Six undeservedly neglected composers.

[lescamil]

Alas, Hamelin isn't a very good Alkan interpreter.

WRONG. I would say Hamelin is one of the premier Alkan interpreters. His technique is paramount to others, and he brings a subtle touch to the musical aspects of the works. Listen to his new recording of the Concerto for Solo Piano and you'll be convinced of his mastery. Ronald Smith's Alkan to me sounds labored and clunky on the technical side, even though he does have things to say musically.

[Jon Silpayamanant]

Great list! (I only know the first three names and would guess, that not all of the other ones would classify als `Western classical music composers' - which makes it even more interesting.)

Technically, only Amirov (and possibly Hajibeyov) would count as "Western" composers--or at least as Soviet composers.  They're both Azerbaijani but are both known for their Mugham Operas (which was a hybrid Art form melding Azerbaijani Mugham and European Opera).

Tanburi Cemil Bey is probably one of the most well known Ottoman Classical Music composers.  I have an interest in him as he was one of the first Ottoman musicians to really incorporate the Cello into the Turkish Art Music Ensembles. 

The Moldavian Prince, Cantemir, while he was a European, was better known in the Ottoman Empire as the composer/musicologist, Kantemiroğlu.  Some of the earliest transcribed Ottoman pieces exist thanks to him and his forced exile into Turkey.

The Armenian, Hampartsoum Limondjian, is responsible for the notation system that Ottoman composers used before they eventually  adopted a modified Western Notation.  We can also thank him for the thousands of Ottoman music compositions that survived to be transcribe finally into Western notation.

And what can I say about Mohammed Abdul Wahhab--the "Beethoven of the Arabic World", but I presume you know that, eh? 

[mjwal]

Does "undeservedly neglected" mean "without a thread of their own on this forum"? Because anybody you can mention has his/her devotees somewhere. Lidholm used (at least) to get rave reviews in Fanfare magazine and I enjoy Ett Drömspel very much - I last listened to it last summer, one of the great 20th century operas. But he is certainly neglected in, say, Germany, where nobody has heard of him. - To judge by the names mentioned on GMG, and following someguy's implied precept to avoid DWMs, I propose Alvin Curran, Jonathan Harvey, York Höller, Roger Reynolds, Adriana Hölszky and Maria de Alvear (you know, the one who composed Vagina) of the living composers I know from concerts and/or CDs - but of course each has his/her fan club somewhere. I am amazed by the obscure names some of you are pulling out of your hats, because I have never heard of a lot of them - but Sid, I have most of Barraqué's works on LP/CD, and I have been to more concerts of Kurtág's work than of any other living composer, so I cannot really regard them as "neglected". Bernard van Dieren (sorry, DWM) is neglected, if you like - where are the recordings or performances of the Chinese Symphony?

[vandermolen]

1. Klaus Egge

2. Hilding Rosenberg

3. Gøsta Nystrøm

4. Einar Englund

5. Hermann Koppel

6. Ludvig Irgens Jensen

Great list - although do I detect a slight Scandinavian bias? 

[vandermolen]

Must add Lo Presti and Cowell to my list.

[Dundonnell]

1. Klaus Egge

2. Hilding Rosenberg

3. Gøsta Nystrøm

4. Einar Englund

5. Hermann Koppel

6. Ludvig Irgens Jensen

Naxos is releasing a recording of Irgens Jensen's Symphony in D minor at the end of August(Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Bjarne Engeset). What is unique about this recording is that it includes the third movement of the symphony which the composer excised. The Simax recording, originally reased in 1972, with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra/Oivin Fjeldstad is the two movement version.

The Naxos disc also includes Irgens Jensen's Passacaglia-the piece which, in the Nordic section of the 1928 Schubert Centenary Competition, came second to Atterberg's 6th Symphony(the eventual winner of the whole competition). This is billed-at least on Presto's site-as a 'World premiere recording' which it manifestly isn't. The Oslo PO under Ole Kristian Ruud recorded the Passacaglia in 1986.

[jowcol]

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

I'm suprised that MI has not updated this list to include Koechlin....

[Mirror Image]

I'm suprised that MI has not updated this list to include Koechlin....

Good point, but this was back in November so here's my new revised list (in no particular order):

1. Charles Koechlin
2. Edmund Rubbra
3. Karol Szymanowski
4. Nikolai Myaskovsky
5. Havergal Brian
6. Alberic Magnard

[cilgwyn]

Just a word for Stanley Bate's Fourth symphony. I enjoyed the third & maybe,in some ways,the thematic material IS more memorable. But I have to say it was the Fourth that has impressed me the most. It seems more tightly argued & certainly bodes well for more Bates (Stanley not Norman!) from this source.
The only criticism I have of the Dutton issue is that I would have preferred  ALL Bate releases,instead of having Arnell thrown in,as well. Dutton seem to feel that name Arnell can sell a cd on his own,but Bate can't!
Chandos said they were interested in recording Bate a while back (on their forum). I only hope this is true.

Meanwhile,my list:

Stanley Bate (if anything else is good as the 3rd & 4th?)
Daniel Jones    (A thinking mans symphonist,if ever there was!)
Ildebrando Pizzetti
Charles Tournemire (Symphonies,etc)
David Wynne  (no recordings at all,except something from lyrita)
Charles Koechlin (I'm with you there Mirror Image!)
Guy Ropartz

I would list Havergal Brian,but so much has already been said & he's got a very long thread!

NB Stanley Bate is not to be confused with Stanley Bates who played Bungle the Bear
     in the Childrens tv series!

Edit: Just realised,I obviously can't count! That's seven!!!!!!!!!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

1. Albéric Magnard

2. Rued Langgaard

3. George Enescu

4. Frederick Delius

5. Mieczyslaw Karlowicz

6. He Who Need Not Be Named

[cilgwyn]

I forgot one of my favourites,Rued Langgaard. Thank you for reminding me,Johan.
Must say I'm not keen on getting into the comparison game of schoolboy style point scoring,along the lines of  'such and such a composer is greater than so and so'. As far as I'm aware,this thread is just about undeservedly neglected composers NOT undeservedly neglected,GREAT composers. Also,the neglect of Bach,Mendelssohn and Mahler,mentioned by Toucan,however regrettable and sad,is a little before my time!

[Dundonnell]

As the great Professor C.E.M. Joad used to say when beginning to answer on a question on the famous wartime BBC Brains Trust....

"It all depends on what you mean by neglected....."

To take Johan's list, for example- Magnard, Langgaard, Enescu, Delius, Karlowicz, ANO:

Most of these composers have hardly been neglected on disc, particularly in recent years.

Magnard wrote very little music but there are sets of his four symphonies conducted by Thomas Sanderling(BIS), Jean-Yves Ossonce(Hyperion) and Michel Plasson(EMI).

Thomas Dausgaard has recorded a complete cycle of all sixteen Langgaard symphonies for Dacapo and Ilya Rubinstein has a complete set on the Danacord label.

Delius may not be much played in the concert hall but virtually everything he wrote is on disc.

Similar story with Karlowicz, courtesy of both Chandos and Naxos.

Now I don't think that a composer, almost all of whose music is available to anyone able to purchase it, can claim to be 'neglected'.

If the definition of neglect, on the other hand, includes 'live performances' then very large numbers of composers indeed would fall into that category, including, to name but one, a genius like Carl Nielsen.

I personally prefer to think in terms of composers virtually none of whose compositions is on disc or cases of composers where there are glaring gaps of unrecorded works in their lists of compositions.

Composers like Malcolm Williamson(Australia), Ernst Krenek(Austria), Niels Viggo Bentzon and Paul von Klenau(Denmark), Aare Merikanto and Ernest Pingoud(Finland), Charles Koechlin(France), Ildebrando Pizzetti(Italy), Willem Pijper and Leon Orthel(Netherlands), Klaus Egge and Ragnar Soderlind(Norway), Maximilian Steinberg(Russia), Hilding Rosenberg(Sweden), David Diamond and George Rochberg(USA), Stanley Bate, Arnold Cooke, Peter Racine Fricker, Iain Hamilton, Alun Hoddinott, Daniel Jones and Humphrey Searle(Britain)
would all fall into that category for me.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I take your point, Colin. Not being played and/or recorded at all certainly constitutes real neglect. In that sense none of the figures on my list is neglected (I like seeing Orthel among the composers you name). Still, for me there is another form of neglect and that is when the importance and richness of a composer's contribution to the art isn't really understood or fully acknowledged. I know that a canon is handy, but it is restrictive and has, in the 20th century, been strongly shaped by ideas of (linear) Progress, where everything that didn't comply was regarded as backward. I would love to hear Magnard's Third and Fourth regularly, Karlowicz's symphonic poems, some of Langgaard's symphonies (4, 6, 10..) et cetera. They would make the picture of 20th centrtuy music more complete. I know that CDs have replaced the concert-hall for this kind of music, but I find this deplorable, also for the audience, whose diet has become all too predictable.


(By the way, my No. 6 was Brian, but I thought everyone here knows by now how central he is to me, so I turned him into a Voldemort-like creature and didn't mention his name, for those who know their Harry Potter).

[Dundonnell]

....and I in turn take your point, Johan

Now, that really is a first. You read it here, folks....Johan is comparing Havergal Brian to Voldemort

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

....and I in turn take your point, Johan

Now, that really is a first. You read it here, folks....Johan is comparing Havergal Brian to Voldemort

Seeing that Brian is now the second composer (!) on this board, only a few pages behind Mahler, there will be many who will find this an evil development... 

[Dundonnell]

How about setting the Dementors on the critics?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

How about setting the Dementors on the critics?

My goodness, Colin - you and popular culture... Never knew you two were so close!

[Dundonnell]

Always pleased to surprise

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

* passer-by revives J.Z. Herrenberg with smelling salts *

[(poco) Sforzando]

Are there any composers that anyone responding on this thread would consider deservedly neglected, or do the adverb and adjective in the subject line always form an inseparable pair?