Lesser Known Composers

Here are the results of my listening experiment:

a) Busoni: Piano Concerto.  I was reminded of Rachmaninov's 2 'ugly duckling' piano concertos during movements I & II.

During movement III, I wanted to get up and move around, lie down for a snooze, then had thoughts of food.

At about 7 minutes into movement IV, I noticed a familiar melody - where have I heard that before?  During movement V I almost fell asleep.

Despite these negative events, I was surprised how quickly the 70 minutes passed and will plan more uninteruppted listening.

b) Busoni: Fantasia Contrappuntistica.  It sounded as though the  wrong notes were being played at times, a sort of Les Dawson style.  However, I'm not ready to give up on atonal music yet. (If that's what it was).

Thanks for your interest gents.

I have just watched the Alice in Wonderland ballet; I'm not really a big fan of ballet but the music was wonderful. Joby Talbot following on from where Prokofiev left off, why isn't it available on CD?

There are esoteric names of the past like Carl Czerny but I immediately think of contemporary composers whenever this topic is presented. Frederich Rzewski is supremely underrated and an amiable conversationalist. Isang Yun is one who I enjoy listening to more than most. Michael Kugel is more known for his viola playing but is also a composer of the instrument. Vytautas Barkauskas is interesting and challenging at the same time. Eva Beglarian is a fun and intelligent composer. No one mentioned Kaija Saariaho or Sofia Gubaidulina?

With the exception of the great Czerny (a lesser known composer only to the general public but a very significant to musicians and collectors), I can leave without the rest, although I have a good number of recordings of most of them.

Parla