10 (or so) favorite works composed before the age of 20

Started by kyjo, October 15, 2021, 08:02:18 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

kyjo

What are your favorite "child prodigy" works composed before the age of 20? The astonishing inspiration and assuredness of these works (among others) amazes me:

Britten: Double Concerto for violin and viola (19 y/o)
Enescu: Octet (19)
Franck: 3 Piano Trios, op. 1 (17-20)
Korngold: Sinfonietta (14-15)
Mendelssohn: Octet (16)
Langgaard: Symphony no. 1 (16)
Lloyd: Symphony no. 3 (19)
Schubert: Symphony no. 2 (17-18)
Suk: Piano Quartet (17)
Walton: Piano Quartet (16)
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

The new erato

#1
One could fill this list with Schubert songs. Erlkønig, Heidenrøslein, Gretchen am Spinnrade an so on. To name a few.

The first one is probably the greatest work written by a teenager. Don't let the short duration and the small scale fool you.

I would also nominate Mendelssohn 2nd quartet written at 18 but published after his first written at 20.

MusicTurner

#2
Quote from: kyjo on October 15, 2021, 08:02:18 PM
What are your favorite "child prodigy" works composed before the age of 20? The astonishing inspiration and assuredness of these works (among others) amazes me:

Britten: Double Concerto for violin and viola (19 y/o)
Enescu: Octet (19)
Franck: 3 Piano Trios, op. 1 (17-20)
Korngold: Sinfonietta (14-15)
Mendelssohn: Octet (16)
Langgaard: Symphony no. 1 (16)
Lloyd: Symphony no. 3 (19)
Schubert: Symphony no. 2 (17-18)
Suk: Piano Quartet (17)
Walton: Piano Quartet (16)

A very fine list. Some others:

- Arriaga, 3 string quartets (~17)
- Lekeu, Cello Sonata (19)
- Haydn, Symphonies 1-8 (17-20)
- Mahler, Piano Quartet (17)
- Mozart , Piano Concerto no.5 (17), Symphony no.25 (17), Violin Concerto no.1 (20)
- Prokofiev, Piano Concerto no.1 (20), Piano Sonata no.1 (18)


Jo498

Mendelssohn a minor quartet is by far my favorite. It's his favorite quartet of mine and one of his top 5 pieces or so.
also Mendelssohn octet and MSND ouverture

Mozart: symphonies g minor K 183, A major K 201 (17-18)

Handel: oboe concerto in  g minor (17-18, of course dates are comparably uncertain but there are a bunch of chamber sonatas and lots of keyboard pieces Handel very probably wrote as a teenager)

Chopin: Concerto f minor (19)

Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

vandermolen

Glazunov: Symphony 1
Shostakovich: Symphony No.1
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Florestan

In my book there's no significant competition for Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schubert in this field.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

The new erato

Quote from: Florestan on October 16, 2021, 11:53:44 AM
In my book there's no significant competition for Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schubert in this field.

+1

Cato

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Symphonic Addict

It would be a little challenging since that information is often unknown to me. I'm gonna think about my choices.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: MusicTurner on October 16, 2021, 12:29:51 AM
A very fine list. Some others:

- Arriaga, 3 string quartets (~17)
- Haydn, Symphonies 1-8 (17-20)
- Mahler, Piano Quartet (17)
- Prokofiev, Piano Concerto no.1 (20)

I endorse these. Those Arriaga's quartets are sheer delight and wit.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: kyjo on October 15, 2021, 08:02:18 PM
What are your favorite "child prodigy" works composed before the age of 20? The astonishing inspiration and assuredness of these works (among others) amazes me:

Britten: Double Concerto for violin and viola (19 y/o)
Enescu: Octet (19)
Franck: 3 Piano Trios, op. 1 (17-20)
Korngold: Sinfonietta (14-15)
Mendelssohn: Octet (16)
Langgaard: Symphony no. 1 (16)
Lloyd: Symphony no. 3 (19)
Schubert: Symphony no. 2 (17-18)
Suk: Piano Quartet (17)
Walton: Piano Quartet (16)

You have mentioned at least 5 or 6 works that could have been in a tentative list of mine.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Florestan

Quote from: The new erato on October 16, 2021, 12:18:13 PM
+1

I mean, sure there were quite a lot of composers who wrote one or two beautiful and well-crafted works, occasionally even a masterpiece, at tender ages --- but none of them displayed such a consistent flow of beautiful and well-crafted works, many of which could be considered masterpieces, as did Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

kyjo

Quote from: Cato on October 16, 2021, 01:00:18 PM
Das Klagende Lied by Mahler: composed between ages 18-20.

https://www.youtube.com/v/PBkJ9VAnXFM

Good choice! I often forget how young Mahler was when he wrote this. A superbly imaginative work, and it already sounds very much like Mahler!
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

Quote from: vandermolen on October 16, 2021, 12:50:23 AM
Glazunov: Symphony 1
Shostakovich: Symphony No.1

The Shostakovich is growing on me - I'm currently playing it in my school's orchestra. A bit of an uneven work, maybe, but the latter half of the finale, in particular, contains some stupendous music.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

Quote from: Jo498 on October 16, 2021, 12:42:43 AM
Mendelssohn a minor quartet is by far my favorite. It's his favorite quartet of mine and one of his top 5 pieces or so.
also Mendelssohn octet and MSND ouverture

Mozart: symphonies g minor K 183, A major K 201 (17-18)

The Mendelssohn A minor quartet (no. 2) is a firm favorite of mine as well. Really, I could've included anything he wrote before the age of 20. An astonishingly precocious fellow!

I originally included Mozart's Symphony no. 25 (G minor) in my list, but then I remembered about Enescu's Octet so it got the boot! :D
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Brahmsian

Quote from: kyjo on October 17, 2021, 08:06:36 AM
The Shostakovich is growing on me - I'm currently playing it in my school's orchestra. A bit of an uneven work, maybe, but the latter half of the finale, in particular, contains some stupendous music.

The dramatic timpani solo in the final movement is bloody brilliant!  :)

Jo498

I had not been aware that Enescu's Octet and Suk's piano quartet were such early works! I don't know them well but will re-listen to them. There is also a trio Korngold wrote as young teenager (13 or so) I also thought "Das klagende Lied" was a bit later (although I have mentioned it sometimes myself against people who claimed that Mahler needed the influence from Rott's symphony to become Mahler for which that piece is obvious counterevidence).

Of the 3 or 4 (there is another single movement one, I think) Franck trios I think the (best known) first is by far the best. They should be all at least at the fringe of the standard rep, but they are apparently so strongly piano dominated that most ensembles don't like them...
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

kyjo

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on October 16, 2021, 08:48:37 PM
You have mentioned at least 5 or 6 works that could have been in a tentative list of mine.

No surprise there! 8)
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

VonStupp

#18
Favorite might be more than I should give some of these, but I enjoy all of them enough. VS

R. Strauss: Horn Concerto 1
Mozart: Exsultate, jubilate
Mendelssohn: String Symphony 11
L. Boulanger: Faust et Hélène
Bizet: Symphony in C
Bernstein: Piano Trio
George Lloyd: Symphony 2
Samuel Barber: The Daisies & With Rue My Heart is Laden
Mendelssohn: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
Glazunov: Symphony 1
Gershwin: Rialto Ripples

Edit: Schubert: Mass in G
"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

Karl Henning

Quote from: kyjo on October 17, 2021, 08:06:36 AM
The Shostakovich is growing on me - I'm currently playing it in my school's orchestra. A bit of an uneven work, maybe, but the latter half of the finale, in particular, contains some stupendous music.

Nice!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot