Lesser Known Composers
Sat, Nov 13 2010, 7:49PM
#2
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Yes, Durob, I'd already mentioned him!
Sat, Nov 13 2010, 9:46PM
#3
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Apologies 33 lp, it was a while back and I had forgotten.
Sun, Nov 14 2010, 6:08PM
#4
RE: Lesser Known Composers
And my apologies dubrob for misspelling your name!
Wed, Nov 17 2010, 10:13AM
#5
RE: Lesser Known Composers
A variation which is interesting to explore is the lesser-known music by major composers. Take, for instance, Respighi: his "Church Windows", "Brazilian Impressions" and "Ballad of the Gnomes" are superbly exciting, evocative, and beautifully scored.
Wed, Nov 17 2010, 12:45PM
#6
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Here is a 1967 radio program (in English) about the Dutch composer Willem Pijper (1894-1947) including a performance of his 5th string quartet:
http://content1d.omroep.nl/5785d081adea0189cc589a1678950bbc/4ce3ccc2/rnw...
Pijper is an interesting composer. Philippe Graffin is going to record a couple of his violin sonata's for the Onyx label.
Rolf
Thu, Nov 18 2010, 8:54PM
#7
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Well welcome to Mr. Geoffrey Simon and yes lesser known works by popular composers is an interesting subject and one I may post as a new thread.
Otterhouse, Willem Pijper I have never heard of. Will do some investigating.
Sat, Nov 20 2010, 9:10PM
#8
RE: Lesser Known Composers
I'm a big fan of the off-the-beaten track early 20thC British composers - cowpats and all. Dutton are doing a wonderful job of bringing this music out in much the same way as Lyrita did a couple of decades past. Enjoying a couple of Bainton/Boughton discs at present.
A contemporary composer I've become completely absorbed by (also championed by Dutton) is David Matthews. A marvellous symphonic cycle building there. I was so impressed I travelled over the Pennines to hear the premiere of his 7th, fortunately broadcast too. Excellent music - contemporary but approachable.
I'd also recommend the Chandos Weinberg series. It's a bit like finding a treasure trove of lost Shostakovich. I've read criticisms of him being derivative but I suspect this was just the language of Russian music in the mid-20th C. The recordings have given me much pleasure.
Sun, Nov 21 2010, 11:07AM
#9
RE: Lesser Known Composers
I really like American composer Joan Tower.There is a CD on Naxos with her music.Very good.
Sun, Nov 21 2010, 2:19PM
#10
RE: Lesser Known Composers
The music of Ivor Gurney, there´s a very enjoyable Naxos CD of his songs with Iain Burnside playing the piano, whose Sunday Morning on BBC Radio 3, which introduced me to this music, and much else besides, is sadly no more.
Mon, Nov 22 2010, 8:55AM
#11
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Two composers I haven't spotted in this ever-growing list, Karlowicz (symphonic poems on Naxos, the first volume has some real treasures) and a composer I am still measuring up, Ernst Boehe (Odysseus cycle, on cpo)
Thu, Nov 25 2010, 10:41AM
#12
RE: Lesser Known Composers
W. G. Whittaker. Shine Great Sun was released on Viking Publications in the early 80s and was awarded a rosette by the Penguin guide, I seem to recall. Wonderful stuff, shameful neglect. Perfect Hyperion material I thought so I spoke to Ted Perry about it and it sounded like he might look into it but alas... Perhaps I should have another go.
Wed, Dec 29 2010, 11:45AM
#13
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread with my first post - I was just surprised to see that amidst all the riches here some of my favourites don't get a mention (perhaps they're better known than I think). Glad to see Boughton appears - a fascinating figure.
The lesser-known composer I return to again and again as though he was canonical is Richard Wetz. His symphonies no 2 & 3, written extraordinarily late but oscillating between Bruckner and Delius (?) can sometimes grip me almost as much as does Bruckner himself (first movement of 3 for instance) . I'm sure this will always be a source of embarassment: confirmation to myself and others that I can't tell the wheat from the chaff.
Also on CPO, slightly better known, Rontgen, especially Symph no 3: Brahmsian, prone to break into beautifully expansive counterpoint.
CPO again: Heinrich von Herzogenberg, symphonies and chamber music (particularly the latter).
From other sources I'd heartily recommend Kuhlau's piano quartets on dacapo, Cyril Scott's violin sonatas on Naxos as well as his output on Chandos and Lyrita, and the recent DVD of Langaard's Antikrist (dacapo). Also on DVD Dusapin's Faustus had me gripped - and much better known but still worth a mention in case it's evaded anyone - Busoni's glorious Faust. And I couldn't sign off without adding another recommendation for Havergal Brian, and not just the gothic - there are some impressive recordings of his later symphonies too.
Wed, Jan 5 2011, 3:39AM
#14
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread with my first post - I was just surprised to see that amidst all the riches here some of my favourites don't get a mention (perhaps they're better known than I think).
No apologies necessary, the thread's worth keeping going.
You've got some names that are new to me. Must investigate.
Scott's orchestral music I enjoy. It gets a bit over the top at times but there's a heady mix of influences in there. I got interested in him when I lived in Oxton, part of Birkenhead and either his birthplace or later home, I can't recall which. Not that his music recalls Oxton. George Lloyd perhaps does.
Is Langaard becoming the next 'in' minor composer? Lots of mentions of him lately and didn't they do Music of the Spheres at the Proms just now? Antikrist is interesting if you can make head or tail of the libretto, which I can't. Back in the bad old 60's I might have tried getting stoned to decipher it. Meanwhile, the music itself is enjoyable.
I agree, Busoni's Faust, like his piano concerto, is a gem. Try the recent dvd with Hampson if you haven't already done so. Doesn't erase memories of Fischer Dieskau, but good nevertheless.
Brian. Used to be the 'in' minor composer but seems to have slipped down the charts. For me, all his music contains great passages but I'm never sure it hangs together as a whole. I've worked hard on it with Macdonald's books at hand and as much as I've enjoyed the experience I'm not convinced he quite lives up to the hype of his more fanatical fans. Macdonald disagrees, but it seems to me his works are a prime example of music that looks better on paper than in performance. Glad to see Naxo are re-issuing the Marco Polo recordings.
Wed, Jan 12 2011, 11:51AM
#15
RE: Lesser Known Composers
Nice to see references to Scandinavians including Holmboe - to which I'd add Lang-Muller (there's a decent Violin Concerto, recently recorded on Da Capo) and Niels Gade (ditto - with plenty of 'lighter' music on other Da Capo releases too).
Following the reference to Langgaard, his symphonies are worth a listen. The First has almost no decent musical ideas but is so well-knitted orchestrally that it's quite compelling. By the time you get into the teens though the soundworld is utterly different.
I'd point to two Finns: Sibelius's brother-in-law Armas Jarnefelt (there's a new disc od his orchestral works just out on BIS...I think) and Kaveli Aho, who I know Guy Rickards has covered favourably in a recent Gramophone. Such a convincing, rounded voice.
Then one of the greatest Russian symphonies ever: Taneyev's Fourth. The Chandos recording is a real smile-inducer.
Don´t forget William Baines