# Unsung Masterpieces



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

What is a work that you find is not just underrated, but great, that are overlooked and that you're not too selfish to keep to yourself to enjoy? Hoping to hear some truly great stuff that the public or critics were just too dumb or ignorant to give its rightful praise. Can be from any era.

To make it more entertaining, the ones listening to your supposed undiscovered or neglected masterpiece can either give it a thumbs-up in concurrence, or throw a rotten tomato saying it is rightfully better not seen or heard as it is. No need to be respectful to the music, you can take a dump on it all you want. Just be respectful to your fellow members. ie. Love the sinner, not the sin.

My nomination is Prokofiev's 9th sonata. It was dedicated to Richter who was disappointed the score looked so simple, but later liked it a lot. It is not nearly as famous or highly recommended as his sonatas 6-8.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

Phil loves classical said:


> What is a work that you find is not just underrated, but great, that are overlooked and that you're not too selfish to keep to yourself to enjoy? Hoping to hear some truly great stuff that the public or critics were just too dumb or ignorant to give its rightful praise. Can be from any era.
> 
> To make it more entertaining, the ones listening to your supposed undiscovered or neglected masterpiece can either give it a thumbs-up in concurrence, or throw a rotten tomato saying it is rightfully better not seen or heard as it is. No need to be respectful to the music, you can take a dump on it all you want. Just be respectful to your fellow members. ie. Love the sinner, not the sin.
> 
> My nomination is Prokofiev's 9th sonata. It was dedicated to Richter who was disappointed the score looked so simple, but later liked it a lot. It is not nearly as famous or highly recommended as his sonatas 6-8.


MOZART DIVERTIMENTO K.136 in D major and k.138 and the others close to these. I was just listening in my car. It is not over/underrated, perhaps not on the rotation list in Mozart.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Phil loves classical said:


> ...No need to be respectful to the music, you can take a dump on it all you want...


...did make me laugh.


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## DLOinQUEENS (Nov 22, 2018)

The 2nd movement from Louis Spohr's 7th symphony is divine. Starts at 12 minutes on this vid. Don't bail out on it - the principal melody kicks in about half way. I'm not endorsing this particular recording, however, as I have the CPO version.






The 2nd movement from Raff's 8th is so energetic and lively, with a gorgeous melody, it's a crime that more people don't know about it. 14:45 in this vid:






The 3rd movement Rondo from Kreutzer's 17th violin concerto. Why this isn't played more is beyond me. 10:17 in this vid:






The whole piece is great, but the first movement from Hamerik's 6th symphony is a true gem:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

You might want to check out these links:

Sharing obscure favourites (READ FIRST POST)
Sharing obscure favourites 2 (READ FIRST POST)
Sharing obscure favourites 3 "XL" (READ FIRST POST)


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

The last 9 or so Haydn piano sonatas, although they have been getting more recognition over the past few decades.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

The piano quintet no.2 by Friedrich Gernsheim would be my nomination, stylistically a kind of halfway house between Brahms and Richard Strauss but that makes the music sound derivative, which it most decidedly isn't:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEgZiQ1A1_E


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Composed the year Schumann died; better than all symphonies written for the competitions after the death of Beethoven; better in melody than the symphonies of Tchaikovsky. A 1st rate symphony.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Easy. The Hovhaness Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 89a. The most beautiful violin concerto I ever heard. And almost no one else can ever hear it, as it is cannot be played on YouTube at least in my native Province, though I'm told it might exist on Spotify. You must otherwise own the MGM vinyl, or have had the wisdom to record it onto other media, as I did years ago. I cannot understand why it is not otherwise a staple of the literature for violin and string orchestra.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

there are too many, but to name just one 
*Liszt - Christus*


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## DLOinQUEENS (Nov 22, 2018)

Jacck said:


> there are too many, but to name just one
> *Liszt - Christus*


The three kings march from this is one of my favorite pieces ever written - the ending is so uplifting. I often listen to it as a stand-alone piece, it's so powerful.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Jacck said:


> there are too many, but to name just one
> *...*


Cecil Effinger: Little Symphony No.1 (1945)






This has been a real favorite of mine since I first heard it. The opening movement may well be the most refreshing opening movement in symphonic literature.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Bigbang said:


> MOZART DIVERTIMENTO K.136 in D major and k.138 and the others close to these. I was just listening in my car. It is not over/underrated, perhaps not on the rotation list in Mozart.


I think the most unsung masterpiece among Mozart's divertimentos is K.334. This one shows a lot of his "eccentricities" (ie. the first movement hesitatingly settling in the distantly-related key of F major to start development before going through a maze of chromaticism), which would be more fully expressed later in the "Haydn" quartets. So many interesting elements of contrast; not just diatonicism (in the expositions and minuets) vs. chromaticism (in the developments [2:50, 7:45, 9:55, 33:38] or trios [15:20, 25:00, 27:50]), but also other elements such as: the first two movements mirroring each other on similar motivic fragments (sonata-allegro in D major vs. variations in D minor) as the last two movements (minuet vs. rondo), the other movements (sonata-allgro vs. rondo-allegro) mirroring each other in the "bridge sections", etc.

*1. Allegro (0:01)
2. Tema con variazioni (6:38)
1. Allegro (2:12)
6. Rondo (32:07)*


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## rice (Mar 23, 2017)

*Casella's symphonies*


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Gosta Nystroem's Sinfonia del Mare. 4 disturbing movements framing a love song about the sea.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)




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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

hammeredklavier said:


> I think the most unsung masterpiece among Mozart's divertimentos is K.334. This one shows a lot of his "eccentricities" (ie. the first movement hesitatingly settling in the distantly-related key of F major to start development before going through a maze of chromaticism), which would be more fully expressed later in the "Haydn" quartets. So many interesting elements of contrast; not just diatonicism (in the expositions and minuets) vs. chromaticism (in the developments [2:50, 7:45, 9:55, 33:38] or trios [15:20, 25:00, 27:50]), but also other elements such as: the first two movements mirroring each other on similar motivic fragments (sonata-allegro in D major vs. variations in D minor) as the last two movements (minuet vs. rondo), the other movements (sonata-allgro vs. rondo-allegro) mirroring each other in the "bridge sections", etc.
> 
> *1. Allegro (0:01)
> 2. Tema con variazioni (6:38)
> ...


I agree but that is a more mature work. I was going with the early ones that I think might be looked over but now that you brought this up here and before (no one commented on it) I think many have not heard it. I need to look up my copy.


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## DLOinQUEENS (Nov 22, 2018)

Please delete - thanks!


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Tippett's piano concerto -- not completely unknown, but not nearly as well known as it should be.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Thanks for the suggestions. Some like Tippett's concerto I haven't heard anything like.


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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

I don't know if this counts as unsung, but: Bernd Alois Zimmermann's _Violin Concerto_ is an absolute marvel, definitely one of the greatest 20th century violin concerti in my opinion. There's a recording by Leila Josefowicz available on Ondine, warmly recommended.

Also I have to mention a piece from my native Finland: Jukka Tiensuu's orchestral score _Alma III: Soma_ is really fun and worth getting to know.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

DLOinQUEENS said:


> The 2nd movement from Raff's 8th is so energetic and lively, with a gorgeous melody, it's a crime that more people don't know about it. 14:45 in this vid:


I certainly agree with you about this "During Walpurgis Night" 2nd movement from Joachim Raff's Eighth Symphony. Orchestral tarantellas can be so exciting and this is one of the best.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

The one symphony by Paul Dukas , ( he seems to have destroyed an earlier one ) , is a stunning masterpiece which was written in 1897 and has been only sporadically performed since . 
It's in three movements without a scherzo with a pensive, melancholy slow movement between two boldly energetic ones . 
There is a kind of unpretentious grandeur and nobility to this symphony which I find highly appealing .
But the only performance in the US I know of in recent years was by Leonard Slatkin and the New York Philharmonic about 20 or so years ago. Slatkin recorded it for RCA with the French National orchestra around the same time . 
I first got to know it back in the 70s on LP from the superb performance on Decca with the late,lamented Walter Weller and the L.P.O., coupled with the much better known Sorcerer's apprentice . I believe this is now available on the Eloquence label, which has reissued so many superb Decca recordings in recent years . By all means get this recording ! If you don't know the Dukas symphony, you don't know what you're missing ! The recording on EMI with Jean Martinon and the ORTF orchestra , former name of the French national , has its admirers too .


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

MarkW said:


> Tippett's piano concerto -- not completely unknown, but not nearly as well known as it should be.


Hear, hear!
.........................


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Maybe it's not obscure enough for this thread, but I'm surprised that Rimsky-Kosakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture isn't better known and more highly praised.


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## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

Most of the music of Vincent d’Indy.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

A piece by Mozart that I regard as a masterpiece and that IMO deserved much more attention is the opera _Idomeneo_. I think that this is the most gluckian opera by Mozart, with almost uninterrupted fresh action, great choruses and a beautiful orchestration. I also believe that there are some thematic resemblances between some of it's arias and Beethoven's symphony No. 5, Bruckner's symphony No. 4 and Mozart's own symphony No. 40. It's my current favorite opera by Mozart apart from _Die Zauberflöte_.


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