Pop composers that are unsung romantics.....

[jerfilm]

I've wanted to start this thread for a long time.  Everyone knows that Victor Herbert not only composed a score of wildly successful "operettas" but also wrote concertos for his cello and several other serious works.  Which got me interested in other similar composers who wrote "serious' music.  Of course, Gershwin is the first one that comes to mind but he's not very unsung.

However, we know that Rudolf Friml write a piano concerto.  And now I see someone has posted a cello sonata on YouTube by Sigmund Romberg (1887-1951).  Pretty lively piece with quite a piano part.  Are there others that I don't know about??

Here's the link to the Cello Sonata #1 in Eb   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuJFCv_yHg4

Jerry

[eschiss1]

Is it definite that that's by Sigmund Romberg and not by Bernhard or Andreas, or another of that era and family, btw (who wrote quite a few cello sonatas?) Just checking...

Still, it helps to know? By popular composers do you mean composers (whose best-known works are/were) in a popular style, or composers who were, or are, popular? I know that I am truly nitpicking (I'm guessing maybe not the latter since Beethoven and Mozart aren't meant, and that Friml isn't popular now, but he sort of was... but what of composers in a popular style who never made it?... well, nothing but to try.)

Also, Offenbach's concerto rondo comes to mind.  Likewise maybe Arthur Sullivan's symphony and some other of his earlier and last efforts.

(Not sure whether to include a composer such as e.g. Oskar Nedbal, who may be known better for his operettas generally, in Slovakia anyway- I gather?, but known here for works such as his violin sonata.)

Hrm. Stojanovic I gather might fit here too (if Wikipedia is to go by); composed operettas, but also some very interesting (somewhat Reger-ish?) early chamber works (and 2 violin concertos).

[jerfilm]

That's an excellent question - I don't know for sure.  I don't have any violin sonatas in my collection by either Andreas or Bernhard but of course, that doesn't mean anything.  Maybe someone can shed some light on it.

As to who I meant, well, the examples illustrate what i was thinking of.   Men like Friml who were very popular in their day but have fallen into mostly extinction.   Or could be someone still living who has ventured off from the pop ballad trail to write something more serious.

Another unusual name that comes to my mind, not exactly in the same catagory is Rod McKuen who wrote a cello concerto, piano concertos and at least one symphony.  I expect other stuff as well.

Jerry

[black]

Yes, I've also seen and heard this particular video on YouTube. But I think it is utterly unlikely that this is  a composition by the composer of operettas like The Prince Student. The more serious compositions by Sullivan, Herbert, Frimml and others were still rpmantic in a way that was not so different from their other works. But this Cello Sonata - his first! so there must be at least another one - is purely classical. Moreover, the piano part is played here on Hammerklavier! Would Sigmund Romberg, even in his younger years, have written something like that? I can't imagine.

[JimL]

Must be by Bernhard.  And Offenbach composed not only that rondo but an entire Concert Militaire, in G for cello.  The rondo, I believe, is a rejected finale from that work, published as a free-standing piece.

[black]

As far as I know Bernhard Romberg composed 6 cello sonatas but none of them in de key of E flat major. So it is likely somebody else, maybe not even with the name Romberg!

[mbhaub]

Meredith Willson, who wrote "The Music Man", "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and a few other things, wrote a couple of symphonies that have been recorded.

Leroy Anderson wrote a piano concerto that sounds exactly like Leroy Anderson.

Earlier, Arthur Sullivan wrote a symphony that is sadly neglected while Pirates of Penance or HMS Pinafore are still played.

In the modern era, Paul McCartney wrote the Liverpool Oratorio, although my understanding is that Carl Davis really deserves the credit.

[eschiss1]

looking at the Romberg worklist on IMSLP I see 15 cello sonatas though not all of them were originally composed so, and not all have their keys given there right now (that could be improved.) That said, Romberg's Op.5 No.1, which we do have @ IMSLP, is indeed in E-flat major! It remains to compare it to the sonata @YouTube; will do so later...

As to composers in more "popular" idioms who at one or another point wrote more "serious" works -- Suppé Requiem &c...

[TerraEpon]

Offenbach wrote a good deal of stuff really. Three CDs of his piano music are on CPO. Most of it very....salonish...but quite enjoyable. He also wrote a few pieces for two and four cellos, as well as short orchestral works, among a number of other non-operatic works

[black]

Eric is right: it is indeed Bernhard Romberg's sonata op. 5 no.1, originally scored for harp and cello (or violin).

[JimL]

When they were young, Offenbach and his pal Friedrich von Flotow collaborated on a lot of salon music for cello and piano.

[jerfilm]

Thanks, Black, for enlightening us.   Now one wonders where this recording actually came from?  I don't recall ever seeing a commercial disc with it.

Jerry

[black]

I think I've found it: it is a recording issued in the Sony Classical Vivarte Series, called The Cello And The King Of Prussia. The cellist is Anner Bijlsma. Catalog no. 63360

[jerfilm]

i see whoever posted it on YouTube has already changed it.   I wonder if they read about it here......

[adriano]

German operetta, film music and pop song composer Eduard Künneke (1885-1953) wrote various "classical" orchestra pieces, including 4 operas, a Piano Concerto and an interesting "Tänzerische Suite" for Jazzband and Symphony Orchestra (1929) which is one of the first attempts to bring together "classical" orchestral forces with "pop" - as it was done later, for example, by Jon Lord with his "(Deep Purple) Concerto for Group and Orchestra". The Suite (valuable music with occasional post-Romantic touches à la Grieg and Sibelius) was recorded by Telefunken in 1938, with the composer conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker. Künneke had obtained a special permission by the Nazis to continue composing and conducting since he was so popular, but he was considered as a "impure" Arian. He was a pupil of Max Bruch and worked at the Berlin Deutsches Theater as a conductor; his Opus 1, a 2-act opera "Robins Ende" was his breaking-through as a composer. His most famous operettas are "Der Vetter aus Dingsda" and "Lady Hamilton". "Glückliche Reise" was also produced as a film, from the soundtrack of which, Künneke arranged a very successful concert suite, which was also recorded on 78s. His daughter Evelyn Künneke became a fery popular cabaret singer, dancer and actress; in her later years she was befriended to film directors Rosa von Praunheim and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She was quite an original and sharp-tongued character...