Incomplete and unsung

[giles.enders]

I wonder which piece of romantic and incomplete music in the 'Unsung' category members would most like to see completed. On my list is the piano concerto of John Barnett.

[Alan Howe]

Could you elaborate, please, Giles? Who and why would be a good start for the ignorant such as myself!

[der79sebas]

The last, unfinished tone poem (with chorus) by Richard Strauss: "Donau". The composer himself suggested that someone else should complete this, since he himself felt unable to do so. With Strauss being in the public domain since January 2020 there may be a chance? Wolfgang Rihm produced a very plausible orchestration of ("the fifth last song") "Malven", maybe he would be interested also in "Donau"?

[giles.enders]

As requested; There have been numerous unfinished works such as; Mahler's 10th symphony, Elgar's 3rd symphony, Mozart's requiem which we would not have heard if other hands had not completed them.  There have also been some travesties.  I have seen the piano score for the John Barnet piano concerto and it looked promising.  It will never be heard or judged unless someone orchestrates it.  Some while ago Ian Hobson orchestrated Moscheles 8th piano concerto, the parts having been lost.  It is not a masterpiece but I am pleased to have it in my cd collection. Herbert Howels' first piano concerto had the last few pages missing and one of his former pupils completed it.  The point of asking members for suggestions is there are surely other pieces waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

[badams@nl.rogers.com]

I'm a bit of a sucker for this sort of a thing.  I'm not enough of a musician to be able to meaningfully read a score so the only way for me to get any kind of impression of an unfinished work is if someone puts it into a performable version.  And yes I know something like, say, Beethoven's "tenth symphony" or Elgar's piano concerto, is probably only a faint suggestion of what the composer would have done given the chance, but that doesn't necessarily detract from the pleasure the music gives me.  Having said that, my current nominee for a piece incomplete and unsung would be Zemlinsky's early symphony in e minor.  I know nothing of it's state of (in)completion except that supposedly only two movements survive.

Oops!  Does Zemlinsky fit in this forum any longer? 

Brian

[Mark Thomas]

Yes he does.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I would certainly second Giles on the PC by John Barnett. I would also add that I would love to have someone orchestrate SENSITIVELY the second PC of Stavenhagen. It has been done but very badly with no attempt to reproduce the orchestral sounds of Stavenhagen's period (e.g. use of the vibraphone, an instrument not invented when Stavenhagen was alive!). The "Dance Symphony" by Josef Holbrooke, for piano and orchestra is another interesting work that exists only in a 2-piano score. Sensitive orchestration of this work would be very welcome.

[Oliver Fraenzke]

There are lots of unfinished works I really would love to hear completed. But I often wonder myself, if completions of other composers would fit the original piece ...

There are dozens of works by Grieg that I would like to hear: Amongst all the Second Piano Concerto (well, there is a reconstruction by Helge Evju, that is really strong, but I doubt that it get's Griegs intention), the F major string quartet - and of course the pieces, that never got aboth the planing phase like a violin- and a cello-concerto, then the lost first string quartet etc.

Also I would love to hear some destroyed works like the Third Symphony of Sinding, the complete Janacek piano sonata, the last symphony of Sibelius.

[TerraEpon]

"Dozens"? What do you know that Wikipedia/IMSLP doesn't?
My list of stuff that has some existence includes:
-Symphony No. 2 'In Spring'
-Andante in c#, EG 180 [orchestra]
-Piano Concerto in b, EG 120 [as noted above]
-Violin Concerto
-Piano Quintet in Bb, EG 118 [which has a recording with completion out there]
-Halling, EG 178 [solo Hardanger Fiddle]
-O Ola, My Own Dear Boy [Orch. of a song called The Princess, EG 133]
-Dyre from Vaa, EG 143
-A few songs from EG 152

Nothing about a cello concerto or an F minor String Quartet (though a lost in in D minor).

[tpaloj]

I was trying to think of some unsung Finnish composers with incomplete works. The story of Madetoja's 4th Symphony is famous – according to the composer its near-complete manuscript was stolen in a briefcase at a railway station in Paris. Later his failing health and memory discouraged him from attempting to recompose the work, so he never did. Likewise, Ernest Pingoud has said to have composed a Violin Concerto whose manuscript went missing with a stolen or misplaced luggage at the train station in Helsinki. Pingoud, by time of his suicide in 1942 had been working on a major symphonic poem Ajan askel and a fourth Symphony.

The young prodigy Ernst Mielck's incomplete Piano Concerto is puzzling as it is not completely certain whether he finished it or not (only partial score of that work has been preserved). One of Väinö Raitio's miniature operas – Väinämöisen kosinta – only exists in piano score. Its music is attractive and not at all too modern in style. Armas Launis left atleast three lengthy unfinished operas by his death.

[eschiss1]

"Also I would love to hear some destroyed works like the Third Symphony of Sinding"

Er... wait, what?

Sorry, this doesn't look destroyed. (Do you mean Svendsen? They're very different composers. For all I know you could mean some other S-composer. Maybe you do. I'm sonfused.)

[Oliver Fraenzke]

TerraEpon: You can find the full list of works that Grieg never finished in the PhD of Klaus Henning Oelmann "Edvard Grieg. Versuch einer Orientierung". A full chapter is dedicated to his unfinished pieces.

[Jimfin]

Interesting thread. I would love to hear:

Vaughan Williams's opera Thomas the Rhymer (rumoured to have been completed in short score); his cello concerto was on my list before the completion on Dutton

Elgar's The Last Judgement

Parry's Guenever

Probably not Walton's Third Symphony, as there only seems to be one page, but suppose for argument someone found more

Mackenzie's symphony

A number of works that would have been on my list have actually had their completions done, such as the Elgar 3rd Symphony, Sullivan's Emerald Isle, Stanford's late piano and violin concertos and Moeran's second symphony.

[matesic]

Of course none of these works can ever be "completed" because we cannot know what may have been in the mind of the composer. In fact I'd like to have at least one famous "completion" safely buried where it can do no more harm to the composer's reputation!

[badams@nl.rogers.com]

Don't be coy Matesic! Which work/composer?