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This is totally outside our remit but I hope Alan and Mark won't object if I just acknowledge perhaps the greatest Australian composer of recent years, Peter Sculthorpe, who died on Friday, aged 85. The web is full of tributes and obituaries so I won't say anything more here, except that he was a lovely, kind, caring man, who was greatly loved by the arts community. Even the most committed UC romantic can't help but  recognise the poetic beauty of his short orchestral piece Small Town, which will no doubt be played at his funeral. 

Just noting the passing of Myer Fredman, Australian-British conductor, who premiered recordings of Bax symphonies and other British music, notably for Lyrita. His championship of neglected orchestral music deserves a mention here, albeit not generally within our romantic remit.

[John Albert Delany]

I wonder if anyone knows the Mass in A flat by the Australian composer/conductor John Delany (sic)?  I heard the Gloria on ABC radio the other morning and, although I am not a great fan of vocal music, found it immediately engaging, full of charm and melody.

Here's the beginning of his biography at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/delany-john-albert-3389

John Albert Delany (1852-1907), musician, was born on 6 July 1852 at Ratcliff, London, son of John Daniel Delany, journalist, and his wife Marie, née Walters. He went with his parents to New South Wales in infancy and had his first musical tuition at Newcastle where his father established a newspaper. Educated in Sydney by the Benedictine monks at Lyndhurst College, he began to study music with William John Cordner, organist of St Mary's Cathedral, and joined the orchestra of the Victoria Theatre as a violinist. .....
[coincidentally we were discussing one of the Cordner family recently here]

The Mass in A flat is recorded on Walsingham, with his Ave Maria as a top-up.

[Forgotten Strings Quartets]

The web page for the Australian Chamber Music Festival held each year, here in Townsville is:  http://www.afcm.com.au/    Of particular interest to us on UC is the concert for 9th August:

[
Forgotten Strings Quartets
Townsville Civic Theatre, 3:00 PM

Would you like to help program this concert?
Would you like to discover a masterpiece you've never heard before?

Composers throughout history have written some of their most important music in their string quartets. Did you know:
• that Saint-Saens wrote 2 gorgeous quartets?
• that Donizetti, these days known for his operas, wrote 18 of them!
• what Vaughan Williams' quartets sound like, are they anything like The Lark Ascending?
• that Benjamin Franklin, the Founding Father of the USA, wrote a string quartet?
• that the only major composer since Beethoven not to have written a string quartet is Richard Wagner?
• that there's one beautiful quartet by Beethoven that is virtually never heard?

In this special concert on the last day of the Festival, the Goldner String Quartet and the New Zealand String Quartet will give you the chance to hear some masterpieces that surely deserve to be better known.

And you can help programme the concert! You have until 9 June 2014 to vote. Go to forgottenstringquartets.com - The website contains lots of recordings of these neglected masterpieces. Give yourself the pleasure of listening to them and then vote for your favourite quartet. The quartet that gets the most votes will be announced at this concert and played as the finale.

We're calling this project "The Hunt for the Greatest Forgotten String Quartet".
Let the Hunt begin!



Clever idea?

The series already features a few less often performed works:

Guillaume Lekeu Piano Quartet in b minor (unfinished) - Dene Olding, Irina Morozova, Julian Smiles, Piers Lane
Eugène Ysaӱe Sonata No.3 for solo violin - Tasmin Little
César Franck Sonata for violin (oboe) and piano in A major - Diana Doherty, Tamara-Anna Cislowska
César Franck Quintet in F minor for Piano and Strings - Goldner String Quartet, Piers Lane
Ralph Vaughan Williams  Piano Quintet - Helene Pohl, Gillian Ansell, Alexander Baillie, Kees Boersma, Martin Roscoe

A huge thank you to BerlinExpat for uploading the majestic 9th symphony by von Klenau. 

What a truly magnificent symphony, and one that I am sure I am going to play many times. Am I alone in finding it brimming with beauty, pathos, and triumph? A great neglected work, in my view.

The recent thread on Moszkowski reminded me of how much I like the music from his opera Boabdil, mentioned therein. There is, I believe a ballet within the opera, but I only have the "Entrance March".  I'm not sure if that is part of the ballet, but it is most enjoyable. As far as I can tell, there are no CDs of the opera or any associated music, apart from some piano versions, and an orchestral arrangement, of the short "Malaguena".

Does anyone know if the music - or, indeed, the opera - has been recorded?

Also, thanks to britishcomposer for uploading this superbly played and very enjoyable work by Rubinstein. 

After so many debates about Rubinstein's merits as a symphonist, I wonder what will be the reactions to this. He seems more comfortable with this format. It's colourful and superbly orchestrated, and rarely did I get the sense that he was getting lost or running out of ideas. Twenty minutes was, I think, the perfect length - and the ending is, well, 'a corker'! 

[Graener, Paul]

Biographical entry for Paul Graener from New Grove:

Graener, Paul
(b Berlin, 11 Jan 1872; d Salzburg, 13 Nov 1944). German composer and conductor. He was a self-taught musician who received some formal instruction in composition from Albert Becker at the Veit Conservatory in Berlin. Much of his practical experience was gained working as a Kapellmeister in Bremerhaven, Königsberg and Berlin. In 1896 he settled in London where for a time he was conductor of the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. When his contract was terminated after a conflict with the director, he remained in England teaching privately and secured a position at the RAM. He returned to the Continent in 1908 and taught composition at the Neues Konservatorium in Vienna. From 1910 to 1913 he directed the Salzburg Mozarteum, and he spent the next seven years teaching in several German cities. In 1920 he succeeded Reger as professor of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory, a position he occupied for five years. In 1930 he moved to Berlin where he directed the Stern Conservatory, and four years later held masterclasses in composition at the Akademie der Künste. In 1932 he became active in the Berlin section of Rosenberg's Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur. Joining the Nazi party in 1933, he was appointed vice-president of the Reichsmusikkammer by Goebbels, and replaced Strauss as director of the composers' division in the same organization in 1935.

Graener attained technical fluency in most areas of composition, though he never established an individual identity in the manner of his immediate contemporaries Strauss, Pfitzner and Reger. A staunch traditionalist, he remained opposed to modernism, and was generally overlooked during the Weimar Republic until the late 1920s, when his mystical opera Hanneles Himmelfahrt (1927) was embraced by conservative music critics and administrators as a healthy alternative to then popular Zeitoper. Of his many orchestral works, the suite Die Flöte von Sanssouci became well known and was performed by such conductors as Toscanini.

Graener's fortunes changed dramatically after the Nazis came to power. Elevated to a position of some influence, he was able to secure more frequent performances of his compositions, and received a prestigious commission from the Berlin Staatsoper for his opera Der Prinz von Homburg (1935). The work, however, proved to be fatally flawed in terms of its dramatic and psychological impact, and soon disappeared from the repertory. This failure undoubtedly undermined Graener's prestige, and although he remained loyal to the regime for the rest of his life, his later work was greeted more with respect than genuine enthusiasm.

[1) "Matthew"Wielhorski [Vel'gorsky, Viyel'gorsky], Count Mateusz [Matvey Yur'yevich]]

This is a really obscure, but most attractive piece, thanks Mike.

Entries in Grove as follows:

1) "Matthew"
Wielhorski [Vel'gorsky, Viyel'gorsky], Count Mateusz [Matvey Yur'yevich]
(b St Petersburg, 15/26 April 1794; d Nice, 5 March 1866). Russian cellist and patron, brother of michał Wielhorski. He pursued a military career, fought in the war of 1812, and retired in 1826 with the rank of colonel. He studied the cello with Adolph Meinhardt and Bernhard Romberg, and became well known as a performer both in Russia and abroad, partnering such eminent musicians as Liszt, Henselt and Vieuxtemps. From 1826 he lived with his brother in St Petersburg, maintaining the house as a centre of musical culture. A number of leading composers of the day dedicated works to him, including Anton Rubinstein (Third String Quartet), Mendelssohn (Second Cello Sonata) and Romberg (Seventh Cello Concerto). After his brother's death in 1856 he continued his work as an impresario, and was instrumental in inaugurating the St Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society in 1859. His extensive music library and many of the important instruments in his private collection were donated to the St Petersburg conservatory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Shteynpress: 'Matvey Yur'yevich Viyel'gorskiy', SovM (1946), nos.8–9, 73–80

L.S. Ginzburg: Istoriya violonchel'nogo iskusstva [The history of the art of cello playing], ii (Moscow, 1957), 278–330

GEOFFREY NORRIS


2 "Michael"
Wielhorski, Count Michał [Viyel'gorsky, Mikhail Yur'yevich]
(b St Petersburg, 31 Oct/11 Nov 1788; d Moscow, 28 Sept/10 Oct 1856). Russian composer and patron. Son of a Polish diplomat at the Russian court, and brother of Mateusz Wielhorski, he received a broad musical education from several famous teachers, notably Martin y Soler. He played the violin and piano, and when only 13 composed his first pieces, a set of songs with orchestral accompaniment. Later he wrote a number of sentimental ballads, including Otchego ('Why?') to Lermontov's poem, and settings of Pushkin, Myatlyov and Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky. In 1804 he travelled with his family to Riga, where he studied counterpoint with a local organist and played in quartets with his father and two of his brothers, Iosif and Aleksandr. He then moved to Paris (1808), took lessons from Cherubini and met Beethoven in Vienna. When he returned to Russia (1810) he settled in St Petersburg and swiftly established himself as a patron of music; but in 1816 he was banished from court for marrying his first wife's sister and had to live on his estate, Fateyevka (later renamed Luizino), in the Kursk government. Even here he did much to promote interest in music, performing in concerts himself and arranging for his private orchestra to play major works by Western composers, including Beethoven's symphonies. In 1823 he was given permission to move to Moscow, and in 1826 he returned to St Petersburg, where he lived with his brother Mateusz Wielhorski and became friendly with Glinka: in fact a number of Michał Wielhorski's suggestions were incorporated into A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila; he was highly critical of the latter. In 1856 he moved to his estate, Sennitsï, near Moscow, where he died.

The Wielhorski brothers were at least as important to concert promotion during the first half of the 19th century as the Rubinstein brothers were in the second. They introduced many contemporary Western composers to Russia, and they encouraged Liszt, Berlioz, Schumann and other important composers and artists to take part in their concerts. As a composer Michał Wielhorski is known for an unfinished opera, Tsïgane ('The Gypsies'), symphonic and chamber music, keyboard pieces and numerous songs.

WORKS
many MSS in RU-Mrg, SPsc

Stage: Tsïgane [The Gypsies] (op, 5, V. Zhukovsky and others), 1838, orch inc.

Orch: 3 syms., no.1, B, 1822, no.2, F, 1822, no.3, D, ?inc.; 2 ovs., D, 1822, b, 1836; Air varié, vc, orch, before 1823; Thème varié, c1830–33

Inst: Str Qt, C; Str Qnt, 1856; pf pieces, other inst works

Vocal: Ave verum corpus, motet, chorus, orch, after 1839; Vernost' do groba [Faithful to the Grave], male vv, orch, 1822; Les adieux des artistes italiens, chorus, orch, c1840–50; Pilgergesang, cant., chorus, orch, inc.; other choral works; songs


BIBLIOGRAPHY
IRMO

N. Findeyzen: 'Graf M.Yu. Viyel'gorskiy', RMG, ii (1906)

T. Trofimova: 'M.Yu. Viyel'gorskiy', SovM, no.5 (1937), 61–70

B. Shteynpress: 'Mikhail Yur'yevich Viyel'gorskiy: blagozhelatel' Glinki' [Wielhorski: Glinka's patron], M.I. Glinka, ed. Ye.M. Gordeyeva (Moscow, 1958), 368–83

GEOFFREY NORRIS

Interesting - 3 symphonies!

The ABC is beginning to re-discover the music of  Alfred Hill (b. Melbourne 1869), and a two-part documentary on his life and work starts on Sunday.
Please see: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2013/08/25/3830817.htm
The programmes can be heard online (here in Aus , at least) and are often subsequently made available as podcasts.

Hill met many of the great composers of the late 19thC, and I believe the series includes recordings of him reminiscing. It should be fascinating!

Apologies for something not directly about UCs but I just wanted to acknowledge the death yesterday of the great Hungarian-born cellist, János Starker - a survivor of Nazi and Soviet oppression and (perhaps as a consequence) a man with a rather ruthless no-nonsense approach to life, but totally committed to making good music.

[Biographical information]

I don't think we've had a separate topic devoted to Leone Sinigaglia. His name has popped up many times, and snippets of information have appeared, but in view of Alan's recent re-posting of the Violin Concerto, I thought one was timely.

Biographical information is available at Wikipedia, and there is a note regarding the Nazi view of Sinigaglia's work as "degenerate" at: http://umaine.edu/thearts/home/degenerate-musik/
He isn't mentioned in any of the Oxford or Cambridge histories of music.

You Tube offers the following (legal): 
Piemonte Suite in a 1941 performance cond. Toscanini (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQcm4pYzwAk )

Le Baruffe Chiozzotte – Overture, cond. Toscanini, ex-radio, 1947 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG7hYPHkB4M )

Violin Concerto (as uploaded to UC) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN2a4Fxj3E8)

Violin Concerto in a live perf. of last month in Ferrara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78mEajAMLkw )

Romanza & Humoresque, Op.16, from the same concert as the VC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROjd-H7i9ck )

Regenslied, Op.35 No.1, a beautiful piece for strings, from same concert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6fs_w4WDNI )

The programme notes (in Italian) for this tribute concert are available as a pdf from http://www.teatrocomunaleferrara.it/app/webroot/files/Conc%20Rid/PDS%201213/15gennaio2013.pdf

Sonata, Op.44 for violin & piano (beautifully played) from a 2008 concert (starting at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rglQ_7rcVP8 )

Lied, Op.28 for horn and piano – several  versions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCSgGwN0kA8  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUNGLV1ze7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJbIo1Zq2Ec )
also for Euphonium & Piano (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BHDQeJKmpc )

Hora Mystica sweetly played by Quartetto Tamborini (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OsWot6k2dU )

Versions by Steve's BB at  ISMLP
String Quartet, Op27
Scherzo for String Quartet, Op.8
2 Charakterstücke, Op.35

Commercial Recordings are mostly compilations in which short pieces feature but include:
Lied for soprano & piano, Stradivarius CD (inc. an alternative Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen - Mahler appreciated Sinigaglia's music it seems)
Chamber Music (Toccata Classics)
Chamber Music inc. the Serenade for String Trio, Op.33 (Silvertrust - http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/sinigaglia-string-trio.htm )
Folksongs arr. for guitar ensemble & SQt. – http://www.vivaldiguitartrio.it/discografia_eng.html#sinigaglia )

Not exactly about new recordings, but this seemed the best place just to tell those who may not be aware that Dutton/Vocalion have a sale of CDs mostly at £2-99 or £4-99, which includes many on its groundbreaking Epoch label.

There's Havergal Brian conducting the LSO in his own symphonies, chamber music by Bowen, Dunhill, and Rubbra, songs by Bantock, and works by Armstrong Gibbs, Cyril Scott, and Bridge, among others. Well worth a look.
www.duttonvocalion.co.uk

Sincere thanks for uploading this most enjoyable epitome of a Romantische Ouvertüre . 

There's a short piece about the composer and the works at:
http://www.americansymphony.org/concert_notes/romantic-overture-op-16-1899

Specifically:

Thuille's charming Romantische Ouvertüre ("Romantic Overture") was the result of a much more ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful project. Thuille's first opera, Teuerdank, is hobbled by Alexander Ritter's feeble libretto; most of the music is a pale imitation of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Wisely declining to publish Teuerdank after its initial production in 1897, Thuille rescued its sparkling introduction by separating it from the opera and giving it a new title. In the rechristened Romantische Ouvertüre, Thuille casts an affectionate backward glance towards the more innocent pre-Wagnerian romanticism of his beloved Schumann.

What a pity that such a fine piece of music is so brief. I wonder if its promise is fulfilled in the symphony? Is it worth adding to the 'must buy' list?

We have been discussing in various threads the art of the CD review, and I was trailing through a few reviews of works by Nápravnik when I found this one at Allmusic.com by James Leonard, which includes the following:

The Scottish BBC plays with more passionate dedication than professional courtesy. But the music defies revivification: brilliant but shallow, emotive but empty, grand but meaningless, the notes roll off Soifertis' fingers and are immediately forgotten -- forgotten, that is, except for Nápravnik's unfortunately unforgettable Fantaisie russe that opens with the most vulgar setting of the Song of the Volga Boatman ever unleashed on the ears of an unsuspecting humanity.
(http://www.allmusic.com/album/n%C3%A1pravn%C3%ADk-concerto-symphonique-fantaisie-russe-blumenfeld-allegro-mw0001944676)

Of course, this immediately sent me scurrying to the Fantaisie russe - as it certainly didn't stand out in my memory as being so obnoxious. I am now on my third successive listen (it's only a 12 minute work) and I have to say that to my ears the declamatory opening captures the spirit of the Boatman perfectly (maybe the reviewer was thinking of punting on the Cam?!). The hard slog of the opening almost immediately melts into a charming and well-sustained fantaisie, which I found enjoyable if not memorable. OK, not great music but hardly deserving of a dismissal which would deter anyone from buying the CD (except me! )

Leonard suggests that the works on the disc, volume 37 in Hyperion's The Romantic Piano Concerto series, featuring Nápravnik and Blumenfeld, signal that they are now scraping the bottom of the barrel and should bring it to an end.

My point here is not to debate the merits of these particular works (you may agree with the reviewer, of course), or the Hyperion series, but rather to suggest that perhaps unsung composers/works generally tend to get harsher reviews than they deserve, i.e. there is a systematic, if unconscious, prejudice at work, which seeks to justify their marginalization by the music establishment.

I suppose it is impossible to establish this as a matter of fact, but I would be interested to hear what you think. 

My apologies if this is actually not 'unsung', but one of my favourite discoveries in recent months has been Debussy's early Symphony in B minor, written when he was still in his teens. What a romantic and gentle piece it is...  if anyone doubts that 'music soothes the savage breast' just listen to this after a hard day, and your anxiety will float away and your spirit will be uplifted!

Try the YouTube version at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM6RDEHN090

The two-piano version is also a delight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8FvD3JDqoA&feature=related

Does it count as 'unsung', or are you wondering where I've been for the last 60 years of listening to classical music?? 

Thank you so much mikehopf for that splendid performance and excellent recording of the Piano Concerto in D minor by George Boyle, and what a very fine, late romantic work it is.

I see that Boyle is the subject of what looks like a very comprehensive thesis by Irene Peery, of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, 1987 (unfortunately not available online, but abstract at http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3287645). There's also a thesis on his piano music by Richard W Stanton (Butler Univ.), but again it seems to be available only at cost. [no wonder most university research sits on the shelves gathering dust!]

There is also an excerpt from his Suite de Ballet on YouTube.... which I am about to sample!

I have the performances in the download section tagged as as "ex-German radio", but I can't readily provide proof or details. 

Just a quick 'thank you' to britishcomposer for the superb downloads of Řezníček. 

These will be listened to with interest today. According to Wikipedia, RStrauss was sometimes on the receiving end of his somewhat sarcastic wit, and that he often got "into trouble in a world that was unaccustomed to the use of humour in music and art". My own feeling is that perhaps the popularity of the Donna D. overture has also been unhelpful.

Prompted by the beauty of his piano music, I was just reading up on Alexei Stanchinsky, whose life was a reminder of the terrible consequences of mental illness. I wonder if anyone knows of (or has) a performance/recording of his Sextet or String Trio. The survival of his music seems miraculous, and I have been unable to discover whether they were unfinished or lost, or if they are just neglected.