Unsung masterpieces by sung composers

[Alan Howe]

We've been here before, I think, albeit off and on, but there may be some more mileage in the topic. So, my nomination for this category:
Elgar: The Music Makers, esp. as recorded by Janet Baker/Sir Adrian Boult on EMI.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Vaughan Williams - An Oxford Elegy; Holst - Hymn of Jesus; Arthur Bliss - Morning Heroes; Dukas - La Peri;

[JimL]

Dukas - Symphony in C Major
Anything unsung by Max Bruch that I've ever heard.  I no longer consider him unsung - he has at least three repertory works...well, three.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Thanks, Gareth, for your post got me thinking VW. I fished out the Vaughan Williams Piano Concerto that I haven't listened to for some years. What a stunner, and the infrequency of performances means it certainly counts as an unsung masterpiece by a thankfully very much sung composer.

Peter

[Alan Howe]

Indeed, thank you, Gareth - but in my case, for nudging me to consider Bliss' Morning Heroes - which will now duly be ordered!

It never ceases to amaze me how much music forum members know!

[Ilja]

All four of Tchaikovsky's suites belong in this category, I guess.

[John H White]

Beethoven's Choral fantasia for piano, orchestra and choir together with his last overture "The Consecration of the House"

[Peter1953]

And how rarely do we hear Chopin's first Piano Sonata?

[JimL]

Borodin's String Quartet #1.

[mbhaub]

Rimsky-Korsakov's Piano Quintet and Night on Mt. Triglav

[edurban]

Saint-Saens: Henri viii, Donizetti: Poliuto, Ireland: These Things Shall Be, Bruch: Gruss an die Heilige Nacht (Christmas cantata).  Not necessarily in that order...

David

[eschiss1]

And how rarely do we hear Chopin's first Piano Sonata?

Very rarely, but I am going to dispute the characterization of this student work as a masterpiece (I don't dislike it, I even enjoy it, tangentially.) Not because it is a student work, but for a number of other reasons. (Ok, Chopin makes the interesting decision to keep the exposition basically in one key, C minor, whereas most sonata forms are defined by key contrast. Does he make something of this? The tunes are more or less ok, the minuet, the slow movement, and the opening of the finale are memorable, but I want more from an actual masterpiece.)

Maybe the Bolero op.19, or the Barcarolle op.60 - slightly better-known, true. (The list of his works does include a number of hidden gems, though, I do think, especially perhaps among the WoO; I just maintain not that one )

[albion]

A couple of nominations (restricted to works already recorded) are:

Parry's Ode on the Nativity (1912) - thrilling choral writing awash with typical slow-burn climaxes, wedded to unusually (for Parry) ripe orchestration

Richard Strauss' ballet Josephslegende (1914) - a much maligned work, but an orchestral tour-de-force with sumptuous melodies

Dvorak's cantata The Spectre's Bride (1885) - a little-known work written for the Birmingham Festival

Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Piano Duet and Strings, Op.32 (1953) - a wonderful piece of concentrated writing, with an incredibly moving chaconne as the slow movement

Stanford's Requiem (1897) - one of the towering masterpieces of Victorian choral music, undoubtedly influenced by Verdi

Vaughan Williams' Hugh the Drover (1914) - an opera crying out for sympathetic professional production - an intelligent and involving storyline wedded to some of the most beautiful folk-influenced music VW ever created

[Revilod]

Yes...Saint-Saens: "Henri VIII", Piano Quartet op. 41
Massenet: "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" and "Cendrillon" (we need a complete recording with a soprano singing "Le Prince Charmant" as Massenet wanted.)
Dvorak: Symphonic Poem:" A Hero's Song".
Medtner: Sonata Ballade Op 27.
Shostakovich: 'Cello Concerto No. 2....superior to No. 1, I think.
Elgar: Oratorio: "The Light of Life"

[edurban]

Revilod, thanks for mentioning Jongleur.  Have you seen the 2009 (recorded live 2007) recording with Alagna on DG?  I don't think it was released in the USA; I had to order mine from Amazon's French site.  I wonderful performance of this much underappreciated work...

And where are the performances of Massenet's Sapho?  French audiences found it cool in its day: British and American audiences (reacting mostly to Daudet's novel) thought it immoral.  Today the story is still a heart-breaker and Massenet's tone seems just right...

David