Six undeservedly neglected composers.

[vandermolen]

Here is your chance to list the composers whom you consider to be undeservedly neglected.

Here are mine (or today's list anyway!):

J Braga Santos

Richard Arnell

Eduard Tubin

Stanley Bate (on basis of his Third Symphony)

Miaskovsky

Howard Hanson

[Grazioso]

Kurt Atterberg: if you like dramatic, well-crafted, full-blown Romantic symphonies with big tunes, listen to him ASAP. A number of his works could easily become core repertoire pieces if only they got put out in front of the public. They sound like soundtracks for some imaginary epic adventure or fantasy films.

Bax: sure, he's well known to hardcore fans of early 20th-century British music (i.e., just about all of us on this forum ) but he doesn't get recorded or performed (afaik) that much, considering the quality and scope of his work

Boccherini: a delightful Classicist with Romantic leanings. At least Brilliant and CPO have done something to address the enormous gaps in his discography.

Vitezslav Novak: Czech warmth wedded to the Late Romantic opulence of Mahler, Strauss, Zemlinsky et al.

Allan Pettersson: a very tough, uncompromising--and powerful--symphonist. Even his most accessible and tuneful works, like symphonies 7 and 8, demand some work from the listener, but they're worth the extra effort.

Antonio Rosetti: one of many Classical composers (Kraus, Vanhal, et al.) who deserve more time in the spotlight. Mozart and Haydn weren't the only good composers in the world during the late 18th century.

[vandermolen]

Kurt Atterberg: if you like dramatic, well-crafted, full-blown Romantic symphonies with big tunes, listen to him ASAP. A number of his works could easily become core repertoire pieces if only they got put out in front of the public. They sound like soundtracks for some imaginary epic adventure or fantasy films.

Bax: sure, he's well known to hardcore fans of early 20th-century British music (i.e., just about all of us on this forum ) but he doesn't get recorded or performed (afaik) that much, considering the quality and scope of his work

Boccherini: a delightful Classicist with Romantic leanings. At least Brilliant and CPO have done something to address the enormous gaps in his discography.

Vitezslav Novak: Czech warmth wedded to the Late Romantic opulence of Mahler, Strauss, Zemlinsky et al.

Allan Pettersson: a very tough, uncompromising--and powerful--symphonist. Even his most accessible and tuneful works, like symphonies 7 and 8, demand some work from the listener, but they're worth the extra effort.

Antonio Rosetti: one of many Classical composers (Kraus, Vanhal, et al.) who deserve more time in the spotlight. Mozart and Haydn weren't the only good composers in the world during the late 18th century.

Totally agree about Novak - regret not including him myself. 'The Storm' is a magnificent work which after epic tribulations achieves a majestic catharsis at the end.  I consider Pettersson's Violin Concerto No 2 to be the greatest 20th Century violin concerto. Bax is another fine choice - I recently visited The White Horse pub in Storrington whare Bax lived for the last part of his life.  Apart from a plaque on the pub there is depressingly little evidence of his time there - a couple of framed cartoons of him and a framed copy of some piano music.

[Octo_Russ]

Bantock recordings are thin on the ground, but things are slowly getting better.

Ireland very neglected, why don't people record him more?, and in the concert hall too.

Sor a very neglected Composer, maybe it's because he has a lot of Guitar works, and for some strange reason the Guitar hasn't seeped into the Classical consciousness like the piano.

Szymanowski still underrated, but things are certainly getting better here.

Alkan why is he so underrated?.

Finzi maybe it's because his output is so small, but his works have quality stamped all over them.

[vandermolen]

Bantock recordings are thin on the ground, but things are slowly getting better.

Ireland very neglected, why don't people record him more?, and in the concert hall too.

Sor a very neglected Composer, maybe it's because he has a lot of Guitar works, and for some strange reason the Guitar hasn't seeped into the Classical consciousness like the piano.

Szymanowski still underrated, but things are certainly getting better here.

Alkan why is he so underrated?.

Finzi maybe it's because his output is so small, but his works have quality stamped all over them.

Nearly chose Bantock myself (love the Celtic , Pagan and Hebriddean symphonies) - am a fan of Ireland too - especially Mai Dun and Legend.

[Mirror Image]

Six undeservedly neglected composers? Sure I've got a few on my mind.

1. Frederick Delius
2. William Alwyn
3. Edmund Rubbra
4. Karol Szymanowski
5. Alberic Magnard
6. Walter Piston

[Sergeant Rock]

1. Havergal Brian
2. Havergal Brian
3. Havergal Brian
4. Havergal Brian
5. Havergal Brian
6. Franz Schmidt


Sarge

[Mirror Image]

1. Havergal Brian
2. Havergal Brian
3. Havergal Brian
4. Havergal Brian
5. Havergal Brian
6. Franz Schmidt


Sarge

Havergal Brian and Franz Schmidt are definitely underrated. I find Schmidt the more appealing composer. As I mentioned on another thread, I think his Symphony No. 4 is one of the masterpieces of the entire orchestral genre. The only Brian work I like of his (right now) is his Symphony No. 1 "The Gothic." I really need to go back to relisten to some of his music.

[some guy]

Roberto Gerhard
Ingvar Lidholm
Bruno Maderna
Beatriz Ferreyra
Christine Groult
Pril Smiley

I wouldn't have thought any of the people mentioned so far could be called neglected. Except maybe for Antonio Rosetti and Stanley Bate. Hanson isn't played so much any more, not sure that that's undeserved, though. But many of these have seen an upsurge in recordings since CD days. Gerhard, on my list, has gone through two recorded phases, a spate of LPs then nothing. A slightly larger spate of CDs. Then nothing. A couple of new CDs have come out recently of Maderna's music, which could very easily reinstate his status. Those new CDs have certainly made me rethink his value.

Given those CDs, I could easily agree to replacing Maderna with Gilbert Amy, whose neglect is nothing short of appalling.

I also think it would be better if our lists had more living composers on them. If you stop neglecting Antonio Rosetti, who would care? Not Rosetti, that's for sure! But if you stop neglecting Ingvar Lidholm, he might notice that and give a little grin.

[Benji]

I also think it would be better if our lists had more living composers on them. If you stop neglecting Antonio Rosetti, who would care? Not Rosetti, that's for sure! But if you stop neglecting Ingvar Lidholm, he might notice that and give a little grin.

That's a lovely picture you paint 

....but you know we only have so much attention that we can focus on living composers. Making Ingvar Lidholm grin might make John Adams cry... 

[vandermolen]

1. Havergal Brian
2. Havergal Brian
3. Havergal Brian
4. Havergal Brian
5. Havergal Brian
6. Franz Schmidt


Sarge

How about Havergal Brian? 

[The new erato]

1. Klaus Egge

2. Hilding Rosenberg

3. Gøsta Nystrøm

4. Einar Englund

5. Hermann Koppel

6. Ludvig Irgens Jensen

[mc ukrneal]

I had to think a bit about this one, but here would be my 6:

Norbert Burgmuller - Outstanding music. No idea why he isn't better known. A real find for me, and I listen to his music often.
Carl Czerny - Should be better known. He wrote many works, but so few are actually available on disc.
Franz Xaver Richter - I bought the Grandes Symphonies series on Naxos - Wow! These are at least as good as anything written by anyone from that period (18th century, though these were written in 1744 according to what I could find). Apparently he worte 80 symphonies more, only a small number of which can be found on disc.
Anton Arensky - Some wonderful music. I love the symphonies, but he's written chamber pieces, choral, solo, etc... Well worth exploring
Sergei Bortkiewicz - very engaging style and lovely music.
Jacques Offenbach -Some might argue that he is already known, but this guy wrote nearly 100 operettas and I estimate that at least 2/3 of them are either unavailable or have never been recorded!!! Thus - underappreciated. I myself have 16+ different operas/operettas, and that has not been so easy to assemble.

How 'neglected' are these guys really? Well, there certianly those that are more so, but still I felt these guys do not get the attention they should. 

[Grazioso]

I also think it would be better if our lists had more living composers on them. If you stop neglecting Antonio Rosetti, who would care? Not Rosetti, that's for sure! But if you stop neglecting Ingvar Lidholm, he might notice that and give a little grin.

I'm all for supporting good contemporary composers, but classical music is of course broader than that. History lives in our special corner of the musical world. Rediscovering and performing/recording a composer who died centuries ago is just as important as recording some living twenty-something, provided the music of the former warrants it. And personally, the aesthetic of the Classicists and early Romantics appeals greatly to me, so bring them on... 

Bantock recordings are thin on the ground, but things are slowly getting better.

On the bright side, Hyperion now offers a box set of its Bantock recordings.

One of the big problems with the scarcity of multiple recordings for the "lesser" British composers is that Maestros Handley and Hickox, two of the greatest champions of British music, both passed away in 2008. (Just about every available Bantock recording was conducted by Handley.) That void needs to be filled pronto. Some interesting thoughts on the matter:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/bax/editorial.htm

[(poco) Sforzando]

How about Havergal Brian? 

From what I've heard of his work, the more neglect, the better. 

[karlhenning]

Alkan why is he so underrated?

Perhaps he has simply been unknown.  Hamelin's championship of his music on Hyperion will hopefully start to set that to rights.

[Guido]

Schoeck and maybe Brian are the only ones I can really think of. But both have a lot of recordings so I'm not complaining too much.

[some guy]

I'm all for supporting good contemporary composers, but classical music is of course broader than that. History lives in our special corner of the musical world. Rediscovering and performing/recording a composer who died centuries ago is just as important as recording some living twenty-something, provided the music of the former warrants it. And personally, the aesthetic of the Classicists and early Romantics appeals greatly to me, so bring them on... 

And I believe that my point was something like this: I'm all for supporting music from the past, but classical music is broader than just the past.

And I wouldn't hedge, either. Recording some living twenty-something is more important than rediscovering and performing/recording a composer who died centuries ago, regardless of warrant. (For each listener warrant and goodness are both things that come after* the listening experience, not before, even for older music that many other people have listened to already.)

Personally, the aesthetics of all the eras appeals to me, but the aesthetics of my own time even more. After all, this time is the time I'm alive in. This time is the one in which there are composers who are also alive, so not only people whose music you can listen to but who you can hang out with, drinking, laughing, swapping off-color stories, even making sweet love down by the fire. (My last girl friend was a composer.) Because all of life is broader than just the music part of it!!

*Or during, from time to time.

[Scarpia]

And I wouldn't hedge, either. Recording some living twenty-something is more important that rediscovering and performing/recording a composer who died centuries ago, regardless of warrant. (

Quite so.  That centuries old forgotten music has been written, regardless of whether the Berlin Philharmonic records it.  The music of today won't get written unless there are performers to perform it.

[Philoctetes]

And I believe that my point was something like this: I'm all for supporting music from the past, but classical music is broader than just the past.

And I wouldn't hedge, either. Recording some living twenty-something is more important that rediscovering and performing/recording a composer who died centuries ago, regardless of warrant. (For each listener warrant and goodness are both things that come after* the listening experience, not before, even for older music that many other people have listened to already.)

Personally, the aesthetics of all the eras appeals to me, but the aesthetics of my own time even more. After all, this time is the time I'm alive in. This time is the one in which there are composers who are also alive, so not only people whose music you can listen to but who you can hang out with, drinking, laughing, swapping off-color stories, even making sweet love down by the fire. (My last girl friend was a composer.) Because all of life is broader than just the music part of it!!

One of the best posts I've seen on any site. Could not agree more. And of course it has much borader applications, which I've just begun to try and inculcate.