Your favorite lesser known composers

[USMC1960s]

I'm trying to branch out a bit and listen to composers that are less known than others. Thank you in advance for recommendations.

[Biffo]

A couple of Scandinavians to get the ball rolling

Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981)
Rued Langgaard (1893-1952)

[Sergeant Rock]

Two English composers:

Havergal Brian

George Lloyd

[vandermolen]

Off the top of my head:

E J Moeran: (try the Symphony, Cello Concerto or Sinfonietta)
Bax: Symphony 3
Miaskovsky: Symphony 21 or Cello Concerto
Glazunov: The Seasons ballet
Walton: Symphony 1
Rubbra: Symphony 4 or 5
Tubin: Symphony 2-5
Alwyn: Lyra Angelica (a kind of Harp concerto)
David Diamond: Symphony No.3
Roy Harris: Symphony No.3
Howells: 'Hymnus Paradisi' (very moving - in memory of his son)
Kabelac: Mystery of Time

[Irons]

Not knowing your tastes Dave so a shot in the dark, David Morgan: Contrasts.

https://youtu.be/3LBSeJnf7RY

[71 dB]

What does "relatively obscure" mean? For those new to classical music even Camille Saint-Saëns is obscure. However I'll list some names:

Matthias Weckmann (c. 1618-1674)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783)
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799)
Einar Englund (1916-1999)
Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)
Valentin Silvestrov (1937-)

[Symphonic Addict]

A couple of Scandinavians to get the ball rolling

Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981)
Rued Langgaard (1893-1952)

+1!

Others I enjoy:

Joly Braga Santos
Kurt Atterberg
Wilhelm Stenhammar
Hugo Alfvén
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Alfredo Casella
Ildebrando Pizzetti
Ottorino Respighi
Vagn Holmboe
Joachim Raff
Franz Schmidt
Florent Schmitt
Albert Roussel
Witold Lutoslawski
Peteris Vasks
Malcolm Arnold
Robert Simpson
Camargo Guarnieri
William Schuman
Dmitry Kabalevsky
Josef Suk
Arthur Honegger
Zoltán Kodaly
Lazslo Lajtha
Johan Svendsen
Ludvig Irgens-Jensen
Leevi Madetoja
Erkki Melartin
Uuno Klami
Kalevi Aho
Charles Stanford

And many more!

[vandermolen]

Not knowing your tastes Dave so a shot in the dark, David Morgan: Contrasts.

https://youtu.be/3LBSeJnf7RY

Seconded by me!
Also, Morgan's Violin Concerto.
Great to hear the name of this talented, but sadly short-lived, composer again.
Thank you Lol!

[vandermolen]

Tournemire and Honegger come to mind as well.

[Florestan]

Otomh

Franz Krommer
Carl Loewe
Moritz Moszkowski
Cecile Chaminade
Sergei Bortkiewicz
Carlos Guastavino

[Jo498]

Padre Antonio Soler: Keyboard works
Josef Martin Kraus: Symphonies
Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Piano concertos and Trios
Franz Berwald: Symphonies
Friedrich Gernsheim: Symphonies and chamber music
Ernest Chausson: Symphony and chamber music
Ernst von Dohnanyi: piano quintets and concertos

[MusicTurner]

Among them,

- Samuil Feinberg (piano sonatas, piano concertos, he wrote very little else)
- Nikolai Medtner (ditto, plus the chamber music)
- Rudolf Escher (orchestral and chamber music)
- Felix Glonti (orchestral music; only little has been recorded)
- Tristan Keuris (well, most of it, but for example Movements for Orchestra, Laudi vocal symphony, Piano Concerto, Double Cello Concerto ...)
- Lubos Fiser (Dürer Pictures, piano music, vocal music etc.)
- Harald Genzmer (for example the clarinet chamber music)
- Lucia Dlugoszewski (all of it, if avant-garde)
- Per Nørgård (all of it, but for example the symphonies, piano concerto, percussion concerto, cello works, early Clarinet Trio op.15 etc. etc. Stylistically, his development has been even more varied than Stravinsky's)
- Nikos Skalkottas (piano works, for example)
- Nikolay Myaskovsky (symphonies, chamber music)
- Alan Hovhaness (symphonies, concertos & concertos for orchestra, orchestral pieces)

are some that come to mind.

And Langgaard is a fascinating, uneven, and unpredictable fellow; Pettersson wrote some undeniable masterpieces, where individual recordings often mean a lot in experiencing them.

[André Le Nôtre]

Nicolas de Grigny
Morton Feldman

Less obscure, but little known to many classical music listeners:

Max Reger
Hugo Wolf
Alexandr Scriabin
Mikhail Glinka
Arvo Pärt
Leonin
Perotin
Thomas Tallis
Heinrich Schütz
Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck

Some of these, especially the first two, can be considered advanced listening. I did not discover them for many years, and some effort and attention is required to appreciate them. Still, Reger and Wolf are two of the most profoundly gifted composers in history IMO (not in the league of Bach or Beethoven, but still massively talented and prolific). Same is true for Sweelinck.

[Irons]

Seconded by me!
Also, Morgan's Violin Concerto.
Great to hear the name of this talented, but sadly short-lived, composer again.
Thank you Lol!

A most deserving case for this thread, Jeffrey.

[Irons]

I'm familiar with the names of THREE composers on all those lists, so this thread is working out fine for me. Thank you.

You did ask! Hide away in a man-cave and come out blinking in the sunshine after a 3 year listening session!

[Jo498]

Max Reger
Hugo Wolf

Some of these, especially the first two, can be considered advanced listening. I did not discover them for many years, and some effort and attention is required to appreciate them. Still, Reger and Wolf are two of the most profoundly gifted composers in history IMO (not in the league of Bach or Beethoven, but still massively talented and prolific). Same is true for Sweelinck.

That Reger and Wolf are niche composers gives IMO a lie to the claim that the Austrogerman tradition is unduly dominating classical music since ca. 1800. In fact, in late romanticism a few composer from this tradition, such as Strauss and Mahler are dominant, but the "losers" are not mainly composers from other nations like Holst, Magnard or Medtner but other Austrogerman composers.
Sure, Wolf who wrote mainly Lieder can hardly be expected to challenge Mahler (and he is highly regarded within the Lieder niche). But he wrote some very daring instrumental works, mainly the string quartet that could be repertoire items like other solitaires, such es Franck's piano quintet.

[Mandryka]

I'm really trying to branch out a bit and listen to composers that are relatively unknown to the general public, including me. Thank you in advance for recommendations.

I only ever listen to obscure composers. So just pick a post of mine at random. But if I had to pick one as favourite it would be Dietrich Stöeffken.

[Christo]

Relatively obscure favourites are:

Joly Braga Santos
Federico Moreno Torroba
Arnold Cooke
Ruth Gipps
Eugene Goossens
Stanley Bate
John Kinsella
Veljo Tormis
Ēriks Ešenvalds
Sulkhan Tsintsadze
Geirr Tveitt
Erland von Koch
Camargo Guarnieri
Hendrik Andriessen
Léon Orthel
Henri Sauguet
Charles Tournemire

[Christo]

Tournemire and Honegger come to mind as well.

I should have addes Tournemire; Honegger is relatively well-known, IMHO.

[Crudblud]

I'll throw a few atcha (in the order they pop into my head).

Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Kate Soper
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Johann Jakob Froberger