Unsung Richard Strauss

[Paul Barasi]

I can't find any unsung Richard Strauss orchestral music as good as his well-known works. Is there any?

[mikehopf]

The same can be said about most well known composers.

The cream always rises to the surface!

[Double-A]

The same can be said about most well known composers.

The cream always rises to the surface!

Not a reliable rule.

Beethoven Symphonies 2 & 4?  Much less often played than 1,3,5.  Less good?  Not to my ears.
Haydn:  What rises to the surface are the pieces with a memorable nickname.  They are good but so are the unlucky other ones.
Mendelssohn 3 quartets op 44.  Why is the e-minor by far the most popular of them?  They are all about equally excellent.  Similar with Schumann quartets:  No. 3 is the most often played, no. 1 appears occasionally, no. 2 rarely.  I can see no sound reason for this (no. 2 is my personal favorite).

[Alan Howe]

...in a word: probably not. If you're into opera, though, Guntram's a good bet. I assume you know Macbeth...

[Ilja]

I can't find any unsung Richard Strauss orchestral music as good as his well-known works. Is there any?

This sounds like a classic case of affirmation bias:

"This one thing I've only heard once or twice is not as good as that other thing that everyone thinks is great and that I've heard many times"
If a work is universally lauded, it is very difficult to be critical of it for a number of reasons. Most of all because we are social animals, we want to be recognized as authoritative by our peers, so we tend to often go along with universal "truths". Conversely, in music reviews, notice how performances of well-known works always tend to be exclusively about the performance, and performances of unsung works primarily deal with the quality of the composition itself. In other words: the existential question gets asked incessantly, leading to the impression that the piece's right to exist ought to be called into question.
Historically, you can't really say that the "cream always rises to the top". Serendipity plays a large role before the advent of recorded media: a crucial negative or positive review, a second perfomance that didn't happen or did, etc. Then there are more systemic problems: a Norwegian composer always had a much smaller chance of recognition than a German one, let alone one from Vienna, and a the German likely wrote in an idiom that was more likely to get qualitatively acknowledged. And tastes change. Heinrich Hofmann's Fritjof Symphony was one of the most often played works of the late 19th century, but if rarely heard today. Was the entire 19th century wrong? Probably not.

Especially for lovers of unsung works, I think it is important to be aware of such factors.

[adriano]

Well, perhaps his operas "Friedenstag" and "Feuersnot" and the ballets "Schlagobers", "Tanzsuite", "Divertimento" and "Verklungene Feste". His Romanze for Cello and Orchestra could be considered as even more unsung. There is also the incidental music to "Romeo und Julia", besides the more known "Bürger als Edelmann".
The ballet "Josephslegende" has, gladly enough, become a sung piece in the last years; it's his best ballet.
There is also a "Sonatine für Orchester" arranged from "Rosenkavalier"
As far as some orchestral works are concerend (I don't really miss those): "Hochlands Treue" (Overture), "Festmarsch", "Konzertouvertüre", 2 Serenades and 3 more "Concert Overtures", "Lied ohne Worte" (for Orchestra), Suite for Winds - and a lot more occasional pieces (including Fanfares) for Military Band. He composed an "Olympische Hymne" for the Nazis. The "Japanische Festmusik" was written for the Emperor of Japan.
Several of his songs and choral works are also neglected, some of them in orchestrated versions.

[M. Yaskovsky]

The now defunct label KOCH Schwann had a series 'the unknown Richard Strauss', isn't it? I don''t know if these are easy available, for example http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=20472&album_group=14

[adriano]

You can hear the Concert Overture here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ut2gH2V5N4

[Alan Howe]

...and then there are the two early symphonies, which are uncharacteristic but hugely enjoyable.

[Mark Thomas]

His teenage Violin Concerto is a lovely work, well worth the occasional airing.

[TerraEpon]

If you like over the top stuff, there's the Festival Prelude, Op. 61.

[adriano]

Yes, this "Festliches Präludium" (in C; which I actually do not consider an unsung piece anymore) is included in the RCA Strauss Box by David Zinman and in the DGG box by Böhm (he was in the leadership to the anti-Semitic "Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur" and published articles to propage its ideas - although Hitler considered him a second-rang conductor).
Sawallisch also recorded it (on EMI). There are also recorded performance by Neeme Järvi (HNK Orchestra) and Gergely Madaras (Hungarian Radio). This bombastic piece was composed for the 1913 opening of the Wiener Konzerthaus, it is scored for 150 players (including organ). It was also played (by Knappertsbusch) in 1943, on Hitler's birthday, together with Beethoven's Ninth; that's why, since then, the "Präludium" is often considered a Nazi piece (I agree too; I am sure, Hitler liked it). Some reviewers called it "Viel Lärm um nichts" (The German translation of Shakespeare's "Much ado about nothing"). When Kempe was asked to record it, he refused. Horst Stein recorded it on Eurodisc in 1987.
Audiences seem generally to like this piece. Of course, one is free to associate a piece with particular historical occasions or political purposes; I am not always as generous as that, particularly knowing Strauss's own backgound.
After - and even before - Christian Thielemann performed the "Präludium" in 2011 with the Berlin PO, the press reacted violently, but with Thielemann's own doubtful political sympathies, one must not wonder. Some of the Jewish players did not join to play (other non-Jewish also refused out of sympathy) and there were both applause and "boohs" at the end. The Maestro felt highly offended at these reactions. Karajan had performed the piece at the ICC opening in 1979. Ormany (of Jewish origins) recorded it in 1961 and performed it in Philadelphia in 1964. - if I am not wrong. I think the last time it was played was in Graz, in 2014.

A similar case is that of Respighi, whose "Roman" tone poems were, apparently, liked by Mussolini. Some musicologists still call Respighi a Fascist - but these tone poems (1916, 1924 and 1928; Mussolini's power started in 1922), were not composed by appointment and not dedicated to thre Duce. Respighi had nightmares about the political situation at his time, since he was an opponent of royalty and of dictature, he was totally Republican free spirit. He joined the Party in order not to be chased or thrown out of the country, and to hold together with his fellow musicians. He never dedicated a work to the Duce as, for example Pizzetti and others did. He even accepted to be nominated "Academico d'Italia", but under pressure, and he had to waer an uniform on special occasions - a thing which he abhorred. I remember having read in Respighi's correspondence that already seeing Mussolini's face, he got scared...

[adriano]

Here's a nice Strauss biography from Classic fM. Chapter 11 is about the Nazi question:
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/strauss/guides/facts-gallery/

and this other one by the BBC
bbc.com/culture/story/20140610-richard-strauss-a-reluctant-nazi

and the two following are the best:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/06/arts/music-richard-strauss-and-hitler-s-reich-jupiter-in-hell.html
http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/reichskulturkammer/strauss-richard/

and this, as a curious piece of dessert:
theguardian.com/music/2014/may/23/richard-strauss-composer-classical-music-nazi-war-criminal

[Alan Howe]

Let's try and stick to the music, please.

What about the four Interludes from Intermezzo or the Introduction (Sextet) to Capriccio?

[Revilod]

The "Parergon on the "Sinfonia Domestica"" for piano (left hand) and orchestra is a good piece.