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Hello,

Throughout the history of western music a certain number of composers have been elected to carry the crown of western music.
To begin with, my own flamish school of polyphonists , Josquin DuPrez, Ockeghem...
Majority agrees on Bach, Beethoven.
But stil by what standards.
A common mistake to my opinion is the Haydn calling Papa, while it was Mozart who called CPE Bach our Papa.
Haydn is a father and a carrier of the crown, CPE Bach to less fortune.
Many leftovers were really ont the frontier but not recognised.
I still wonder, what kind of jury elected these crown carriers ?
The output of Raff, Onslow is ravashing but unknown.
Wich judge decided these were not to be played in public ?
Which jury set us up with a perpetuum mobile of repertoire we begin to vomit, in a rude sense.
Guillaume Lekeu, young died, but what a genius. Fellow man too.
Nobody knows.
Classical music is ill-defined and butchered in favor of some excellencies.
Classical music in a way is fake, cause it bows for the glory of the economy, and does not serve the arts as it should do.

Hello,
This is not a topic about some unknown composer, of which there are hundreds.
What it is, is a call to everybody to think on how to get the message, being these prolific composers are left unplayed and neglected life in public, to the conductors and soloists of today.
Without any doubt, Howard Shelley did a titanic work to play, conduct a lot of the romantic composers.
But the narrow standard repertoire stays very narrow.
I wonder why a Scharwenka piano concerto, or even the Thalberg piano concerto or others do not add up to this endlessly repeated standard repertoire.
Of course there is marketing, selling tickets, cause concert programs must sell. But let me tell you.
If Buniatishvilly or tutu Wang would perform Scharwenka, people come anyway.
I find the best efforts are being found in the chamber music genre during festivals.
But the symphonies by Ries, Fibich, ... Deserve to be played, why not before a Beethoven or Brahms.
It is a sad thing that classical music for decades has been reduced to a handful of overly known composers and works.
My piano 2 volumes in French, containing about 1400 pages of piano music analysed is a good example of how many good works there are. Reading an article of a young pianist having recorded Liapunov, and carrying these 2 big volumes everywhere he comes is promising.
But not enough.
With nowadays social media some wizard here could set up a project to propell our unsung composers in the world, as Lititsa did. If she can, why not we ?
Spread the message friends.
Classical music is short of fresh air...

I just want to pose the question to everybody.

Will there come a time when the music industry will start to perform on stage these unsung composers. I know it is not a specific question related to a composer in particular. But Moszkowsky, Reicha, Henselt, Pfitzner, Krenek, Stanford,... all have somehow written pianoconcerto's to begin with, and symphonies, and chamber music. Why is Nielsen respected and Molck or Molick, anyway a compatriot not ?
Popmusic renews itself every day, classical contemporary music is or difficult, or neglected too, too obscure, anyway poses general auditive problems, so logically to renew its old skin, the classical music industry cannot but to look at all those unsung composers (I prefer neglected).
It is not because a Tyberg symphony has not genius of Bruckner that you cannot perform it.
I agree some selections will have to be made.
But for pianists lies a wealth of pieces, yet undiscovered, unpaid. I own the piano music encyclopedia in french, 3000 pages, in 2 volumes.
To my surprise a young 24 old pianist having recorded the piano music of Lyapunov, drags the same 2 volumes he got for his 12th birthday everywhere around. 3000 pages, of which perhaps a few hundred are part of the concert repertoire.

There are foundations for everything you can think off, but nothing is there to be found to promote the unknown masters.
I adore(d) the Brahms symphonies, but after 30 years it's too much. The Beethoven pianoconcerti, can't listen to them anymore, at least not by the xth next performer, not Lang Lang please. 

I mean, I feel i reached a (can't find the word) culmination point, a feeling of "I had it". Same goes for chamber music. Beethoven always in the front row.
I'm not going to vomit, no, but the sheer number of broadcastings, recitals and recordings gave me an overdosis (that's it) to the point I would almost start to hate classical music. Reason why I posed the problem in my 1st topic, My dilemma.
The freshness is not there anymore, there is something missing.

I fear the worst, as audiences almost come to see the performer and then the music, instead of the other way around. As long as this "stardom" of young solo wizards exist, it won't change. Orchestras are afraid for their budgets...

Luckily there are state symphonies like the Ukranian, who do perform their homeland composers. But there it stays, and does not cross borders.

Really a sad, sad story this forum. But useful of course.

Hello everybody,
As this is my first post, and not a native english speaker, I will try my best to contribute to this forum for the sake of the neglected masters.
I first got into contact with unsung masters through the member group unsungmasterworks on youtube.
Personally I listen to classical music for over 30 years, and play the piano.
But my cd discography really starts to crop up copies and copies of the same masterpieces in the genre. Beethoven pianosonatacycles, symphonies, ...
I joined this group and on Youtube because of the limitation and sheer stupidity behind performers and labels by only playing over and over again the same pieces. Even Burlesque by R Strauss is standard repertoire.
When I read about Henselt, Dussek,... in piano international I said, My God what have we been missing for 100 years.
Yes, Gilels recorded the Henselt piano concerto, and it can stand next to Liszts. But nobody performs it...

Utterly neglect, underrating audiences, not daring to take a risk.
Anyway, luckily CPO, naxos release a good number of these lost masterworks.

So my dilemma. Will I start focussing only on the lost composers and leave good old Beethoven, Brahms,.... except Schubert as he is unclassifiable for me, in the closet, or will I combine both.
As a pianist, I like clementi, Dussek, but of course cannot without the mainstream works.

It will be an exciting journey anyway. Even in the baroque lots of composers are still yet to be discovered and played.