Name that piece! The game

[listener]

That's a quote included in the piece which is 20^th century.  The composer wrote in a large number of genres.

[Amfortas]

Schnittke?

[listener]

Not Schnittke.  And for the sake of precision, the composer was born before 1900 but the work is 20^th century.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It sounds very Viennese. An Austrian composer?

[listener]

Not Austrian, but there is a vague Danube connection.

[mszczuj]

Zoltán Kodály? Háry János?

[listener]

not Hary Janos and not at all Kodaly.

[Amfortas]

  Dohnanyi?

[listener]

I used Dohnanyi before, so would wait a while longer before returning there, for this composer you'll go in the opposite direction.   I'll put up another clip from the same a bit later if necessary.   

[DaveF]

Schoenberg got involved in some fairly light-hearted things from time to time - an arrangement of Funiculi funiculà, I recall.  Is this Arnie letting his hair down?

[listener]

not Schoenberg (or Berg or Webern), but possibly as unexpected as those.  His regular output would be regarded by many as severe.
and because I'm perversely fond of this, another bit from the same...
http://www.4shared.com/audio/ggIzR4Ba/copy_2__pzz_mmH.html

[mszczuj]

Hindemith?

[listener]

HINDEMITH is right!  The clips are from the Repertorium für Militärmusik  'Minimax', composed for the final concert of the Donaueschingen Chamber Music Concerts of 1923.  They remind me of my high school orchestra, a recording of which I now regret not purchasing.    We had tuned up at 8:30 for a music festival, but got on stage at 10:45 and were told to go straight into our selection with no warm-up or re-tuning.  Haydn's 'Surprise' Symphony has never sounded like that since.

[mszczuj]

Well, it was not a great achivement to guess as listener gave us very precise clues but somebody must do it to keep the game on.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/B2Aqnm54/ho_online.html?

[Brian]

This isn't what we're supposed to be guessing, but... OSR/Ansermet?

[Amfortas]

At first I thought Russian, then something in the harmony sounds English to me.....some kind of showpiece for orchestra?

[mszczuj]

This isn't what we're supposed to be guessing, but... OSR/Ansermet?

No.

Why do you think so?

[mszczuj]

At first I thought Russian, then something in the harmony sounds English to me...

You were right with one of these ideas.

..some kind of showpiece for orchestra?

More than 24  minutes lasting showpiece of developing, alternating and mixing themes and motifs in sonata form with slow introduction and epilogue or in form of  rondo with slow refrain and two fast episodes. This is beginning of first theme after slow introduction (about 5:13) and this theme (or group of this theme) lasts in exposition about 2:36. The main motif of introduction (and of epilogue and of transition in exposition) is audible in clip about 0:44-0:48.

Alas, this showpiece is very seldom shown because of political censorship.

[Amfortas]

Alas, this showpiece is very seldom shown because of political censorship.

Well political censorship makes me think automatically of Russian....

...Shostakovich?

[Brian]

No.

Why do you think so?

As soon as the clip started I thought "Oh! I recognize that orchestral sound/acoustic!" and as it proceeded the instruments all seemed very familiar... but then for some reason (chalk it up to exhaustion, I've just come back from a 120km hike in Spain) my brain's train of thought skidded onto the wrong tracks and I didn't recognize the vintage Sovietness of the sound. Yikes.

Am I right in suspecting that the political censorship isn't Soviet but post-?