# Recommending the unknown: Georges Bizet



## silmarilion (Apr 30, 2007)

Recently, I discovered that I had a CD, somewhere on the shelves, that contained much of Bizet's less known orchestral works. In one word, the were delightful. 

The symphony in C is a very charismatic, energetic work, while the 'Roma' Suite is, while less charismatic, also very well scored and rich in melody. Certainly recommended very, very highly for those who like the romantic style! I found also two other, very much unknown pieces. And Overture in C (?) is a standalone piece that's very refreshing to hear.
The Marche Funebre, which was an overture to a completed, but never staged and subsequently butchered and lost ( ) opera called La Coup de Roi de Thule. It's hauntingly beautiful!

In short, great music that should be widely heard. Can anyone else think of other romantic composers whose (orchestral) output is less well known than it deserves to be?

Regards,

Sander


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

silmarilion said:


> Recently, I discovered that I had a CD, somewhere on the shelves, that contained much of Bizet's less known orchestral works. In one word, the were delightful.


Check his piano works too. I think pianist Pfar Setrak (spelling?) recorded the whole set. I haven't heard them in a while, but I do remember I liked them.


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## Kurkikohtaus (Oct 22, 2006)

silmarilion said:


> The symphony in C is a very charismatic, energetic work ...


The last movement of this Symphony was used as a Theme Song to a classical music radio show in Toronto, it was played at the beginning and the end of the program, but the announcers never said what it was. I wondered for years and years until I finally heard it in a concert and the mystery was solved!


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## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

Kurkikohtaus said:


> The last movement of this Symphony was used as a Theme Song to a classical music radio show in Toronto, it was played at the beginning and the end of the program, but the announcers never said what it was. I wondered for years and years until I finally heard it in a concert and the mystery was solved!


Oh, isn't that frustrating? It rarely happens to me anymore, except for that new Rickard's Red beer commercial (they went beyond O Fortuna for once, I couldn't believe it).


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

Hi Silmarilion, 

I really love the Bizet Symphony in C, written when Berlioz was still a student, I believe. It is a perfect coupling with Prokofiev's 1st ('Classical') Symphony. But the Bizet work is so refreshing. What promise he showed. In some ways that work is very influenced by Schubert, it seems. 

I've read somewhere that Bizet started on a second symphony but did not live to complete it. I wonder if the fragment has ever been completed posthumously or if it has ever been recorded (?). 

Regards


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## silmarilion (Apr 30, 2007)

I can't recall ever reading something like that. I do know he intended his Roma suite to be a symphony before he decided to finish it as a symphonic suite. I'll check out Prokofiev's symphony. I have read an article somewhere about lost music for an opera 'Le coup de Roi de Thule' had been found in a library in Paris I believe. But there wasn't enough to recover the whole opera (which had already been compelted). The article contains a musical fragment, a theme that is very powerful, which I wish i could work on but my composing skills unfortunately are somewhere below zero


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

Hi Silmarilion, 

I will try to check the source of what I read on a second (fragmerntary) symphony by Bizet. I read it only recently but honestly can't recall where. It's possible the writer was himself confused. But I will post here if I find it. 

Regards


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## Saturnus (Nov 7, 2006)

I thought the C major symphony was a well known and often performed work.


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

Yes, I confirm that Bizet did try to write a second symphony. In the article on Bizet at Wikipedia we find -

_'His first symphony, the Symphony in C Major, was written there when he was seventeen, evidently as a student assignment. It seems that Bizet completely forgot about it himself, and it was not discovered again until 1935, in the archives of the Conservatory library. Upon its first performance, it was immediately hailed as a junior masterwork and a welcome addition to the early Romantic period repertoire. A delightful work (and a prodigious one, from a seventeen-year-old boy), the symphony is noteworthy for bearing an amazing stylistic resemblance to the music of Franz Schubert, whose work was virtually unknown in Paris at that time (with the possible exception of a few of his songs). A second symphony, "Roma" was not completed._

It would be interesting to know what the manuscript of that second symphony looks like and to know if it's been recorded.


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