How did it start - for you?

[JimL]

Welcome aboard, Kevin!  Who conjured you out of the clay?

[TerraEpon]

My most recent discovery is a Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja. Has anyone else heard his wonderful symphonies? He is fabulous!!

I own the set of symphonies on Ondine and quite like it -- I think I actually discovered his name on an Amazon recommendation of all things, and like I often do, used my local library to check him out.

[Alan Howe]

Isn't it the Melartin symphonies on Ondine? There is a set of the Madetoja symphonies on Chandos.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, you are right Alan - but I always get them confused too!

[Kevin Pearson]

Welcome aboard, Kevin!  Who conjured you out of the clay?

I think it was Zardoz! 

Thanks for the welcome! I hope to learn a lot here. Not sure I contribute much but I will give it my best. 

Kevin

[Steven Eldredge]

For me, although I had been listening to 'standard' classical music and playing and studying the piano since 1962, my first delving into unsung composers was when I discovered the Hummel B Minor Piano Concerto Opus 89 on a Turnabout LP played by Martin Galling, back in the fall of 1969. Shortly after that somehow I discovered Raymond Lewenthal's Alkan disc on RCA, John Ogdon's Alkan Concerto, and Lewenthal's Columbia LP of the Henselt Concerto/Liszt Totentanz. Also another Vox LP of Michael Ponti playing the Scriabin and Rimsky-Korsakov Concertos was a favorite. By then there was no going back whatsoever. Reading Harold C. Shonberg's The Great Pianists gave me a desire to hear all the repertoire he talked about. A lot of these obscure piano pieces have been a part of my life for so many decades now that they are as central to my way of musical thinking as are the sonatas and concertos of Beethoven or Mozart.

I mean....what's so odd about Moszkowski???

Steven

[Syrelius]

My most recent discovery is a Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja. Has anyone else heard his wonderful symphonies? He is fabulous!!

Kevin

Hi, Kevin!
Madetoja is an old favourite of mine - especially the 2nd symphony. The opening of the 1st movement is pure magic!

[TerraEpon]

Whoops, silly me. It's Melartin, not Madetoja that I found on Amazon and bought the set on Ondine.

Madetoja is on Chandos, and it's ALSO very good. So yeah

[Jonathan]

My interest started (perhaps predictably) with Beethoven.  I play the piano and my Mum is a pianist as well and I found the music she had used and played that.  She also bought me (for either my 11th or 12th birthday) recordings of the Beethoven Piano concertos.  Now, having a logical sort of mind, I wondered what else had been written around that time.  So I started listening to BBC Radio 3 and heard assorted things that were mostly well known but nothing really "stuck".  Later on, after I discovered Liszt (via Louis Kentner's recordings on a record in the 6th form music library), I started to investigate people of that mid 19th century time period and I discovered Raff due to a comment in the linear note of one of Leslie Howard's Liszt CDs which refers to "Raff's excellent 5th Symphony".  So I went out and got as many recordings as I could of the symphonies (my thinking being that if the 5th is good, then what are the others like)...Then I looked into virtuoso pianists of Liszt's time - Henselt, Tausig, Stavenhagen etc. and then, just pianists from that time period (Chopin, Schumann, Brahms etc.etc.)...
Then I joined the BBC messageboards and got advice from them and then, probably about 5 or 6 years ago, I stumbled across this site and discovered people like Goetz, Volkmann, Madetoja (excellent stuff, i agree with all that's been said about him here too) and one or two others.  If I come across a CD of someone I've not heard of, I tend to look at their dates and see if they fall within the 19th century and then buy it!  So here I am, 20 odd years later with an enormous CD collection mostly consisting of 19th century composers!

[John H White]

Jonathan, I tend to do the same as you with new recordings of unfamiliar music. If I see the composer was born well inside the 19th Century I know it can't sound too bad and, especially if its a symphony, I am strongly tempted to buy it

[chill319]

Edward MacDowell, disciple of Raff. Searched for hard-to-find scores (e.g., the Raff-inspired op. 49) as a boy. Refused access to his manuscripts at the Library of Congress while a high school student. Played his first sonata for a university entrance audition.

[oldman]

For me, it started by simply becoming board with the 3 B's and looking for something different when I wasn't thinking about writing my own music.  I've found that many of the unsung composers that I've listened to were more interesting than their so called "betters". even those who weren't better were at least different.

[Mark Thomas]

Welcome Oldman!

[thalbergmad]

I am amazed it ever started for me at all, as I was brought up on a diet of Mrs Mills, Russ Conway and Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazzband, all of which I am still very fond of.

I think my mother got a classical compilation record in exchange for some Green Shield Stamps, which was the first time I had experienced the 3 B's.

As for the "unsung" composers, my interest probably started with the Hyperion Henselt Concerto and Earl Wilds "Art of Transcription" disk, which started off my interest with Thalberg.

Nowadays, i spend half my life filling out document supply request forms for scores, & the other half banging away at the piano trying to play them.

At the moment, I am going through a Leopold de Meyer phase.

Thal