Composers Who Deserve To Be heard More Often In The Concert Hall

I agree with both contributions. I'm a Dubliner, and I'm well aware that the limited available funding, and the marginal position occupied by classical music in my country, make adventurous programming extremely difficult. Having said that our National Symphony Orchestra does try to be adventurous, a staged performance of Bluebeard's Castle was magnificent, but I do feel they could do more. For the life of me I will never understand why their most adventurous programmes are always at lunchtime, thus making it absolutely impossible for any working person to attend them.

I dream of hearing live orchestral performances of Frankel, Simpson, Holmboe, Leifs, Tubin, Markevitch, Malipiero, Martinu, Gerhard, Petrassi, Sessions, Dallapiccola, Hartmann, Lutoslawski, Panufnik, Ginastera, Dutilleux...., but I think I'll have to keep on dreaming, until somebody shows a lot more bravery or comes up with a lot more funding, or both. To be fair they did play Lutoslawski's Novelette this year, but again it was at lunch time. Thankfully the West Cork chamber festival is coming up soon, which in my humble opinion is world class.  

Certainly those of us who know these composers via recordings would love to hear them live. But in addition I believe the programmers are missing out on an opportunity to attract a new audience. As a rock and pop fan in my teens and early 20s I was first attracted to classical music by the works of 20th century composers, not the mainstream classics. The gap may still be a large one, but it seems to me that the music of Holmboe, Martinu, Walton, Dutilleux, Harris, Szymanowski. Lutoslawski, Sculthorpe etc. etc. is closer to the taste by most teens, than is that of Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt etc..

While we’re talking about seldom-performed music, I’m also puzzled by the world of ballet. Choreographers seem to love tackling bits and bobs of symphonic or instrumental music while works written specifically for ballet, by composers like Roussel, Walton, Tubin, Bliss, even Prokofiev and Ravel, gather dust.

 I vote for Gubaidulina as well. I was particularly impressed with her work Stimmen.

Good to see some mentions of Tubin, surely one of the most important yet neglected of 20th century composers.  Thank goodness for Järvi's recordings in the 80s which brought this great composer to more attention.  I dream of hearing one of his symphonies (or the first violin concerto, a truly beautiful work) in concert; I suspect that will only be acheived by a trip to Estonia!

This brings me to what seems to be the only solution here: travel.  We are blessed in Aberdeen with a lot of music, but the programs rarely stray off the beaten track (the Scottish Ensemble being a notable exception); to this end I started travelling to other Scottish cities specifically to catch works I had yet to hear live - and not even particularly obscure stuff either!  I realised with a shock some years back that if I ever wanted to hear An Alpine Symphony or Also Sprach Zarathustra in concert I'd have to take action.  Thanks to Alexander Lazarev I finally got to hear these works in concert.

Bernard Hermann also wrote a Symphony, a String Quartet, and an opera based on Wuthering Heights, all worth a listen.

Last year a friend of mine, who is a keen music lover, asked me for some guidance with 20th century classical music. Only too willing to share my love of this music with anyone who might appreciate it, every week I have been giving hime pieces to listen to, on a chronological basis, starting in 1900 and going year by year. The sad thing for me is how few, if any, of these pieces are performed regularly or at all. Everything I have recommended has floored me on first hearing, but I wait in vain to hear them live.

For examle today's batch was Webern's Variations, Dallpiccola's Canti di Prigonia, and Martinu's Memorial to Lidice, all absolutely spellbinding.

I can't hide my frustration at the fact that orchestras continue to play a majority of music that is from the 19th century. I am in no way saying that this music is inferior or doesn't deserved to be heard, absolutely not. What I am saying is that this music has had it's chance, and it is the duty of modern orchestras to play modern music, or older music that has not been heard. Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky etc are big enough to take care of themselves, and there should always be a place for them in live repertoire, but they should be the minority not the majority. In Beethoven's time audiences listened to music that was hot of the press, not music that was 200 years old. Audiences and orchestras have a responsibility to engage totally with the art of their time. For people who don't agree, that's what recorded music is for.

The notion that modern music is difficult to perform or listen to, doesn't wash with me. However difficult both these may be, it is equally as difficult for a modern composer to write such works, and we have no right to expect them to be easy. We live in difficult times, and their art is a personal and honest reflection of this. This is art not entertainment. If you want the latter, watch X factor, if you want the former, you should expect to hear your local orchestra playing Elliott Carter on a regular basis.