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Who doesn't love Röntgen's chamber music? The audio excerpts sound mouthwatering... https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/kammermusik-vol-1/hnum/5385392

According to the booklet notes included in the 3 CD box Complete Piano Works by Heinrich & Elisabeth von Herzogenberg (which has given me so much listening pleasure so far) in 2013 the pianist Nataša Veljković has recorded for cpo the complete solo piano works by Dora Pejačević.
I think this will be a release to look forward to.

A few days ago I heard on the radio a most charming short piece of orchestral music which I had never heard before. A lovely piece which must be rather familiar to UK members. It was Elizabethan Masque by Frederic Bayco. It reminds me a bit of Greensleeves. Light classical easy-listening music, nothing exciting, but when I am in the right mood I can listen to this kind of music for hours.
For an audio excerpt, listen to disk 4, number 13

Who was this composer Bayco? Is he now completely forgotten, maybe except for this Elisabethan Masque? Did he write more of this music? And if so, is it available?

Wikipedia gives some information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Bayco

For a few weeks now, since I have received the new release of Goldmark's Violin Concerto coupled with his Violin Sonata op. 25 (violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger), I have been listening to everything I have from this composer. Over and over again. It has been a personal rediscovery of a – by me - almost completely forgotten, unsung genius (I know, a very delicate word).

His opus 28 is perhaps one of the most romantic violin concertos I know of. Irnberger lets his violin sing and cry, especially in the 1st and 2nd movement. Pure emotion.

Symphony No. 1 is very famous, but his 2nd is absolutely worth listening as well.

Please discover his utterly beautiful chamber music. Try his Piano Quintets (ever heard a more magical movement than the Adagio of his op. 30?) and Piano Trios. I have already mentioned his Violin Sonata. You will be surprised.

The only other discs I have are Vol. 1, 2 and 3 of his Piano Music. I understand that Vol. 4 is released, but cannot find a copy yet.

There is fortunately more to discover and my collection is not complete (I know, the Queen of Sheba, but I'm not a big opera fan).

Goldmark's romantic music is melodious, intimate, full of passion and offers many pleasant listening hours. How could I have ignored Goldmark so long?

Thank you very much for this most wonderful and valuable Raff website, Mark. A tremendous source of information. It is indeed the essential Raff reference. It helped me to build up my Raff collection. And I will most certainly visit the site frequently for new and additional information.

In a recent newspaper interview the Dutch pianist Wibi Soerjadi states that if the music is not an aim in itself, it is kitsch. An example is a piano transcription of a musical theme, which only shows the virtuosity of the pianist.
We can think of the many dazzling transcriptions Liszt and Thalberg composed (personally I love them). But is it art or kitsch?

I'm wondering which unsung composer was the first who wrote a solo concerto in one movement. Of course (or not?) a concerto in several tempi, but running into the next without a break. And why should the composer have done so? Does the concerto sound more compact? Is it original? If memory serves I think the sung composer was one of the Bach sons. Was the unsung composer just a follower?
Which concerto belongs to your favourites?

Today, 30 April 2013, is a special day for my little country. We have a new king. Willem-Alexander, the oldest son of Beatrix, has succeeded his mother after her reign of 33 years.

This event gave me the idea of starting this thread. I am wondering how many (unsung) musical pieces are dedicated to certain royal persons, or are composed for royal happenings.

An example is Raff's wonderful, majestic Grand Quintuor in A minor, op. 107, dedicated to the Dutch King Willem the Third.

Anyone ever heard of this Polish woman composer? 
This 3 CD set looks worth investigating.

I am wondering what members, listening to a symphony or a solo concert in a concert hall, think of applauding after the first movement (or even after each movement...). Do you think that disturbs the musicians and/or you as a listener? Personally it usually irritates me, but maybe musicians feel it as an appreciation of their good performance.

For those who like Rubinstein's dark openings of orchestral works and get surprised in the course of the music this new release might be interesting.

Romanticism and Love, that's a good marriage I think. I wonder whether (unsung) composers have written orchestral music specifically being meant as love music.

Strangely enough I recall a few pieces not from the Romantic Era, but each of them definitely written in a Romantic idiom. Famous is the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto (1959) by Ho Zhan Hao and Chen Kang. And I remember that John Veale has called the slow movement of his Violin Concerto (premiered in 1986) love music. And then there is Henriëtte Bosmans, who composed a Poème for Cello and Orchestra (1923), in which the cello 'ardently sings of the deepest love'.
But now back to the Romantic Era. Are there examples?

For one reason or another music of the virtuoso Lipinski did not get much attention so far. I must say that I enjoy listening once in a while both cpo discs with his Violin Concertos 1-4. However, I think Lipinski imitates his idol Paganini too much, although he doesn't have Paganini's skills to compose real memorable themes.

Recently a few new CD's were released with chamber music. The excerpts sound attractive and I think they are well worth investigating if you like the genre. From Accord a six disc set of Chamber Music for String Instruments and from DUX Chamber Music for Violin and Piano.

Just listened again to Von Flotow's PC 2 (1831), with its delicate, lovely adagio. It's rather curious that this concerto has four movements. I suppose there are not so many (unsung) solo concertos consisting of four movements, regardless of which solo instrument. Which (early) romantic composer preceded Von Flotow?

These audio samples sound interesting: http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Louis-Theodore-Gouvy-1819-1898-Werke-f%FCr-2-Klaviere/hnum/2399657

How unjustified a quick judgement can be... Of course, it's all very personally.

An example. For years the only Volkmann work I had was his cello concerto (on Hyperion). I never liked this concerto, that is to say, I found it rather disappointing. I still think so. In the booklet notes, enclosed with the double CD 'Complete Orchestral Works', it is even stated that this cello concerto measures up to Dvorák's cello concerto of forty years later. Unbelievable. A concerto for me hardly worth  a repeated listening. But then I heard some piano music and bought two CD's. Most lovely. After a while I bought the orchestral music and was pleasantly surprised: Volkmann wrote two delightful symphonies. And then I acquired the 3 discs with the string quartets, which now belong to my favourites in this genre.
In conclusion, how wrong was my first judgement of Volkmann, based upon one work only.

Another example is Draeseke. I was not and still am not enthusiastic about his piano concerto, the first piece of music I heard from this composer. Perhaps I've listened to it 3 times and thought that's enough. But then, after some hesitation, I bought the 3rd symphony. What an amazing, wonderful work that is! As a result I became interested in Draeseke and bought his other symphonies, and some piano and chamber music. To be honest, I think his string quintets are hard nuts to crack, but after repeated listening this music is growing on me. Draeseke turned out to be a fascinating composer.

My lesson learned is that I was wrong with my quick opinion based upon hearing a first work which I happen to dislike.  I suppose I'm not the only one with that experience.

Looking at some Dutch composers it strikes me that there are a few names with more than one composer in one family. Of course this is not an exception. We all know well-sung examples in musical history.
The Dutch family names I was thinking of are Andriessen (mentioned in the tread Your Discovery of the Year), Hutschenruyter (they have their own tread), Van Boom and Van Eijken.
Not much is known of Van Boom senior. Father Jan van Boom (1783-?), composer and flautist, had two sons of which Jan van Boom the Younger (1807-1872) was a student of Hummel and Moscheles, so junior must have been a talented pianist. The only work I know is a brilliant piano piece called Fantaisie No. 1 in G major on the song 'Nära' from the 'Beautés musicales de la Scandinavie' by Lindblad. Jan went to Stockholm and became professor of piano. One of his students was Ludvig Norman. Source: see here.
Another family name is Van Eijken (sometimes written as Van Eyken). Organist Gerard van Eijken had two sons who were both composers, Jan Albert (1823-1868) and Gerrit Jan (1832-1879). Only a few works of both are available on CD of which I like to mention Johan Albert's Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 18. Johan Albert studied in Leipzig under Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Brother Gerrit Jan was in his days even more famous (I only know his classical Sonatine for Piano Op. 3 No. 1) and went to live and work in London.

I'm sure there are many more of such families, amongst others one from Tyrol. Father composed a wonderful Cello Concerto.

Leander Schlegel, a Dutch pianist and composer, third son of a German professor of ornithology who came in 1825 to the Netherlands and worked in Leiden (Netherlands). Schlegel had the opportunity to study abroad and went to Leipzig to become a student of Jadassohn and Reinecke.

Writing about Leander (or: Léandre) Schlegel is not possible without the information the Dutch pianist Frans van Ruth (b. 1951) has given us in his informative website about this composer (in Dutch), see http://www.leander-schlegel.nl/
Particularly of interest is the link to Schlegel's detailed list of works. Please click on Composities. Quite a lot of the 35 opus numbers have German titles. We see not only piano pieces, chamber music and songs, but also a Symphony in B major, op. 25, a Piano Concerto in F Sharp minor, op. 16 and a Violin Concerto in B minor, op. 33. Non of these 3 major works are printed. The first performance was in 1911: the symphony in Dortmund, the PC in Haarlem (Netherlands) and the VC in Berlin. How would these major works sound? I suppose the idiom is rather conservative and German.

Other information (in English) can be read  here.

Unfortunately only a few works are available on CD. His Piano Quartet in C major, op. 14 (1886), is coupled with Schäfer's Piano Quintet (1901). Of these two pieces Schlegel's work is definitely more conservative (but it is written 15 years earlier), less exciting and more predictable. Nevertheless absolutely worth listening to. Another NM Classics disc features 3 Sonatas for Violin and Piano, one of them being Schlegel's op. 34 in G major (1910). Pleasant late romantic chamber music, with a most lovely 2nd movement. On a Koch disc filled with piano music of the Netherlands Schlegel's short character piece of 'Der arme Peter' [the poor Peter, after Heine], op. 5 No. 6 is selected.
On the Attaca label songs are selected (opp. 20, 21 No. 2, 24, 28). I don't have that disc, but it's still easy to find.

We can only hope that a label (like cpo) is willing to release something of Schlegel, in particular the symphony and both concertos, don't you agree?

[Works with opus number]

I'm fascinated by this Dutch composer and concert pianist, who maintained such a highly critical attitude towards his own compositions, that only 19 opus numbers and a few works without opus number passed his criteria. I read somewhere that he even destroyed a piano concerto.

Although I only have a few pieces of chamber music (his wonderful Piano Quintet, the Violin Sonata No. 2 and the delightful Cello Sonata), his Suite Pastorale for orchestra thanks to the download section of UC, and a few piano pieces, his music gives me the impression that he must have been a very skillful and talented composer.

I've made a list of his works, based upon information on Wikipedia, archives of the Nederlands Muziek Instituut
and some additional information in booklet notes.

Works with opus number

Op.   1 – Zwei Lieder for mixed choir and orchestra
Op.   2 – Zwei Gesänge for mixed choir
Op.   3 – Eight Etudes for piano
Op.   4 – Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in D major
Op.   5 – Piano Quintet in D flat major
Op.   6 – Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in F major
Op.   7 – Rhapsodie Javanaise [Javanese Rhapsody] for orchestra
Op.   8 – Suite Pastorale in E major for orchestra (or piano solo)
Op.   9 – Sonate Inaugurale
Op. 10 – Three piano pieces
1.   Variations on an own dance theme
2.   Théatre-Variété Scenes
3.   Third Waltz
Op. 11 – Two sonatas for violin and piano
1.   No. 3 in ?
2.   No. 4 in B minor
Op. 12 – Six piano pieces
Op. 13 – Sonata for Cello and Piano in C major
Op. 14 – String Quartet in ?
Op. 15 – Eight piano pieces
1.   Allegretto simplice e tranquillo
2.   Andantino in B flat major
3.   Allegro molto
4.   Allegretto non troppo in C Sharp minor
5.   Wals. Moderato non troppo in B major
6.   Poco lento in G Sharp minor
7.   Wals. Con moto e largezza
8.   Presto in B minor
Op. 16 – Four songs
1.   Die Einsame in G Sharp minor for soprano or tenor
2.   Zomernacht [Summer night]
3.   Lenz
4.   Wenn ich Abschied nehme
Op. 17 – Five Interludes for piano
1.   Assai vivace (quasi presto)
2.   Andante sostenuto, ma non troppo
3.   Allegro vivace in B major
4.   Andante con molto espressione in B flat minor
5.   Allegro molto
Op. 18 – Toccata for piano
Op. 19 – Suite 'In de stilte' [In the silence]

Works without opus number

Three piano pieces
1.   Scherzo
2.   Impromptu
3.   Valse di Bravura
Quatre petits morceaux
Walzer
Barcarolle
Präludium und Fuge
Variationen auf eine Sequenz

Some titles are in Dutch, others in German and French. I've tried to translate a few into English.
This list is incomplete, surely has faults as well and can definitely be improved. Maybe members can add corrections and information?

I'm also interested in other members opinion of Schäfer's music.

I'm curious to know what members think of this nearly forgotten Russian symphony from 1855.

My opinion is that it's a work of great charm and evidence that Rubinstein was surely capable of writing a fine, melodious symphony full of memorable tunes. I think Rubinstein makes with his 3rd a major symphonic statement, almost up to the same level as the great sung composers of the romantic era.