Deservedly unsung............

[JimL]

About Boulez I will say only this: if he didn't do so much conducting his music would be performed a whole lot less frequently.

[Lionel Harrsion]

About Boulez I will say only this: if he didn't do so much conducting his music would be performed a whole lot less frequently.

Ouch!  Very true, though! 

[Dundonnell]

No, I don't care for the music of Pierre Boulez one little bit. I cannot listen to it with any pleasure, I cannot comprehend what it means or signifies, what emotions (if any) it is intended to touch. It has, as has been said, a rigorous, mathematical, intellectual aspect which means nothing to me.

..........but I also know that friends whose views I respect admire the music intensely and-for that reason-I have no business to say that it does not deserve to be heard by those who can appreciate its qualities.

[Ilja]

Ah, a can of worms indeed...

With regard to Boulez, my problem with him stems less from his music (which I don't ´get' or appreciate but can ignore) than from his overzealous and fundamentalist attitude to the whole craft of music-making, which has estranged 'art' music from its audiences - an experience from which we're still recovering and which might have meant the end of a whole art form.

Returning to the original post, it seems to me that a requisite for a 'deservedly' unsung work is that it contains little or no conceptual originality, AND that it shows poor technical skill. That rather narrows the field, but think I may nominate Lorenzo Perosi's Piano Concerto. Rambling on for a seemingly endless three quarters of an hour, to me it is the biggest blight on the reputation of Vatican City since the Inquisition.

[isokani]

Well, lots of other conductors conduct Boulez' music. I know several who do...
And as for "estranging art from its audiences", a rare performance of Pli selon Pli in London was, I am told, made to a full house ...

[thalbergmad]

Forum history demonstrates that no good will come of this.

For once, I will remain silent and sit back and watch the chaos.

£5 says this will be locked within 24 hours.

Thal

[shamokin88]

Earlier this afternoon I think I may have clicked the wrong icon and erased a message I had just finished. Well, who knows?

I wonder where this thread might go. It might be interesting if Slonimsky's delightful Lexicon of Musical Invective served as a guide as would Stravinsky's remark about Richard Strauss to the effect that he did not like any of that composer's large works and, for that matter, any of his small ones either. A caution to us all, I suppose. Nevertheless the composers Slonimsky chose are all sung now, and Strauss has certainly paid his dues even if Stravinsky didn't like his music.

The example of the later Harris symphonies is very much to the point. Before long I will upload Howard Hanson's contribution to the genre, his Centennial Ode, eminently forgettable, using snippets of his other music and narrating the history of the University of Rochester.

There is probably not a single piece on this website that would not make someone want to bite the radiator. That is a wonderful thing.

But I don't see the virtues in this thread as a dumping ground for nya-nya-nyas directed from Dittersdorf
to Dutilleux.

This should be an interesting challenge. I have uploaded music that I actively dislike and others have said
how much they enjoyed hearing it.

If that is a case I rest it.

Best from Shamokin88 

[Alan Howe]

I'd forgotten about Perosi. Oh dear. I have tried. A number of times. Honestly. Please don't ask me to try again. Please...

[Jimfin]

Not really within the musical scope of this website, but F. Osmond Carr, who wrote the score to W.S. Gilbert's "His Excellency", was, judging by that score, deservedly forgotten within a very few years, although he had composed the first ever musical comedy "In Town". As a teenager, I remember ploughing through the (very expensive) score of "His Excellency" and thinking what Sullivan might have made of it.

I always thought of Parry's "Job" as deservedly unsung, but have changed my mind lately. That's the problem: I find it hard to dismiss any music without worrying that it may have more to it that I have not been able to get. Even among Boulez: his fans may all be pretentious snobs, but maybe they actually enjoy listening to his works. Actually, I know they all prefer the 'Trout Quintet' and the '1812 Overture' in private.

[jerfilm]

I'm with Thal on this.  As I pointed out recently in another thread, sometimes it's better just to keep one's mouth shut.  And I think this is one of those times......

Jerry

[Peter1953]

Thanks Ilja and Alan, for mentioning Perosi, because this reminds that I want to buy the CD with music for violin and orchestra. Lovely audio samples, just listen here. His concerto for clarinet is not bad either and I've just ordered his PC from Amazon.co.uk because the audio samples sound interesting enough to me. No, for me Perosi is unjustified neglected 

[Alan Howe]

I find samples of Perosi's music much more attractive than listening to him at length! It's the way his music seems to ramble aimlessly that simply bores me beyond endurance. Apologies!

[Peter1953]

No apologies needed, Alan. I'm just curious and want to listen to the whole concerts. I can afford me a few extra CDs.

[JimL]

I find samples of Perosi's music much more attractive than listening to him at length! It's the way his music seems to ramble aimlessly that simply bores me beyond endurance. Apologies!

That's funny.  I felt the same way about Pfitzner's PC when I downloaded it recently.  But - I'll give it another shot before I jump to any conclusions.

[mbhaub]

In my opinion, these opinions of Boulez are baseless, untrue, and need some rebuttal. So ok, Boulez didn't write in the manner of Beethoven, Brahms, Raff, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mahler and the gang. Tunes are not his thing. But having attended live performances of some of his music, especially those based on spatial sounds from many directions, the music can be quite mesmerizing, provocative, intoxicating, scary even, and beautiful. There are a lot of composers some of you probably hate: Ligeti, Leibowitz, Messian, Reich -- but have you really tried to hear what the composer is saying? In the same line, Gavin Bryars "Sinking of the Titanic" is an engrossing masterwork that once heard is never forgotten. Sure, this music is difficult in that it demands you pay attention. You can't read the newspaper, tend the baby, or do crosswords at the same time. Gentlemen: open your ears! Music did not stop in 1910. There's a lot of great 20th music that you could enjoy so much besides Prokofieff, Shostakovich, Sibelius and other less avant garde composers.

I guess there is some deservedly unsung music -- it's a crowded field, after all. But if I had to name a work or two that deserved banishment to the dustbin of history: Arthur Schnabel's 2nd Symphony. And hot on its heels: Emil Tabakov's 3rd. I like to think I have "big ears", but lordy I despise both of those wretched symphonies. I keep them as a reminder that just because its recorded doesn't mean I should buy it!

PS: anyone else like the work of Subotnik?