Unsung Tone/Symphonic Poems?

[monafam]

I tend to be a fan of symphonic poems, does anyone know of any good "unsung" works in this genre they would recommend?

Thanks as always in advance!

[TerraEpon]

Symphonic poems are a favorite of mine too.
There's a fantastic disc on EMI with Plasson that has a pair of symphonic poems by Duprac and one by Lazzari, as well two of the biggest French sung ones, Sorcerer's Apprentence and Danse Macrbre...and a piece by Franck which is recorded now and again.
Mikolajus Ciurlionis wrote a pair on an OP Marco Polo disc.
Mieczysław Karłowicz wrote six. I have them on a pair of Naxos CDs, but they are just as good on Chandos as well, and are on some Polish label (Dux I think) in a crappy recording.
Plenty of others if I had more time...

[John Hudock]

A few recommendations from some things I've listened to recently.

I would highly recommend Vierne's beautiful vocal symphonic poems Les Djinns, Eros, Psyche and Ballade du Desespere given a wonderful performance by an Australian group on the Melba label (which is rather obscure, but it is available from Amazon both in CD or MP3).

Also highly recommended are the gorgeous Bax tone poems, given wonderful performances on Chandos (although these may not be unsung enough for this forum).

Also don't forget the Scandanavians, give a listen to Atterberg's Alven, Alfven's En skärgardssägen and his 3 Swedish Rhapsodys which are symphonic poem of a sort and Svendsen's Romeo and Juliet and his Norwegian Rhapsodies.

And finally I would give a listen to William Grant Still's wonderful symphonic poem Africa.

[M. Henriksen]

Here are some more, quite unsung:

Béla Bartók: "Kossuth" (1903)
Hjalmar Borgstrøm: "Tanken" - The Idea (1916)
Ernest Farrar: "The Forsaken Merman"
Grzegorz Fitelberg: "Song of the Falcon" (1905)
Luís de Freitas Branco: "Paraísos  Artificiais" (1910)/"Vathek" (1913)
Jesús Guridi: "Una aventura de Don Quijote" (1916)
Robert Kajanus: "Aino" for orchestra and male chorus (1895)
Oskar Lindberg: "Vildmark" - Wilderness (1912)/"Florez & Blanzeflor" (1912)/"Från de stora skogarna" - From the great forests (1918)/"Hemifrån" - From my home (1932)/"Gesunda" (1947)
John McEwen: Three Border Ballads - "Grey Galloway", The Demon Lover", "Coronach" (1906-08)
Aarre Merikanto: "Lemminkäinen" (1916)
Víteslav Novák: "Eternal Longing" (1905)
Ture Rangström: "Havet sjunger" - Song of the sea (1913)
Victor de Sabata: "Juventus" (1919)/"La notte di Platon" (1923)/"Gethsemani" (1925)
Wilhelm Stenhammar: "Midvinter" (1907)
William Wallace: "Sir William Wallace" (1905)
Leo Weiner: "Toldi" (1952)

All these works are recorded

Morten

[mbhaub]

Some of my favorites:

1) Converse: The Mystic Trumpeter (available on Naxos)
2) Glazunov: The Sea (Jarvi does it best on Chandos)
3) Balakirev: Tamar
4) Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on Mt. Triglav (Ok, R-K isn't unsung, but this evocative tone poem sure is. Get the Naxos)

[TerraEpon]

4) Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on Mt. Triglav (Ok, R-K isn't unsung, but this evocative tone poem sure is. Get the Naxos)

Yeah, I love the piece. Basically, it's an orchestral version of Act III from Mlada (the second one). His Christmas Eve Suite ia also basically a tone poem, though that has a number of recordings...


Another I can think of off hand: Novak's Pan, which was originally for piano. I forget if the orchestration was by someone else or not, but it's a great piece.

Also, Smetana wrote a bunch of non-Ma Vlast tone poems, such as Richard III and Waldstein's Camp that aren't too well known/recorded.

Also, one might find it surprising that a tone poem by Sibelius could be called unsung, but The Wood Nymph still only has a single recording of the tone poem version (as far as I know), available as a number of options on BIS (I suggest the Complete Sibelius Vol. 1, since it's almost all tone poems).

[Mark Thomas]

Martin: Many thanks for the tip about Converse's Mystic Trumpeter from Naxos. I had missed the CD, but all three pieces on it sound very interesting and the cost of making a "mistake" is minimal. The sound bites sound enticing..

[Gareth Vaughan]

I believe Novak's Pan was orchestrated by the composer. I think you mean "Wallenstein's Camp" by Smetana (a very good piece IMHO) and I agree that The Wood Nymph is unsung among Sibelius' tone poems, as, to some extent, is The Oceanides - both lovely works.

[eschiss1]

I believe Novak's Pan was orchestrated by the composer. I think you mean "Wallenstein's Camp" by Smetana (a very good piece IMHO) and I agree that The Wood Nymph is unsung among Sibelius' tone poems, as, to some extent, is The Oceanides - both lovely works.

Which reminds me, in turn, of d'Indy's Wallenstein.
Janacek's The Fiddler's Child is, I guess, no longer unsung
Novak's "Of the Eternal Longing" (O vecne touze) debatably unsung?...

[monafam]

Thanks for all the suggestions!  Feel free to add more! 

[TerraEpon]

Some more unsungs by sungs...

Tere's Saint-Saens's other three, Le Rouet d'Omphale, Phaeton, and La Jeunesse d'Hercule.
Holst wrote Indra, and Egdon Heath which I believe could be considered.
Villa-Lobos wrote a bunch, such as Genesis and Dawn in a Tropical Forest.

And let's not forget Bantock. Fifine at the Fair, The Witch of Atlas, and Thalaba the Destroyer all qualify, at least. The box set on Hyperion is one of the best buys an unsung fan can make...

[John Hudock]

d'Indy's Wallenstein has been mentioned but also very worthwhile are his Istar, Jour d'ete a la montagne, La foret enchantee,  Saugfleure and several others all given lovely recent (and in many cases long overdue) performances on Chandos with Rumon Gamba directing the Iceland SO

[John Hudock]

American composers seem to get less attention on this forum so, in addition to the Africa symphonic poem I've already pointed out by William Grant Still (and mbhaub menioned Converse's The Mystic Trumpeter), let me recommend a few other wonderful American works all available on the very fine Naxos American Classics series:

Arthur Foote  - Francesca da Rimini
John Alden Carpenter  - Adventures in a Perambulator
Charles Frederick McKay  - From a Moonlit Cerenmony
George Chadwick  - Angel of Death / Aphrodite
Edward McDowell  - Hamlet and Ophelia
George Templeton Strong  - Le Roi Arthur / Die Nacht / Ondine
Henry Hadley - The Ocean

(I've left out Griffe's Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan since that's not very unsung, but a wonderful tone poem nonetheless)

[Jonathan]

This crosses over into the "Female Unsung" thread but what about Marie Jaell's 'Ossiane'?  It's not been recorded but was very well thought of by Liszt so it should be worth investigating.  Actually, some of his symphonic poems are not very well known so perhaps add those to the list too?

[eschiss1]

This crosses over into the "Female Unsung" thread but what about Marie Jaell's 'Ossiane'?  It's not been recorded but was very well thought of by Liszt so it should be worth investigating.  Actually, some of his symphonic poems are not very well known so perhaps add those to the list too?

Which reminds me (only through the connecting thread) of several works by Augusta Holmès (1847-1903), though they might be concert overtures rather than tone poems? (Wikipedia says symphonic poems. Ok )- Ireland (Irlande), Pologne, Andromede, La Nuit et l'Amour: Interlude de l'ode symphonique - Ludus pro Patria, Ouverture pour une comedie. Some of these were recorded on Marco Polo some while back...
Maybe Lili Boulanger's d'Un Soir Triste?
Several of Ropartz's symphonic poems were recorded on Timpani a few years ago.
Disclaimer: I don't think I've heard any of these works. (I did hear two wonderful psalm settings by Boulanger at a Prom conducted by Tortelier that I attended with a late friend of mine, but that doesn't count.)
Eric