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That's great news! The Phantasiestuck finally appears. Now if only Fredegundis and a few works of his youth, would be given recordings, the Schmidt catalog would be complete. Although I am grateful for the one recording of Fredegundis we have, legal or not.

It was on London (Decca in Europe) and was an early example of digital recording. You can get it on CD on the Decca Eloquence label from Australia. It's coupled with a marvelous reading of Goldmark's Rustic Wedding Symphony from Lopez-Cobos and the LA Philharmonic.

Remember the uproar when that first recording came out? Grieg never wanted it to be performed, but oh well, it was a nice revelation and sure added to our knowledge of the composer. But can anyone explain how this symphony is not in the PD in the US? The manuscript is online. The composer has been dead longer than needed for copyright. I can understand the published, nicely typeset version being under copyright, but not the original. What's to stop someone from creating their own performing edition from the MS? It would be a nice addition to the repertoire of amateur and semi-professional orchestras, but rental fees put a damper on that.

It's a shame about Dvorak: whenever a symphony is scheduled it's always 9, 8, or 7 - that's the order of popularity for sure. Masterworks all, to be sure. I've tried repeatedly to cajole conductors into doing 3 or 6 by providing scores and recordings. While they say they like them both very much, getting that to turn into a performance hasn't happened. Carnival, Slavonic Dances, the wind or string serenades, the violin or cello concertos are done quite frequently. Dvorak has got to be the most agreeable, least offensive composer of them all, yet six of the symphonies lie in wait. I push for Fibich, too, with no success.

"Well written" and "Good" are mutually exclusive. There are a lot of things that technically are well-written, but not so good: there are hundreds of cds in my library attesting to that. The Schnabel 2nd symphony is technically well-written and horrible to listen to. Then there are things that may not be technically well written, but are not just good, but great: Musorgsky's Boris Godinov or original Night on Bald Mountain for example. Rimsky-Korsakov took them and made then well written, but was something lost in the process? Probably.

Then there are things that only a serious devotee or musician can appreciate. And the Glazunov 4th is as good as example as any. I, too, think it's a thrilling, beautiful work. But I'm in a minority. The compositional skill is astonishing. The way the themes cross-fertilize the whole work is amazing. But most people don't  hear it, or care. Brilliantly scored, you'd think it would be as popular as Tchaikovsky - but it's not.

There is a lot of good music, and followers of this site are well aware hundreds of them that never appear on concerts these days. Orchestras are generally stuck playing a few hundred sanctified standard repertoire pieces over and over. There's little room for contemporary music or forgotten works. The music they play isn't just good, it's GREAT!

Which brings me to this: as a performer (bassoon) there are some works you play that you just know are GREAT. There's no logic, no way to quantify it. Every fiber in your being says "this is great stuff". In the past four weeks I've played three concerts. On one of them I played Tchaikovsky 5th. The next week Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. I don't care how many times I play those works, I never tire of them - they are just as exciting and thrilling to play as they are to listen to. Every minute you spend polishing your part is worth it. Another concert we played Symphony No. 3 by a living composer I won't name for fear of lawsuits or defriending on Facebook. It was dull, uninspired. Went through all the motions: four movements in the right order. It was easy to play. But it was not a joyful, exciting thing to play. When the masters wrote, there's something in their writing that speaks to you and invites you to play your heart out.

As a listener at home, I spend most of my time on lesser-known music. Maybe it's not Great, but it is certainly well-written and entertaining. I get more enjoyment out of a symphony by Kalinninov, Glazunov, Schmidt, Stanford, or Bax than I do out of Brahms, Mozart, Haydn, and many other "great composers".

Finally, why hunt for the Unsung? Because every now and then you find a real gem. something worth knowing and listening to repeatedly - and something to tell others about. There's a long list of works in this category. Just a few: Raff 3 & 5, Bloch C# minor, Atterberg 6, Schmidt 4, Bakakirev 1st, and on and on.

I compare these arrangements to what B/W photos are to color. Without the glaring orchestration you can hear harmonies, counterpoint, form, and other musical concepts perhaps cleaner. And, when driving the roadster, soft orchestral writing is often hard to hear even with the volume cranked up. But especially in piano arrangements that's not a problem.

I have owned the piano 4-hand arrangement of the Raff 5th for 40 years - it's hard to find someone to play it with. I hope that someday some enterprising duo will tackle it and record it. It's an awful lot of fun to play - and it's quite difficult!

Wow! About time for this to appear. I was unaware of this site, thanks for bringing to our attention!

I've had the bootleg LP recording for 40 years, and have complained regularly about the lack of a proper cd edition. I made a cd transfer from the LP but always worry about the longevity of CD-ROM. I keep hoping Capriccio would do it to complement their worthy Notre Dame.

Anyway...the opera has some beautiful music that is wonderfully scored. There are some very moving scenes - the last one is very effective and gripping. But it does share something in common with a LOT of other forgotten operas: dramatically, it's weak. Again Schmidt had an amateur write the libretto and it shows. Following the story is difficult if your German isn't excellent - the score is in German only, as is the printed libretto. Nonetheless, for the curious, Fredigundis is well worth investigating. For Schmidt fans it's mandatory.

I received the new CPO recording of orchestral music of Robert Radecke last week and it hasn't left the cd changer in several days. Has anyone else heard it? The Shakespeare overture is no forgotten masterwork. The Nachtstuck and Two Scherzi are interesting enough. But the symphony is a delight! It's brief and no movement outstays its welcome. And unlike a lot of other forgotten music that I've listened to, this symphony is remarkably easy for the ear to assimilate - maybe that's the problem. But the themes and form of each movement are clear cut, the harmonies have enough chromaticism to make it interesting, and the orchestration is textbook perfect. Has elements of Mendelssohn, Schumann and other influences. It's a wonderful discovery. The orchestra seems small - the strings are kind of thin in the upper register. But the winds play beautifully and the recording is clear and well-balanced. The score is on IMSLP, too bad the parts aren't! This music is well worth the outlay.

eschiss: I don't copyright does exist for the Edison cylinders. There is a company, rediscovery.us, that takes LPS and transfers them to CD or makes downloads available - and not Edisons, either, but LPs from the Golden Age. I have several Paray recordings from Mercury that never made it to CD. And the Scherchen Gliere 3rd among others. They are meticulous in choosing mint or near-mint condition LPs and then doing minimal processing and the sound is rather extraordinary. Somehow in the copyright process, the LPs were overlooked and copyrights ran out and all this is legal. Copyright law is indeed mysterious and complex.

An arrangement of Sea Pictures? I didn't catch that on looking at the JPC site. Didn't cross my mind. I didn't think it needed to be re-orchestrated. Anyone who wants to take on Elgar as an orchestrator has got some real chutzpah.

In the US, performing The Planets while showing pictures of planets, stars, space shuttles, etc often provided by NASA or local universities has become common. Of course, having psychics, tarot cards and tea leaves would be more appropriate. And when I write program notes I make sure to point this out. Really irritates some conductors.

I'm not too thrilled about orchestrations of masterfully done work. Look at the travesty of the Rachmaninoff 5th concerto, for example. On the other hand, one of my favorite listens is Schoenberg's dazzling version of the Brahms G minor Quartet. So maybe this echt-Elgar will be ok. I wish it hadn't been attached to Sea Pictures, though. After Baker/Barbirolli why bother?

Despite three terrific recorded cycles, and the splendid Lyrita recordings, I still think he's unsung. When I talk to orchestra musicians and people who enjoy attending concerts, hardly anyone has ever heard anything by Bax, and most have never even heard of him. I know conductors who have never heard a note. There's one person I know who is at least familiar with Bax, but then he's as dedicated a collector as I am. Maybe things are different in the UK, but at least in my world Bax is an unsung, unknown and unperformed composer. And not the only one as we all know too well.

I would hope so - we've discussed him a lot in the past. Not so much recently. There's a long list of music I'd like to hear performed live, or even participate in a performance of. The Bax 3rd symphony is high on that list. And I'll continue to make my case to any conductor who will listen.

Hardly anything you don't get in a regular symphony season. I had a great time in London at the 2015 Proms, but then the Schmidt 2nd was a major draw. Nothing like it this year. And I can catch Rattle with Berlin doing Mahler 7 in Los Angeles in a vastly better sounding hall.