For some reason, whenever I see "Stravinsky's Violin Concerto" or "Beethoven's Mass in C," I always do a double-take and think, hang on, they wrote what?
I don't know that those works are necessarily obscure, but they are considerably more so than one would expect. The phrase "Stravinsky's Violin Concerto" seems to suggest a warhorse that gets played five times a year. Anybody else ever find themselves surprised in a similar manner?
Quote from: Brian on February 21, 2013, 05:02:14 AM
For some reason, whenever I see "Stravinsky's Violin Concerto" or "Beethoven's Mass in C," I always do a double-take and think, hang on, they wrote what?
I don't know that those works are necessarily obscure, but they are considerably more so than one would expect. The phrase "Stravinsky's Violin Concerto" seems to suggest a warhorse that gets played five times a year. Anybody else ever find themselves surprised in a similar manner?
Hmm, I would agree with the Beethoven Mass in C, but I had the feeling the Stravinsky Violin Concerto was very well known and performed. It is certainly a piece I enjoy immensely.
Schumann's Violin Concerto. A fantastic and beautiful work by a supposedly (at that time) insane composer. 8)
Verdi's String Quartet (obscure, compared to his operas), but an absolute gem!
Interesting angle! I should have to think a spell before trying to contribute.
Though maybe the sextet original of Souvenir de Florence qualifies. (Probably simply a matter of people — outside of Russia, though probably not a great deal even in his homeland — not thinking of Tchaikovsky as a chamber music composer.
How about Mahler's Piano Quartet?
Quote from: karlhenning on February 21, 2013, 05:07:40 AM
Interesting angle! I should have to think a spell before trying to contribute.
Though maybe the sextet original of Souvenir de Florence qualifies. (Probably simply a matter of people — outside of Russia, though probably not a great deal even in his homeland — not thinking of Tchaikovsky as a chamber music composer.
The first thing that came in my mind when reading the OP was Tchaikovsky's
The Seasons, piano suite op. 37a. :D
Better still, Andrei! — although the Souvenir de Florence deserves to be a concert staple. (Though, hey, perhaps you are staking such a claim for the Op.37a, as well . . . .)
Quote from: karlhenning on February 21, 2013, 05:18:36 AM
Better still, Andrei! — although the Souvenir de Florence deserves to be a concert staple. (Though, hey, perhaps you are staking such a claim for the Op.37a, as well . . . .)
A concert staple would be too much to claim, but any of those pieces would certainly make for an excellent encore outside the beaten tracks.
Though not truly obscure - there are multiple recordings - Richard Strauss' Violin Sonata is probably not the first, second, or third work most people think of when they think of Strauss.
Quote from: Todd on February 21, 2013, 05:35:06 AM
Though not truly obscure - there are multiple recordings - Richard Strauss' Violin Sonata is probably not the first, second, or third work most people think of when they think of Strauss.
Or the slightly better known Cello Sonata.
The Stravinsky VC is fairly popular, so I don't think it makes the cut. The Beethoven Mass in C is hardly obscure, but there are 3 times as many recordings of the Missa Solemnis.
If we are going for "unjustly neglected work of a major composer", I nominate Dvorak's American Suite in A major. The Czech Suite in D major is also relatively neglected.
How about a few more obscure Strauss pieces...
-Dance Suite for chamber orchestra after keyboard pieces by Couperin
-Wedding Prelude for two harmoniums
Quote from: springrite on February 21, 2013, 05:12:32 AM
How about Mahler's Piano Quartet?
I wouldn't count that, since it's a teenage work written as an academic exercise.
Speaking of Beethoven, how about the oratorio
Christ on the Mount of Olives? Or Mozart's
La Clemenza di Tito? Do these mature-period works deserve their relative neglect?
Quote from: Daverz on February 21, 2013, 06:03:34 AM
The Stravinsky VC is fairly popular, so I don't think it makes the cut.
I don't think it does either, not when you have recordings by violinists as famous as Stern, Oistrakh, Vengerov, Kogan, Mullova, Perlman, Mutter, Hahn, Chung.
Sarge
If Elgarian were here, he'd say the Spirit of England. It's rarely played with just three recordings.
Nothing's really obscure in GMG. Thread closed.
BEETHOVEN: Duet with 2 Eyeglasses for violin & cello
Quote from: listener on February 21, 2013, 12:31:29 PM
BEETHOVEN: Duet with 2 Eyeglasses for violin & cello
I think the version for Viola & Cello is
even more obscure that that! :o Nice piece of music though, deserving of more playtime in recitals (WoO 32)
8)
Wagner's solo piano music, for example the Piano Sonata in B flat major. I was rather surprised when I discovered he wrote other compositions besides the operas and few famous orchestral works like Siegfried-Idyll, the Faust Ouverture and the Wesendonck-Lieder; especially this kind of compositions, for solo piano! :D
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on February 21, 2013, 12:50:50 PM
Wagner's solo piano music, for example the Piano Sonata in B flat major. I was rather surprised when I discovered he wrote other compositions besides the operas and few famous orchestral works like Siegfried-Idyll, the Faust Ouverture and the Wesendonck-Lieder; especially this kind of compositions, for solo piano! :D
I just got a set of Wagner's piano music some time ago, haven't listened yet but will have to soon :)
First thing I thought of:
[asin]B0000035OG[/asin]
His symphonies for some reason have occasionally invaded my brain in the past days! It must be time to revisit Robert Schumann!
How about Prokofiev's op.88 Symphonic March? If I'm the only who has ever fully orchestrated it, that's pretty obscure.
If I remember right, I actually enjoyed Beethoven's Mass in C quite a bit more than something like Missa Solemnis. But then again, I tend to prefer his less popular stuff, with a few key exceptions (mainly certain piano sonatas).
Beethoven: the incidental music to a play by F. Dunker, Leonore Prohaska.
The only reason I know about it is because one of the four pieces is scored for glass armonica and speaking voice, and included under the title Melodram in a CD devoted to the glass armonica I found in the used CD store a few days ago. It's supposedly the only music Beethoven wrote for glass armonica
If you want more information about the music, don't ask me: everything I know is from the liner notes and substantially reproduced in the above paragraph.
[asin]B0006J8EUI[/asin]
Quote from: Cato on February 21, 2013, 01:44:27 PM
First thing I thought of:
[asin]B0000035OG[/asin]
His symphonies for some reason have occasionally invaded my brain in the past days! It must be time to revisit Robert Schumann!
That's not really obscure. It's simply hardly ever been performed. But bits and pieces of the music do show up in Schumann CDs with a bit of regularity.
But sticking to Schumann, perhaps we could nominate some of his choral works or the studies for pedal organ?
Quote from: Opus106 on February 21, 2013, 07:45:49 AM
Nothing's really obscure in GMG. Thread closed.
True enough. There is nothing too obscure to deserve its own thread and hailed as a neglected masterpiece.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SRm6BMxLL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Der Rose Pilgerfahrt (The Pilgrimage of a Rose) is a hybrid work, combining aspects of the choral ballade, oratorio, song cycle, and even opera. Schumann made this combination very deliberately; he believed that a new format was needed to combine the best aspects of all of these genres and meld lyricism and drama in a new way. Throughout his life he experimented with these concepts, producing, as well as this work, the better-known "Paradise and the Peri," (most of which was written during 1841) "Scenes from Goethe's Faust," (written between 1844 and 1853) "Manfred," (written in 1848 and 1849, premiered in 1852) and "Der Konigssohn" (also written in 1851.) However, those works are larger in dramatic scope and far from the intimacy of this work, which was premiered in the music salon at the Schumann's Dusseldorf home, a venue which could hold an audience of only about 60.
The structure is most like an oratorio, divided into sections for solo voice, solo voices and chorus, and for just the chorus, which itself is sometimes divided into different sections, as in the beginning and ending pieces, which are sung just by the women's voices. However, unlike the standard oratorio format, the solo music is not divided into recitatives and arias, but instead written more like individual lieder, an impression which the relative intimacy of the music and the piano accompaniment (in that version) enhance. Also unusually, the role of the narrator is taken by different soloists during different moments.
Though it is infrequently performed, it is overflowing with lyric melody with a charm that is naive but not cloyingly so, and is appealing in its own right as well as for the insight it provides into Schumann as a musical innovator. ~ Anne Feeney, Rovi
Given that the terms obscure and major are highly debatable, here's my take on this topic:
Barney Childs, all
Pauline Oliveros, all
Eliane Radigue, all
Helmut Lachenmann, all
Luc Ferrari, all
Bernard Parmegiani, all
David Tudor, all
Beatriz Ferreyra, all
Phill Niblock, all
Maryanne Amacher, all
Günther Becker, all
And so forth....
Debussy - Le martyre de Saint Sébastien
Quote from: The Six on February 22, 2013, 01:07:45 PM
Debussy - Le martyre de Saint Sébastien
My favorite Debussy piece.
Quote from: some guy on February 22, 2013, 10:48:30 AM
Helmut Lachenmann, all
I don't get the impression that this is completely true, especially if compared to the other ones in the list. Which is alright- Lachenmann rocks. ;)
Quote from: some guy on February 22, 2013, 10:48:30 AM
Given that the terms obscure and major are highly debatable, here's my take on this topic:
Barney Childs, all
Pauline Oliveros, all
Eliane Radigue, all
Helmut Lachenmann, all
Luc Ferrari, all
Bernard Parmegiani, all
David Tudor, all
Beatriz Ferreyra, all
Phill Niblock, all
Maryanne Amacher, all
Günther Becker, all
And so forth....
Hey, I've actually come across two of those names before!
:D
Quote from: Opus106 on February 22, 2013, 10:32:41 PM
Hey, I've actually come across two of those names before!
:D
Tudor and Lachenmann probably. But I thought Ferrari made cars and Becker played tennis.
Bartok's 44 Duos for Two Violins might count. His early Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra definitely would. Shostakovich's Viola Sonata, might. I love it, but I can hear why it might not be very popular. All of Sibelius's piano music would fall under this category.