Your discovery of 2021

[gprengel]

Eduard, not the unrelated César-Auguste Franck's early op.11 concerto

Oh, how funny, I didn't realize that there are 2 "Francks" with a 2nd piano concerto. But this way I discovered the one from Caesar Frank, which is really very beautiful!! From Eduard I found only a beautiful violin concerto what I am just listening to ;-)

[Jonathan]

E.Franck's piano trios are well worth a listen!

[eschiss1]

Then there's Richard Franck, Eduard's son, who wrote at least 3 piano concertos

[Alan Howe]

We're digressing, friends...

[4candles]

I'm adding a late entry to this, but in late 2021 I discovered this relatively unsung (?) piano work by Paderewski, which I was stunned by, having not known much of the composer's work beforehand.

Ignacy J. Paderewski - Variations and a Fugue Op.23

This is a superb work, reminding me a lot of similar works by Busoni. Virtuosic, dramatic with variations which are ingenious from start to finish, requiring all the cerebral and technical resources of the pianist, followed by a stirring fugue that had me on the edge of my seat.

It should be much more widely known.

[eschiss1]

I've known Draeseke's 3rd quartet for years, at first only from MIDIs I made but at least in some sense I "knew" it - and unfortunately I never got to hear the Draeseke Society recording (though the other Draeseke chamber music I purchased some years back on that label was wonderful.) I am not surprised, listening to the cpo recording, at its quality. But my discovery of 2021, I think, iirc first from a YouTube video and later from the Constanze Quartet recording, was the 2nd quartet - again, a work I sort-of-knew from having had a good look at instrumental parts, but they only gave me a hint of the harmonic and contrapuntal ... apologies for saying it, but to my ears, sublimity- of the opening pages.

(Admittedly, the same first pages as played on the Draeseke Society CD can be heard, I believe, online at their website. Maybe the Constanze Quartet - and for that matter the Maté-Quartett in their 1981 performance, available on YouTube - are both more responsive in the opening movement. No idea.)

Belated edit: while along the same lines I've heard the work in synthesized form several times, 2021 finally brought a recording of Franz Lachner's 6th (and probably best) symphony (whose 1st movement fugato does not bother me the way it does others, for reasons) and I do think it terrific. (As I found myself humming the 2nd group of the aforementioned first movement- or trying to, since those dotted rhythms are -hard- , but smile-inducing - I found it memorable in the most obvious sense.)

[mikehopf]

Last year saw the release of a cornucopia of art songs in which I was totally and intimately immersed to the happy exclusion of you-know-what.
Here are my favourites:

Kricka: Northern Nights for Soprano & Orchestra on Supraphon.
Christian Fink (1831-1911); Songs and Piano works . 2 CD set on Haenssler Classic
Lysenko: 6 CD set of art songs on Ukrainian Canadian Opera Association

Honorable mentions too for Raff Lieder on Sterling; Bruch lieder on cpo and Urspruch on Kaleidos Musikeditionen

[dmitterd]

I have to advocate for this lovely disc of music by Léon Boëllmann: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8917737--boellmann-symphonie-en-fa-majeur-variations-symphoniques-quatre-pieces-breves particularly the Quatre pièces brèves pour cordes

cheers,
Daniel

[gidklio]

Hi, I just stumbled across this website and forum after about two months now of listening to unsung composers. Here's my path.

A friend of a friend on facebook posted something about a Dora Bright piece that KUSC in Los Angeles had just aired. Despite my four years as the classical music host on my college radio station, I'd never heard of her and immediately found a recording on youtube. Youtube then proceded to serve me up either a bottomless playlist or a bottomless mix that seems to be entirely composed (yup, I went there) of unsung composers' music, mostly symphonies and concertos and mostly Romantic.

I'm actually not sure how to link to the mix itself without linking to the piece that happens to be playing from it this moment, so here you go. I'm not particularly recommending what's playing now (in fact I'm only three minutes in) but this is the playlist link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlFunhbbCM&list=RDEMAwaN0RVVx6HGC_YYHkoFOA&index=27

So how did I get to this website? One recent piece that came up was by Hilding Rosenberg, who of course I've also never heard of. And as my mom's last name is Rosenberg, I did what we do in these cases, googling "Hilding Rosenberg Jewish". Strangely, or perhaps not, the first hit was at the National Library of Israel, a website I generally visit when I want to find recordings from around the Jewish world of liturgical poetry (piyutim). The wikipedia link didn't mention "Jewish" so I continued on down the list, where the second result was to a ten-year old Unsung Composers thread giving his entire catalog. Still don't know if he's Jewish, but apparently he did write Four Jewish Songs for voice and orchestra, op. 89. No idea how to find a recording of that piece, but here we are. If the youtube link ever runs dry I'll start picking my way though some of the fora here.

[Mark Thomas]

Welcome gidklio and we're pleased that you found us at last! There is an irony in your journey as you come to us via that old thread about Hilding Rosenberg, a composer whose musical idiom lies at the very edge of what is now our area of interest - our guidelines (here) will explain in detail, but basically UC is as a platform for discussion about neglected music of the romantic era. I don't know his music at all well but, sampling the symphonies on YouTube, some works seem to lie just within our aesthetic boundary, whilst some works are outside it. Anyway, welcome and we look forward to more posts from you. 

[rosflute]

Despite my four years as the classical music host on my college radio station, I'd never heard of her and immediately found a recording on youtube

If you are interested to read more about Dora Bright, you may wish to read my article about her. It includes corrections of some commonly mistaken facts written about her. https://www.trubcher.com/blog/dora-bright

[Sharkkb8]

UC members, please forgive me just a moment, but....I'd like to applaud our new member for the association with KUSC in L.A. - before we moved away from Southern California, I listened to KUSC FM radio pretty much "24-7" as they say, and over the years I spent any number of days at the studio taking pledge phone calls (this was a loooong time ago!).  Yes, there were a few years in there when the management seemed to go way off the deep end with supposedly edgy and daring and highly-cool programming, with perplexing music of unusual fertility rites from places most have never heard of.....(attn: any overly sensitive folks - this is only my personal humble opinion  ).  In any case, KUSC radio provided as much of my classical music foundation (such as it is) as any institution I can think of, including my college, and my thanks are boundless.

[Alan Howe]

You are forgiven!

Now back to the topic, please...