If you had the power to raise the dead...

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

...Lazarus-like, what would you ask your favorite (deceased) composers to create?  (certainly, if you knew how to restore life, then getting composers to work on what you want, should be no problemo).   I know straight away, no forethought required:

Brahms :  Symphonies 6-9
Mahler : Violin and Piano Concertos

[Jo498]

You are not interested in Brahms' 5th? Or are you counting the Double concerto?

Schubert: Complete the b minor and the sketches for the "10th"

Mozart: Complete the Requiem, some more choral music (he certainly would have if he had got the position at the St Stephan cathedral) and maybe a "late" violin concerto.

[Sergeant Rock]

I know straight away, no forethought required:

Mahler, finish the 10th; Bruckner, finish the 9th.

Sarge

[Christo]

Vaughan Williams: finish the Cello concerto (the 'Dark Pastoral' slow movement, finished or re-created by David Matthews, screams for more).

[Todd]

Schubert.  I'd just want him to keep on writing new works as long as he could and further develop his style in the process.  Look at what he managed by age 31.  Imagine what he could have done with even ten or twenty more years.

[Wanderer]

Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann, Bruckner, Ravel, Debussy, Medtner, Alkan, Skalkottas, Scriabin, Arriaga, Lili Boulanger, Rudi Stephan: carte blanche


Sibelius: I'd smack him in the head with the manuscript of the Eighth Symphony, then commission two more. And a violin concerto.

Mahler: I'd commission an opera. The 8th Symphony shows ridiculous promise.

Shostakovich: Another opera, pronto.

Korngold: Commissions for a piano concerto, a violin concerto, a cello concerto, a double bass concerto, two symphonies (one tragic, one triumphant) and a trilogy of operas on Oresteia.

Skalkottas: Commission for an opera or tone poem on Papadiamantis' The Murderess.

Berlioz: Commissions for a trilogy of operas: Oedipus Tyrannos, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, as well as for a (second) Missa Solemnis.

Schreker & Zemlinsky: a couple more operas each.

Ravel: Commission for two more piano concertos and an opera on Kleist's Penthesilea.

Debussy: Finish La chute de la maison Usher, then write a couple more Poe operas as well as an opera on Sophocles' Trachiniae.

[Brian]

Schubert.  I'd just want him to keep on writing new works as long as he could and further develop his style in the process.  Look at what he managed by age 31.  Imagine what he could have done with even ten or twenty more years.

This is all I thought, too.

Ten more years for Schubert.

[NJ Joe]

I clicked on this thread thinking it was Viagra-related.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

You are not interested in Brahms' 5th? Or are you counting the Double concerto?

I heard the 5th was going to be really bad.   No, seriously, that's what comes of typing in the dark.  Es ist mir so peinlich...

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

I clicked on this thread thinking it was Viagra-related.

These are all very poignant, indeed moving, recommends.  Inc. this one. 

[Dancing Divertimentian]

These are all very poignant, indeed moving, recommends.  Inc. this one. 

Schubert, definitely. A healthy Schumann to add to the solo piano literature.

And a Webern opera.

[Ken B]

All of them. Except Stockhausen.

[ibanezmonster]

Mahler, finish the 10th

Nah, writing an 11th would be better.

[Jo498]

Schubert is the most obvious candidate for me. Although I mentioned Mozart and it would be great to have some more works from him, there are so many masterful ones, so I cannot really say that I miss anything, except mature choral music similar to the Requiem (and it is a pity that he did not finish a few nice double/triple concerti from his last years in Salzburg, the fragments have been completed and recorded and they are very nice).

Whereas Schubert had basically only found his style in instrumental music when he died. Because he was pretty good even before that and superhumanly fast in composing we still have great treasures (or whatever Grillparzer wrote in his eulogy) but there is quite a bit one could have expected in only 10 more years.

Another interesting case is Weber. His two "late" operas, Euryanthe and Oberon, are crippled by implausible libretti and dramaturgy. Freischuetz is very good but still has some corny Singspiel features. He died with 40, so I wonder if another 10 years and better collaborators could have resulted in a few operas that would have given Wagner a bit more to chew on.

And it would be great if Debussy had been able to write the 3 more chamber sonatas he had planned...

[Abuelo Igor]

Mahler : Violin and Piano Concertos

So that Busoni's wouldn't feel so alone in being the only hour-and-a-half choral extravaganza out there...

And a Webern opera.

Fascinating idea, because he would have managed to squeeze it all into 20 minutes...

[The new erato]

So that Busoni's wouldn't feel so alone in being the only hour-and-a-half choral extravaganza out there...

Fascinating idea, because he would have managed to squeeze it all into 20 minutes...

He would have been beaten by Schubert who in Erlkønig condensed it all into a 4 1/2 minute opera for 1 singer and 1 player....... 

[amw]

Among the less obvious candidates: Voříšek, Lekeu, Magnard... obvious reasons. Enescu, not only to compose more music but to record as much of the violin literature as he wishes, in state-of-the-art modern sound. Busoni, not only to compose more music (in his mature/late style) but to record as much of the piano literature as he wishes, in state-of-the-art modern sound. A few more years for Beethoven's last string quartets, 10th symphony and Requiem. J.S. Bach, because I can't believe no one has mentioned him yet.

W/Schubert I'd like him to live to be about ~60 or 70 even though this will completely screw up music history by producing a greater concentration and quality of masterpieces than the entire Romantic era. Some more Medtner orchestral and chamber music would be cool, maybe even an opera. And if we can play with alternate histories, I'd pull 30-year-old Shostakovich out of Russia and set him free to do what he likes.

[Madiel]

I'll thrown in another vote for Schubert because dammit, he was just starting to get interesting.

[Jo498]

Although this might seem mystifying or cynical, I have the pet theory that for a longer-lived Schubert both the option of "screwing up history" with dominating masterpieces (and it should be kept in mind that Beethoven's extant works did some dominating already in real music history) and the option of "pulling a Rossini" (or premature Sibelius) being burned out after a few more years would have been possible. It does not seem completely implausible that his illness sped him up and intensified his art in his last two years. So while this all is speculation I do not think he would have written a handful of "String quintets" every year for decades.

With JS Bach I might be a heretic but I do not really miss anything. A third volume of the WTK? Would that really add anything to what we already have? There are probably 100 or so cantatas and  a bunch of concerti and chamber music lost (but it is very hard to tell because of recycling and re-using music how much we actually miss). Again, that's clearly a pity, but would it change our appreciation very much to have another 100 church cantatas?

[prémont]

With JS Bach I might be a heretic but I do not really miss anything.

I strongly miss the completion of the Fugue á 4, by some supposed to be part of the AoF.