Of all the unrecorded music in all the world...

[Martin Anderson]

Don't imagine that this is a choice I have to make for Toccata Classics (I wish it were!), but if you had the chance of making an orchestral CD -- just one -- of unrecorded music by a single composer, what would you choose? This may seem a bit like the 'Fantasy Festival' thread that's running at the moment, but it occurred to me the other day that if I found myself in the position of having to respond to an orchestral manager or a sponsor who asked me: "OK, what do you want to record?", there are so many things I would like to do that it would be difficult to narrow them down to a single project. So what would you lot opt for?
Cheers
Martin

Martin Anderson
Toccata Classics

[Kriton]

Joseph Marx: Herbstsymphonie!!!

Read about it, if you want:

http://www.joseph-marx.org/en/herbstsymphonie.html#herbstsymphonie

[Jonathan]

Liszt's Totentanz original version (dating from around 1849, see an earlier thread for details) plus all of the remainder of his orchestral music that hasn't been recorded yet.

And all the unrecorded 2 piano / 4 hand music that's not been recorded.

Also the early Liszt Fantasy (can't remember the title) which was sold at Sotherby's in 1986 and the owner has jealously refused to let anyone see the manuscript (shades of Sterndale-Bennett's 6th piano concerto).

[Martin Anderson]

Blimey: there's another challenge. Would anyone care to list the Liszt (sorry) four-hand and two-piano stuff that has yet to be recorded?
Cheers
Martin

[Hofrat]

I imagine that all of this forum's contributers have "favorite sons" or pet projects.  I will put Joachim Eggert's cantatas high on my list. 

[Peter1953]

Definitely Frederic Cliffe's Violin Concerto in D minor...
Oh...and there is Gernsheim's Piano Concerto in C minor...
I cannot make a choice anymore...

[John Hudock]

Like most members here, the difficulty lies in just picking one or two 'tops', so I will just mention the first things that popped into my head which were the Atterberg Requiem and the Foulds Cello Concerto.

[JimL]

Didn't I see mention somewhere a while back that cpo was planning to come out with the Marx Herbstsymphonie?  There is a download available of the 2005 performance.  Also, I don't know if this quite qualifies as unrecorded, but all that Rufinatscha music that's only available on the house label of the Tiroler Landesmuseum is so inaccessible to the everyday unsung CD buyer who hasn't yet found either this forum or the Landesmuseum that it might as well have never been recorded.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Oh gawd, Martin, what an invitation! And, paradoxically, you've made it harder by not indicating any parameters whatsoever. (It would be far easier had you specified, e.g. 19th or 20th century, British, Russian or whatever.)

But here goes. First I'd endorse with unbridled enthusiasm all the suggestions so far (and especially Marx, Cliffe, Gernsheim and Foulds) and probably all future suggestions. But that's no real answer.

Second I now stick out my neck, and I'm going to nominate someone on the grounds that no-one else will think of him, and yet who, on the basis of the sole work of his that has been recorded, would be likely to be of considerable artistic and commercial success to your orchestral manager. A number of years ago Chandos recorded his 1968 Violin Concerto. Those who have heard it were bowled over. It is a full length, 'big', and utterly beautiful work. To my ears it stands alongside other justly famed and frequently performed 20th century masterpieces.

So who is he? Answer: John Veale (1922-2006). Apart from that stunning Violin Concerto, nothing else has been recorded - let alone performed. There are 3 symphonies (1945-7 and revised in 1951; 1964; and 2003). There are also what seem two very significant choral works: the 1956 Kubla Khan (baritone, chorus & orch) and the 1966 The Song of Radha (soprano & orch). True, I haven't heard any of them (but then so it seems has hardly anyone else) and thus can't judge their quality. However (and apologies for I repeat myself) if any of these works were of the same calibre as that stunning Violin Concerto your orchestral manager (and his accountant) might well be deeply grateful to you for the suggestion.

Humph, I suppose each friend on this Forum qualifies for only one nomination? Damn!!

Peter

[TerraEpon]

Also the early Liszt Fantasy (can't remember the title) which was sold at Sotherby's in 1986 and the owner has jealously refused to let anyone see the manuscript (shades of Sterndale-Bennett's 6th piano concerto).

There's actually like three or four pieces that the list included with Hyperion's vol. 57 (the Hungarian Rhapsodies) says are in "private collections" and thus unobtainable (well, one might be mentioned in one of the New Discoveries CDs...). It really bothers me that works of famous composers are held hostage like that....there's a piece for cello and orchestra by Debussy that's like that too.

[Syrelius]

I hope for a recording of orchestral music by Sigurd von Koch, especially the symphonic poem In the Lands of Pan.

[Alan Howe]

Definitely Julius Otto Grimm: his great Symphony in D minor. I have the score...
[Coupling: one of the three Suites...]

[oldman]

I would love to hear any of Josef Holbrooke's large choral/orchestral works.  His  Op. 51 Second Symphony "Apollo and the Seaman" or his Op. 48 Choral Symphony particularly come to mind.

[mbhaub]

Franz Schmidt's opera Fredegundis. Ok, there is an off-the-air bootleg available, but I want a modern, well-done version. A DVD would be even nicer.

[TerraEpon]

It's hard to pick just one -- but one VERY curious omission in recordings is Dvorak's Josef Kajetan Tyl incidental music, B 125. The overture is quite well known (aka My Home Overture), but the rest of it seems to have never been recorded.