Composers who created only one masterpiece

[Brian]

Max Bruch's late Concerto for Viola, Clarinet and Orchestra, op.88 in E minor, is an underapprecated masterpiece of rare beauty, which well deserves to take its place beside his Violin Concerto in the repertoire. I think back pleasurably to the time, several years ago, when I discovered this neglected gem and basked every day for a number of weeks in its radiance. Pigeonhole the poor man if you must, but only after you have given this magnificent work a fair chance.

Wow, that sounds like a terrific piece. Great solo instruments, great key, I'm going to have to listen to it.

[Guido]

I agree with most of that quoted post; not sure about intenseness. How about we add Rodrigo. His guitar concerto seems to me a masterpiece. I don't think any of his other pieces are as well regarded, though there is one other I certainly enjoy just as much. But if you say his name, it is only going to be that guitar concerto that most people could bring to mind.

Not clear it has much intensity about it, but perhaps we take different meanings from the word.

Mike

I think there are several other pieces by Rodrigo that are better than the guitar concerto. Try the violin concerto "Concerto de Estio".

[Guido]

What do I consider to be a masterpiece? It is a thing that has  absolutely stood the test of time, that is widely recognizable and acknowledged by a large percentage of people from many backgrounds, nationalities, etc., and beyond dispute.

This applies whether one personally appreciates the object in question or not. Some examples would be  Michelangelo's "David", Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Great Pyramids of Giza, etc.

In the musical world, I think many here already know what some of those masterpieces are. Anybody who would argue that Bach's Mass in B Minor, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, etc. are not masterpieces is someone who's musical opinions should not be taken seriously.

However, many of the composers and their works mentioned on this thread could indeed be argued whether or not they are "masterpieces". If a particular piece of music (or anything else for that matter) could be described as "unappreciated", "neglected", "ignored", "underperformed", then it really can't be considered a masterpiece in the broader definition of the term, regardless how much we wish it to be. 

So, without a precise definition of what a "masterpiece" really is, then threads like this will inevitably descend into bickering based on ones personal biases, opinions and emotions.

Perhaps the OP should have referred to them as "One Hit Wonders". In that sense, then certain composers like Holst, Albinoni, Orff, Boccherini, Bizet, etc., might fall under that definition.

Far too narrow I think this. All you've described here is "the canon", which actually includes some pieces that it would be hard to seriously say were masterpieces.

Ruth Crawford Seeger's String Quartet is a masterpiece for instance, and I'm not sure I've ever met a serious listener who has heard it who hasn't realised this...

[schweitzeralan]

Far too narrow I think this. All you've described here is "the canon", which actually includes some pieces that it would be hard to seriously say were masterpieces.

Ruth Crawford Seeger's String Quartet is a masterpiece for instance, and I'm not sure I've ever met a serious listener who has heard it who hasn't realised this...

Good point taken; masterpieces are not adjudicated on personal taste or opinion only.

[jochanaan]

Well, my fears have proven to be true; we have begun to discuss the nature of "masterpiece." But as long as we've begun:

It's easier to measure popularity than "masterpiece" quality.  And when we really look into the categories of many "one-hit wonders," we discover a number of pieces that are just as masterful if not more so than their one-hits.  (Certainly this is true of Albinoni--who didn't even complete the piece for which he's best-known, the Adagio!  His surviving work is slim (unless more has been discovered in recent years), but the quality is high; I've played his G minor Oboe Concerto and loved doing it.)

What I sometimes wonder is what happened with the true "one-hit wonders" such as Mascagni or Boito.  Why didn't they go on to write more masterpieces?  Did they say all they could in that one big glorious piece?  But the, the same questions might be asked of, say, Sibelius, who abruptly destroyed his own Eighth Symphony and composed nothing for almost thirty years before his death...