Unsung concerts

[theqbar]

Having attended a very interesting concert of relatively unsung music, i take the opportunity to start this topic. Last Friday i went to a concert of the Athens State Orchestra (in Athens, of course). The program was the following:  Mikis Theodorakis: Adagio for clarinet, flute, trumpet and strings.  Mikis Theodorakis: Piano concerto     Dmitry Shostakovich :Symphony n.6

Piano: Cyprien Katsaris and direction :Loukas Carytinos   

It was the first time i heard these works of Theodorakis and i can say that the concerto was splendid, i recommend it (i bought a copy of the cd, it was sold outside the concert, it's Cyprien Katsaris' own label, "Piano21"    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=mikis+theodorakis+katsaris)

Though the name of Theodorakis is widely known, due to his film music or his political views, his symphonic output is unknown, even in his native country...  I was really glad to see him in this concert, it was really emotional that he could attend it, he's 87 years old now, and he's having difficulties in walking.

  Anyway, i would love to hear the other members' experiences of unsung music in the music halls.  (On March 11 i think, Martha Argerich will be playing, among others, the Kabalevsky piano concerto n.4 in Athens, i think it will be interesting).

[Jimfin]

I am looking forward to a concert (in Tokyo) of Akutagawa's 1st Symphony soon, which I am attending with another member of this site! Otherwise, I have memories of driving three hours (and back three hours) to see Sullivan's "The Contrabandista". Likewise his Festival Te Deum. Otherwise, most of my unsung musical life has been conducted courtesy of the record companies or the BBC. And, of late, this wonderful website.
    Oh, I also took it upon myself years ago to sing a selection from German's "A Princess of Kensington" in my local church.

I would love to hear some Havergal Brian live, but I don't think Tokyo is planning anything just yet.

[mbhaub]

I've been really fortunate in this regard. A local orchestra, Musica Nova, has a mission to explore the nooks and crannies of the literature. And so I've been able to hear (and sometimes play) some really rare literature:

Atterberg Symphonies 3 & 6
Raff Symphony 10, a march, and a string quartet played by string section
Hans Gal Symphony 3
Shostakovich Song of the Forest
Bruckner 9th in the Carragan reconstruction
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 3 in the Taneyev completion
Boris Tchaikovsky Symphony no ?
Kalinninov - string suite
Stenhammer Piano Concerto 2
Elgar Symphony 3 in Payne's version

and even our local professional orchestra has played some surprising things lately like the Zemlinsky 23 Psalm, the Gal completion of Schubert's 8th, the Gortchakov version of Pictures at an Exhibition, the Prokofieff 6th. In Tucson, they played some of Rubinstein's ballet music from The Demon a while back.

It's always enjoyable to go to a concert and hear something that hasn't been played to death. I love the New World, Pathetique and Eroica symphonies like anyone else, but I've sat through them so many times that I just don't need or want to go again. But bring on Manfred, Lenore, or Schmidt's 4th and I'll be there!

[Dundonnell]

Assuming that you are talking about the Musica Nova Orchestra of Scottsdale, Arizona I read that their Mission is "to perform great music which is new, suppressed or unfairly neglected".

That reflects great credit on all concerned:the Board of Directors, the conductor, Warren Cohen, the musicians and the audiences which must accept the experience of hearing works with which most will be wholly unfamiliar.

Long may they continue I send them my congratulations from across the Atlantic

[ahinton]

I've been really fortunate in this regard. A local orchestra, Musica Nova, has a mission to explore the nooks and crannies of the literature. And so I've been able to hear (and sometimes play) some really rare literature:

...

Elgar Symphony 3 in Payne's version

But that's hardly a nook or cranny, is it? (and there is no other version anyway); it's only been out since 1997/98 but has had five recordings and almost 200 performances...

[Jimfin]

It would once have been regarded as unsung, though, and it was something I had always wanted to hear, much as I would 'Thespis' or Brian's 'Prometheus Unbound'. So I understand its inclusion on the list

[ahinton]

It would once have been regarded as unsung, though, and it was something I had always wanted to hear, much as I would 'Thespis' or Brian's 'Prometheus Unbound'. So I understand its inclusion on the list

If you're referring to Elgar 3 here, it would hardly be reasopnable to describe it as "unsung" before 1997/98 since one would almost be obliged to argue that it was also "uncomposed" until then! - and it's had ample exposure since, as I mentioned.

[Jimfin]

Well, true enough, but it was still a work that was known to have been sketched, and thus that many of us longed to hear something of. But I'll stop splitting hairs.

[theqbar]

As i had mentioned on my previous post, last Sunday i attended a concert given by "Martha Argerich and friends". Apart from famous piano pieces for 1 or 2 pianos  (Ravel's "Ma mere l' oye", Mozart's Andante with variations KV501, Schumann Fantasy Pieces for piano and cello etc) they played Shostakovich's concertino for 2 pianos (hadn't heard it before) and Kabalevsky's piano concerto n.4 "Prague" (named after Prague because it is based on Czech folk themes). Both works were really interesting and worth hearing, though very short (10'-15' each).

[Leea25]

Shameless plug to follow - I'll be conducting a local amateur orchestra in Kalinnikov's 1st symphony in Birmingham in June, and last year I was lucky enough to get to conduct Geoff Cummings-Knight's rather lovely and tuneful Piano Concerto! 

Lee

[chill319]

The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra is performing Bantock's Celtic Symphony this week.
Some of America's regional orchestras have (still, hopefully!) tapes of performances from decades past that I would be glad to pay for if they were digitized for download. The Tucson Symphony, for example, used to have taped performances of a symphony by McBride (written in the early 70s, I believe), and the richly romantic third Piano Concerto by Richard Faith. Among many other interesting obscurities.

[eschiss1]

Still hoping (ok, sigh, mentioned this before) to catch the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players one-these-days though financial considerations etc. mean that I almost never travel to the NYC area more than once a month. (They played Gieseking's quintet yesterday, are playing Emmanuel's trio next week, but for myself I don't expect to get to the area until late April and then only for a yearly autism conference a few days before their concert that will contain Ernst Naumann's string trio op.12 of 1883 and Röntgen's clarinet trio. So goes- next year, i say... or... - ... maybe May 21, for the Thieriot wind octet )
Have forgotten if anyone besides me is even within 300 miles, but here is their season calendar, if there's some interest.

(BTW speaking of , a work by Ernst Naumann from perhaps around the same time can be heard @IMSLP, his opus 13 quintet. Rather good, I thought- think!)

If you mean concerts that have already happened, I attended one overall enjoyable one with Copland's Vitebsk and some other works- a few mostly forgettable world and local premieres and Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music (which I should have known would be rather good but didn't expect (it) to be- I don't know if I'm a snob or was just in a mood from the poorly constructed, disjointed (mostly tonal- that wasn't their issue...) works that had preceded it... long story. Well, better to find something is -better- than you expect- than the other way around, re the Schoenfield.) And a few years ago there was Hamelin playing, in Ithaca, Bach/Busoni (Chaconne), Schumann (Fantasiestücke), his own work (excerpts from a piece that's since been released on Hyperion), and no doubt by way of an encore , Alkan's symphony for solo piano, in a really good performance with occasional and minor signs of what I suspect was the fatigue at the end of a fairly difficult program with only the usual intermission. (Yes, I know I've said it before- that if they released a recording of that performance it would damage his note-perfect image but its passion would make up for it. Again, glad I was there.)
(Probably the least known good piece - less known than the Alkan, I think - that I've heard in concert was one of David Diamond's quartets (no.3?) back in college - but I was so sleepy from a bad personal schedule at the time that I slept during its slow finale. Fortunately I woke up directly afterward and received an interesting and thought-provoking answer to a question, and fortunately I've heard it again since.)
Eric

[eschiss1]

Chill319- I think the Boston Symphony and some smaller orchestras have videos of recent performances online (Boston at their own site, the others sometimes on their or conductors' own YouTube channels), which is not quite the same admittedly...

[eschiss1]

Noticed that Fabio Luisi will be conducting some works by von Einem (Capriccio) and Joseph Marx (Castelli Romani) next year (March 2013) with the Vienna Symphony, so don't know whether this is the appropriate thread - er - is there an appropriate thread? ... I think there should be one if there isn't (I have no connection with conductor or orchestra but think there should be one, I like searching for such things though even though (1) some websites already ask for ensembles and orchestras to submit concert announcements in advance (e.g. Bach-Track ) (2) it could either grow large or out-of-use quickly - depending! )

Oh yes, and on 20 and 21 November 2012, Fedoseyev conducting the Wiener Sangerknaben and the Wiener Symphoniker in Weinberg's symphony no.6 (well, ok, maybe no longer exactly -un-sung (and in some movements singing), but such things are relative ) and the latter in Shostakovich's symphony no.6. Neat...

[eschiss1]

Ended up going to the concert with the Thieriot wind octet on Monday night (and Schumann's piano quartet no.2- the usual one- and Schubert's Adagio & Rondo concertante. The same group will be performing Sergei Taneyev's string quintet in G, and other works, over the summer with various instrumentalists.)  Hadn't gone to any of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players' concerts before and hadn't heard that work by Thieriot (or anything but his 2nd quartet and maybe a couple of organ works.)

Briefly, was a whole lot of fun, very well-played I thought, and if you're in the area (general area of, or able to reach , mid-town Manhattan - and they're inexpensive it seems) I recommend going to one of their future concerts