Can a Sung Composer have Unsung works such as Saint Saens first two symphonies?

[sdtom]

I recently received a new recording of his first two symphonies done by the Malmo. It might be something to ponder.
Tom

[eternalorphea]

You mean could someone famous have produced something that nowadays wider audiences are unfamiliar with? Yes, of course

[sdtom]

Is this something that we could then talk about? This is the recording I'm talking about http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573138

Tom

[eternalorphea]

I'd have to listen to them, evaluate the attractiveness and interestingness, and decide if -just my opinion of course- it is strange or not that they 'aven't been quite present on repertoire

[Alan Howe]

We've mentioned the unsung works of sung composers before - no problem!

[eschiss1]

we've even had, I think, multiple threads on just this topic... (though I should clarify that a new one seems fine to me)...

[sdtom]

I think it is a good idea and I'll start one on these two works of Saint Saens very soon.
Tom

[Hilleries]

Can't they?? Take a lot of choral work, for example: Beethoven's Cantatas and incidental music (ask people who wrote that janissary male choir in Ruinen von Athen, how many will say Beethoven?), Schumann's ballads, even Brahms' Rinaldo...

[Gauk]

One could almost say the majority of works by well-known composers are unplayed. When did you last hear any of Dvorak's first six symphonies programmed, for instance? Or any of Haydn's piano concertos?

[Alan Howe]

Quite. Although in the case of Dvorak, the early symphonies have at least been recorded multiple times. Which is the more than you can say of, for example, Wilhelm Berger whose magnificent 2nd Symphony has never had a commercial recording.

[Gauk]

True - but there are degrees of "unsungitude". "Totally unfamiliar to the average listener" is different from "never having been recorded", but they are on the same scale.

[eschiss1]

"recorded" is a rather time-limited (in both directions, considering pre-1880s-ish and post-some time in the future?), contingent way of capturing something that could probably be better phrased, though I don't know how offhand... still... hrm.

[Amphissa]

"recorded" is a rather time-limited (in both directions, considering pre-1880s-ish and post-some time in the future?), contingent way of capturing something that could probably be better phrased, though I don't know how offhand... still... hrm.

Eric, this is one of your most creative sentences ever. 

[sdtom]

What I like is the new word "unsungitude"
Tom

[Amphissa]

Yes, "unsungitude" is a term I plan to adopt, like a pet mouse I can let scurry out in unsuspecting moments to dazzle my friends and befuddle my ... uh ... unfriends.