Lost composers

[Hovite]

I'm currently listening to a Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon and Orchestra apparently incorrectly attributed to Mozart. It is very nice. Not perhaps a great work nor particularly memorable, but quite jolly. This gives rise to two questions: Who did write it? And what else did he write?

In all probability the piece only got recorded because of the false association with Mozart, and there are other cases of works recorded as a result of mistaken attribution to Haydn or Mozart, or even Beethoven. There are probably other symphonies that don't get recorded because they have no name attached to them.

[Alan Howe]

I don't know of any (Romantic-era) anonymous symphonies. I remember that the 'Jena' Symphony was once thought to be an early work by Beethoven - but we now know that it was composed by Friedrich Witt. It actually sounds much more like Haydn...

[John H White]

Those of us who were domiciled in the UK back in the late 40s & 50s may recall a certain programme put out every Thursday night from the Concert Hall of Broadcasting House by the BBC Home Service( now Radio 4) entitled "Music in Miniature". The idea was to introduce snippets of chamber works to the "average listener" unfamiliar with that genre. The pieces were played unannounced one after the other and were not named until the end of the broadcast. Each week they always began with the same "signature tune" which was the Serenade theme from what was then known as Haydn's String Quartet Opus 3 no. 5 . In more recent years this has been found to be by Haydn's lesser known contemporary, Roman Hoffstetter. Thus, 2 of Haydn's most famous tunes, this one and the theme that Brahms used for his masterly set of variations have now been shown to have been written by other people!

[Lew]

Hello.

Another orphan symphony that comes to mind, though an eighteenth century one, is the so-called 'Odense' Symphony. It was once attributed to Mozart, but that's now felt to be doubtful. It contains some memorable tunes and is expertly composed in the 'Sturm und Drang' style. I feel it is the composition of an excellent composer, working in the 1770s or '80s.

Lew Lewis

[mbhaub]

And then there's the Symphonisches Praeludium that Neeme Jarvi recorded for Chandos, and is attributed to Gustav Mahler. But it could have been by Bruckner, Rott, Krzyzanowski or anyone's guess.

[Paul Barasi]

Symphonisches Praeludium in C minor is almost certainly not by Hans Rott. It just doesn't sound like any of his other orchestral music that has been recorded (First Symphony in E, Suite in E, Orchestral Prelude in E, Prelude to Julius Cæsar, Pastorales Vorspiel, Symphony for String Orchestra). 

[Hovite]

And then there's the Symphonisches Praeludium that Neeme Jarvi recorded for Chandos, and is attributed to Gustav Mahler. But it could have been by Bruckner, Rott, Krzyzanowski or anyone's guess.

This article argues for Bruckner:

http://www.abruckner.com/Data/documents/symphonisches_praeludium_essay.pdf

[edurban]

Some years ago I heard a symphony (No.21 in g minor) on the radio by an obscure Ukrainian named Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky.  The performance was a distinguished one from 1949(?), led by Mravinsky.  The kicker was that the symphony had subsequently proved to be a total fraud, composed by its 'discoverer' one Mikhail Goldstein.

Great piece, though.

David

[Mark Thomas]

But what was was the point of it's obscure "discoverer" Goldstein faking a symphony by another obscure composer Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky? Or maybe Kulikovsky wasn't obscure at the time?

[edurban]

The symphony, said to have been composed in 1809, was immediately hailed by the Soviets as evidence that they had a Beethoven/Haydn era composer who could play in the big leagues, especially since the symphony uses Ukrainian tunes and has a Ukrainian dance for a finale.  Goldstein's motivation?  He had earlier brought out some music under his own name that used Ukrainian tunes but had been savaged by the Soviet press, which claimed that as a Jew, he could not possibly understand Ukrainian culture.  So he got the laugh on them although the joke ruined his career and eventually he had to emigrate to the West.

Ironically, there is no evidence that the original Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky, a minor nobleman and patron of the Odessa theatre, composed at all.

[JimL]

The symphony, said to have been composed in 1809, was immediately hailed by the Soviets as evidence that they had a Beethoven/Haydn era composer who could play in the big leagues, especially since the symphony uses Ukrainian tunes and has a Ukrainian dance for a finale.  Goldstein's motivation?  He had earlier brought out some music under his own name that used Ukrainian tunes but had been savaged by the Soviet press, which claimed that as a Jew, he could not possibly understand Ukrainian culture.  So he got the laugh on them although the joke ruined his career and eventually he had to emigrate to the West.

Oh, poor guy!  Had to emigrate to the capitalist, bourgeois Free World out of Stalin the deathmonger's Russia after making fools out of the state press apparatchiks.  Bet he was laughing all the way to the border.  I wonder what happened to him after he got wherever he ended up?    

[Mark Thomas]

He'll probably have been as miserable as sin because he'd been forced to leave his homeland, which like most Soviets he probably loved despite Stalin's regime, his friends and neighbours and live in a totally alien environment where he was ill equipped to survive, I imagine, Jim.

An interesting story, though, edurban. I hadn't appreciated that the fakee, as it were, was from the early 1800s.

[Hovite]

Some years ago I heard a symphony (No.21 in g minor) on the radio by an obscure Ukrainian named Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky.  The performance was a distinguished one from 1949(?), led by Mravinsky.  The kicker was that the symphony had subsequently proved to be a total fraud, composed by its 'discoverer' one Mikhail Goldstein.

Well, that's another matter, but Fritz Kreisler wrote about a dozen works that he credited to others, and, even more successfully, Giazotto composed an Adagio that he attributed to Albinoni (though is is quite unlike real Albinoni).

[JimL]

He'll probably have been as miserable as sin because he'd been forced to leave his homeland, which like most Soviets he probably loved despite Stalin's regime, his friends and neighbours and live in a totally alien environment where he was ill equipped to survive, I imagine, Jim.

Well, if he preferred certain death he could have insisted on staying.  Many in his position did and either died or cooled their heels in Siberia.  Don't forget that he was a Jew, Mark.  They weren't exactly regarded as 'friends and neighbours' in Stalin's Russia/Ukraine.  And he would have found a great deal of support in the Jewish communities in the West, had he sought them out.

[peter_conole]

Hi all

The subject raised by Hovite is a fascinating one, on several grounds. It boils down to consideration of the why's and wherefores of musical fakes. Why compose a piece and then claim it was by a famous composer? Would it be too crude to say that money was usually the prime motivator? Whether you collected cash from a grateful (and gullible) publisher swooning over a 'lost' work by a master, or from audiences excited by a 'rediscovery', personal gain was the result.     

Obviously not in the case of Goldstein - he had a bigger collective target, which got pretty angry with him...

I have found quite a few dodgy works over the years and find the matter pretty interesting. Leaving out obvious and admitted transcriptions, re-arrangements, completions, 'realisations' or simple mistaken attributions, here are a few:

Anonymous Violin Concerto in E Flat major of early 1800s once attributed to Antonio Lolli (by his son, I suspect)
Henri Casadesus - C Minor Viola Concerto of 1916 once attributed to J.C Bach, now more nicely called 'in the style of...'
Marius Casadesus - Violin Concerto in D of 1931 attributed to Mozart, but really just 'in the style of'
Johann Eck - probable composer of an E Flat Major Violin Concerto of 1799 once attributed to Mozart
Fritz Kreisler - Violin Concerto in C of 1905 'in the style' of Vivaldi
Ignace Malzat - Oboe Concerto in C Major, c1800 - once attributed to F.J.Haydn
Emilio Pente - Violin Concerto in E Minor of 1885 'in the style of' Nardini
Johann Roesler - allegro in a D Major Piano Concerto of 1809 possibly lifted from Beethoven
Eugene Sauzay - Violin Concerto in D Major of 1837 'in the style of' Mozart.

Apart from those mentioned in early postings on this thread, can anyone come up with others to watch out for?

regards
Peter