. 2, "Narrante e lugubre". Sinfonietta op.68, mov. 1, "Largo pesante e severo"; mov.3 "Andante elevato".
The word "festevole" exists as an archaism (used for instance by Giovanni Boccaccio in the XIV century). 

[Lionel Harrsion]

Of course, the finale of Beethoven's string quartet op 18 no 6 is entitled "La Malinconia" but among the unsung fraternity, the opening of Guillaume Lekeu's Sonata for Cello and Piano is marked "Adagio malinconico" and the slow movement is marked "Lento assai e con molto di malinconia".  It lives up to these directions, being one of the heart-wrenchingly saddest pieces of music I know - even if you can ignore Lekeu's tragically early death.

[albion]

I've always warmed to Percy Grainger's preference for his own idiosyncratic English-language indications -

Easy going, but richly

Louden lots bit by bit

Hammeringly

and, best of all

Clumsy and wildly

[eschiss1]

if Satie is out of court, though, there is Sorabji (influenced in part, perhaps, by Scriabin when it comes to this...) (and for all that he sometimes misremembered the languages he used for expressive indications on his scores, the results _were_ indicative, communicative and poetic, I say. And no argument from me about Scriabin- very, very varied, even ecstatic in its colloquial sense, use of language, there! Fier et belliqueux indeed!)

[albion]

...and then there's the second movement of Walton's 1st Symphony - "Presto, con malizia"; towards whom or what I'm not entirely sure.

The first three movements, including the Scherzo reflect Walton's turbulent relationship with Baroness Imma Doernberg (the symphony's dedicatee): their traumatic break-up in 1933, when she left him for a Hungarian doctor, is more than likely mirrored in the music (Walton later described his feelings at the time as "jealousy and hatred all mixed up with love") - the emotional stress brought Walton close to a nervous breakdown and resulted in the creative block which temporarily prevented him from completing the Finale.

[alberto]

I thank Albion for his explanation about Walton, new to me.
I rate Walton First Symphony a great masterwork (even if the Finale appears to me below the first three movements).
I have attended four actual performances (one in London, three in Torino) and own eleven recordings.
The concert program lines or the recording booklets (at least the ones I read) are always reticent about the time gap between the first three movements and the Finale (".......the notoriously slow-working Wiliam Walton.....").

[alberto]

A group more, picking here and there, with no method.
Mac Dowell Piano Concerto 2, mov.1, "Larghetto calmato"
Amy Beach Piano Concerto op.45, mov.4, "allegro con scioltezza"
J.N.Hummel Piano Concerto op.110, mov.1, "allegro pomposo e spirituoso"
H.Litolff Concerto (for piano) op.45, mov.4, "Furioso"
J.Field Piano Concerto n.2, mov.3, "Allegro moderato innocente"

Again Myaskovsky:
-Symph. 3
mov. 2 , "Deciso e sdegnoso" ("deciso" is almost identical to, let' say, "risoluto" , but "sdegnoso" (disdainful) is really a new indication)
-Symph. 5
Mov.1, "Allegro amabile"
Mov. 5, "Allegro burlando"(=joking)
-String Quartet n.10
Mov.3, "Andante con moto lacrimabile" (archaic, "lamentable")
-Lyric Concertino op. op.32
Mov.2, "Andante monotono"

Again the masterful Scriabin (not a bit of irony; on the contrary, the words become music)
-Poéme op.32 n.2
"Con eleganza. Con fiducia"
-Poéme tragique op. 34
"Festivamente-fastoso, irato-fiero"
-Reverie op.49 n.3
"Con finezza"
-Preludes op.48 n.1 "Impetuoso fiero"
                 op.48 n.2 "Poetico con delizia"
                 op.48 n.3 "Capricciosamente affanato"
-Preludes op.74 n.1 "Douloureux, déchirant"
                 op.74 n.2 "Contemplatif"
                  op.74 n.4 "Lent, vague, indecis"

Lutoslawsky Symph.2, mov.1 "Hesitant" (similar to "indecis"?)

As for Satie, with no disrespect to the maverick "velvet gentlemen" I leave his "Parade" of oddities and jokes to anibody wants.

[alberto]

Excuse me.
Another maverick, George Antheil (the "bad boy of music", according to himself).
Symphony n. 1 "Zingareska" (1923, Antheil aged 23)
1- Innocente
2-Vivo, alla zingaresca, poi ragtime
3-Doloroso elevato
4- Ragtime

[eschiss1]

If I'm reading the manuscript right, the quartet (no.6 in C minor, op.45, 1856) by Salvatore Pappalardo I've been typesetting from a copy of the manuscript lately - has thrown a couple of new ones at me - and some I just can't really read - but one that I like, which recurs a few times just in the 157-bar repeated exposition alone, is "marcato e dispetto" (marked and scornful). (and as to Myaskovsky sym 3/II, thumbs up on the indication- and on the movement, with that wondrous funeral march, too.) (Also in the Pappalardo: Allegro selvaggio, for the scherzo's main movement tempo.)

[eschiss1]

I had to point this one out... In a flute quintet by Bernardo Porta, his opus 3 no.1 in D minor (ca. 1801): Andantino Smorfioso.  (... I am reading that right?) (scanned in by the good people at Sibley Library.)

[alberto]

"Smorfioso" is right (logical or clear, I don't  know). It means "affected", "mincing".
By the way much later Satie himself composed some "Grimaces" for piano.
Another unusual. Erwin Schulhoff in his concerto for piano and small orchestra marks "molto sostenuto e astrattamente" and later "allegro alla jazz".

[Paul Barasi]

Lionel's contribution somehow prompts me to ask in relation to Lekeu's untimely death: was he warned to stay off the lemon sorbet?

[I don't quite have the complete Ricecar set which is very good and though he seems to have a chamber music reputation, I like Lekeu's orchestral style best. Whilst he was a great Wagner fan – so overwhelmed he even fainted at Bayreuth – Chant de triomphale deliverance seems influenced by Bruckner, which may in turn explain why I detected something somewhere in Lekeu's music that resembled Rott. For all his youthful but great potential talent, the literature on Lekeu, at least in English, seems rather thin beyond 'Cesar Frank and his Circle,' Laurence Davies, 1970 and a 50-page chapter in 'Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music,' OGT Sonneck, 1921. Does anyone know any other sources?]

[eschiss1]

there's a 2006 book by Gilles Thiéblot on Lekeu with "Guillaume Lekeu" as title, mentioned at books.google.com but not in big preview in the US.  Bleu nuit, of Paris, is the publisher. Will see if I can find more for a different thread perhaps?

[fuhred]

Try this: the finale of Mozart's Flute Quartet in A major, K 298 is marked (obviously with tongue firmly in cheek):
Rondieaoux: Allegretto grazioso, ma non troppo presto, pero non troppo adagio, cosi- cosi - molto garbo ed espressione.
(A jokey rondo - allegretto grazioso, but not too fast, but not too slow either - just like this, like this, with plenty of fire and expression)

[eschiss1]

Alfred Einstein at one point conjectured that that one was satire possibly deliberately aimed at the then popular Cambini; what consensus opinion is now I have no idea. He had a few jokes like that - writing odd things on the manuscript of some of the horn concertos, if memory serves, while the dedicatee was still practicing from them?...? - but not actually all that many.