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I've just listened to the first two piano concertos by Tcherepnin on the complete set of concertos with Murray Mclachlan on piano and the Chetham SO. (There is another complete recording with Noriko Ogawa on piano and the Singapore SO which also includes his symphonies).

What marvelous and exciting works. They are tuneful and vibrant both. On first listen I have a slight preference for the first, but enjoyed both immensely. I can't wait to listen to the other 4 piano concertos and then move on to the symphonies.

Here is a link to the Tcherepnin Society (both his father and son are composers as well).

http://www.tcherepnin.com/alex/bio_alex.htm
The bio says of his early style:

"In his works until about 1921 is found a hybrid style successfully linking the Romantic impetuosity (but not the Romantic textures) of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin with the grotesquerie of early Prokofiev. The result was fresh, imaginative music, such as the Bagatelles and Sonatine Romantique, that quickly made a reputation for the young composer. "

A cross between Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Prokofiev sounds about right. It will be interesting to hear the progression of his style in the later works.

I've been listening to Casella for the past couple of days and while listening to his delightful triple concerto for piano trio and orchestra, which was inspired by Beethoven's great triple concerto, I tried to think of what other post-baroque composers have composed a triple concerto. Ellen Taafe Zwilich has an exciting concerto for piano trio and orchestra and Tippet has a triple concerto for string trio & orch and then I drew a blank. Are there any others (specifcally for piano trio & orch, although I'd be interested in any others for string trio & orch as well)?

Here's a query: What great unsung classical works are there for fathers. There are numerous popular songs for fathers (Oh My Papa, etc...) and there are tons of works for mother's (include every Stabat Mater, various requiems (most notably Brahms). Faure's requiem may have been inspired by the death of his father (and also his mother two years earlier). But are there any great works extolling the virtues of fathers and fatherhood. On quick reflection none come to mind, but I'm sure the members here can come up with something.

For the past few days I have been listening to CPE Bach keyboard concertos recorded by Miklos Spanyi. While there are plenty of minor quibbles to make:  like the frequently made complained about Vivaldi, there is a lot of 'sameness' especially when you listen to them back to back,  the writing is uneven, sometimes the performances falter a bit, etc... But those aside, what has struck me most listening to these pieces en masse is how much marvelous invention there is (also like Vivaldi).  There are exciting fast movements and beautiful and elegiac slow movements. And while the performance lag occasionally, overall I think Spanyi has done a fine job.

Would anyone else care to share their impressions of the CPE concertos, share any favorites among the close to 40 concertos (is the edition complete at 17 volumes? I had seen some suggestions that there were more volumes expected)

Now that Spring is here and the air is filled with the songs of birds, I'm inspired to introduce the following topic:

What composers have incorporated bird songs (actual or imitated) into their compositions? Those that immediately come to mind:

Oliver Messiaen, who was an ornothologist, and incorporated specific bird songs into many of his works culminating in his Catalogue D'Oseaux and Oiseaux Exotiques.

Rautavaara has his 'Cantus Arcticus' a Concerto for Birds and Orchestra.

Resphighi's Fountains of Rome includes imitations of bird songs and more explicitly in his suite  'The Birds'

Saint-Saens has several birds in the 'Carnival of the Animals'

Vaughan Williams in the Lark Ascending (several other works evoke birds as I recall).

Swans are well represented in the aforementioned Carnival, Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake (if somewhat obliquely).

The bird and the duck in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

Contemporary Japanese composer Tokashi Yoshimatsu (who I heartily recommend to those unfamiliar with him) has many bird song inspired works as well as his better known older contemporary Toru Takemitsu.

Biber incorporates bird songs in several of his violin sonatas, the most explicit is the sonata 'Cock, Hen & Quail'

Vivaldi's flute concerto 'The Goldfinch' explicitly imitates a bird song and there are definite bird song parts of 'Spring'.

Handel has his organ concerto 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'

Couperin has several harpsichord works based on bird songs, notably 'Le Rossignol-en-amour et Double'.

Janacek has the somewhat obscure chamber work 'March of the Bluebirds' (Pochod Modrácku)

And jazz musician Paul Winter frequently includes recordings of live bird songs in his music (and uses the bird songs and other natural sounds as inspiration for improvisations).

But most of the above examples are pretty well sung composers (excepting possibly Biber and Yoshimatsu). So where are the unsung compositions using bird songs. The only one that immediately comes to my mind is Holbrooke's 'The Birds of Rhiannon' (James MacMillan has also composed a piece based on this Welsh legend, but I don't recall any specific attempts to imitate birds in it), and more obscurely Chris Sainsbury's 'Symphony of the Birds' (excerpts here:
http://www.sainsburymusic.com/sounds-and-scores).

I'd like to put in a plug for Fr. Lorenzo Pelosi. The Italian label Bongiovanni has done yeoman's work in bringing the composition of this very unjustly neglected composer to light. I was first introduced to his music via his choral works. He was a Catholic priest and wrote many very beautiful masses in a traditional manner. As I explored the recordings further I then discovered his chamber works which I also found charming and beautiful, well crafted, memorable melodies. Finally I discovered his large scale choral works (there are several large impressive oratorios) and his orchestral works and concertos.

I think he is one of the most unjustly underrated Italian composers of the 20th century and deserves a wider audience.

For some reason I don't quite understand only about a third of the Bongiovanni discs of his work are available from the main retailers (Amazon, CDConnection, ArkivMusic), but this Italian internet retailer seems to have the entire catalog:

http://www.ibs.it/cd/ser/serpge.asp?ty=exa&x=25137


If anyone else is familiar with Perosi, I would love to hear of your impressions.

A short while back we had a topic on unusual solo instruments used in concertos. I would like to now add a much more conventional instrument that seemingly gets little respect - the oboe. It's one of my favorite instruments, with it's beautiful, plaintive, almost human voice like quality. It was quite popular as a concerto instrument with baroque composers (usually in the form of oboe d'amore) with a large number of wonderful concertos for the instrument by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Marcello, etc... + Bach's wonderful oboe solo concerto and his double oboe,violin concerto. Handel wrote 3 oboe concertos and there are many other baroque examples, but then it seems to peter out. Mozart has his oboe concerto but composers seem to already be losing interest. Except for Mozart's, post baroque oboe concertos are few. There are a bunch by Lebrun (Ludwg August) who was almost an exact contemporary of Mozart (1752-90).  Other contemporaries of Mozart who wrote oboe concertos were Kurt Meier, Ernst Eichner, Ignaz Holzbauer, Giuseppe Ferlendis, Leopold Hofman. Also CPE & JC Bach have oboe concertos plus Dittersdorf, Cimarosa.  Haydn has his concerto for oboe and trumpet. There's a recording of Czech oboe concertos by Fiala, Krommer and Zach.

It seems to have made a minor comeback in the 20th century, there are significant concertos by Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Elliot Carter,Richard Strauss, Bohuslav Martinu, Holst's Fugual concerto for flute & oboe, and a double concerto for oboe and harp by Lutoslawski. There's also a concertino for oboe by Greek composer Nikos Skallkottas. Other 20th century examples include Gordon Jacob (who wrote 2 I believe),  Eugene Goosens, Pawel Sydor, Marco Aurelio Yano, Harald Saeverud, Jouni Kaipainen, Christopher Gunning, Alan Rawsthorne, William Alwyn (for oboe, harp & strings).

But the great romantic composers seemed to have almost entirely ignored the instrument. Can anyone recommend some great romantic oboe concertos. There is a concerto by Bellini which has been recorded, but no late romantic examples I can think of. Rimsky Korsakov has Variations for oboe and military band. August Klughardt has a concert piece for oboe & orch. Ignaz Moscheles wrote a concertante for flute, oboe & orch. And theres a Concert piece for oboe & orch by Julius Rieitz.  Pretty slim pickings it seems. Are there any great romantic oboe concertos waiting to be discovered? Any opinions on why the oboe fell into such disuse in the 19th century?

I have been spending the morning re-listening to Hugo Alfven (1872-1960). The music is wonderful, especially the 5 symphonies and the three Swedish Rhapsodies (of which, the 1st is probably his most popular and one of the few of his works that could be considered 'mainstream'). Gorgeous melodies and rich, lush orchestrations.  I believe that most of the orchestral works are recorded, but the Hugo Alfven Society (http://www.alfvensallskapet.se/Everk.htm) also lists several large scale choral/vocal works, a few chamber works and a collection of songs of which I am aware of only a few having been recorded (Sterling has also recorded several cantatas and BIS has recorded several of the songs and smaller choral works), most notably "The Lord's Prayer" for chorus, soloists and orchestra. There is also a recording of his violin sonata. I haven't heard either. I will be adding them to my collection.

I mentioned to my uncle, an lifetime avid collector, who owns a small classical label and has many contacts in the classical recording industry, that someone here pointed me to an unrecorded requiem by Atterberg and suggested he mention it to Robert von Bahr at BIS who is a longtime friend of his.

Von Bahr said he didn't know the requiem existed but was intrigued, so perhaps there'll be a BIS recording of the Atterberg requiem sometime in the future.

Jim Moskowitz pointed me to this survey of requiems

http://www.requiemsurvey.org/

Tobias is compiling his survey of 20th century violin concertos

www.violinconcerto.de

and Alan Ho is compiling his list of piano concertos

http://www.siue.edu/~aho/discography/Discography.pdf

and there are many pages dedicated to the works and lives of unsung composers (+some pretty extensive wikipedia entries for some), perhaps we can start a new main subject just for useful links on the web. Members can also include links to good music sources (Records International, Berkshire Record Outlet, etc..) and good review sites (Music web).

Organization could be a simple as:

Useful Links:
    Music Surveys
    Composer Sites
    Recording sources
    Reviews

and members can just add links to each of the 4 topics above + any others folks can think of. This way useful links will all be gathered in one place and easy to find.

What do you think?

I have seen several posts here praising the concertos and orchestral works of Robert Volkmann. I have been listening to his string quartets over the past few days and I have to say that they are all wonderful, very expressive works. There's not a bad one in the bunch. All 6 are available on CPO with the Mannheim quartet.

I will get the Volkmann piano trios also available on cpo and give them a listen.

I've just listened to a wonderful symphony by Louis Vierne and not one of his justly celebrated symphonies for organ solo, but an orchestral symphony.  The symphony from 1907 is lush and dramatic. It's paired with an equally lovely and exciting Poeme for piano & orch from 1925 (hints of the Franck Sym Variations). Both are on a Timpani CD. I can find out very little info about either piece, the Grove entry lists them in his works, but says nothing about either. I didn't see any other recordings available of them either.

While investigating I did come across a recording of several symphonic poems for voice and orchestra (paired with the much better known Chausson poeme) reviewed on Music-Web:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Feb10/Turbulent_Heart_mr301123.htm

which I will be obtaining shortly.

I have a special spot in my heart for requiems and have collected them for years. In many cases they are very personal works composed on the occasion of a friend's or loved one's death and are frequently filled with some of the most poignant music in the repertoire.

I have gathered together my collection of Requiems, so that the folks here can append any other gems I have missed.

The "Sung" - The famous and frequently performed
Mozart, W.A                             Requiem
Verdi, Giuseppe                         Requiem
Brahms, Johannes                        German Requiem, Op 45
Britten, Benjamin                       War Requiem, Op 66
Faure, Gabriel                          Requiem, Op 48
Durufle, Maurice                        Requiem, Op 9
Victoria, Tomas Luis de                 Requiem
Webber, Andrew Lloyd                    Requiem
Rutter, John                            Requiem
Berlioz, Hector                         Requiem, Op 5

The "Unsung"  (I have marked with * those I especially love, but there is a great deal of beauty in many of these works)
Artyomov, Vyacheslav                    Requiem
Axelrod, David                          Requiem  The Holocaust
Balada, Leonardo                        No-Res (Agnostic Requiem)
Balakauskas, Osvaldas                   Requiem in memoriam Stasys Lozoraitis
Beveridge, Thomas                       Yizkor Requiem
Biber, Heinrich                         Requiem in A Major, A.15
                                        Requiem in F Minor
Bontempo, Joao Domingos                 Requiem
Borodin, Alexander                      Requiem (arr Leopold Stokowski)

Bruckner, Anton                         Requiem in D Minor (1949)
Bryars, Gavin                           Cadman Requiem
Campra, Andre                           Requiem
Catoire, Jean                           Extasia - A Requiem Sequence
Charpentier, Marc-Antoine               Requiem Mass
Cherubini, Luigi*                       Requiem in C Minor
                                        Requiem in D Minor (both were championed by Toscanini, but the D Minor is better known)
Chesnokov, Pavel                        Requiem No 2, Op 39
Cimarosa, Domenico                      Requiem pro Defunctis
Clucas, Henry                           Requiem
Cordans, Bartolomeo                     Messa da Requiem
Cornelius, Peter                        Requiem
                                        Requiem 'Seele, Vergiss Sie Nicht'
Danielpour, Richard                     American Requiem
de Lange, Daniel                        Requiem (1868)
Delius, Frederick                       Requiem
Denisov, Edison                         Requiem (1980)
Desenclos, Alfred                       Messe de Requiem
Dittersdorf, Carl Ditters von           Requiem in C Minor
Dobrogosz, Steve                        Requiem
Donizetti, Gaetano                      Messa di Requiem
Draeseke, Felix                         Requiem, Op 22
du Caurroy, Eustache                    Requiem des Rois de France
Durante, Francesco                      Requiem in G Minor
Dvorak, Antonin                         Requiem
Eybler, Joseph                          Requiem in C Minor
Eychenne, Marc                          Requiem
Finzi, Gerald                           Requiem da Camera
Foulds, John*                           A World Requiem, Op 60
Frygyes, Hidas                          Requiem
Fux, Johann Joseph                      Requiem Aeternum 'Kaiserrequiem', K 51-53
Gagneux, Renaud                         Requiem
Gorli, Sandro                           Requiem
Gossec, Francois-Joseph*                Requiem (Missa Pro Defuncis)
Gounod, Charles                         Requiem in C Major
Gouvy, Theodor                          Requiem
Greif, Olivier                          Requiem
Grippe, Ragna                           Requiem for Soprano & Synthesizer
Hamerik, Asger                          Requiem, Op 34
Hasse, Johann Adolf*                    Requiem in C Major
                                        Requiem in E flat Major
Haydn, Michael                          Missa 'Pro Defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismundo' (Requiem), MH 155
                                        Requiem in B flat Major 'Opus Ultimum'
                                        Requiem in C Minor, MH 559
Henze, Hans Werner                      Requiem
Hidas, Frigyes                          Requiem
Hindemith, Paul                         Requiem 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd'
Holmboe, Vagn                           Requiem for Nietzsche
Hovhaness, Alan                         Requiem and resurrection, Op 224
Howells, Herbert                        Requiem
Imbrie, Andrew                          Requiem (1984)
Kabelevsky, Dmitri                      Requiem, Op 72
Kilar, Wojciech*                        Requiem Father Kolbe
Kokkonen, Joonas                        Requiem
Lachner, Franz                          Requiem in F Minor, Op 146
Lassus, Orlande de                      Requiem
Ligeti, Gyorgy                          Requiem
Liszt, Franz                            Requiem, R.488
Lobo, Duarte                            Requiem for six voices
Lotti, Antonio*                         Requiem in F Major
Luchesi, Andrea                         Requiem e Dies irae
Luhl, Enguerrand-Friedrich              Requiem Vauban
Maciejewski, Roman                      Requiem
Marcello, Benedetto                     Requiem in the Venetian Manner
Marini, Giovanna*                       Requiem
Martin, Frank*                          Requiem
Martynov, Vladimir                      Requiem
Moran, Robert                           Requiem - Cygne du cygne
Neukomm, Sigismund                      Requiem
Ockeghem, Johannes                      Requiem
Olsson, Otto*                           Requiem
Palestrina, Giovanni                    Requiem
Penderecki, Krzysztof                   Polish Requiem
Perosi, Lorenzo                         Messa da Requiem
Pizzetti, Ildebrando                    Messa di Requiem
Preisner, Zbigniew                      Requiem for My Friend
Puccini, Giacomo                        Requiem
Rabassa, Pedro                          Requiem
Reijseger, Ernst                        Requiem for a Dying  Planet (2006)
Rejcha, Antonin                         Requiem
Rheinberger, Josef                      Requiem in D Minor, Op 194
Richafort, Jean                         Requiem
Ropartz, Joseph-Guy                     Requiem
Rutti. Carl                             Requiem
Saint-Saens, Camille                    Requiem
Salieri, Antonio                        Piccolo Requiem
Schnittke, Alfred                       Requiem (1974-75)
Schubert, Ferdinand                     Requiem, Op 9
Schumann, Robert                        Requiem für Mignon, Op. 98b
                                        Requiem, Op 148
Senator, Ronal                          Holocaust Requiem - Kaddish for Terezin
Sgambati, Giovanni                      Messa da Requiem
Silvestrov, Valentin                    Requiem for Larissa
Smith, Richard W                        Mountain Requiem
Stanford, Charles Villiers              Requiem
Suppe, Franz von                        Requiem
Tabart, Pierre                          Requiem
Tavener, John                           Akhmatova Requiem
                                        Celctic Requiem
Tomasek, Vaclav Jan                     Requiem in C Minor
Tomasi, Henri                           Requiem pour la Paix
Torres-Santos, Raymond                  Requiem
Tubin, Eduard                           Requiem for Fallen Soldiers
Vycpalek, Ladislav                      Czech Requiem (Death and Redemption), Op 24
Wehrli, Werne                           Ein Weltisches Requiem
Weill, Kurt                             Das Berliner Requiem
Weinberg, Mieczyslaw                    Requiem, Op 96
Wetz, Richard                           Requiem
Zelenka, Jan                            Requiem In C Minor
                                        Requiem in D Minor, Z 48

To finish off, some requiem inspired works
Hanson, Howard                          Sym No 4 'Requiem', Op 34
Hartmann, Karl Amadeus                  Sym No. 1 'Essay for a Requiem'
Ritzen, Peter                           Chinese Requiem on a Poem of Santiago M. Ruperez Dura
Sculthorpe, Peter                       Requiem for Cello Alone
Riley, Terry                            Requiem for Adam
Kox, Hans                               War Triptych ii Requiem for Europe
Lokshin, Alexander                      Sym No.01 (Requiem)  (1957)
Glass, Philip                           Sym No 5 'Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya'
Takemitsu, Toru                         Requiem for Strings
Britten, Benjamin                       Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20
Stravinsky, Igor                        Requiem Canticles

Joseph Rheinberger, best known for his organ compositions and deservedly so, also wrote some wonderful choral works (there's are nice collections on Chandos, ASV, Dorian,Hyperion and Paraclete and a lovely Christmas oratorio 'Der Stern von Bethlehem' on Capriccio) some for chorus and organ and some with orchestra. There are some very lovely masses and motets well worth hearing.

There are also some very lovely chamber works for violin & organ (available on Naxos) and violin, cello and organ (available on Helios) plus other more traditional forms (I would heartily recommend the complete chamber music set on Thorofon). I am particularly fond of the violin & organ suite.

I see his piano concerto has already been mentioned in other threads in the forum.

Any other interesting (non-organ) works by Rheinberger that I may have missed?

Some are a bit pedantic and there are sections that are virtuoso showpieces without much depth, but that said, there is a lot of wonderful music in the Beriot (Charles Auguste, 19th century not to be confused the the 20th century Luciano Berio) violin concertos. There are 9 in all, all of which are currently available either on CPO or Naxos except for #6. Hopefully one or the other of the labels will fill out the set with a recording.

The three Bortkiewicz piano concertos are all very beautiful works.  Unfortunately only #1 has been recorded on Hyperion so far. I have LP recordings of #2 for the left hand and #3 'Per Aspera ed Astra', I don't think either is currently available otherwise. The symphonies are lovely as well as is the piano and chamber music. Hyperion has so far done a yeoman's job at getting his works heard. One can only hope that they will soon release his other two piano concertos.

There is also, according to this site dedicated to him (http://www.xs4all.nl/~ingp0040/)  published, but as far as I can tell never recorded, violin concerto and cello concerto as well as a 'Russian' Rhapsody for piano & orchestra. Perhaps worthy future additions to the Hyperion romantic violin and cello concerto series.