Over the years I have found that many descendants of unsung composers have been most helpful with information about their forbears, some having original manuscripts others having just anecdotes. In most cases they were enthusiastic about new light being shone on their half forgotten ancestors. Some are more than willing to help in any way they can with promoting performances. My point here is that if members of the Forum know of any relatives, however distant it would be useful for me to hear about them. It may not be of immediate use but experience has taught me that these threads can be extremely useful.
I am surprised how many 'Unsungs' have direct descendants and how many 'Sungs' don't.
Mozart, Beethoven Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Glazunov, the list is endless.
Mozart and Mendelssohn I'm surprised at. Beethoven never married, nor did Schubert (I've heard some sources say he was gay or bisexual), Brahms and Bruckner were both confirmed bachelors, Tchaikovsky's sexual preferences and proclivities are, of course, well-documented, as is Britten's. Glazunov, I think was married but childless, as was Elgar. I know that Mozart had 2 surviving sons, but I thought he would have some surviving daughters who went on to marry. Mendelssohn, I thought, had a rather large family, and I'm surprised that he has no descendants.
and while Liszt has, to the best of my knowledge, direct descendants, through one of his three children (of the other two Daniel having died very young and Blandine, I believe, childless?) - Cosima's children were all born Wagner, far as I know...
Mendelssohn's sister, at least, had a famous grandson or great-grandson I believe- Kurt Hensel, a mathematician of some real note. (Ex-mathematicians like me will have used his theory of "p-adic" numbers.) Not sure if she has still-living descendants.
The only unsung descendant I have ever come across is Barry Sterndale Bennett. Sadly I have never met him personally but was informed by his late wife when we visited her garden open day in Hampshire around 10 or 15 years ago that he had a large collection of his ancestor's manuscripts and gave free access to anyone wishing to study them. I did hear from someone else who new him the, after his wife(who was a celebrated gardening expert) died, he sold their country house and moved up to London. Sadly, as you already know, there is a lady who married into the family and is sitting on what could be his greatest masterpiece, the 6th piano concerto.
Cheers,
John.
Elgar had a daughter - Carice.
Indeed: Carice Irene, born 14 August 1890.
Emmerich Kálmán, the famous operetta composer (1882-1953) had a son, Charlie, who just died last Sunday in Munich. I admired him very much as an inspired composer of Jazz-oriented work. Years ago, I attended the premiere of his Piano Concerto. He was a wonderful person and always hoped I would record some of his works, but no producer was interested...
Last September I attended a concert given in Linz, Austria in Charles Kalman's honour and in his presence. I am really glad I was able to be there and I would love to have more of his music available to listen to. I did buy a CD with the Hudson Concerto and Times Square Fantasy and other orchestral music played by the German Symphonic Pops Orchestra, and this has certainly whetted my appetite for more.
Karl Weigl has a number of descendants, as does George Frederick McKay, Pancho Vladigerov and Walter Bricht. There are also still Flagellos and Giannini's around. (One of the Giannini descendants came to Kyiv for one of my Flagello recordings.) I've been trying to track down Hadley family in ongoing efforts to locate missing manuscripts of much performed but unpublished works. I've had more luck with his wife's (Inez Barbour) family. FYI.
Carice Elgar did marry and become Mrs. Elgar Blake, but she had no children, so there are no descendents of Elgar now. Sullivan was unmarried, though his nephew Herbert was almost a son to him; Havergal Brian had five children by both his marriages.
I know Gareth Stainer, great-grandson of John Stainer, composer of The Crucifixion and Gabriel Prokofiev (now a sought-after composer), grandson of Sergey.
Gustav Holst had a famous composer/writer/conductor daughter Imogen (1907-84).
Aram Khachaturian's nephew Karehn Khachaturian (1920-2011) was a composer in his own right.
Conductor Oleg Caetani is the son of Igor Markevitch.
Quote from: Wheesht on Friday 27 February 2015, 08:27
Last September I attended a concert given in Linz, Austria in Charles Kalman's honour and in his presence. I am really glad I was able to be there and I would love to have more of his music available to listen to. I did buy a CD with the Hudson Concerto and Times Square Fantasy and other orchestral music played by the German Symphonic Pops Orchestra, and this has certainly whetted my appetite for more.
There's on YouTube two more orchestral works by Charles Kalman : Piano Concerto No. 2 "Panamericana" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZxeY9EmvVQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZxeY9EmvVQ)
and "Three Moods" for piano and orchestra :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM1jMrTAl38 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM1jMrTAl38)
The "Hudson Concerto" (Piano Concerto No. 1) and the "Times Square Fantasy" (for two pianos) are also available :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvxnhguysrc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvxnhguysrc)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0renuQkzys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0renuQkzys)
Thanks for those links – I still find myself having to get used to the fact that so much can now be found on YT...
... and Aram Khachaturian's son Karen Aramovich (the nephew is Karen Surenovich) is a longtime and dear friend of mine. Every time I visited him in Moscow I could pass hours in papa's old flat, having good food, perusing books, scores, memorabilia and manuscripts. This in the famous Moscow House of Composers. I will miss him very much since I've decided not to travel to Russia anymore... Karen Aramovich is a theatrical agent.
As I was reading I suddenly became aware of the Newman family which has father, son, and grandson. Quite a generation of composers.
Tom
...and there is Joan Cominos, Louis Gruenberg's daughter, another very nice person and dear acquaintance of mine. Gruenberg was an excellent composer, such a pity he has still to belong to the "unsung" category.
With Pascale Honegger, Arthur Honegger's daughter, I am befriended since 1982; she lives in Switzerland.
I thought she was in Austin Texas. I'd like to meet Joan as I'm very interested in Gruenberg. I've always wanted to play his Violin Concerto (which may be the greatest American violin concert); it's on my music stand right now. I have had absolutely no luck in persuading orchestras to play it with me. The orchestra part is very, very difficult, and would require more than the single (or two at most) rehearsal(s) usually allotted to the soloist on a given program. That's why you hear endless Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Brahms - the orchestras barely have to rehearse to perform them adequately. That's an awful standard.
Joan lives in Martinez, California
Wasn't Gunther Schuller interested in Gruenberg enough to record some of his works a few decades ago? (And I see more recently, though not much more recently, Paul Freeman conducted a recording of one of his symphonies. Hrm. Though yes, I see the only recording(s) of his violin concerto are "historic" ones... though there's also this video (http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=fwWJKBTh7G4) of a rehearsal for a 2002 performance in Tokyo. I wonder if it's more or less difficult than certain other American concertos, but given the nature of this forum, will amend to "Romantic" concerto since the one that leaps to mind is _not_ Romantic...)
I can tell you authoritatively that it's the most difficult concerto, yes, more than Paganini, Ernst or anything else.
You are prefectly right, minacciosa 8)
Symphony No.2 recorded by Freeman - coupled with "The Enchanted Isle" is magnificent mkusic!
Schuller made a higly interesting CD in 1986 with The Collage New Music Ensemble.
I have some more rarities, which I could tranfer from a pricate LP in Joan's possession: "The Daniel Jazz" and "Five Variations on a popular Theme", both for chamber group.
In 1972, Zola Shauslis recorded Gruenbberg's "Polychromatics" for piano for the New World label.
All of Gruenberg's music is diffult to play.
Incidentally, years ago I made an arrangement for wind ensmble of Gruenberg's short and witty baritone song cycle "Animals and Insects", which seems to be of no interest to anybody even in its original version...
Despite some initial success, Gruenberg has turned out to be one of the unluckiest composers. Hadrianus, do you know where are the performing material for the 3rd, 4th and 5th Symphonies? They are not at NYPL.
MS Scores and parts for Symphonies 3 & 4 are in the Fleisher Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Also quite a lot of his other orchestral music, including symphonies 1 & 2 and cello and piano concertos respectively.
Where is the 5th?
Good question. I don't know, I'm afraid.
At least a condensed score of no.5 (sym. 5, op.75) at N(ew)Y(ork)PL; they have a lot more by Gruenberg than that, in fact. 200-300 entries, depending on how many are duplications (see www.nypl.org .) (Answer courtesy, again, of Worldcat.org, not of any particular intelligence on my part) Including sketches to no.7 and 14 pages of sketches for no.8, it seems. Intriguing.
From NYPL card entry (http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b10909643~S1) for no.5 condensed score (please do not add water)-
"On t.p. (crossed off): Written in 1944 ; reviewed 1962.
Last movement, Be strong in the Lord, for men's chorus (TBarBarB) and orchestra."
Also, minacciosa - I'm confused. - no.4 is at NYPL (indeed, they have the holograph), according to their catalog, but it could be mistaken- catalogs often are; do their staff or your own researches say that they lack it? (http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b10984930~S1 (http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b10984930~S1)) (I could be missing something here. I often am!)
I saw no entry at all for the 5th in their finding aid.
*attaches a notice to all (such) documents/databases/resources past, present and future, with rare exceptions as noted as implied by self-application: this document or resource shall not be understood to be comprehensive, and should be used in conjunction with other resources.*
(Then exhaustedly- that's a lotta resources- takes a nap)
But Mozart had two son, Karl and Franz Xaver. The first became official, but Franz Xaver was a prominent pianist and teacher, and has composed works, including chamber music, piano and melodies in a rather romantic style.
I don't think either of Mozart's sons left descendants. I'm certain Franz Xaver didn't. However, I think Mozart had some surviving daughters who may have.
Paul Freeman, conductor mentioned earlier in this thread, died July 21, I note unhappily.
One question: Do cousins of composers count too? If so, then in the Mendelssohn family there's a composer named Arnold Mendelssohn (1855-1933). He was the son of Felix Mendelssohn's second cousin Wilhelm.
I am aware of Arnold but my interest is the relatives who are alive today, it is sometimes surprising that after several generations some have anecdotes and others much more including letters, manuscripts and other ephemera. They can also be very useful when it comes to promoting their ancestors works. I have eleven descendants of 'unsungs' I can call on and who are only too willing to help with promoting their ancestors works.
I am also acquainted with the nephew of Waldemar von Baussnern (1866-1931), whose (difficult) Symphonies I have studied long ago. Since no CD label ever showed interest (starting from Marco Polo), I gave up. Meanwhile there is a chamber music CD on the DG label and and organ piece on a "Transylvanian Composer's" Ars Musici CD...
we used to have recordings (broadcasts or LPs; it was awhile back...) of 2 works of Baußnern's uploaded here, I think. Ah yes. The 1898-ish serenade and the 1925-6 Symphony no.7.
Re; Baussnern, there is no explanation about why the eight symphonies were 'difficult'. I am aware that he wrote some chamber music, perhaps this is where to start in generating some interest. How many of the symphonies were performed. Perhaps you might to start a new thread about him.
I'll see if I can get ahold sometime soon of one of two recent Baußnern biographies then (one on his life and works, one on his life and work-reception (actually, it's a whole big thing with life, works, reception, biography, and correspondence in 2 volumes- probably in the non-interloan "reference" section everywhere and aye, but might have a go; sounds kind of interesting and looks it from the Google Snippeties. "Willst Du aber vielleicht mein 2. Streichquartett haben?..." ). The latter collection, from 2003, looks like it may answer your question - on how many of his symphonies were performed- directly. (The 5th was... (Es ist ein Schnitter, der heißt Tod) - see http://www.hansknappertsbusch.de/AkademieKonzerte.html (http://www.hansknappertsbusch.de/AkademieKonzerte.html)).
@giles.enders: the scores I've perused at that time were really difficult, especially as far as the string parts were concerned.