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In the Stanford U/Silicon Valley part of California, the non-professional Saratoga Symphony Orchestra specializes in seldom played repertory, at least half of which falls within the Unsung Composers remit. This may be old news, but in case it isn't, a specimen concert would be that of 3/12/2017, which comprised Duparc's "Lenore," Hübler's Konzertstück for 4 horns, and Raff's Symphony No. 5, "Lenore." This season they have already played Glazunov's Symphony No. 1. Concerts to come include works by Auber, Dubois, Massenet, Delibes, Borkiewicz's 1st concerto, MacDowell's 1st orchestral suite, Guilmant's Symphony No. 1, Jongen's Symphonie Concertante for organ and orchestra, and more. http://www.saratogasymphony.com/schedule.html

Any recording of the Draeseke quartets is for me a must buy. Alan Krueck's selfless service to Draeseke has given many of us a chance to get acquainted with the master's quartets, splendid works all (even if his second string quintet, op. 77, may be the acme of his chamber music). But with works of this caliber, multiple perspectives on the scores are more than welcome, they're necessary. So CPO, thank you, but what took you so long?

Regarding Draeseke's dramatic works, to see how naturally vocal drama came to him, give his opus 1 a try: the 14+ minute scena Helga's Treue is on the CPO CD of Draeseke's Lieder.

Without meaning to hijack this thread... since there's mention of a companion piece, seldom heard live in the U.S., I'll mention that this evening the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra performed the Polish Fantasy, with Hubert Rutkowski at the keyboard. Mr. Rutkowsky milked it for every ounce of its power, poetry and panache, which turned out to be considerable, and the result was a real crowd pleaser. I thought the work stronger than it had seemed from recordings, with the orchestra's part writing pleasing, often clever, and colorful.

I enjoyed these notes and remembrances of pianist Michael Ponti, an early champion of unsung composers (and still alive, I believe). I thought you might enjoy them, too, and my friend gave his okay to share them.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ponti was, along with Earl Wild and others, a hero of my youth.
And he always will be one of my personal heroes.

In the 70s and early 80s I went to any concert by him I could.
In one concert he played the whole "Hammerklavier" as an encore......Totally insane........

He had T-shirts to sell, on which you could read
"Ponti- Power" or "Ponti-Fex"...........

He is a somehow tragical person, who never had the chance to be [considered] one of the greatest -- though for me and others, he actually is.
I remember a 1978 WDR interview with him, and I also remember my conversation with him in 1996 after he played a concert with us.
Afterwards we drank a lot. He was very sad about the way his career had gone. As in the WDR interview, he said that he had no chance [had not had the right opportunities].

Vox told him: "We want the complete Rachmaninov solo piano works."
And he said "ok."

Vox told him then: "Next we want the complete Scriabin."
At this moment - he told me - he became nervous.
But he said "ok."

And then Vox said to him: "The first recording we want to do is the Henselt concerto."
Then he knew it would be a very tough time for him.

And he was willing to play any gig you could imagine. Take a summer holiday in Sylt, for example, 30 years ago.
The local Kurorchester wanted to play Brahms Piano concerto No.1.
Ponti appeared and played it on a little piano, a "Stutzflügel."

He had memorized over 50 concertos. In 1996 he played the Liszt 2nd Concerto with us.
During rehearsal he had only a small "Taschenpartitur", a very old one, his own.
But he did not need it. He knew all the markings and numbers by heart.

Kudos.
He was a 150% old school professional.
Even in rehearsal he made no mistakes.
He sat at the piano, making no unnecessary motions, and just played.
That demeanor is, of course, rather unlike some of our stars nowadays.

And he played beautifully and -- of course -- powerfully.
What a sound.
Ponti-Power!

He was often recorded unfaithfully, with bad Instruments and under bad circumstances.
He did his job all the time.

That said, I have a Rachmaninov and Prokofiev 3rd Concerto from the 90s that seems produced very well and that sounds very good.
It is played with great character, intensity and verve on a very good Steinway.
And the recording is state of the art.
This is Ponti at his best.
Sadly this CD is out of print.

Rach 3 with Ponti I have dreamed about for decades.
But it exists!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Some of these anecdotes seem to suggest that Ponti wanted more opportunities to be heard in standard repertoire. (Which of course doesn't mean that he stinted on his preparations for Henselt et alia.)

It's always a pleasure when more than one good recording of a work exists, and it never fails to amaze me how different good performances can be. That said, in my book no one has yet surpassed Stig Westerberg's heroic conception and recording of this symphony.

Eric's concert thread is getting a bit sidetracked, so it seemed not inappropriate to fork a Boellmann question here.  There's a 2015 recording on the Blue Griffin label, "Trouvailles!" that includes Boellmann's work together with cello sonatas of Dohnanyi and Bridge, the whole played by Hannah Holman and Rene Lecuona. I've recently been impressed by some other young chamber players, such as the Avalon Ensemble, so I could imagine this being satisfying. Has anyone heard it? The Hyperion recording Alan recommends goes for around 30 pounds and up in the US.

Expensive?

Your question sent me to Oppo's website. It turns out that Oppo is much more expensive now, when DVDs and Blu-ray are old technology, than when I purchased mine some years ago, back when streaming was just starting in earnest. In 2012 you could get something like mine new for around 300 US$ with entry level around 179 US$. Today the machines support 4K, MP4, etc. and also have even better audiophile features than mine, but the entry level is 549 US$ list. I still remember being startled at how much better my CDs sounded after installing my present Oppo. Suddenly the sound field was noticeably more open and spacious on almost everything, not just SACDs.

The CD player I use is an SACD DVD player made by Oppo. (Their blu-ray player may be even better.)

Perhaps not what you'd read about in audio forums, but if you read the reviews for Oppo, I think you will see why I'm so happy with the machine and why I suspect others would be, too. Huge bang for the buck.

Any thoughts about why [this forum] is so male dominated?

The same question occurred to me. One thought: the average orchestral player doesn't seem to seek out the kind of erudite discussion found on this forum, for if they did UC would be swarming with females. And a big thank you, Giles, for your yeoman efforts here in providing verified (insofar as is possible) details about women and men who have felt called to enrich musical culture with new compositions, often in the face of obstinate indifference.

Some decades back, when researching composers of the ars subtilior, I was amazed to read a complaint written in the mid 14th century by a Burgundian court musician in his late 40s who complained bitterly that his style of music had lost much of its former popularity and that the court was much more interested in a newer generation of composers. The beat goes on.

In response to Ilja's original question, I wonder if it might make sense to consider as a separate set of venues the academic stages where sponsored groups perform. I suspect there's predictable turnover of recent composers there, as elsewhere, but also more attempt than one would find in major venues at preserving or promoting unsung music of previous generations. Is there a web resource that focuses on college and university concerts? It might be interesting to sort through a decade or two of those programs to see if any specific composer threads sort themselves out.

Cowen's Symphony 6, performed by the Aarhus SO under Douglas Bostock, has been released in at least two formats and is probably easy to find on, say, Amazon.  It's a winning work -- beautifully crafted and just serious enough to escape being a serenade. Hans Richter kept pushing Cowen's music, but in the end he concluded that it was a lost cause, that British audiences were disinclined to take interest in music by Brits.

Anyone else familiar with his ... Opinions?

Here's a bit of an aside regarding Cui, from a reminiscence by Alexander Gretchaninov, that may be of interest. The translation appeared in the June 1949 issue of Etude.

Another experience I had concerns César Cui -- and it illustrates, I think, the fact that even recognized musicians would do well to keep up their studies! Cui, who began as a military engineer, had a fine musical sense and a fine education, and he wrote many musical criticisms. At one time, he published a small book, or pamphlet, about Russian songs -- he called it "Melodies russes" -- and in it, he had something to say about the songs he considered important. Looking through it, I found the names of Rachmaninov and Gretchaninov tucked away among a group of most unimportant composers, and nothing whatever was said about our songs. It was, of course, a great blow to find myself so publicly neglected. Had my work been criticized, no matter how severely, I should have been grateful to have my shortcomings pointed out to me; but to be passed over completely...! Full of disappointment and anger, I went to see Cui, and I took a number of my songs with me. Cui was charming. With some embarrassment he acknowledged that he know nothing of my songs -- had not even seen them!

I'd certainly recommend listening to Price's enjoyable, if rather naïve, Symphony No.1

Price's Symphony 3 (1940) shows that she got better with more practice. It's available on Koch 3-7518-2 HI.

I'd say the Draeseke VC is a must-record

I'd snap up such a recording in a second. But has the orchestration been finished? If so, has the orchestration been performed? (Many composers have touched up their orchestrations after hearing them in a hall...)

I recommend the 2008 CD American Orchestral Song (Bridge 9254), which includes the 14-minute orchestral song Cahál Mór. Elsewhere I've called it "a well-wrought mash-up of Wagnerian method and Celtic subject-matter, less original than MacDowell's somewhat better-known solution to the same challenge, but never unimaginative or undramatic." That work was completed 9 years after the symphony Eric calls attention to, which Wikipedia says was written while Parker was a student of Rheinberger in Munich -- and thus would presumably have less of Wagner in it. Still, as with early symphonies by Bizet, Saint-Saens,  and Grieg, it could well be enjoyable!