Messages

Please be a responsible quoter!

I haven't got the hang of quotes yet .... I keep getting my own own comment 'inside' the quotation ... and want to try it again here to see if I've got it...

[Ilja]

Tchaikovsky's critical fate has always been decided by his (still) immense popularity and the high-brows frowning upon it and dismissing it for that reason. Usually, I find that those that dismiss him off-hand have either heard very little of his work

Ilja I dare say that some awkward people would dismiss a composer simply because of her/his popularity (and perhaps some of them would be attracted to an "unsung composers" forum!). But, I think you would accept that not everyone is going to like a particular composer's work, no matter how familiar they are with it, or how low/high-brow they might be, or how popular or otherwise it is. In the end, as Peter1953 said - it's all a matter of taste, and the variety of taste is truly amazing. Long may it be so... a monoculture is a depressing possibility!

JimL - that was just the kind of description that I would have used if I had the nous to think of it!

My comment about the number of Rota symphonies got wrapped into the quote, due to my unfamiliarity with the procedure, apologies.
Was the Symphony on a Love Song being counted as Rota's fourth, as TerraEpon suggested?

Fyrexia - yes, I agree - Tchaikovsky (PI) and Liszt - with the exception of the Hungarian Rhapsodies maybe? I've been listening to the Leslie Howard recordings, and he sym. poems and I just can't see what he's getting at...

Rota's symphonies ... Ah, my mistake actually- there are four

... and perhaps less ambitiously, his Symphony on a Love Song - so maybe we should credit him with five?

Just a quick 'thank you' for the STRÄßER uploads. What an enjoyable morning I've had - it's all so good. I can't understand why these aren't on LP - CD. The orchestral pieces are charming and the Piano Concerto is inventive and would surely have become a 'lollipop' - to borrow a term - had it been issued on CFP or, latterly, Naxos.

I speak entirely as a naive listener, and do wonder about their technical quality as compositions. Am I right in thinking that they are rather loosely structured works, and that the ideas tumble out rather than evolve? What's the general opinion of Sträßer among musicians?

Thanks eschiss 1 and Albion - and for setting me off on a developing relationship with Alan Bush and his music.

My apologies if this has already been answered, but can anyone tell me where I might find the librettos for Alan Bush's The Winter Journey and Fogg's beautiful The Seasons?

JimL - yes, I too went and had another listen, and I agree that the 5th is a beauty. And, that theme Amphissa mentioned is so evocative of old Russia and its changing landscape, at least for an old romantic like me!

Alan - thanks for the Bodley advice. I've checked for a CD so many times over the years, and there it is! Another overspend on my pocket money, coming up.

Thanks to fuhred for that rather strange but lovely piece based on a theme of Alfred Hill. It is certainly an exception to the usual "designed by a committee" cliche. Do you happen to know where the theme appears in Hill's music, if it does?

[Rubbra's]

I think Rubbra's symphonies are badly neglected, and I love the swashbuckling symphonies of George Lloyd (12 in all).
We don't seem to give the Americans much coverage here, so how about Piston (, Mennin (9) and Cowell (15) .... not my cup of tea, but definitely unsung symphonists, at least outside the US. Not sure how well recorded they are, though. More to my liking are the symphonies of Roy Harris (12), although we rarely hear anything except the 3rd.
Among Scandinavians, Rosenberg (8 syms) is usually overrlooked, and once we turn to Eastern Europe and the old Soviet empire, the list could be almost endless......
This may be an opportunity to place a request to the forum - does anyone have Symphony No.2 - 'I Have Loved the Lands of Ireland' by Seóirse Bodley? My old ex-radio cassette recording is almost unplayable.... and it's a beautiful work.

Whoops - yes, some double-Dutch on my part! Draeseke - a very German composer indeed.

Some of the many 'unsung' Dutch composers have finally begun to be recognised outside Holland - Gilse, Dopper, Rontgen, Vermeulen, etc etc... all wonderful. Thank you for introducing me to yet another - a real delight.