Composers You Are Considering

[Florestan]

This thread is not about this or that recording, but about the whole body of work of certain composers you are not, or very little, familiar with and would like to explore.

My Top 5 list is, in no particular order:

Bohuslav Martinu
Darius Milhaud
Paul Hindemith
Ottorino Respighi
Alexander Glazunov

Plus, after being blown away recently by John Ireland's piano and chamber music, I have a whole country's music on my radar: England! I am (relatively) familiar with York Bowen's piano sonatas and some of Arnold Bax's symphonies and I am convinced that Das Land ohne Musik is an ideological fabrication with no real basis whatsoever (unless one subscribes to the notion that music which is not to the liking of, or conforming to the tastes of, the proponents or adherents of the Austro-German idealist musical aesthetics is no music at all, or at least not serious music...). Stanford, Parry, Elgar, RV Williams, Holst, Bridge, Bliss, Bax, Bowen, Moeran, Cyril Scott, Havergal Brian etc --- I feel there's a whole world waiting to be discovered which would be right up my alley.

How about you? Are you in any such exploration mood?

[Mahlerian]

Plus, after being blown away recently by John Ireland's piano and chamber music, I have a whole country's music on my radar: England! I am (relatively) familiar with York Bowen's piano sonatas and some of Arnold Bax's symphonies and I am convinced that Das Land ohne Musik is an ideological fabrication with no real basis whatsoever (unless one subscribes to the notion that music which is not to the liking of, or conforming to the tastes of, the proponents or adherents of the Austro-German idealist musical aesthetics is no music at all, or at least not serious music...). Stanford, Parry, Elgar, RV Williams, Holst, Bridge, Bliss, Bax, Bowen, Moeran, Cyril Scott, Havergal Brian etc --- I feel there's a whole world waiting to be discovered which would be right up my alley.

I know you're not interested much in pre-18th century music, but you should still think about Purcell as well for any serious exploration of English music.

Of course if you did want to go beyond the common practice period, there is lots of great music in the late medieval and early renaissance from England.

[Spineur]

Put Respighi on the back burner.  The other 4 have composed a lot, and their output may sound at first be a bit uneven.  But there are some real gems there.  The best of Martinu can be found in the last ten years of his life, but I am also quite fond of his impressionist period (Nipponari, Julietta).  Anyway MI is the expert here.  I have actually played a dozen of Hindemith chamber music pieces.  He writes well for the string instruments.  Milhaud needs to be played with conviction.  I suspect that the poor reception that some of his music gets here has a lot to do with the interpretations which are often just "decorative".  Villa Lobos and Milhaud were very close buddies and their music do resemble each other quite a bit.

As far as I am concerned, I am going to explore Albert Roussel some.  I have heard recently a set of his melodies which I found as beautiful as Debussy's or Ravel.  I realized that I hardly know his works, which span pretty much all musical forms.

[Mirror Image]

This thread is not about this or that recording, but about the whole body of work of certain composers you are not, or very little, familiar with and would like to explore.

My Top 5 list is, in no particular order:

Bohuslav Martinu
Darius Milhaud
Paul Hindemith
Ottorino Respighi
Alexander Glazunov

Plus, after being blown away recently by John Ireland's piano and chamber music, I have a whole country's music on my radar: England! I am (relatively) familiar with York Bowen's piano sonatas and some of Arnold Bax's symphonies and I am convinced that Das Land ohne Musik is an ideological fabrication with no real basis whatsoever (unless one subscribes to the notion that music which is not to the liking of, or conforming to the tastes of, the proponents or adherents of the Austro-German idealist musical aesthetics is no music at all, or at least not serious music...). Stanford, Parry, Elgar, RV Williams, Holst, Bridge, Bliss, Bax, Bowen, Moeran, Cyril Scott, Havergal Brian etc --- I feel there's a whole world waiting to be discovered which would be right up my alley.

How about you? Are you in any such exploration mood?

I've always admired British music and I'm glad to see you're thinking about exploring this country's rich musical terrain. Given your list of composers that you mentioned, I'd imagine that Finzi, Rubbra, and Alwyn would be right up your alley as well. Also, I was one to never subscribe to any kind of musical ideology. Of your 'Top 5' list, I can say with great certainty that Martinů is a solid favorite. He's a remarkable composer. I heartily recommend you checking out his music!

I'll have to think about this one as there's not really any composers that are new to me that I feel are worth exploring at the moment. Of course, if I do like something, then I'll jump into that rabbit hole once it appears. But, right now, there's just not much I feel like exploring except my already long-standing favorites' oeuvres and hopefully finding some gems that had been hidden along the way.

[SymphonicAddict]

I'm a constant explorer of new music. At this moment I'm exploring the Holmboe's string quartets and revisiting those ones by Shostakovich, which has been interesting since I've found some similarities between both corpus of quartets.

Now, these composers are on my radar:

Eshpai
Bacewicz
Czerny
Gouvy
Ropartz
Delibes
Frankel
Berwald

The list will grow on coming days.

[Mirror Image]

A bit of a continuation from my last post on this thread...

I used to be a 'breadth' type of listener where I would go on explorations to find new music and composers I've never heard of, but these days I've found myself reeled back in and definitely prefer the 'depth' route as I prefer getting to know only a few composers incredibly well since, in hindsight, there are only a handful of composers that truly speak to us. And what I mean by this is quite simple: there are composers we discover from the beginning of our journey that have stayed with us up until the point we're at right now. Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich, Bartók, Sibelius, Nielsen, Mahler, Copland, Ives, Villa-Lobos, and Martinů have all been there for me and are, if I'm really being honest about it, the composers whose music I absolutely love with all my heart.

[mc ukrneal]

As far as I am concerned, I am going to explore Albert Roussel some.  I have heard recently a set of his melodies which I found as beautiful as Debussy's or Ravel.  I realized that I hardly know his works, which span pretty much all musical forms.

I'm in the exact same place. I just got the Jacques Mercier 10 CD set, and there are two Roussel discs, my first two. Well, I really enjoyed listening to bits and pieces as I ripped them, and so am very much looking forward to giving them a good listen when I have the time. But I am already trying to figure out what I'd like next!

[Uhor]

Vivier, Cage

[Maestro267]

I definitely want to hear more of Alexander Glazunov's music. Already it seems like he's one that can be added to the Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninov mould, with memorable tunes and a full orchestral sound.

[Florestan]

I know you're not interested much in pre-18th century music

That's wrong. Every once in a while I go as far back in time as 1200-1300. 

but you should still think about Purcell as well for any serious exploration of English music.

I very much like what (admittedly too) little Purcell I have heard.

Of course if you did want to go beyond the common practice period, there is lots of great music in the late medieval and early renaissance from England.

I know. I am no stranger to it.

[some guy]

John Duncan
Günter Müller
Sandra Boss
Manuella Blackburn
Elizabeth Anderson

Which reminds me that there are many favorites whose old pieces I know well, but who keep writing so fast, I can't keep up:

Simon Steen-Andersen
Natasha Barrett
Emmanuelle Gibello
Gráinne Mulvey
Horváth Balász

And, speaking of Brits, Diana Salazar and Jonty Harrison

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

John Bull
Hector Berlioz (anything but the Symphonie Fantastique, which I can't stand)
John Cage
Nicolaus Brunhs
Johann Kuhnau

[Turner]

On my current wish list there is one CD with music by Johannes Borowski and another one with music by Ondrej Adamek, contemporary composers served by those Wergo portrait CDs. Both are composers I don´t know anything else about.

[kyjo]

My Top 5 list is, in no particular order:

Bohuslav Martinu
Darius Milhaud
Paul Hindemith
Ottorino Respighi
Alexander Glazunov

Martinu, Hindemith, Respighi, and Glazunov are all very much worth your time I'm a bit less sure about Milhaud, but truth be told I'm not terribly familiar with his music. And I don't think you'll regret exploring more British music - so much great and under-appreciated music was produced in Britain during the 20th century.