Justly-neglected?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A very nice live performance of [Spohr's] 4th (!) double string quartet op.136 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL3qNLIJAG4

Oh! Now I liked that! Many thanks, Richard

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No comments about Wagenaar so far. I wonder if admirers of Strauss and Elgar's tone poems will consider this "unjustly neglected":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cymCHUi-ifg

(Erm ... the last two digits of that link are purely coincidental! )

[Richard Tarleton]

It's easy to assume that neglected composers are neglected for a reason.

Many of Silvius Leopold Weiss's [1686-1750] suites and other pieces for solo lute are every bit of the standard of their equivalents by his contemporary JS Bach, and were much admired at the time, but he wrote exclusively for an instrument which underwent a sudden, dinosaur-like extinction in the mid 18th century. The baroque lute has staged a recovery, and Weiss's music has been magnificently recorded, but the physical complexities of the instrument itself (among the reasons for its fall from grace) and the difficulties of notation, seem likely to condemn it to remain a bit niche.

The music for earlier less complex forms of the lute, and other long-forgotten stringed instruments (vihuela) have made the transition to modern life more easily, thanks not least to sojourns in the guitar repertoire (where a few of Weiss's pieces have also survived). But vast quantities of fine music remain, from two centuries, locked away in the differing and migraine-inducing forms of tablature in which they were created and accessible only to the few dedicated types who can be bothered to get to grips with them.

[Demetrius]

In other words, boring!

To me, on the whole, nothing has been as sure an indicator of something interesting than someone saying "boring!"

In the end, it comes down to tastes, as does everything.

I would like it if people were keener on exploring stuff they haven't heard yet, though, since it is a numbers game: the insane amount of neglected/seldom played/forgotten/unsung music makes makes it extremely likely that anyone can find some gems that perfectly suit his or her taste. They would also run into stuff they find boring, but the exploration is a thrill in itself, isn't it?

Gade .... here the passages from SC's Symphony Guide:

Symp. No 1:
Finally another Scandinavian, Neils Gade this 1st symphony of his which he sent to Mendelssohn and which resulted in a friendship and Gade becoming Mendelssohn's deputy until the latter's untimely death, has again a certain freshness and touches of individuality inspite of the rather obvious Mendelssohnian features. I was struck by the rather beautiful slow movement for me the best movement and I can understand why Mendelssohn was impressed with the symphony.

Symp. No 2:
The Gade is a charming work, E major still a relatively unusual key for a symphony of that time. The 1st movement's freshness is especially persuasive even if the rest of the symphony doesn't quite live up to this.

Symp. No 3:
Gade's 3rd symphony is IMO his most successful symphony so far, the influence of Mendelssohn and occasionally Schumann is never far away, but like all his symphonies it has a certain openess and freshness. Interestingly the 3rd movement isn't a scherzo but moderately paced and seems to almost anticipate the Brahms's use of similarly moderate paced movements in his first three symphonies.

Symp. No 4:
ehhhh, missing.

Symp. No 5:
The Gade is basically a symphony with piano obbligato in the manner of the contemporary Concerto Symphoniques of Litolff and quite delightful it is too.

Symp. No 6:
The Gade 6th is a typical work from this composer, but perhaps not the equal of his earlier symphonies, the scherzo stays in the memory but the other movements lack distinctive ideas at least compared with the earlier symphonies.

Symp. No 7:
Gade's 7th symphony has a refreshing appealing 1st movement which the rest of the work sadly doesn't live up to, with the finale somewhat marred by an over-reliance on Mendelssohnian gestures.

Most of these can be found on youtube, simply by typing in Gade and Symphony in the search box.

[BBMmk2]

I said that becauise when I was doing the grades, there was some right boring music that came out. These days students seem to be ok there, imo.

[Serial_Apologist]

I said that becauise when I was doing the grades, there was some right boring music that came out. These days students seem to be ok there, imo.

That was my experience, too, in the early 1960s. In the end I gave up at Grade 5 and told my piano tuner to "find me some modern music to play"! "You won't be able to play it from your standard", she told me, to which I replied, "Well Bartok claimed learning major and minor scales to be completely irrelevant when it came to playing his music!" was my cheeky reply. I can't now remember whether I'd read that, or somebody had told me that, or I'd just made it up! She got me a mixture of stuff; I was very lucky - Kenneth Leighton, John Ireland, Rawsthorne, the last book of Mikrokosmos, the Berg and Alwyn sonatas... to which I subsequently added Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis, Schoenberg Op 11, and Messiaen's Canteyodjaya, which I still find nearly impossible to play, but I love reproducing the chord complexes.

[Bryn]

That was my experience, too, in the early 1960s. In the end I gave up at Grade 5 and told my piano tuner to "find me some modern music to play"! "You won't be able to play it from your standard", she told me, to which I replied, "Well Bartok claimed learning major and minor scales to be completely irrelevant when it came to playing his music!" was my cheeky reply. I can't now remember whether I'd read that, or somebody had told me that, or I'd just made it up! She got me a mixture of stuff; I was very lucky - Kenneth Leighton, John Ireland, Rawsthorne, the last book of Mikrokosmos, the Berg and Alwyn sonatas... to which I subsequently added Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis, Schoenberg Op 11, and Messiaen's Canteyodjaya, which I still find nearly impossible to play, but I love reproducing the chord complexes.

I gave up my piano lessons when my teacher procaimed that Bartok's Mikrokosmos was not real music.

[Keraulophone]

I gave up my piano lessons when my teacher procaimed that Bartok's Mikrokosmos was not real music.

When my piano teacher presented me, aged 13, with Mikrokosmos Bk.4 I suddenly realised what real music could be.

[vinteuil]

I gave up my piano lessons when my teacher proclaimed that Bartok's Mikrokosmos was not real music.

... the early books of the Mikrokosmos were the foundations of my piano teacher's armamentarium - plus the Stravinsky les Cinq Doigts, then the Bach Inventions, some Scarlatti, selections from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, Frescobaldi, more Bach, then Haydn. Sound chap, my piano teacher...


.

[ahinton]

I gave up my piano lessons when my teacher procaimed that Bartok's Mikrokosmos was not real music.

With whatever sort of teacher did you have the misfortune to study? Whoever it was, he/she deserved to be struck off!

[Bryn]

With whatever sort of teacher did you have the misfortune to study? Whoever it was, he/she deserved to be struck off!

She was a local private teacher. I got the response when I asked if we could work from Bartok's pedagogical volumes. It was the final straw. A fellow pupil at my then school used to play from books 5 an 6 on the school hall's grand during lunch breaks. I loved what I heard, especially Diary of a Fly. It was that fellow pupil who suggested I try working may way through from Book 1 with my teacher.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... the early books of the Mikrokosmos were the foundations of my piano teacher's armamentarium - plus the Stravinsky les Cinq Doigts, then the Bach Inventions, some Scarlatti, selections from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, Frescobaldi, more Bach, then Haydn. Sound chap, my piano teacher...

[Jonathan]

Zweers wrote 3 enormous symphonies - I've listened to them all but not for ages. The sound a little like Bruckner (IIRC). As for most of the other composers on the list, I have heard of them. Some of Rontgen's symphonies are well worth a listen as are some of Gade's. Rontgen's piano music has got an airing recently on several CDs, one of which I have; the pianist is Mark Anderson and it's on Nimbus. Lovely stuff, I must get volumes 2 and 3 at some point...
Have a look on Spotify or similar!