Composers out of their comfort zone

[DublinJimbo]

What about
Wagner's symphonies or piano sonatas
[ ... ]
Bruckner's string quartet or -quintet or piano pieces, his overture in g-minor

Sorry for not picking up on these the first time round. The Wagner idea has to be a starter if I can source the symphonies or piano music (actually, I think Chandos are up to Volume 5 in their survey of Wagner's orchestral music, so the symphonies are bound to be included). As to the piano music ...

The Bruckner chamber music may be a non-runner, since one of the guys brought either the quartet or quintet (not sure which it was) to a recent session. But Bruckner writing for the piano sounds weird enough to be a possibility.

[JFLL]

How come I hadn't thought of Hugo Wolf and his Italian Serenade?

Or indeed Wolf's 45-minute string quartet, quite different from the Italian Serenade -- rather Mahlerian and even Bergian. And his tone-poem Penthesilea.

[Pabmusic]

And here I am, answering my own question ...

How come I hadn't thought of Hugo Wolf and his Italian Serenade? Or some of his piano music.

Adrian Boult gave the first British performance of this (the orchestral version) in his very first professional concert, with 40 members of the Liverpool and Halle orchestras on 27 February 1914. Could be worth mentioning, if you use the Wolf.

(Boult also gave the first performance of Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow in the same concert.)

[EdgeleyRob]

Donizetti string quartets. I know no 13 which I have on CD somewhere coupled with the Verdi (I must give it a spin soon).
Apparently there are around 18 others, many of which I believe have been recorded.

[Pabmusic]

Donizetti string quartets. I know no 13 which I have on CD somewhere coupled with the Verdi (I must give it a spin soon).
Apparently there are around 18 others, many of which I believe have been recorded.

There's also Puccini's Crisantemi for strings.

[umslopogaas]

How about Hindemith's 'Cardillac'? I dont think of Hindemith as an opera composer, though I guess you could argue that he didnt really have a comfort zone, he seemed to turn his hand to just about any form.

[DublinJimbo]

Donizetti string quartets. I know no 13 which I have on CD somewhere coupled with the Verdi (I must give it a spin soon).
Apparently there are around 18 others, many of which I believe have been recorded.

There's also Puccini's Crisantemi for strings.

Already on my list (I mentioned both in my original post).

I have recordings of nos. 7 to 18 of Donizetti's SQs, which include some good stuff, and of which no. 18 is the absolute winner.

[DublinJimbo]

How about Hindemith's 'Cardillac'? I don't think of Hindemith as an opera composer, though I guess you could argue that he didnt really have a comfort zone, he seemed to turn his hand to just about any form.

Himdemith's already been mentioned, but that was exactly my reaction: that he isn't especially associated with any particular musical realm.

Also, just to eliminate any confusion, I'm by no means limiting things to operatic composers. In fact, since my original thoughts in #1 brought up such a preponderance of operatic names, I'm especially interested in people who break that mold (such as Bruckner the symphonist and Wolf the songster).

[Roehre]

Wolf (again ): apart from his string quartet ("Entbehren solsst du, entbehren"/ suffer you will, suffer), the Italian Serenade and Penthesilea, the two movements of his planned symphony in B-flat: Scherzo and Finale.

Wagner's Symphony in C [no.1 that is] and the complete 1st mvt as well as the completed 2nd mvt of the Symphony in E [no.2] have been released recently on Chandos.

[Serial_Apologist]

How about Hindemith's 'Cardillac'? I dont think of Hindemith as an opera composer, though I guess you could argue that he didnt really have a comfort zone, he seemed to turn his hand to just about any form.

Hindemith mentioned being approached by R Strauss on the occasion of the premiere of this. (Or was it Neues vom Tage?) "How long did it tale to write?" asked Strauss, "About two weeks" came the reply. "Just as I thought" said Strauss.

[Rolmill]

I'm by no means limiting things to operatic composers. In fact, since my original thoughts in #1 brought up such a preponderance of operatic names, I'm especially interested in people who break that mold (such as Bruckner the symphonist and Wolf the songster).

...for an example which reverses the pattern, how about Beethoven's Fidelio: a non-operatic composer writing an opera. Some of the nominations so far are really just pieces in formats with which the composers are not currently associated (e.g. Rossini string sonatas and late piano pieces) - I'm not sure that this is the same as being outside their comfort zone (how many string quartets would Donizetti have to write to get comfortable with the format, I wonder? ) By contrast, Beethoven's struggles with many aspects of his only opera are well documented.

Or, to come at it from another angle (and lower the tone considerably ), how about McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio? Or the Billy Joel piano pieces which were recorded a few years ago (don't recall who by)?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tchaikovsky's piano sonatas. He should have orchestrated them as symphonies, instead of leaving it to such humble individuals as myself to do it for him.

Perhaps citing Elgar's Piano Concerto is a little unfair,as the composer only left a handful of sketches amd Mr Walker's completion is not in the same league as Anthony Payne's realisations. Ditto for The Spanish Lady, made into a performing version by Dr Percy Young, who, for all his knowledge of Elgar's music, had little orchestral technique (in my opinion).

[MrGongGong]

.
Or, to come at it from another angle (and lower the tone considerably ), how about McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio?

don't go there

[Pabmusic]

The Norwich Symphony by Edward German is very listenable. Much more so, in fact, that those by Wagner and Richard Strauss. It was bad reviews (particularly by Shaw) that put German off trying another symphony. Or there's the Poème for violin and orchestra by Josef Canteloube - a winner! There's a Hyperion recording of it.

[Pabmusic]

]...Perhaps citing Elgar's Piano Concerto is a little unfair,as the composer only left a handful of sketches amd Mr Walker's completion is not in the same league as Anthony Payne's realisations. Ditto for The Spanish Lady, made into a performing version by Dr Percy Young, who, for all his knowledge of Elgar's music, had little orchestral technique (in my opinion).

Entirely agree.