Hi all,
In the past years, people have posted threads (I might even have myself, not sure) about their personal discovery of the last year. And as it might help us get through the somewhat desolate span of time between Christmas en New Year, I hope no one minds me initiating it now.
I'll kick off with my threesome:
- The ongoing revelation of Julius Röntgen's symphonic oeuvre, with the recent recording of symphonies 7 and 11, 12, 14 and 22-24 as a very welcome surprise a few weeks ago. They are of invariably high quality despite (or because) of their compact form, and show how a composer was searching and finding satisfying new ways of expanding romantic composition in a period where traditional historiography has it as stale and obsolete. It's an approach similar to that of Felix Woyrsch, to name one, or:
- Joseph Lauber's symphonies. It took me a while to warm up to them, but I can hardly wait for the release of symphonies nos. 4 and 5. Again, a satisfying personal journey to find new expression in traditional forms, by a composer of great talent.
- The cartload of musical rarities that continues to be revealed through the tireless work of Martin Walsh, Tuomas Palojärvi, Gerd Prengel, and others (among which I include the person behind Albis Music, whose name eludes me for the moment). Where listening to synthetic music used to be something to chew through (at best), the technical advances made in recent years have made many of them a joy to listen to. These people deserve everyone's warmest gratitude.
Edit: elaborated on my choices.
OK, but no more than three per person, plus reasons, please.
My choices are all the fruit of the work of today's intrepid excavators of unknown symphonies:
1. Kufferath Symphony in C: this came as a huge surprise to me - a name I didn't know who had written this major symphony in the late 1840s pointing forward to the likes of Dietrich and Brahms, i.e. in what sounds like an advance on the idiom of Schumann and Mendelssohn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGVdSTkAjAU
2. Thieriot Symphony No.5: a symphony of immense strength and purpose, building on and extending the classical-romantic heritage of Brahms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSuKduRk_Ic
3. Zellner Symphony No.1: a dynamic, athletic symphony rivalling his contemporary Raff's 2nd and 4th symphonies for variety and memorability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMC_l1mEii0
1. Lachner's 6th Symphony
This recording came as a sort of a surprise, and what an excellent one it was. Sure, the performance could have been improved slightly here and there, but just the fact that it was recorded at all certainly fulfills the mission started by Gerd Prengel's original hand-crafted rendition, which has led to many discussions about Lachner's music on this forum in the past few years.
2. Draeseke's 3rd Quartet (plus everything else posted on the R&B board!)
I have been listening to a lot more chamber music this year: Draeseke's very fine 3rd Quartet is just the latest piece that was discussed here. Chamber music overall is not my favorite genre, but it has been the best kind of personal discovery for me to listen to so much excellent unsung chamber music thanks to recommendations on the Recordings & Broadcasts board.
3. Grimm's Symphony in D
Another major work in a long streak of unsung symphonic discoveries thanks to Martin. I really hope some recording companies take notice of what is out there.
I'm probably forgetting something from earlier this year that should be highlighted as well. Perhaps it's this continuing covid haze, no idea what year or month it ever is. If I had to make a pledge for next year, I certainly want to focus more on editing scores and sets of parts – after all, practice is supposed to make you better as they say. There is a large time commitment for notating any symphony-sized work, but as long as travel and recreational restrictions seem to be ongoing in the world, I find it more than easy to justify spending spare time on such musical projects. A new version of Dorico is also supposed to come out early next year, and it's going to be a big update which hopefully fixes bugs and in turn helps creating scores on that program even faster.
I'd like to choose two CD issues rather than specific pieces of music. They are The Clarinet Chamber Music of Ruth Gipps (Somm) and the 2 Piano Quartets of Emilie Mayer (CPO).
I've chosen the Gipps for the clever programming and the consistent charm of the music, which I find beguiling and relaxing. The clarinet is warm and seductive.
I've chosen the Mayer for the sustained energy and inventiveness of the music, and the sparkling quality of the performances, which I feel strike a happy balance between vigour and delicacy.
Were I to choose three pieces of music for 2021 they would be from these two discs, and I would immediately change my mind as to which they would be! ;D
2021 has been a wonderful year for "great discoveries" and my list is way too long to confine to just three, so I'm going to have to bend the rules, just a little:
Firstly, we should all recognise the incredible work done during this year by Reverie (Martin) and tpaloj (Tuomas), which has given us a remarkable collection of thoroughly listenable digital realisations of hitherto unheard works: a swathe of fine complete symphonies, symphonic movements and other orchestral works which I have just typed out, but have now deleted because there are just too many of them! So I will nominate a pair as standard bearers for my first class of discoveries: the C major and D major symphonies of Hubert Ferdinand Kufferath, one realised by each of our benefactors. They're works with very different characters but both demonstrate what a fine, versatile symphonist he was and what a loss it was that he buried himself in the musical backwater of Brussels.
Secondly, another cheat: the recent cpo twofer set of seven late Röntgen symphonies - Nos.7, 11, 12, 14, 22, 23 and 24. The longest lasts only 22 minutes, most are single movements and some barely reach double digits, but every one is a masterclass in symphonic writing, economy both of scale and resource and each is a hugely satisfying listen, despite their concision. They are wonderful antidotes to the music world's continuing love affair with Mahlerian and Straussian expansiveness (although I love that too).
Finally, a nomination in which I suspect I will be alone: Eduard Franck's Piano Concerto No.2. I had bracketed Franck as a capable, pleasantly-rewarding but essentially modest Mendelssohn epigone, when along comes this big, confident bravura concerto which, especially in its first movement, reminded me in so many (positive) ways of Anton Rubinstein's Fifth Piano Concerto, a favourite since the early 1970s. That work has its flaws, of course, but it also has a certain grandeur which is echoed by Franck's concerto, something which was quite unexpected and very welcome. The slow movement too is a perfect limpid foil to the first's monumentality, something which Rubinstein failed to pull off.
A very large crop of exciting new commercial recordings, coupled with the efforts of tpaloj and Reverie and UC's uploaders have made 2021 an unusually fruitful year for worthwhile discoveries - in fact, I can't remember a more rewarding one since the 1970s.
Oh, I even forgot about the Franck concertos - a discovery indeed! What I find particularly gratifying is that we haven't really had a single "big" release this year, but rather a continuous and very rich trickle of new works in all genres. So many in fact, that I've actually had to work through something of a backlog at times.
May I also add my personal vote of thanks to Reverie (Martin) and tpaloj (Tuomas) for the fabulous standard of work that they have achieved over the past year - and for the gifts of music that they have brought us through the compositions they have unearthed and to which they have given new life.
Hear! Hear!
1. Richard Stöhr - Symphony No. 1 (1909) I've listened to this very old crackly recording on Youtube many times with great interest. I have been working on creating a cleaner realisation but it is taking some time. Stohr's music is late romantic but beautifully orchestrated so clean and crisp. Underated.
2. Carl Heinrich Reinecke: Sinfonie Nr. 1 A-Dur op. 79 - The Andante 2nd mov - deeply spiritual. Why waste words? Enough said.
3. Hadley, Henry Kimball - Symphonic Fantasia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsxMZCaUA64
A short masterpice for the orchestra. Such variety in texture and sonority. How can Henry be forgotten?
If I'm not moved, I can't place a composition on this forum. I fully realize that others' look for more than this...
I have two. A beautiful piece I wrote about on my Vasilenko post — although the piece was composed by another, a Ukrainian composer called Stavylov. It's called Prelude to the memory of Shevchenko: Sadness and perhaps despair for Shevchenko. The strings moved me, and I realize that there is a full orchestral version. This piece kept me through a lonely Christmas night.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DIzNJes-h7w&feature=share
The other piece is by a living composer for the Vatican — who is hit or miss. This little Stabat Mater is "hit" in my book: Stabat Mater by Marco Frisina. As for why? I'm not sure if his intention was to be sad, but I hear it exuding an overwhelming somber feeling which I, as a non believer, was awash with. Intentions mean much less to this listener than emotional reactions to absolute music. My emotional response was a wonderful sadness.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tryd4NgjSsU&feature=share
Warm wishes this end of 2021.
A Happy New year to all forum members!
In passing, I would like to echo what Mark has said about the Eduard Franck Second Piano Concerto, a substantial work with an individual voice,which,if its composer had been less unassuming,might have found a toehold in the repertoire. (And I was glad of his positive mention of the Rubinstein Fifth,the first Genesis record I was lucky enough to buy,with its haunting,surprisingly understated,slow movement)
But my discovery of 2021 has to be the Juon Symphony in F sharp minor. I was led to it through Mike Herman¨s discography and happy to find that the Sterling CD was still available in a new pressing from jpc.de. It is full of catchy melodies,and the big tune in the first movement is one that Bortkiewicz might have envied but could not have composed as it is sunny,upbeat, almost Griegian,without a hint of melancholy.
My top discoveries 2021 were:
- Mendelsohn's string quartet movement op.81,3 with it's awesome fugato which I love so much that I orchestrated it: http://gerdprengel.de/mend6-4.mp3
- various movements from Ferdinand Ries' symphonies 4 - 8 , for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qftner0_Glc . So far I had loved only his piano concertos and chamber music but now these symphonies have brought me much joy!
- symphonies 2 - 5 by J. Raff which I got to know not until this last year through this forum - thank you!
Mark Thomas: Finally, a nomination in which I suspect I will be alone: Eduard Franck's Piano Concerto No.2. I had bracketed Franck as a capable, pleasantly-rewarding but essentially modest Mendelssohn epigone, when along comes this big, confident bravura concerto which, especially in its first movement
Thank you, Mark, this is indeed a remarkable discovery! Especially movement 1, but also the 3rd movement! Great! I read that Frank wrote this at an age of 14 !!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5yc3QO6tMI
Eduard, not the unrelated César-Auguste Franck's early op.11 concerto , gpr!! :)
Eduard, not the unrelated César-Auguste Franck's early op.11 concerto
Oh, how funny, I didn't realize that there are 2 "Francks" with a 2nd piano concerto. But this way I discovered the one from Caesar Frank, which is really very beautiful!! From Eduard I found only a beautiful violin concerto what I am just listening to ;-)
E.Franck's piano trios are well worth a listen!
Then there's Richard Franck, Eduard's son, who wrote at least 3 piano concertos :)
We're digressing, friends...
I'm adding a late entry to this, but in late 2021 I discovered this relatively unsung (?) piano work by Paderewski, which I was stunned by, having not known much of the composer's work beforehand.
Ignacy J. Paderewski - Variations and a Fugue Op.23 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqupe5kaSNc)
This is a superb work, reminding me a lot of similar works by Busoni. Virtuosic, dramatic with variations which are ingenious from start to finish, requiring all the cerebral and technical resources of the pianist, followed by a stirring fugue that had me on the edge of my seat.
It should be much more widely known.
I've known Draeseke's 3rd quartet for years, at first only from MIDIs I made but at least in some sense I "knew" it - and unfortunately I never got to hear the Draeseke Society recording (though the other Draeseke chamber music I purchased some years back on that label was wonderful.) I am not surprised, listening to the cpo recording, at its quality. But my discovery of 2021, I think, iirc first from a YouTube video and later from the Constanze Quartet recording, was the 2nd quartet - again, a work I sort-of-knew from having had a good look at instrumental parts, but they only gave me a hint of the harmonic and contrapuntal ... apologies for saying it, but to my ears, sublimity- of the opening pages.
(Admittedly, the same first pages as played on the Draeseke Society CD can be heard, I believe, online at their website. Maybe the Constanze Quartet - and for that matter the Maté-Quartett in their 1981 performance, available on YouTube - are both more responsive in the opening movement. No idea.)
Belated edit: while along the same lines I've heard the work in synthesized form several times, 2021 finally brought a recording of Franz Lachner's 6th (and probably best) symphony (whose 1st movement fugato does not bother me the way it does others, for reasons) and I do think it terrific. (As I found myself humming the 2nd group of the aforementioned first movement- or trying to, since those dotted rhythms are -hard- , but smile-inducing - I found it memorable in the most obvious sense.)
Last year saw the release of a cornucopia of art songs in which I was totally and intimately immersed to the happy exclusion of you-know-what.
Here are my favourites:
Kricka: Northern Nights for Soprano & Orchestra on Supraphon.
Christian Fink (1831-1911); Songs and Piano works . 2 CD set on Haenssler Classic
Lysenko: 6 CD set of art songs on Ukrainian Canadian Opera Association
Honorable mentions too for Raff Lieder on Sterling; Bruch lieder on cpo and Urspruch on Kaleidos Musikeditionen
I have to advocate for this lovely disc of music by Léon Boëllmann: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8917737--boellmann-symphonie-en-fa-majeur-variations-symphoniques-quatre-pieces-breves particularly the Quatre pièces brèves pour cordes
cheers,
Daniel
Hi, I just stumbled across this website and forum after about two months now of listening to unsung composers. Here's my path.
A friend of a friend on facebook posted something about a Dora Bright piece that KUSC in Los Angeles had just aired. Despite my four years as the classical music host on my college radio station, I'd never heard of her and immediately found a recording on youtube. Youtube then proceded to serve me up either a bottomless playlist or a bottomless mix that seems to be entirely composed (yup, I went there) of unsung composers' music, mostly symphonies and concertos and mostly Romantic.
I'm actually not sure how to link to the mix itself without linking to the piece that happens to be playing from it this moment, so here you go. I'm not particularly recommending what's playing now (in fact I'm only three minutes in) but this is the playlist link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlFunhbbCM&list=RDEMAwaN0RVVx6HGC_YYHkoFOA&index=27
So how did I get to this website? One recent piece that came up was by Hilding Rosenberg, who of course I've also never heard of. And as my mom's last name is Rosenberg, I did what we do in these cases, googling "Hilding Rosenberg Jewish". Strangely, or perhaps not, the first hit (https://www.nli.org.il/en/a-topic/987007312079105171) was at the National Library of Israel, a website I generally visit when I want to find recordings from around the Jewish world of liturgical poetry (piyutim). The wikipedia link didn't mention "Jewish" so I continued on down the list, where the second result was to a ten-year old Unsung Composers thread (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=2976.0) giving his entire catalog. Still don't know if he's Jewish, but apparently he did write Four Jewish Songs for voice and orchestra, op. 89. No idea how to find a recording of that piece, but here we are. If the youtube link ever runs dry I'll start picking my way though some of the fora here.
Welcome gidklio and we're pleased that you found us at last! There is an irony in your journey as you come to us via that old thread about Hilding Rosenberg, a composer whose musical idiom lies at the very edge of what is now our area of interest - our guidelines (here (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3681.0.html)) will explain in detail, but basically UC is as a platform for discussion about neglected music of the romantic era. I don't know his music at all well but, sampling the symphonies on YouTube, some works seem to lie just within our aesthetic boundary, whilst some works are outside it. Anyway, welcome and we look forward to more posts from you.
QuoteDespite my four years as the classical music host on my college radio station, I'd never heard of her and immediately found a recording on youtube
If you are interested to read more about Dora Bright, you may wish to read my article about her. It includes corrections of some commonly mistaken facts written about her. https://www.trubcher.com/blog/dora-bright (https://www.trubcher.com/blog/dora-bright)
UC members, please forgive me just a moment, but....I'd like to applaud our new member for the association with KUSC in L.A. - before we moved away from Southern California, I listened to KUSC FM radio pretty much "24-7" as they say, and over the years I spent any number of days at the studio taking pledge phone calls (this was a loooong time ago!). Yes, there were a few years in there when the management seemed to go way off the deep end with supposedly edgy and daring and highly-cool programming, with perplexing music of unusual fertility rites from places most have never heard of.....(attn: any overly sensitive folks - this is only my personal humble opinion ;D). In any case, KUSC radio provided as much of my classical music foundation (such as it is) as any institution I can think of, including my college, and my thanks are boundless.
You are forgiven!
Now back to the topic, please...