# Underappreciated composers



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

One of the most common plaints here is that such-and-such a composer isn't performed or heard enough. Seemingly these composers number in at least the hundreds!

Now there are only so many hours in the day for listening, only room for so many pieces on concert programs, only so many CDs or downloads that people will buy. Obviously if we were to adequately appreciate all these underappreciated composers, we'd be very busy people indeed.

So I propose that from now on, anytime somebody says a composer doesn't get enough exposure, they be required to say what works or composers should endure a diminution to make room for them. Fair enough?

I'll start by mentioning Berwald. He should be played more, listened to more. I'm happy to take the cost out of Berlioz's hide, almost any of his works except the absolute favorites.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Just make your own collection of composers you appreciate. It's not the worst thing in the world to deprive yourself of the very best, to enjoy what is also really very good if it speaks to you personally. You don't need to listen to Alkan with the objective to rank him alongside Chopin or Liszt. It's good music when the space apart is given and it's a good fit for you. It might even mess with your mentality a little to make these composers central to your listening and not in a bad way. As long as you aren't indiscriminate. I don't get deep into obscure composers that don't interest me.

But according to your method, I'm happy to push a little bit of Shostakovich, Sibelius, Mahler aside(I said a little bit, which doesn't diminish them much) to make room for a lot more Nielsen. A little Martinu and Honegger doesn't hurt Hindemith and Stravinsky too much either. Take out the less interesting Rachmaninoff etudes/preludes and put a Medtner skazki, forgotten melody or others of the best shorter works. And for the love of music, let Busoni have a space all to himself.

No space needs to be made for the piano gems of Emmanuel Chabrier, it is there and waiting to be more consistently occupied(Ravel knew this).

There is also plenty of 1750s-18??'s room for many Wolf keyboard sonatas, select CPE Bach, WF Bach, select Clementi sonatas, a few Kraus symphonies. Piano music of Weber, Field and Hummel are very worthy points of perspective against which to weigh your Beethoven. For baroque bump a little Corelli and Handel for Geminiani, Georg Muffat, or a William Boyce symphony. If you are into Haydn symphonies, take a less noteworthy one out and place the most striking of JC Bach, or even Dittersdorf or Kozeluch. Take out 50 random Scarlatti sonatas and replace them with the best of Sebastian Albero.

As a general rule, I think a good but relatively weaker composer's best is going to have something on a prolific better composer's mediocre works. They may not have the great stamp that binds the weaker works of a great composer to his better works, or the vast knowledge he's acquired by being more prolific and hitting higher points of inspiration, craft, and innovation but the little guys were just as human and certainly experienced some serious if less informed/trademarked flashes of creativity.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> ... Take out 50 random Scarlatti sonatas and replace them with the best of Sebastian Albero.


You'll have to pry those Scarlatti sonatas from my cold, dead hands!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

KenOC said:


> You'll have to pry those Scarlatti sonatas from my cold, dead hands!


There are over 500. I haven't come across a single mediocre one, even, but Albero sonatas are pretty fine and the best ones could certainly squeeze in. I won't be prying from you, but you may be persuaded by Señor Albero in time.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

More Medtner, Taneyev, Boris Tchaikovsky and Myaskovsky. To make room, I'd scratch all Vivaldi chamber/concertos and everything from Mendelssohn except for his chamber works.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Chesnokov is *way* too underappreciated imo. Kalkbrenner, Henselt, and Thalberg (his variations on the themes of Beethoven, Rossini, and Verdi are marvelous) deserve more exposure, too.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Lukecash12 said:


> Chesnokov is *way* too underappreciated imo. Kalkbrenner, Henselt, and Thalberg (his variations on the themes of Beethoven, Rossini, and Verdi are marvelous) deserve more exposure, too.


But you're supposed to say what we should give up to hear these composers more.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

KenOC said:


> But you're supposed to say what we should give up to hear these composers more.


Give up a part of of your life, I suppose?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Give up a part of of your life, I suppose?


Every time we choose something, we give up something else.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

KenOC said:


> But you're supposed to say what we should give up to hear these composers more.


Oops, sorry. Okay... don't shoot me, you guys, but I'd have to give up some modern composers that are more hit and miss for me. Varese, Xenakis, and Stockhausen are composers I'd diminish for those three.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Though I like the classics, I´d suggest a bit of modernizing by substituting some of the Smetana on concert programmes with Martinu, some Grieg with Valen, some Kodaly with Lajtha, some Respighi with Scelsi, and some Franck with Messiaen and Murail.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

EJ Moeran is a personal favourite of mine (especially the cello concerto, violin concerto and symphony).

I can say goodbye to everything Handel composed.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773), Fredreick the Great's flute composer (among other compositions).


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I would sacrifice quite a lot of Vivaldi in order to hear more Albert Roussel. OK, he's not exactly unknown, and maybe some people find his Classicist tendencies out of time when compared with his contemporaries. But his music has depth and interest, and I think he doesn't get the respect and air-time that he deserves. And he began his adult life as a sailor, which can't be bad.


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Bulldog said:


> More Medtner, Taneyev, Boris Tchaikovsky and Myaskovsky. To make room, I'd scratch all Vivaldi chamber/concertos and everything from Mendelssohn except for his chamber works.


I'll keep the Vivaldi, gladly agree about Mendelssohn, exceptions the Overtures and the 3rd symphony.


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Then there's Tischenko, Taneyev, Fasch, Smetana, Suk, Toch, Mompou, Schmidt, Van Holmboe, Martinu, Veracini, Shchedrin, Weinberg, Martin, just to name a few.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Without simply creating a list of composers I'd like to hear performed more, there are two that immediately sprang to mind as composers who are genuinely under-appreciated: *Malcolm Arnold* and *Aram Khachaturian*.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

More Ligeti, less Liszt (but not saying no Liszt).
More Tallis, less Telemann.
More Johann Schein, less Heinrich Schütz. I mean, I like Schütz, but of the three "Schs," he seems to hog the spotlight.

More generally (and more seriously), I'm all hepped up on Early Music now and would like more of that. I'd take out out of just about the only places that have a lot to give: the 1700s and 1800s.


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Georg Matthias Monn (1717-1750). His Cello Concerto in G minor is quite good.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Can I argue that Beethoven is underappreciated because not everyone in the world loves his music or because some value Mozart more than Beethoven?


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

just as I am discovering the many joys of Mendelssohn's symphonies I find him being carted off to the tip here.....and that is from someone who also finds much wonderment in the works of Myaskovsky and Martinu...........


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

This could get like the folks who offer to give up spinach ice cream for Lent. Or in other words, I'll give up more Leopold Mozart for more Enescu, or some such.

I'll need to think on a more serious answer and post later.


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## sloth (Jul 12, 2013)

clavichorder said:


> Just make your own collection of composers you appreciate. It's not the worst thing in the world to deprive yourself of the very best, to enjoy what is also really very good if it speaks to you personally. You don't need to listen to Alkan with the objective to rank him alongside Chopin or Liszt. It's good music when the space apart is given and it's a good fit for you. It might even mess with your mentality a little to make these composers central to your listening and not in a bad way. As long as you aren't indiscriminate. I don't get deep into obscure composers that don't interest me.
> 
> But according to your method, I'm happy to push a little bit of Shostakovich, Sibelius, Mahler aside(I said a little bit, which doesn't diminish them much) to make room for a lot more Nielsen. A little Martinu and Honegger doesn't hurt Hindemith and Stravinsky too much either. Take out the less interesting Rachmaninoff etudes/preludes and put a Medtner skazki, forgotten melody or others of the best shorter works. And for the love of music, let Busoni have a space all to himself.
> 
> ...


I pretty much suspect that the genius myth started in the 19th century with Romanticism. The big names were put on a pedestal, and the rest forgotten since the focus was mainly on the individual composer and not on music.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Glazunov
Dvorak
Saint Saens
Khachaturian


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Florestan said:


> Can I argue that Beethoven is underappreciated because not everyone in the world loves his music or because some value Mozart more than Beethoven?


The vast majority of classical music lovers appreciate Beethoven. Because some love Mozart more, why should that worry you?


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

jim prideaux said:


> just as I am discovering the many joys of Mendelssohn's symphonies I find him being carted off to the tip here.....and that is from someone who also finds much wonderment in the works of Myaskovsky and Martinu...........


Okay, 3,4,5 are great. I surrender.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

ayyyyy I like this thread. 

I won't say anything though... after all, I'm a very _jealous _fan... I wouldn't mind things staying about the same in some instances...


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

I will merely mention *Erich Korngold*'s name in passing, that I have relayed too much about him on his personal guestbook and elsewhere. That is my obvious answer. (But he was renown in his lifetime, especially in his early years, so I don't even know if he deserves recognition here; though, clearly, the guy was remarkable, and we few appreciating this stuff should note the recognition and move forward thusly.)

Preempting hpowders, *William Schuman* is way way underplayed, not only in the States, but everywhere. I think his Third Symphony is a monument in the franchise, his symphonic output worth mention among the other obvious greats, his entire repertoire a modern American specialty. Why Aaron Copland is known around the dinner table and Bill Schuman has been relegated to classical fanatics, I don't know. But the latter's music is profoundly _real_ and _impressing_ on the mind, and it feels so, well, _everyday_ (if I can find some term to use here) and _like this is what my music would sound like, had I talent_.

I dunno. William Schuman. One "n" and auto-corrected. American and your grandpa probably heard his music on radio, in passing. In the photo, but who knows?!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

DavidA said:


> The vast majority of classical music lovers appreciate Beethoven. Because some love Mozart more, why should that worry you?


Me not worried. I was just kidding around anyway.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Actually many of us have been addressing this issue in other threads for years. All I would be doing is repeating myself.

In summary:

18th century composer who are underappreciated: Carl Stamitz, Johann Stamitz and a whole bunch more.

19th century composers who are underappreciated: Reicha, Danzi, Raff, Fibich and a whole bunch more.

20th century composers: Since there have been so many venomous attacks against 20th century composers I could not even begin to prepare a list of them.

Concert band music.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

meh ehm hme emh mhe hem


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

To appreciate hundreds of composers who have written music during the 20th century (and the 21st thus far), I suggest to ignore any music written prior the 1880s. This is what I have been doing myself over the past 30 years.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Well, to a question like this I'll always give the name of Franz Schreker. I could give many others, but I feel for Schreker and think he's great


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Some truly excellent composers who don't get the attention they deserve:
Antonio Caldara
Vagn Holmboe
Joseph Martin Kraus
Antonín Rejcha (Anton Reicha)
Jan Václav Voříšek
Robert Simpson
Franz Schmidt
Josef Suk
Jan Dismas Zelenka


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

My interest in underappreciated composers focuses on those before 1910. Of those that I don't think have been mentioned so far:

William Sterndale Bennet (1816-1875): Check out the 5 Piano Concertos, particularly #1 and #5.

Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838): Check out his Violin Concerto and all of his 8 Piano Concertos, particularly #7 (Op132), #5 and #8.

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910): Check out the Violin Concerto, Flute Concerto and all 4 Piano Concertos, particularly #3, a real gem.

Also, previously mentioned: Joseph Wolfl (aka Woelfl) (1773-1812): http://www.talkclassical.com/41496-challenge-being-contemporary-beethoven.html?highlight=wolfl


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

DaveM said:


> Also, previously mentioned: Joseph Wolfl (aka Woelfl) (1773-1812)...


The AMZ spells his name Wölffl in a 1799 entry, according to my translation anyway! He seems to be a hard guy to pin down.


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Can I nominate a film score composer?
Jerry Goldsmith. Deserved no less than three more oscars than he got.


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