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Italian pianist, composer,  educator, musicologist (1880-1937). Wrote at least 2 piano concertos, the 2nd dated 1905 (although maybe not published until 1934).

I'm not finding much about this fellow. There is a Wiki page in Italian here -- https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attilio_Brugnoli. He was apparently more highly praised than Bartok at the Anton Rubinstein Competition in Paris in 1905, which irritated Bartok quite a lot. Bartok wrote that Brugnoli's music was "absolutely worthless conglomerations."

I doubt that Brugnoli is a forgotten master, but I am not exactly deterred by the judgment of Bela Bartok. I'm curious about his piano concertos and other piano music, since he wrote some influential publications on piano technique.

I am no longer seeing the link accompanying a post that would enable me to reply with a quotation from another person's post. I am perplexed by thgis. It is occurring with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Any idea what is going on?

However you celebrate this holiday season, may the unsungs be sung throughout the holidays and in the new year.

Best wishes to you all.

Cecil Coles has been mentioned a few times in passing on UC over the years. By now, most know the sad story. Coles was a promising young Scottish composer. Upon completion of his studies at Edinburgh University, London College of Music and Morely College he furthered his studies in Stuttgart and took a post as assistant conductor of the Stuttgart Royal Opera.  He returned to the UK in 1913. When war broke out in 1914, he volunteered for service and became bandmaster to the Queen's Victoria Rifles. He sent manuscripts home to his friend, Gustav Holst, from the front. While helping rescue wounded comrades, he was killed by a German sniper. He was 29 years old.

Unlike the works of some other composers who died in war, the music of Coles languished. It was the persistent efforts of his daughter brought light to the manuscripts.

For those who have not yet discovered the Hyperion CD of music by Cecil Coles, I'll whet your appetite with a couple of items from broadcast in the downloads. The CD, which predates these live performances, can be found here: http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67293

The YouTube piece has been removed, so I guess it was something famous!

The search function seems to be misbehaving.

A recent item in Downloads, Sydney Grew said "let us have at least one item from Bohuslav Martinů." Which seemed odd, since I had posted a Martinu item just last month for download.

So I ran a search for Martinu, both in the Downloads section and the site at large. Sydney's post was located, but mine was not. I checked, it's still there on page 6 in the Czech folder.

So, why is the Search function finding his and not mine?

Another example from the Czech folder is Novak. If you search site-wide or Downloads as a whole, you don't pick up the May Symphony, Notturna and other items by him.

I've run across this problem before, but not reported it and don't remember the instances. But it does cause concern. I often search to determine whether something is available, but also to see if something I want to upload has already been posted.

Henryk Wars (birth name Warszowski with variant spellings), was a noted composer of movie and theater music. His work in pre-war Poland has been compared to that of Irving Berlin in the U.S. Of Jewish heritage, he was taken prisoner by the Nazis, but managed to escape and joined the Polish Corps in Russia.

After the war, he immigrated to the U.S. where he became a naturalized citizen and lived the remainder of his life. He was a friend of John Wayne, wrote songs for Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Brenda Lee, and scores for more than 60 movies.

In 2005, his widow donated his personal papers and manuscripts to the Polish Music Center at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The manuscripts contained a remarkable cache of unknown symphonic music. Included in the collection:

Symphony No. 1
Piano Concerto
City Sketches (a 3 movement orchestral suite)
Maalot Overture

In June 2005, Wars' symphonic scores were given a world premiere by the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Krzesimir Dębski, with Marek Żebrowski playing the Piano Concerto. A few months later, the music was featured in a performance at University of Southern California.

I am uploading for your pleasure a radio broadcast recording of the Piano Concerto from a 2008 concert by the Krakow Philharmonic with Peter Jablonski as soloist. It is a wonderfully melodic piece -- a bit showy, which is understandable given his trade, but definitely fun.

If anyone managed to capture the Łódź concert broadcast, please contribute it. I would certainly like to hear the rest of this man's music.

We have a thread going at present which pertains to compositions with the word ballad in the title. I seem to remember in the past that we had a similar thread about works called romance. We also see works called poem, scene/picture, etc.

So, my question is, do these words in titles actually designate distinctions in form, program or historical roots for the works? Or are they all pretty much interchangeable? Is there a substantive difference between a ballad, a poem and a romance for orchestra or for soloist with orchestra?

I've never been able to find a source that explains a difference between them. I've always just assumed that the word chosen for the title was an "artistic/romantic" choice, not something substantive. But I'm not a music scholar.

Is there a substantive difference? Can you point me to a source that explains?

I didn't want to hijack the Boston Six thread, so this is a spin-off. Forgive my long rampling approach to this topic. It's not really a new one to any of us. But I'm curious as to your thoughts.

This derives from my disappointment about the lack of recordings of music by American composers being made by American orchestras. Maybe the music of these composers is so generic that any orchestra can play it. But I'm less convinced that this would be the case with some American composers.

About 10 years ago, I was involved in the search for a new music director for our regional orchestra. We brought in 8 young conductors, each performing one concert, over the course of the season. One of the conductors was East European -- Hungarian. In his pre-concert talk with the audience, he said American orchestras should program more American music, and he rattled off a list of American composers. He didn't get too esoteric for his program, though. He just included Berstein's dances.

After the concert, I heard people say that they liked the Bernstein but commenting skeptically about the idea of playing American composers -- and who were all those people he named anyway? The orchestra's board was equally skeptical of this Hungarian who wanted to play obscure American music. Needless to say, he didn't get the job.

As a side note, talking with him, I mentioned the Bernstein and he said he had recorded it with his orchestra in Hungary. A couple of months later, he sent me a CDR. At first I was perplexed, and then I couldn't help but find it humorous. They just couldn't swing. They couldn't find the rhythms. They sounded lead-footed. They were playing all the notes, but the soul of the music wasn't there. It was particularly noticeable when they played the mambo piece.

I've never been much of a believer in the notion of nationalism in orchestral performance. I've never been really convinced that German orchestras play Brahms any better than British or American orchestras, that Russian orchestras have a hammerlock on Russian composers, etc. But, any American orchestra drops into these rhythms naturally. The musicians know the "feel" of the music intuitively.

I was reminded of this when I listened again to the Berlin PO conducted by Dudamel playing this same piece (posted in downloads). They were a lot better than the Hungarians, of course, but it still sounded four-square, even with The Dude at the helm. Whereas I've heard a half dozen American orchestras play the piece over the years and it never failed to swing.

I've also noticed this when I hear Gershwin. The American regional orchestras are certainly no match for the great orchestras around the world, but when American orchestras play Gershwin, it invariably swings. I've heard quite a few recordings of Gershwin that does not.

I'm not convinced that there is anything left to the notion of nationalism in the performance of the major composers and the core repertoire. Not anymore. Years ago, I think it was more true. I could often pick out a Russian orchestra playing Russian composers -- that pedal to the metal brass and the tweaking woodwinds. The Concertgebouw and the Czech orchestras, the Philadelphia O -- they all had their own sound. But now, its all pretty much homogenized.

But I do wonder if there is some music that still comes more naturally to musicians in some countries than in other. This Bernstein and Gershwin music is an example that is familiar to me, but I'm not expert enough on the folk music of Russia or Hungary or Norway to know if the home orchestras have a much more natural feel for the music of their composers. Or, is the level of musicianship so high globally now, and the global homogenization of sound so complete, that this is no longer an issue?

I can only say that, a few years ago, I heard the Moscow Symphony play Rachmaninoff's First. There was that Russian sound I thought had long been eradicated -- the amazing brass and the irrepressible energy that I just don't hear in most recordings by the big name orchestras.

So, here in the land of unsungs, we encounter music that is off the well-traveled path of most orchestras. We often have very few options when looking for recordings. I'm happy enough to hear Polish composers played by the Polish Radio Symphony. But I'm often skeptical when I encounter an American composer performed by a completely unfamiliar orchestra in Asia somewhere, conducted by a guy from Eastern Europe. I always wonder, did they capture the essence of this music? If I were to hear it played by an American orchestra, would it "feel" any different?

I can say quite honestly that I would not look forward to hearing "Porgy and Bess" performed by a French or Italian opera.

I need help understanding a German radio announcer who gives details of the music that was just played. I want to make this recording available in the downloads section, but I want to have correct information about the recording.

If you understand spoken German, could you contact me please? I will send you the BRIEF announcement that I need help with.

Many thanks!

I've opened a new folder for New World composers, to include all of the countries south of the United States. Many of these composers studied in Europe, Russia and the U.S., but receive very little international recognition.

Thanks for contributing right off, A.S.

I've opened a folder for Hungarian composers, beginning with premier performances of a couple of pieces by Miklós Rózsa, who was one of the great composers of Hollywood movie scores.

If you have this Chandos CD, would you contact me please? Members only.

It seems that every country is getting its own folder, so why not Estonia?

I have opened the folder with Tubin's 5th symphony. I am hoping to find some music by Kapp to add as well.

Please feel free to contribute to this folder.

I am going to open a new folder for American music.

The content of the folder may include not only composers born in the United States, but also composers who immigrated to the United States, and lived for an extended time in the U.S. or became citizens.

Thus, native born U.S. citizens, of course, but also composers like Korngold, who was born in what is now Czech Republic, but immigrated to the U.S. in 1934 and became a citizen in 1943.

What is not included in this folder are composers from Latin and South America, unless they lived and worked in the United States. Although they are "American" in the broadest sense of the term, their music has different roots and deserves its own folder.

I am going to add a couple of recordings to get this folder started, but feel free to add to it.

Is there a list somewhere online of all (or a great many) works for piano and orchestra by unsung composers? Or one that includes all (or a great many) unsung composers? Something extensive and reasonably accurate?

So, following on the humor and fun of the music by Poulenc, I'm interested to hear your recommendations for music in the Romantic idiom that contains significant amounts of humor. By which, I don't mean a one off funny reference to some other composer's music. But substantial segments of humor.

I suppose "toy symphonies" could go here, but we've discussed those before. Paderewski's piano concerto is so over the top that it is fun, but I don't know that it was intentionally humorous.

What are some other examples?

 
It's nice to see music by an Unsung up for a Grammy this year.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jyS0wCBIIxpY5WrI52SAvQtARA8w?docId=5922441

I am rather surprised, I guess, that there has been no mention whatsoever of Francis Poulenc. I do not own a lot of his music, but have enjoyed his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1932) and Piano Concerto (1949). As a member of Le Six, there is humor and fun incorporated into both pieces, but the music is rich with infectious and substantive melodies.

Beyond these two concertos, I like the Sinfonietta, but have heard no other large scale works. I have an assortment of violin and cello sonatas, but that's about it.

Would anyone like to recommend other music by him that would be worth tracking down, and what are your favorite recordings of his more popular works?

 
Last week, I was enjoying my after-work ritual, a glass of wine and an hour of music before dinner. Having nothing in particular on my listening agenda (no new, unheard acquisitions), I fell back on my common practice. I have my LPs organized in file boxes, alphabetically by composer. The boxes are in order, but they are not labeled and the albums in a box are not organized. So, for example, the boxes containing Beethoven LPs are sequentially after the boxes containing Arensky, Arnold, Bach, Balakirev, etc, and before the boxes containing Borodin, Brahms, Busoni, etc. But within the boxes of Beethoven music, the LPs are randomly filed.

So, on this night, I pulled a random box from the B's that turned out to be a box of Brahms. And flipping through the Brahms LPs, I found one of my many recordings of the second piano concerto. This particular recording was by Rudolf Serkin with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Ormandy. This was the Philadelphia Orchestra in their prime and Serkin's performance is excellent. So I happily put this on the turntable and settled in for sublime music.

The Brahms Concerto No. 2 is one of my favorites. I have many recordings, both LP and CD. Some are better than others, but the music itself never fails to draw me in.

There is a spot in the final movement that is "goosebump music" for me. Those of you familiar with the concerto know the spot, I'm sure. No matter how often I listen to this concerto, no matter who recorded it, I always get goosebumps at that particular spot. Always. I get goosebumps just re-playing it in my head!

There are many pieces of music that I love, that provoke strong emotional responses in me. And I've experienced goosebumps on many occasions in live concerts. But, off the top of my head, I cannot think of any "goosebump music" by unsungs.  I suspect that is just because I've got Brahms in my head right now.

Is there any music by unsungs (or by sungs for that matter) that invariably give you that kind of very visceral response -- music that is "goosebump music" for you?