Five Most Underrated Symphonists

[Sammy]

My picks:

Schmidt
Bax
Weinberg
Miaskovsky
Wellesz

[kyjo]

Obviously Paul meant that because they aren't heard, people don't have opinions of them, so, to be underrated, they should be rated in the first place.

Obviously? I don't think so. Nothing was obvious in Paul's post except that he was criticizing my poll in an unclear manner. I appreciate criticisms as long as they make sense and are posted without any eye-roll emoticons which tell me that the criticizer is in some way exasperated. OK, since there seems to be so much confusion, I'll offer a further explanation of my definition of "underrated": A majority of listeners don't have to form a negative opinion of a composer for him/her to be "underrated". If most listeners haven't been exposed to a particular composer, he/she is "underrated". Let's take Atterberg for example. Not many people have heard his music, but the comparatively people who have can't believe it isn't more widely known. That's just my two cents worth.

P.S. I guess "underrated" wasn't the best word to use for this poll. "Unsung" would be better, I think.

[dyn]

I'm trying to think of some composers who are actually "underrated" because of most listeners having negative opinions of them, as opposed to simply having not heard of them. Perhaps Ferneyhough. Or Ditters von Dittersdorf. >.>

[kyjo]

Only nine voters so far? C'mon, guys!

[Wakefield]

Only nine voters so far? C'mon, guys!

This number has, at least, the modest charm of the symmetry. An outburst of voters would refute the very same foundation of this poll. 

[kyjo]

This number has, at least, the modest charm of the symmetry. An outburst of voters would refute the very same foundation of this poll. 

[DavidW]

I'll vote for CPE Bach, the Hamburg Sinfonias are close enough!

[mszczuj]

How could the Father of the Symphony be underrated??

There is nothing about value in "father". All right, may be not the whole Haydn, may be only 106 and 3/4 of his 107 known symphonies.

[springrite]

Kyjo,
I think I once started a thread about which GMG'er has cost you the most money. With all the polls you have started and all the responses that it has generated, in a short time, you are moving up fast on that list! Damn you!



PS: The last two word sentence is on behalf of my wife, BTW.

[kyjo]

Kyjo,
I think I once started a thread about which GMG'er has cost you the most money. With all the polls you have started and all the responses that it has generated, in a short time, you are moving up fast on that list! Damn you!



PS: The last two word sentence is on behalf of my wife, BTW.

[Daverz]

I tried, but to vote on only 5 I have to keep going back and unchecking older choices going down the list, and it's just too much.

[CharlesAnderson]

Just joined and voted....  1)Richard Wetz  2)Janis Ivanovs  3) Ludolf Nielsen  4) Alan Hovhaness   5)  Jan van Gilse.   One not on the list I may have voted for is Gavriil Popov.  Just discovered Gilse recently, 3rd symphony is great, mix of Richard Strauss and Wetz,  and a little Mahler.    I know about symphonies like Schmidt #4, Taneyev #4 and Stenahammar #2, but I wanted to vote for composers even more obscure than those.    Charles.

[bhodges]

Hi Charles, and welcome - interesting choices! If you like, feel free to post something about yourself in the "Introductions" section of the board. In any case, have a good time here.

--Bruce

[Ten thumbs]

As most of us are unlikely to have heard symphonies by all of these composers, this is scarcely a contest but it is of interest to see where appreciation lies. I only voted for 4 because my other is Emilie Meyer, whose fifth symphony has been recorded and who is most definitely underrated.

[springrite]

Brian
Bax
Langgaard
Rubbra
Hartmann

There are of course many great symphonists on the list, but some, like Schnittke, I think are fairly well rated.

But I could have added Pietro Mennini to the list, I guess.

[North Star]

Do Schnittke's symphonies really have a better or wider reputation than Hartmann's, Paul?

[Brian]

CPE Bach
Christian Cannabich
Franz Xaver Richter
Ferdinand Ries
- and people who were included in the poll -
Kalliwoda
Farrenc
Roussel
Atterberg
Martinu
Holmboe
H. Koppel
G. Lloyd

FAVORITE: Atterberg or Roussel
BEST: Martinu
MOST UNDERRATED: Kalliwoda

Also, Dvorak's 2nd and 3rd symphonies are hugely underrated.

[Cato]

I tried, but to vote on only 5 I have to keep going back and unchecking older choices going down the list, and it's just too much.

Too many choices is right!!!

And I began to quibble: e.g. "Is Karl Amadeus Hartmann at this point in musical history really underrated?  Is he perhaps under-appreciated, but not underrated?"

Oh well!

Hartmann, Kalliwoda, Scriabin, Taneyev, Zemlinsky.

C.P.E. Bach, Martinu, Ernst Toch and Alexander Tcherepnin for honorable mention!   0:)

[amw]

I'm not sure I understand the criteria for considering a composer "underrated". I mean, Havergal Brian may be the poster boy for underrated composers. Yet he has a Havergal Brian Society dedicated to the promotion of his works, has met with the advocacy of major artistic figures and most of his music has been recorded (some of it multiple times). That's more than can be said for, e.g., German Galynin or Marcel Poot or Ethel Smyth or Franz Ignaz Beck, just to name some symphonists I've heard of, or for that matter—pulling some names randomly out of your list—Emil von Reznicek, Jef van Hoof or Seoirse Bodley. And Brian's hardly the most mainstream figure on your list—Saint-Saëns? Prokofiev? Britten? Penderecki? Pärt? Skryabin? Philip Glass, only the most popular and commercially successful classical composer of the 21st century? "Unsung"?

Also, 'cos it's a Kyjo thread, I kind of expected more obscure choices. No Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov? No Romualds Kalsons? No Bernard van Dieren? No Anatoly Bogatyrev? No Elie Siegmeister? No Jani Christou? For shame, man!

edit: well anyway, after that outbreak of bitching, I picked a few names with as little staring at that eye-straining list as possible: Kalivoda, Vermeulen, Gerhard, Harrison & Segerstam. Okay, I don't like Segerstam that much. But I was tired of scrolling and hey, fewer than 1% of his symphonies have been recorded, that seems pretty underrated to me!

edit 2: hey, you did include Siegmeister! You just misspelled his name, so I missed it the first time. Brooklyn represent.

Now where's Derek Bourgeois?

[Cato]

I'm not sure I understand the criteria for considering a composer "underrated"....

Right!  That was my problem!

Also, 'cos it's a Kyjo thread, I kind of expected more obscure choices. No Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov?

NOW you're talkin', podner!