Unsung Composers

Dear friends, please , can you help us giving options?/
And, Why his choice?

I'd suggest Marie Jaëll's piano concertos. They deserve a recording on CD.

Have you a record company/pianist/ orchestra in mind ?  Before anyone starts dreaming they, need to know where the parts are and the likely sources for funding.  I believe Jaell's piano concertos have been recorded in the distant past.

I would suggest devoting a CD to Dora Bright. Her two extant concertante works for piano & orchestra are available in MS at the RAM - Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor (MS Full Score - I have a feeling Lewis Foreman may have prepared a clean copy and set of parts a long time ago when Lyrita were contemplating a recording, though I may be mistaken here) and Variations for piano & orchestra (MS Full Score & parts). Unfortunately, her other orchestral works (including 2nd PC in D minor, Fantasia in G minor for piano & orchestra, and Suite for piano & orchestra) all seem to be lost. The disk could be completed by the Variations on an Original Theme of Sir G.A. McFarren's for two pianos which was a popular work in its day and exists in a printed version by Edwin Ashdown (n.d.) held at RAM, and has also been reissued in a modern edition by Hildegard Publishing. The Bodleian Library also has the 2 pieces for cello & piano (1934) - 1. Das Fischermädchen (A melody by Meyerbeer). 2. Polka à la Strauss - whereas BL has only the second of these.

Both of Marie Jaëll's piano concertos (No. 1 in D minor and No. 2 in C minor) were recently performed and broadcast.  We have them in our archives, and I have them in my iTunes.  A CD would be nice, though.  Perhaps Hyperion, on the RPCS?

The project will be with the OSSLP. Thank you for set the Correct name in this new topic. Jäell was recorded. Other option? Dora Bright will be "easy" get the scores and maybe parts?

It is worth noting that the British pianist, Samantha Ward, has performed both of Dora Bright's extant concertante works for piano & orchestra (the PC and Variations) in concert at Morley College recently (though the audience cannot have been large and the concert was poorly advertised). She would be worth approaching, and would certainly know about the parts for the PC.
http://www.samanthaward.org/ (http://www.samanthaward.org/)

Suggestions: Radie Britain, Johanna Senftner, Maria Bach, Grace Williams.

Apart from Senfter (not Senftner), I can't imagine that the other composers would be of interest to Sterling and their predominant focus upon romantic music.

I would strong suggest Emilie Mayer - absolutely the right sort of composer for Sterling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilie_Mayer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilie_Mayer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Emilie_Mayer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Emilie_Mayer)
http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_%28Mayer,_Emilie%29 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_%28Mayer,_Emilie%29)
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1740.0.html (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1740.0.html)

Aramiarz: try these three lovely works by Emilie Mayer, all available on YouTube:
Faust Overture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWGu3tntNoo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWGu3tntNoo)
Piano Concerto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjF5LS4FmRE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjF5LS4FmRE)
Symphony No.4 (reconstructed by conductor Stefan Malzew from the piano duet version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnVJJvcFQqc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnVJJvcFQqc)

They would make a great CD!

They would, I agree. But Dora Bright was British, and our own Romantics get little enough recognition, so I shall bang the drum for Britain. Three cheers for Dora! :)

How about Dorothy G. Howell? We've had a piece or two of hers uploaded here. Died in 1982 but some of her most famous works (Lamia, particularly) were composed around WW I...

I'm only banging the drum for Mayer because I know the music. I've no idea how good Bright's work is...

Dutton brought out a disk some years ago of Dorothy Howell's chamber & piano music. Cameo released a recording they made of her Piano Concerto at a concert in London which I organised. Her splendid tone poem "Lamia" was played at the proms five (I think) years back but has not been recorded. There is another tone poem, "The Rock" (about Gibraltar) and a ballet; but that's it as far as orchestral music goes. A projected symphony remains only as fragments, alas - according to her niece, who has all Dorothy's extant scores.

Has anyone ever found a score for the piano concerto by Ingeborg Starck von Bronsart? It seems there was some mention of a search for it previously. Also, though the only mention I have ever seen of a piano concerto by Louise Farrenc was in the International Cyclopedia of Woman composers by Aaron Cohen, I wonder if anyone had looked any further for it. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds or the know how to search these, but these composers have always intrigued me, especially since we have been allowed to hear Farrenc's symphonies and chamber works. Buena Suerte, Aramiarz!!!

I think it's also fair to say a lot of the music of Augusta Mary Anne Holmès hasn't been recorded (even though quite a bit has, and she isn't quite forgotten- but still.) The recorded music by her, I think, focuses mainly on her symphonic poems- she also left chansons (ok, there is a CD of her mélodies, I do see), operas- quite a few..., odes, a bit of chamber music- much of it, I think, published in France, so I am guessing that the French National Library may have a lot of the manuscripts and rarer published works, some perhaps digitized even.

Dorothy HOWELL's "Lamia" has been recorded on a Cameo Classics CD

A CD of Blahetka would suit me. The Polonaise certainly could do with a commercial release although the you tube performance is more than satisfactory.

Her works sort of remind me of Kalkbrenner, or perhaps a supercharged Chopin.

Thal

QuoteDorothy HOWELL's "Lamia" has been recorded on a Cameo Classics CD

You are right - and I suggested it to them (senior moment!!). However, I don't think it's a performance out of the top drawer. I would like to hear it played by a better orchestra.

QuoteHas anyone ever found a score for the piano concerto by Ingeborg Starck von Bronsart?

I've looked quite hard over the years, but failed to locate one.
As to Louise Farrenc, she ought to have written a PC, but I don't think she did. I think Cohen was mistaken. I'd love to be proved wrong!

Fleisher does have score and parts to a piano concertante work by Sophie Menter, her Ungarische Zigeunerweisen. (Also to Eda Rapoport's piano concerto, but that may be out of our remit.) (Then there's the harpsichord concerto of Julie Candeille! (1767-1834, also in their collection.))
(Fleisher - know.freelibrary.org - has a "Women Composers" tag that, together with the "Musical Scores" subtag, might help one find some stuff in their library catalog relevant to this project...)

Of course Menter's Concerto in the Hungarian Style (orchestrated by Tchaikovsky, by the way) was recorded by Leslie Howard in the complete Liszt series on account of it previously being attributed to him. In fact coincidentally my random playlist just hit a track from it a few minutes ago.

Wouldn't mind hearing more of her music, if any exists....

Menter's piece is pretty small beer IMHO.

I understand that the Australian-born Marguerite Labori (née Okey) composed a piano concerto in F minor, which was published by Durand in 1914. This work does not appear in their present hire catalogue but they do list "Yato" - a lyrical drama in 2 acts, for soloists, chorus and orchestra! However, on the strength of the qualities of some of her songs, which I have copies of, I would suggest that her piano concerto may be well worth looking at, even if she was once the wife of a certain Vladimir de Pachmann! Furthermore, there also seem to be other works that may form the basis of a recording.......

I have heard Dora Bright's Piano Concerto with Samantha Ward and while her work is excellent she is unfortunately accompanied by a less than stellar amateur orchestra, nonetheless, though I found no profundities, it was a lovely piece and I have listened to it again and again without getting tired or annoyed with it. Except for the french horns and high register violiins, why is it always the french horns and high register violins...But, also don't get me wrong, the kids did their best and thank God kids are willing to make music in the clearest way they can.
Any hope of Rosalind Ellicott ever showing up, or Helen Hopekirk--once heard a rumor that Hyperion after 70 or so of the Romantic Piano Concerto series might include her, but of course with Beach who has been recorded many times already. I still like the idea of someone stumbling across a stunningly original and magnificent concerto by Bluebell Klean, Angler of great repute!!!

Some of Labori's songs can indeed be downloaded from http://imslp.org/wiki/10_M%C3%A9lodies_%28Labori,_Marguerite%29 (http://imslp.org/wiki/10_M%C3%A9lodies_%28Labori,_Marguerite%29) (a compilation of Léon Grus publications.)

As to her piano concerto, a reduction of it exists. See BNF. (http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb43083248t/PUBLIC) Maybe request it?... Not a full score, but still...

Was the Bright Concerto a commercial recording or something that could be shared here??

Jerry

Well, not that it's conclusive, but Worldcat turns up practically no recordings of her music. (Maybe I'm using the wrong search terms. Should I be searching for Estella Bright rather than Dora? Or using her married (or maiden?) surname?) The ones it does turn up don't suggest a piano concerto on them. Maybe there was one and no Worldcat library picked it up, too...

There has been no commercial recording of Dora Bright's PC. The only work of hers to have been recorded (at least in modern times), to my knowledge, is the second of the 2 pieces for cello and piano, the "Polka a la Strauss", available on a disk called "A Cello Century of British Women": http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cello-Century-British-Various-Artists/dp/B00004U5FS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1437157482&sr=1-1&keywords=Dora+Bright (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cello-Century-British-Various-Artists/dp/B00004U5FS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1437157482&sr=1-1&keywords=Dora+Bright)

There's an Australian woman composer who came to England to study and who composed a couple of piano concertos, but whose name escapes me.  The concertos are in a rich, Romantic Rachmaninovian vein...damn!!!  I'm drawing a blank.  Somebody help me!!!

We were just speaking of her, I think?? Maggie Okey-Labori (who later married de Pachmann.)
Or maybe someone else??

(But since I only know of one piano concerto by her, and that in reduction, probably not the person you're speaking of after all. SO... hrm.)

Actually, depending on whether her piano concertos sound as you describe them, I think you may be speaking of Miriam Hyde. Her birth and death dates may make her "ask-before-including" territory (1913-2005), it's true...

What about Ethyl Smyth's The Prison, her last big work (ca1930)?  It's described as a symphony, a dramatic symphony, or as a cantata, and is based on a philosophical work by her friend and perhaps more, Henry Brewster.  The scale is large (and expensive): orchestra, SATB chorus, soprano and bass soloists and performance time seems to be about 90 minutes...inconvenient for a single cd.  It was published, and ought to be available somewhere, though possibly not for free.  As a major work by this important composer, it would seem self-recommending, but probably because of cost, inconvenient length and specialized subject,  it has so far escaped revival...

David (looking forward to seeing The Wreckers on stage Aug.2....)

The Prison was published by Curwen & Sons and performance material is available for hire from Music Sales Classical (http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/1471/37233) (http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/1471/37233)). Duration is given as 75 minutes.

Thanks, Gareth.  Fits on one cd, then...

David

I really, really have to demur. 75 minutes is suggested duration, and a conductor, unless I miss my guess, might feel a bit constricted at the thought that they need to do a speed-reading or the producer is going to be Really Annoyed at them for making them produce a CD that only works on players that understand 84-minute CDs, or needing to break it into 2 CDs.

(On-the-other-hand 1: probably go straight to VCR, I mean, electronic streaming anyway.)

(On-the-other-hand 2: interpretation? rehearsal? learning the piece? who has time for that? Some of the conductors 'mongst present company, and some others who aren't, excepted.)

Undine Smith Moore: Scenes From The Life Of A Martyr. Terrific piece.

Maybe. But since she lies outside our remit as far as her dates are concerned (1904-89), it's up to you to justify your suggestion in terms of that remit...
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3681.0.html (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3681.0.html)
Please pay careful attention to these lines in particular:
Please do not post about composers or compositions which clearly fall outside our definition of "romantic". Your post will not be approved. If you are in any doubt, and in any event if the music was written after 1918, please email or PM a moderator before posting.

Yes, Eric, that's it.  Miriam Hyde.  And her piano concertos both date from the early 30s, I think.  Both of them are lush, tonal and thoroughly Romantic/post-Romantic in idiom.

Dates matter not, but for the forum apparently style does, in which case Undine Smith Moore should fit in as well as the Thomas Kowalski.

As long as the style is appropriate.

Moving on....

I am fortunate enough not only to own a score of 'The Prison' but I also have a private recording of the work on CD, given to me after I attended its performance in Berlin a few years ago. So, I can testify to it being a very good work and most deserving of more performances. I could put you in touch with the choir that performed it and with another that I know are interested to sing with them.

I haven't seen the entire thread, but I'm sure someone has suggested Ina Boyle and I'd like to add Mary Dickenson-Auner whose romantic-impressionist style seems locatable between Hamilton Harty and Cyril Scott

Ina Boyle's MSS are in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Apart from the Violin Concerto and "The Magic Harp", which latter has been recorded, of course, the major orchestral works are three symphonies, the last of which sets words by Edith Sitwell for contralto solo - "From the Darkness". We are unlikely to hear it, however, because Edith (ghastly old cow that she was), far from being flattered that Ina Boyle should wish to set her poetry, was so annoyed that Ina, in her innocence, did not ask permission until after she had written the work, that Sitwell forbade its public performance during her lifetime - a ban that Sitwell's literary executors continue to enforce. The same applies to Ina's setting of Sitwell's "Still Falls the Rain" for mezzo-soprano and string quartet. Of course, neither Edith nor her executors took the trouble to see or hear Ina Boyle's settings, although Elizabeth Maconchy, who studied the music, declared these two works to be among the best of her compositions. How mean spirited people in the Arts can be sometimes.
The other two symphonies are purely orchestral: Symphony No. 1 "Glencree" (1924-27) and Symphony No. 2 "The Dream of the Rood" (1929-30) (inspired by the Anglo-Saxon poem).

Incidentally, does anyone know the whereabouts of Dickenson-Auner's MSS?

nit-pickily, I suppose that should be "declared" since Maconchy died back in '94 (only a very few years after I discovered her own music and even, in my one stint ever as a DJ- for a few minutes back in college- broadcast one of her quartets (the "Corto") over the radio...), but that was very interesting to learn- thank you.

Thanks, Eric. Verb tenses (and hence sentence) corrected.

Rosflute wrote:

QuoteI also have a private recording of the work on CD, given to me after I attended its performance in Berlin a few years ago.

How long is this performance of The Prison? Roughly.

I am travelling and without access to either at the moment. As I remember, it was about 30 mins and included in a programme with the Schiksallied.

Then it cannot have been the complete work, which, according to the publisher, has a duration of 75 minutes, though it has been suggested that it might take as long as 1 hour 30mins.

Gareth, my 90 minutes was a typo...let's go with the publisher's 75...

David

Gareth it was indeed the complete work, so my memory lapse regarding time just goes to show what a good work it is!

Sorry for arriving a little late on this topic, but I would suggest Else Headlam-Morley, composer of the first half of the XXth century who wrote in a late-romantic idiom. The full scores and complete orchestral parts of many of her major works ("Deutschland" Konzertstück for piano and orchestra ; "Herbststimmung/Autumn Moods" concert piece for orchestra ; "Suite in Three Movements" for orchestra ; "Am Anfang/The Creation" symphonic poem for orchestra ; Overture to "Leonarda" for orchestra) are extant, and are available on request at the Durham University Library :
http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/mus/ehdlmmly.xml (http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/mus/ehdlmmly.xml)

QuoteThere has been no commercial recording of Dora Bright's PC. The only work of hers to have been recorded (at least in modern times), to my knowledge, is the second of the 2 pieces for cello and piano, the "Polka a la Strauss", available on a disk called "A Cello Century of British Women": http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cello-Century-British-Various-Artists/dp/B00004U5FS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1437157482&sr=1-1&keywords=Dora+Bright

It looks as though Gareth's request has been granted on a forthcoming Somm recording:

https://www.somm-recordings.com/recording/piano-concertos-by-dora-bright-and-ruth-gipps/ (https://www.somm-recordings.com/recording/piano-concertos-by-dora-bright-and-ruth-gipps/)

What great news! Thanks for posting.

This is absolutely marvellous news. Both these concertos are lovely works IMHO. I wondered if Dora Bright's concerto might get a recording after the performance which Samantha Ward gave at Morley College a few years ago (and which, to my annoyance, I could not attend), but feared this might be just wishful thinking.
Angela Brownridge recorded Ruth Gipps' concerto with the Malta Philharmonic for Cameo (at my instigation) but that recording seems to be no longer available, although Lyrita should have the masters and may release it yet.

Yes, good news. Three cheers for Somm.
Gareth, can't you weedle your way onto the BBC Proms programme planning team?  ;D