Milhaud

[ahinton]

I would add Vagn Holmboe to the list. He wrote some great music but there is so much repetitive and mediocre works to sift through to find them that it's hardly worth the effort.
Thank you for correcting my misspelling of Telemann. I hope I didn't butcher Holmboe's name.

I think that you have a point about Holmboe but he's certainly nowhere near the worst case of this, his compatriot Bentzon (who also wrote some fine music) being near the top of the prolificity tree in the past century or so. I'd be tempted to add Havergal Brian also, for all that this might upset some members here; his best work is astonishing but some of the later pieces when his attention was turning more and more to symphonies and less to other works do seem a good deal less inspired and might have fared better had he sought to confine himself to writing less. Schubert began to write a fiar bit less during his last 18 months or so and, had he been able to continue in that vein for another two or more decades, I suspect that the general view of him today might be quite different.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Bach was prolific and produced the odd dud?

[richardfinegold]

I think that you have a point about Holmboe but he's certainly nowhere near the worst case of this, his compatriot Bentzon (who also wrote some fine music) being near the top of the prolificity tree in the past century or so. I'd be tempted to add Havergal Brian also, for all that this might upset some members here; his best work is astonishing but some of the later pieces when his attention was turning more and more to symphonies and less to other works do seem a good deal less inspired and might have fared better had he sought to confine himself to writing less. Schubert began to write a fiar bit less during his last 18 months or so and, had he been able to continue in that vein for another two or more decades, I suspect that the general view of him today might be quite different.

Agree with you about Schubert. Had he lived longer and found a Publisher to take him on, perhaps he would have pruned his catalog.
I don't know Bentzon at all. If you had to recommend one or two best examples of his oeuvre, what would you choose?

[richardfinegold]

Bach was prolific and produced the odd dud?

Perhaps. The duds were the outliers, not the norm.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bach was prolific and produced the odd dud?

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Haven't found one yet!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

quite and that would be Simonton's evidence as well; a mark is a mark, not a conclusive proof eh ....

as to Bach duds some of the organ works and cantatas feel pedestrian

that violin piece by Mihaud is wondrous S_A!

[Boilk]

I think that you have a point about Holmboe but he's certainly nowhere near the worst case of this, his compatriot Bentzon (who also wrote some fine music) being near the top of the prolificity tree in the past century or so.

Composer (and conductor, assuming he doesn't have a double) Leif Segerstam has just completed his Symphony No. 285. Has anybody on this board heard any of them? I suspect they are very diverse.

Segerstam's tally (or is it folly?) means that English symphonist Derek Bourgeois, who is on Symphony No. 96 "must try harder". Bourgeois does get my award for best titled symphony .... No.52 is called "The Halfway".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

as to Bach duds some of the organ works and cantatas feel pedestrian

I have problems with the organ works, because I don't like listening to the sound of the instrument for long stretches of time - but reading the Music is a great pleasure. I don't know very much of it, but again, so far nothing that I could describe as "pedestrian". I also don't know about thirty-odd of the Cantatas - the 170-ish that I do know are wonderful.

Not showing off, here - I'm bewildered by the quality: it doesn't seem right!


Sorry - off-topic. I prefer listening to Milhaud than to Hindemith, if that's any use to anyone ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Composer (and conductor, assuming he doesn't have a double) Leif Segerstam

Leif Segerstam is a double!

Bourgeois does get my award for best titled symphony .... No.52 is called "The Halfway".

[Hornspieler]

Composer (and conductor, assuming he doesn't have a double) Leif Segerstam has just completed his Symphony No. 285. Has anybody on this board heard any of them? I suspect they are very diverse.

Segerstam's tally (or is it folly?) means that English symphonist Derek Bourgeois, who is on Symphony No. 96 "must try harder". Bourgeois does get my award for best titled symphony .... No.52 is called "The Halfway".

I was the producer of a recording for the BBC of Derek's Symphony Nº 2 and I was quite impressed, but I was glad that it was my favourite audio engineer, Bill James, who had the responsibilty of following the score.

Derek was, of course, Professor of Music at Bristol University, so I knew both him (and his wife, a very useful viola player who helped us out on numerous occasions) quite well.

HS

[Richard Barrett]

his wife, a very useful viola player

... possibly the faintest praise I've ever read...

I was listening on Youtube a while ago to Milhaud's Harp Concerto - the first movement seemed completely uninspired but then the second had a rather attractive strangeness about it. I have the impression there are probably beautiful things to be found here and there in his huge output, but as with Villa-Lobos, about whom I have a similar suspicion, I haven't yet had the opportunity to seek them out.

As for Bach "duds", well no. Like certain other activities, Bach starts at good and gets better.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Like certain other activities, Bach starts at good and gets better.

Oh, good! Another stamp collector!

[gurnemanz]

his wife, a very useful viola player

... possibly the faintest praise I've ever read...

Presumably, she washed his socks for him.

[Serial_Apologist]

As for Bach "duds", well no. Like certain other activities, Bach starts at good and gets better.

Hmm. "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring"? Eternal clockwork for the ears of the Almighty, I guess was its aim and Cantatas'. There are beautiful things, of course there are, but by citing the famous ones such as the "Air on a G-string" I am of course revealing my hapless romanticism. One can't but admire the craftspersonship that produced the "Goldberg" - there again for me for what it led to in eg late Beethoven and then the Second Viennese School - and jump for joy in the uplift of the orchestral Suites (though much music by lesser figures of the time does that for me); but I had to sing every part of the St John Passion - my voice was breaking at the time - and can only compare the experience to being on a Newtonian treadmill and finding it overwhelming in the wrong sense and interminably worthy. Maybe if it had been the Matthew I'd have felt differently.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not a short list is it