Unsung Composers

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

Borodin's String Quartet #1.

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

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

Quote from: Peter1953 on Sunday 21 November 2010, 12:20
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 :) )

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

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"

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

Dvorak's Third Symphony and Stanford's Fifth.

Oh, Dvorak is full of unsung stuff.  My favorite symphony is the 2nd, Op. 4.

A few off the top of my head:

Bach - The four Missae breve; Violin Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 (NOT the 'double', but the reconstructed 'single' one)
Beethoven - Eroica Variations Op 35
Handel - La resurrezzione; Concerti a due chori
Mozart - Incidental music to Thamos, King of Egypt
Prokofiev - Eugene Onegin; Symphony No 3; Symphony No 6
Shostakovich - The Execution of Stepan Razin
Vaughan Williams - Job - A Masque for Dancing
Vivaldi - Nisi Dominus

 
Rachmaninoff's The Bells and his Sonata No. 1

QuoteAnd where are the performances of Massenet's Sapho? 

And where are the performances of Gounod's Sappho?

Hmmmm, I'd have to say a lot of very good music by Liszt never gets an airing - e.g. A la Chapelle Sixtine (in any of the 4 versions), Scherzo und Marsch, The Elegie on themes by Prince Fernand de Prusse, the 'other' Spanish Rhapsody etc, etc...

Also a little surprised to see Medtner included as a sung composer, though... but if so, his sonate-ballade is as known as anything by him, I think - not so the lovely song, "The Muse", from which it takes its melodic material (as does the piano quintet- though the quintet also, I think, takes from "The Rose" from the same group of Pushkin settings, and perhaps others.) These two are sung quite wonderfully (in my honest opinion) by the late Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and played by the composer on a  nla (and much-missed) EMI CD in their "Composers in Person" series (remasterings of recordings made in the 1950s) - hopefully available in some other form, maybe on APR.  The piano sonatas and concertos by Medtner are much better known than the quintet, violin sonatas and skazki, I think, the latter in turn better known than the other brief piano (and violin/piano) works and the songs (and the sonata- and suite-vocalise). Haven't heard all of this and can't by rights call of it masterpiece level of course but the songs I would call well worth hearing.  (Likewise those by some other composers much better known for their larger-scale works, Carl Nielsen e.g. - subjectively at least my favorite Nielsen work is his Holstein setting Sommersang - and also the quiet I Aften..., though I certainly very much enjoy the symphonies, concertos, violin sonatas and piano works.)
Eric

An almost random selection, in order of composition.

1830. Mendelssohn, Reformation Symphony. An astonishingly original work. How far he had come by age 21. Gardiner, Wiener PO perform it wonderfully, though I wouldn't want to part with the noble rendition by Reinhard Seifried, National SO of Ireland.

1833. Mendelssohn's 12+ minute scena ed aria Infelice for Maria Malibran, premiered in London in 1834 (wonderfully performed by Cecilia Bartoli).

1846. Schumann, Das Paradies und die Peri. Pre-Mahlerian heaven.

1853, Schumann, Fantasie, op. 131 (Mutter), Violin Concerto (Capuçon)

1868. Rimsky-Korsakov, Antar. What it lacks in Durchführung it makes up for in sweep and majesty.

1900. Scriabin, Fantasie, op. 28. The Berman performance on YouTube does it justice.

1910. Holst, Beni Mora, particularly the third movement. VW wrote in 1920, "if [Beni Mora] had been played in Paris instead of London it would have given its composer a European reputation."

1912-14. I'll second Strauss's ballet Josephslegende. The Union with God theme is one of his happier inspirations, while the music for the boxing match comes from a ferocious world not distant from Stravinsky's Danse sacrale.

1915. Bloch, Israel Symphony. With a first movement that sounds almost like Copland 25 years later.

1923. Nielsen, Prelude and Theme with Variations. One of the major 20th-c. works for solo violin -- not played nearly as often as Prokofiev or Bartok.

1945. Bax, Piano Trio. He could still push the envelope brilliantly.

Quote from: Amphissa on Monday 22 November 2010, 16:06
Rachmaninoff's The Bells

Probably unsung in concert, but certainly pretty sung (hah!) on recordings. And it's quite often cited as one of Rach's best (if not his best), so I'd say it doesn't quite qualify.

Quote from: edurban on Sunday 21 November 2010, 22:20
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...

No. I hadn't come across it but I will get it. What works against this superb work, of course, is its all-male cast. I remember when I was a student in the late 1970s, a time when there was a certain amount of snobbery about Massenet (and Puccini) because of what was considered his commercial approach to opera composition, pointing out that a composer who could write an opera with no role for a prima donna couldn't be solely interested in making money.

Rimsky Korsakov's piano concerto, sadko, and opera suites, especially Christmas Eve.
Balakirev's First Symphony

Quote from: JSK on Wednesday 24 November 2010, 01:10
Rimsky Korsakov's piano concerto, sadko, and opera suites, especially Christmas Eve.
Balakirev's First Symphony

I'm not sure if I've heard both of them- I'm not positive I've heard either of them, but I'm fairly sure I have (that's a recommendation for you...) - anyway, Balakirev's 2 piano sonatas.

Did anyone mention Tchaikovsky's 3rd string quartet?

Quote from: TerraEpon on Tuesday 23 November 2010, 06:51

Quote from: Amphissa on Monday 22 November 2010, 16:06
Rachmaninoff's The Bells

Probably unsung in concert, but certainly pretty sung (hah!) on recordings. And it's quite often cited as one of Rach's best (if not his best), so I'd say it doesn't quite qualify.

Just because it has received some recordings does not mean  it has been heard by a lot of people. We all know how abysmally low classical sales are. Most people I know are unfamiliar with either The Bells or Piano Sonata No. 1.

 
Another on my list would be Sibelius Kullervo.

Quote from: Amphissa on Wednesday 24 November 2010, 05:32

Another on my list would be Sibelius Kullervo.

This certainly was unsung, but over here in the UK at least, it has been publicly performed and is probably emerging into some form of 'sungness'.

Quote from: Amphissa on Wednesday 24 November 2010, 05:29

Just because it has received some recordings does not mean  it has been heard by a lot of people. We all know how abysmally low classical sales are. Most people I know are unfamiliar with either The Bells or Piano Sonata No. 1.

but let's not also raise the bar to the point where 'sung' refers only to Beethoven's 5th and the Toccata and Fugue that is wrongly attributed to JS Bach :)

A work I come back to again and again is Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata.   He was the consumate piano composer and when I hear things like this, I think, this probably should have been named Piano Sonata with cello accompaniment.......

But this issue of what's unsung by sung composers may be a geographical issue as well.   Despite having a world class orchestra in Minnesota, I can't remember the last time they played anything by an unsung.   Let alone an unsung by a sung.  Maybe the Gurrelieder, and that was probably 15 years ago.   Sea Drift and that was 30 years ago.

So Alan and Gareth and maybe others from the UK will probably laugh at this, but at the top of my list would be The Dream of Gerontius.  Someone asks my favorite choral work and I name it, they just give me a stupid look, like "Whaaaat?"

I ramble, sorry.

 
I agree that there is regional difference in repertoire. I've noticed that The Bells got played at the Proms a couple of times. And British orchestras have a long history of recording unsungs.

Over the past 25 years, I have lived in New York and San Francisco, attended the symphony in Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville and Houston. I have never seen Kullervo or The Bells on a series program of any of these U.S. orchestras. That doesn't mean they've never been played by these orchestras, but not during the years I've received their program schedules.

Quote from: JSK on Wednesday 24 November 2010, 01:10
Rimsky Korsakov's piano concerto, sadko, and opera suites, especially Christmas Eve.
Balakirev's First Symphony

I'm not sure that Balakirev's magnificent 1st Symphony is more unsung than most of his music but, referring to the thread on music that's not done at the Proms, I see that it's only ever been performed once...and that was in 1901!
"Tamara" is another wonderful and woefully neglected piece (last done at the Proms in 1945.)

I thought Washington DC did have at least one orchestra with a wide range of repertoire, but maybe I'm confused. (Am I thinking of the American Symphony or something else...)

 
The American Symphony Orchestra in New York, led by Botstein, has played quit a wide variety of unsung composers and music. I first heard Wellesz by this band, and the only Gliere I've ever heard performed in concert. A very fun group. Most of the musicians are faculty from the various schools of music in NY metro area, not full time orchestral musicians. So they really thrive on unusual fare.

Hrm. I will say in the National Symphony Orchestra's favor that they are performing works by Roussel (excerpts, admittedly) and Zemlinsky in this current season (also Silvestrov, but no one's perfect. Messiaen I sometimes like, but is outside scope of forum. http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/schedule.html (http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/schedule.html)) (Mind, I live in central New York State and am unlikely to be attending...)

Hi, I'm new. Don't know if any of these qualify ?

Janacek - Otcenas
Saint-Saens - 4th PC
Rheinberger - organ concerti.

Am going to love logging in to all your discussions on Unsung Composers. So much to learn. Apologies if this post is inappropriate.

Welcome CJV. Why should your post be inappropriate?

Thank you, Sir !  I'm afraid that, though I know what I like musically, I've nothing to contribute in terms of understanding of a piece or why I appreciate it. Only finally started to learn to read music (to help with the singing I've at last taken up) 18 months ago, and am, after hundreds of hours, operating at only about 10/15%.
So, I'm loath to join in discussion by people with far more musical knowledge than I'll ever have, but reading the posts on a site like this, and maybe picking up the odd tip from contributors, is probably my best way forward. so, as long as it doesn't annoy anyone, i'll carry on blundering in ! 

But Clive, you are an unnecessarily modest fellow! Given that I am apt to exclaim the wonders of Birtwistle along with those of Raff, I am more likely than you to annoy people on the site. And doing so does not worry me one jot. The golden rule is to be civil in our dialogues and to read carefully, and ponder upon, the contributions of others that may at first cause an eyebrow to be raised. All that is forbidden is an expression of 'Yah, that's just plain rubbish and is akin to a hyena's mating-call' where that expression is unsupported by any reasons and thus is nothing but crude prejudice. Note the banner at the top of the page saying 'for the open-minded classical music lover' - I don't like the word 'classical', but the message is clear enough.

And it is certainly not some highbrow site which seeks to exclude those, like me, with an inferior grasp of musical terminology or understanding of technical terms. True, there are some on the site who do certainly possess a knowledge or understanding of which I am envious. (We can learn from them, and are deeply grateful for their presence here). But what unites us all is an enthusiasm for music, a desire to infect others with that enthusiasm, and a belief that the list of the alleged 7 wonders of the world is seriously defective in not putting music at the top. For is not music, the putting together of organised sounds, and produced by scratching one thing against another, bashing on other things, or blowing down tubes of various diameters, and thereby affecting our senses so meaningfully, the most incredible and marvellous of things?

Ignore these confused ramblings about the metaphysics of music! The great thing about the site is the opportunity to find out what one didn't know before - whether it is a performance or recording of some previously obscure piece, an as yet to be discovered composer or work, or whatever - and to come away with one's knowledge enriched and thus be provided with opportunities for new kinds of rewarding musical experiences that one wouldn't have had unless a friend on the site had pointed them out to us. Thus coming on board is the best kind of medicine that will do you no end of good - and we warmly welcome you!

Peter

Well said, Peter. And again, welcome,  cjvinthechair!

The only caveat I would mention Clive, is our preference for the Romantic period.  Thus, although somewhat tonal, Hovanhess is a bit marginal in his qualification for discussion here.

Gentlemen, thank you. Intend to enjoy learning what I can here, and will attempt not to infuriate too many along the way !
                Clive.

Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss

Quote from: giles.enders on Wednesday 29 December 2010, 12:49
Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss

Hardly unsung (in any sense of the word). Rather, among his most performed pieces, I'd say.

Sorry, I misread the topic

Based on a couple of comments in this thread, I purchased the Beecham recording of Balakirev 1. A truly splendid symphony that wears well on repeated hearings -- albeit only slightly more unsung than Balakirev himself.

I would suggest Berlioz's Symphonie funebre et triomphale for band and, in its last movement, chorus and full orchestra.

Quote from: dafrieze on Saturday 22 January 2011, 17:57
I would suggest Berlioz's Symphonie funebre et triomphale for band and, in its last movement, chorus and full orchestra.

I should go listen to Lélio finally and decide if I think it falls in here. I do like La mort de Cléopatre rather though...

-Kodaly Summer evening
-Respighi Metamorphoseon modi XII
-Liszt Von der Wiege bis Zum Grabe
-Faurè Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra
-Roussel Aeneàs

Quote from: Revilod on Wednesday 24 November 2010, 22:46

Quote from: JSK on Wednesday 24 November 2010, 01:10
Rimsky Korsakov's piano concerto, sadko, and opera suites, especially Christmas Eve.
Balakirev's First Symphony

I'm not sure that Balakirev's magnificent 1st Symphony is more unsung than most of his music but, referring to the thread on music that's not done at the Proms, I see that it's only ever been performed once...and that was in 1901!
"Tamara" is another wonderful and woefully neglected piece (last done at the Proms in 1945.)

Let's not forget regional differences! There's not that much unsung by Rimski-Korsakov in Russia, but little of him is heard in other parts of the world. Similarly, Sibelius is sung in the UK and Finland (obviously), but he's hardly present in concert halls anywhere else. And there are many other examples.

Sibelius is (or was) a big presence here in L.A. as long as Salonen was in charge of the Phil.  Now that he is conductor laureate, I'm certain he will bring some to town every now and then until the day he retires.

We heard a lot of Sibelius when stanislaw skrowaczewski was here.  Including a large scale performance of Kullervo.  Not so much since altho now that Vanksa is here we are getting more and more Finnish music. 

Jerry

Visiting conductors and, more in the last decades, visiting orchestras cross, at least partially, the regional differences.
I take the case of Sibelius in Torino, Italy. Here the young Toscanini conducted almost "in real time" at least Finlandia, En Saga and the Swan of Tuonela. In 1911 Kajanus, obviously with Torino Orchestra, conducted Symphonies 1 and 2, Finlandia and Valse Triste.
Let's jump to more recent times and we see some important presences (Karajan in the 50's - Finlandia; Celibidache Fifth Symphony in the 60's) and some minor ones. The Violin Concerto is constantly performed.
Now to the next years . Sibelius is often conducted by English and Finnish Maestros, sometimes with their visiting orchestras.
So we hear:
En Saga (Fedoseyev, Storgards)
Tapiola (Storgards)
Pohjola' Daughter (Saraste)
Symphony n.2 (M.T.Thomas, S.Franc.O; Saraste, Finnish Radio Orch.).
Symphony n.3 (C.Davis,LSO; D.Harding , Mahler CO).
Symphony n.5 (Fabio Luisi, Mikko Franck).
Symphony n.6 (J.Tate)
Symphony n.7 (C.Davis, LSO; D.Harding , Mahler CO).
Vn. Concerto (Mullova, Tezlaff, Repin, Kremer)
Pelleas inc. Music (Pletnev, Russian Nat.Orch.)
The Tempest suite 1; Luonnotar (Oramo, City of Birmingham).
Valse Triste (C.Davis, LSO; D.Harding, Concertgebouw).
The Oceanides (C.Davis,LSO).
Four Legends (Salonen , Philharmonia).
Summing up this example, Sibelius is a fairly sung composer even in Italy.
I would say that Luonnotar and the complete Four Legends are rarely sung (but not unsung) masterpieces.

Would you consider Samuel Barber's violin concerto to be an unsung masterpiece?

I think everybody knows the Adagio for strings, but what about the violin concerto. It's a wonderfully melodic and sad piece of music.

Nick

No, the Barber VC is widely recognised to be one of the 20th century's great examples of the genre. It's a sung masterpiece.

Works by Sibelius are in the top 20 in terms of number of concert performances in the U.S., so he certainly not unsung over here in the colonies. However, I think Kullervo is a very fine work that almost never gets performed in concert, at least here in the U.S. I know there are quite a few wonderful recordings, but I have never seen it on a concert program in the U.S. and I'm not sure if any of those recordings sell in the U.S.

Also, none of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas ever seem to get performed in the U.S. to my knowledge. Which is very sad, since much of his best music is in the operas.

Yes. "Le Coq D'Or" in particular is a fabulous piece. So is "Sadko" though it does sprawl somewhat.

I wanted to mention R. Strauss's "Parergon on the Sinfonia Domestica" for left-handed pianist and orchestra...a piece which I have recently been getting to know. It's wonderful yet it's hardly ever performed. Just bear with the opening 6 minutes or so. (In fact, this passage contains the seeds of the music to come and will soon grow on you.)

I particularly like R-K's opera Mlada. Some of the R-K operas are available on DVD, but Kashchei the Immortal is not, so far as I know, and the Tale of Tsar Saltan on DVD is a bastardized version, cut in half and sung in German. Such great music in all of those operas. A shame they are not performed or available in better form.

Much as I love Rimsky's operas, I think an even better candidate for this thread is Humperdinck: any of his several masterpieces _besides_ Hansel and Gretel.

What versions of Sibelius: Kullervo are your favorites?   I have several versions, but my favorite is Saraste's performance with the FRSO.

Why?

Indeed. Reasons, please!

Oh oh, this again...

Sorry, but we insist upon this at UC. A post that simply says 'I like this' is lazy and uninformative. 'I like this because...', on the other hand, is the basis for informed debate.

I just hope we don't have another ''marvellous'' episode which I found very very silly.

QuoteWhat versions of Sibelius: Kullervo are your favorites?   I have several versions, but my favorite is Saraste's performance with the FRSO.

I'm not a Kullervo expert by any stretch of the imagination but I've enjoyed this recording recently:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7922271--sibelius-kullervo-op-7

QuoteI just hope we don't have another ''marvellous'' episode which I found very very silly.

It really doesn't matter what adjective is used (providing it's not offensive) as long as what follows is a reasoned justification for its use.

And with that, back to the subject of the thread, please.

QuoteI'm not a Kullervo expert by any stretch of the imagination but I've enjoyed this recording recently

Please tell us why.