What Unsung Composers Were Under Your Christmas Tree?

[edurban]

1) Armstrong Gibbs: 'Odysseus: Symphony in four movements'  What a find this is, a big choral symphony from 1937-8 not much different in idiom from the Vaughan Williams 'Sea Symphony' (albeit without V W's titanic personality.)  Heartily recommended to those who enjoy Ireland's 'These Things Shall be' and similar conservative British choral works from between the Wars.  Another side to the composer of the luscious light music favorite "Dusk".

2) York Bowen Violin Concerto (but that's for another thread...)

David

[thalbergmad]

I had asked my family to pay my sheet music bill, so i had a big pile of concerto scores containing Rubbra, Gradstein, Martino, Luke, Rozycki, Colomer, Farkas, Rietti, Labor, Beringer, Gaillard & Seymour Bernstein.

Next year i will ask them to convert the loft into a library.

Thal

[mbhaub]

Hardly unsung, but I got the new big box from Sony of the Haydn Symphonies with Stuttgart CO and Dennis Russel Davies. Two disks in so far -- 35 to go! Some of the symphonies are surely unsung. Sound is fine, but too bad they weren't done in SACD. The packaging is irritating: the box is much bigger in profile than a regular cd so that the box doesn't fit on the shelves. What were they thinking?

[Peter1953]

A familiar name, very sung, very romantic, but nevertheless I'll mention it: the recently by DGG issued (specially priced) 17 CD set celebrating the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin's birth. A complete edition of all his works, as the notes on the box says "combining the very best recordings from the Deutsche Grammophon and Decca catalogues" (including recordings of Yundi Li and Rafał Blechacz).
Chopin has been my favourite composer even before I was born. Next year I'll hope to go to Chopin's birthplace Żelazowa Wola, a pilgrimage tour.
Of course I already had most of his works, but this edition includes some rare opus numbers which I didn't had, like his first piano sonata op. 4. I'm very happy with it.

I hope the other box will arrive one of these days. Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff, I'll be waiting for you...

[TerraEpon]

A complete edition of all his works,

As usual, not quite true...even if one excludes that flute piece which is sometimes considered spurious.

[Peter1953]

As usual, not quite true...even if one excludes that flute piece which is sometimes considered spurious.

You have a point, TerraEpon. I used to had an enormous collection of classical music on tapes, which is now all lost. But I still have my catalogue. And from Chopin I also had Variations on a theme by Rossini for flute and harp, and Variations in E Major for piano and flute on 'Non più mesta' from 'La Cenerentola' by Rossini. These works are missing in DGG's Complete Edition.

[peter_conole]

Hi all

A slightly late Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for 2010-which could turn out to be new-release wonder year.

Re the topic: that glorious Noskowski Symphony no.1 (the one Alan is keen on - bring on no.2). Another copy - a gift from me which was passed  on to a deserving music explorer.

Missing from under the Christmas tree (pour moi- ordered under my supervision by she-who-tolerates-my-music-lust about six weeks ago from JPC) were the Kreutzer violin concertos 15, 18 and 19, THAT new Raff disc and a promising chamber music disc. Am a bit concerned. Had to send JPC a reminder in mid-December. The package has now been mailed. Christmas rush? Or the result of sub-contracting out mailing/despatch?   

regards
Peter

[TerraEpon]

You have a point, TerraEpon. I used to had an enormous collection of classical music on tapes, which is now all lost. But I still have my catalogue. And from Chopin I also had Variations on a theme by Rossini for flute and harp, and Variations in E Major for piano and flute on 'Non più mesta' from 'La Cenerentola' by Rossini. These works are missing in DGG's Complete Edition.

...that's the same piece. But beyond that, it's also missing the solo piano version of Rondo in C, Contredanse in Gb 'Kulaway', Andantino in g 'Wiosna (if this is by him...it's a song transcription), and Canon in f. It also repeats Andante Spinato twice (somewhat sensible, as in one case it's attached to the Grande Polonaise in Eb -- both versions of which IS there).
There's also some variants, and some pretty newly discovered stuff, though I'm willing to be lienet on those.

As you can see, I've done some research on this. I'm a bit peeved at the lack of completeness for companies that SAY complete and most people just grin and bare it, assuming it is. Even discounting certain things like piano reductions of concerti, and 'original' versions, etc. there's often just OBVIOUS stuff that sure, the average classical buyer who buys up Beethoven and Mahler over and over again may not notice, but it's very annoying to me.
(And what's more, Chopin isn't even a favorite, he just has a small enough body of work combined with being very popular that allows complete (/piano) editions with much more ease)

I even started to write up a very long post in detail about Brilliant's so-called complete Rachmaninov edition...if anyone's interested I could continue and post it.

[Alan Howe]

Goldmark's opera Merlin on Profil. Just listening to the beginning now: the idiom has its Wagnerisms, but frankly I am more struck by similarities with, say, Verdi's Otello. It's an interesting style and somewhat at odds with the more conservative composer I know from the chamber music.

[chill319]

'Twas a very merry Christmas for one who has several decades of catching up to do...

1. Furtwaengler, Symphonic Concerto (Then-Bergh, Kubelik, Bavarian Radio SO)
2. Berger, Symphony 2 (Bernbacher, Bremen State PO) -- a gift
2. Gliere, Symphony 3 (Faberman, RPO)
3. Ludolf Nielsen, Symphony 3 (Cramer, Bamberg SO)

Furtwaengler, composer of moral imperatives, seems to me the largest achievement amongst a group of quite large achievements; Berger's passionate "High German" idiom doesn't waste a single bar; Gliere, whom I misjudged for years, conjures an immediately appealing soundscape while pursuing his own musical ends with rigor; Nielsen 3 sounds almost as remarkable as the other three (the last movement in particular being for me a stunner). Four testaments to the extraordinary phenomenon of Western art music as it flourished and peaked in England and the Continent between the wars of Napolean and Adolf Hitler.

[Mark Thomas]

Hang on, is the Bernbacher performance of Wilhelm Berger's superb Second Symphony now available on a commercial CD? I have a copy of the radio broadcast, but didn't know that it is now generally available.

[Jonathan]

Ok, again not terribly unsung but Mussorgsky - "Pictures" and 10 other pieces on Brilliant and also Moszkowski's world, volume 2 (with works by Brahms and Juon) which now completes the set on 4 hands music!
There might be more CDs when I see my parents later this week...

[chill319]

Alas, Mark, I'm listening to a private recording of a broadcast of Berger 2. Knowing the work now, it's hard to believe we don't have Toscanini's version, Klemperer's version, and Furtwaengler's version, as well as Bernbacher's, to choose from among commercial releases.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Berger's Second is a wonder, isn't it?

BTW, I had no unsungs waiting for me under our Christmas tree. My wife has long since despaired of my endless quest for 19th century novelties and forgotten masterpieces. On the other hand, she's very happy to come with me when there's a piece of Raff's being played somewhere exotic...

[JimL]

I got myself the Rufinatscha disc.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it arrived so fast that I really didn't have a chance to put it under anybody's Christmas tree.  We don't have a Hannukah bush at my house.  Maybe next year.