I was just wondering about assembling list of these: the conductors would need to be been reasonably star names but not so for their music and yet the music is "good" and even recorded. Who fits the bill, with what works?
I posted this on another forum four years ago ;D It maybe approaches your question.
"There is an obvious 'A' List of conductors who were/are equally famous as composers-
Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez are modern examples.
In their time one would have to consider the cases of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss-two famous composers but recognised as very considerable conductors. Mahler's work at the Vienna State Opera(1897-1907) and in New York(1908) is fairly well recognised. Strauss, however, was one of the leading conductors of his day. He succeeded von Bulow at the Berlin Philharmonic in 1894 at the age of 30, he directed the Berlin Opera(1898-1918), the Vienna State Opera(1919-24) and the Leipzig Gewandhaus(1933).
There are another couple of conductors who might just qualify-
Felix Weingartner, one of the greatest conductors of the period from 1885-1940, who composed seven symphonies and ten operas and who certainly considered his work as a composer as equal to his achievements as a conductor.
Howard Hanson was the founder and longtime conductor of the Eastman Rochester Symphony Orchestra in New York State.
The 'B' list would include conductors who regarded their compositions as more important than their conducting but found that few people necessarily agreed with them(Furtwangler is the obvious example)-
Bruno Walter(two early symphonies)
Otto Klemperer(two acknowledged symphonies but apparently six in total, a Mass and two operas)
Wilhelm Furtwangler(three symphonies and a Te Deum)
Paul Paray(two symphonies and a Mass)
Victor de Sabata(two operas and a number of tone poems)
Sir Eugene Goossens(two symphonies)
Dmitri Mitropoulos(an early opera)
Paul Kletzki(three symphonies; stopped composing in 1942)
Antal Dorati(two symphonies, concertos, an opera, a cantata and a wide range of other music)
Jean Martinon(four symphonies and several concertos)
Gunther Wand(ballet music and a cantata)
Igor Markevitch(a remarkable number of compositions produced between the ages of 16 and 30 but then switched over completely to
conducting)
Rafael Kubelik(three symphonies, three Requiems, operas)
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski(who continues to compose, including a recent Concerto for Orchestra)
Evgeny Svetlanov(a symphony, a piano concerto, a cantata and several tone poems)
Andre Previn(concertos and film music)
Lorin Maazel(an opera and concertante works)
Jose Serebrier(a wide range of music including three symphonies)
Leif Segerstam(189 symphonies, 11 violin concertos, 8 cello concertos, 4 piano concertos, and 30 string quartets; presumably he
occasionally sleeps?)
Giuseppe Sinopoli(an opera and serial and electronic music)
Esa-Pekka Salonen(a growing body of compositions including a recent Piano Concerto)
There may be others!
A reasonable quantity of the works of these conductor/composers is available on disc-
the symphonies of Klemperer, Furtwangler, Goossens, Dorati for example.
I would like to hear the Martinon and Kubelik symphonies.
The question of how derivative the compositions of composers who were principally engaged in conducting the music of other composers is one which others might care to make comment."
Beecham composed, but I don't know how much: one piece by Normal del Mar made it onto Dutton (Allegro Concertante for Horn and Strings): I am not yet sure whether Ronald Corp deserves to be considered more a conductor or composer, but I'm guessing the former. Not sure he's really a 'sung conductor', though.
Hand von Bülow composed. A couple of his symphonic poems and some piano music is available commercially and his Four Character Pieces for orchestra is available for download here (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1373.msg24653.html#msg24653).
George Szell and Robert Heger composed as well. There was a Leon Botstein-conducted CD of music by Szell, Heger, Hans von Bülow and Felix Weingartner.
Goossens was an original and possibly near-great composer whose music isn't better known due to his own shortcomings. That "pornography" scandal derailed everything for him. I have yet to hear a work of his, large or small that wasn't uniformly excellent.
Weingartner was also an excellent if reactionary composer. The CPO series has been highly illuminating, and I've returned to his music often.
Once was rather frequent the figure of the composer-conductor-pianist.
I think of (just for one country):
- Ferruccio Busoni (very higly rated mostly as pianist, when living)
Alfredo Casella (a sung composer, when living; very active internationally as a conductor)
Giuseppe Martucci ( internationally acclaimed as pianist; sung composer and active in Italy in his days).
I don't know how well-known Martucci was as a conductor, but he seems to have been the only conductor to have performed certain English works in Europe (or at least in Italy) in a certain period (it's claimed by some sources; I think I may have found other evidence somewhere - I am not quite sure - but his concert(s) were rare I don't doubt.
My post was just a sample to remind the case of the pianist-conductor-composer.
Coming to the rather niche case of Martucci as conductor, he was active mostly -but not exclusively- in Italy (while his pianist career was/had been international).
Certainly he conducted the Italian premiere of Tristan und Isolde (in Bologna)......and of Parry Symphonic Variations (conducted at least at La Scala and in Bologna).Surely he conducted the Italian premieres of works by Stanford and Mackenzie.
A conductor who, although his music falls outside the remit of this forum, is a very fine composer indeed and is becoming more recognised for it, is the Hungarian Peter Eötvös.
Turning this thread momentarily on its head (if I may be allowed such a temporary indulgence), a number of probably reliable accounts suggest that Schönberg was one of the last century's unsung conductors; Sorabji (who certainly wasn't one!) heard him on several occasions, the first (I think) of which was the UK première of Gurrelieder and he told me many years later that, had Schönberg chosen to concentrate principally on conducting, he would have been spoken of in the same breath as Toscanini.
Quote from: eschiss1 on Thursday 07 June 2012, 21:44
I don't know how well-known Martucci was as a conductor, but he seems to have been the only conductor to have performed certain English works in Europe (or at least in Italy) in a certain period (it's claimed by some sources; I think I may have found other evidence somewhere - I am not quite sure - but his concert(s) were rare I don't doubt.
No. Busoni certainly did; I don't have all the details to hand but can confirm that he gave one of the early performances (in Berlin, I seem to recall) of Delius's
Paris and he conducted Elgar's
Enigma Variations on more than one occasion.
Still about the admittedly niche case of Martucci as conductor.
Certainly Martucci conducted several times Stanford Irish Symphony and is reported to have become a personal friend of the latter (who conducted Martucci First in London twice, even before Martucci himself conducted it in London- 1898).
Martucci is reported to have conducted Stanford Irish Symphony once in London.
Quote from: Dundonnell on Wednesday 06 June 2012, 14:03There may be others!
Two not yet mentioned:
Willem Mengelberg
Sir Henry Wood
Malcolm Sargent is another: his Impression on a Windy Day (first given at the Proms in 1921) and Hawaiian Lullaby have made it onto CD.
Can we count Henry Wood, with his Fantasia on British Sea Songs? I suppose it's (a) not really unsung, as it gets heard at the Proms most years and (b) not much of a composition, more an arrangement, but it's a lovely piece in its own way. They should have played it during the river pageant at the Jubilee.
Again about Busoni as conductor of English Music, he conducted in Berlin 15 november 1902 the first performance of Delius' Paris.
On 8 november 1902 he had conducted Elgar's Prelude and "Angel Farewell" from the Dream of Gerontius.
In Berlin between 1902 and 1909 Busoni organized 12 symphonic concerts. Busoni did'nt conduct the whole programs; often composers shared the podium to conduct their own works: for instance Magnard (Third Sympohony); Sibelius (Second Symphony , En Saga); d'Indy (Symphony op. 25); Pfitzner Scherzo for orch.; Wagenaar (Saul and David).
Ah right, the Busoni Magnard concert is mentioned in the MPH (Musikproduction Höflich) preface to Magnard's 3rd symphony.
(I think I was remembering too the related but not-quite-the-same fact that Mahler had Stanford's 4th symphony in his repertoire- and took it with him to New York City, though in the 20th century I think. I do mean the 4th in F, yes.)
A couple of further candidates.
Wilhelm Stenhammar: Artistic Director and chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony 1906 - 22.
Rachmaninov: conductor, Moscow Private Russian Opera Company 1897-98; Bolshoi Theater 1904-6. Thereafter he was an active guest conductor worldwide until the outbreak of WWI. His reputation as a conductor was such that at the end of the war the Boston SO sought him as its chief conductor (he declined) prior to offering the post to Koussevitzky.
Oh dear, but how the world has changed.... I didn't realise that Stenhammar and Rachmaninov had become unsung composers. I regard that as our sad loss.
No one has mentioned a woman so I will nominate Ethel Leginska who studied conducting under Eugene Goosens and had a successful career conducting during the inter war years in places such as London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, New York, Boston and Los Angeles. She was a competent composer of Opera, orchestral and chamber music.
Wow, so hard to think of women conductors at all, well done! I also adore the 'foreignisation' of such an old fashioned English name as Ethel Liggins.
I wonder she didn't go the whole hog and ditch 'Ethel' as well for something like 'Ekaterina'. On the subject of women conductors, there was also Avril Coleridge-Taylor, of course.
Quote from: petershott@btinternet.com on Tuesday 12 June 2012, 08:37
Oh dear, but how the world has changed.... I didn't realise that Stenhammar and Rachmaninov had become unsung composers. I regard that as our sad loss.
I think that Rachmaninoff was more of a sung composer who was an unsung conductor. ;)
I will nominate Ethel Leginska
Very sadly, almost none of Leginska's major works seem to have survived. I did search (moderately hard) at one time - and would love to be proved wrong.
QuoteI didn't realise that Stenhammar and Rachmaninov had become unsung composers.
My bad. That said, here in the boonies I've never heard a live performance of Stenhammar by an orchestra. Nor, for that matter, of most of Rachmaninov's non-keyboard works.
my weak criterion for unsung is probably does it cause the classical-fan-but-not-absolutely-100%(not 99%)-fanatic friends and relatives of mine to go completely blankly "who?" and Stenhammar, Schmidt and Magnard still satisfy that criterion, but anyway... (not Rachmaninoff- not only do they recognize music of his but often the name. And I'll accept either- which is why I won't even count Wiren, a movement or two of whose serenade is/are so well broadcast, or Alfven similarly (a theme of his served as opening music for the night program on WQXR-FM New York for years I think...), or a few others, as quite unsung anymore :) )
Quote from: eschiss1 on Wednesday 13 June 2012, 00:14
... Alfven similarly (a theme of his served as opening music for the night program on WQXR-FM New York for years I think...)...
Opening of the 1st Norwegian Rhapsody?
Nope! And actually I think I may be thinking of the BBC Through the Night program- I haven't heard the WQXR one in ages :) The theme I'm thinking of (right, apologies for the request to use telepathy...) is the opening to the Elegy from his suite to the play Gustav Adolf, Op.49.
Lovely orchestration, theme, etc. ...
In my honest opinion.
(Less known as a conductor, but yes, Wikipedia confirms my recollection that he was one. Now Liszt- as readers of Walker's interesting biography will recall- well, that's a different subject. And yes, I know it's a fallible, etc. bio... (of course.) )
Walter Rothwell 1872-1927 Was a composer and a conductor. He was born in England and trained at the Vienna Conservatory, later becoming conducting assistant to Mahler. He went on to conduct in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, St.Paul and New York. Among his compositions were a piano concerto and numerous operas.
A relatively recent candidate would be the Hungarian/American composer George Barati, best known as a conductor (as here: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Barati-George.htm).