# Unknown jewels



## MEDIEVAL MIAMI (May 10, 2009)

It's been more than a year since my last visit :tiphat:

Anyways...

I came here for music recommendation and guidance. As you can see from the title, I'm searching for those composers whose name you won't hear on TV, radio, American "chick flick" movies, school musicals, or magazines. Everyone knows Beethoven, Bach, Puccini, Vivaldi, Handel, etc… and to be honest, sometimes, one gets the feeling they are not that exclusive or especial anymore. Probably (among many other reasons), it feels good to have a collection of albums or bands that you and other few people know; maybe you never felt this way before, but metalheads know what I'm talking about. I hardly think there is something as _Underground classical music_ ,however, there are always the "not so famous" or "never heard of" composers who, for some reason, never make it to the top, but, still have something interesting to offer.

I'll appreciate if you name some composers.

I'm not that picky when it comes to eras or genres, but restrain yourself from naming medieval composers - I'd prefer something along the post baroque and soviet era realm. 

Thanks in advance.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

While I'm waiting for someone to come along and complain that there are other threads like this, I'll continue to champion some of my lesser known favorites.

There's Reinhold Glière's epic Symphony No. 3, "Ilya Muromets"





Anton Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No. 5





Ersnt Bloch's Concerti Grossi





I'll stop there. Those are the first to come to mind. They stayed the longest on my playlist during the entire last year.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Soviet Era:

I see youve already commented in the Myaskovsky thread
then we also have:
Maximilian Steinberg - a very conservative soviet, the authorities had no issue with his music. Try the variations for orchestra
Sergei Lyapunov - Slightly pre soviet, good symphony and piano concerto
Boris Lyatoshinsky - Ukraine soviet, A few good symphonies
Alexander Tcherepnin (and family) - 20th Century, I only know his symphonies
Sergei Taneyev - Love the oresteia and also his 4th Symphony is fantastic. Not very inspired but very good craftsmanship. Pre-soviet, best friend of Tchaikovsky
Emil Tabakov - Still alive, Bulgarian - brilliantly dissonant. Try Astral music and 3rd symphony.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Try my blog:
http://artrock2006.blogspot.com/search/label/Classical Corner


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

Sergei Taneyev had IMHO the most important chamber corpus in Russia in the 19th.century. His 9 SQ, string quintet and piano trio, quartet and quintet are all splendid works, with supreme craftmanship for a professor and consulting man who advice and correct "the Five" and even Tchaikovsky on matters of harmony and conterpoint. His works are the less "Russian" and more "Brahmsian" of all of them, big,deep works demanding several hearings but all very rewarding.


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## bassClef (Oct 29, 2006)

Depends what sort of thing you like really, but this covers alot of bases:

John Adams, Hugo Alfven, David Lang, Erno Dohnanyi, Paul Fetler, Zdenek Fibich, Alberto Ginastera, Ferde Grofe, Paul Hindemith, Akira Ifukube, Johan Vanhal, Rued Langgard, Lars Erik Larsson, Lepo Sumera, Darius Milhaud, Silvestre Revueltas, Albert Roussel, Josef Suk, Carl Vine, Pavel Vranicky, Dag Wiren.


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## MEDIEVAL MIAMI (May 10, 2009)

I'm sorry I didn't know there were thread like this already. Thanks for the help, nonetheless - I'll try all of them.

Artrock

I faved your blog, but I'm still curious if you have any album for download (?)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Nope, uploading is illegal here (downloading is legal - go figure).
Naxos CD's are cheap and a great way to explore new composers.
Alternatively, you can look at some of the blogs in the blog list on my blog, or here.


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## MEDIEVAL MIAMI (May 10, 2009)

Thanks for the last link, faved it as well.


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## mcrosbie (Sep 1, 2009)

*Auber's Crown Diamonds Overture*

A piece that I enjoy and seldom come across is Auber's Crown Diamond's Overture. I am not sure you wanted this thread to stick with Soviet music or if you were open to other obscure music.


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## Wicked_one (Aug 18, 2010)

Weston, thank you for introducing me to Glière's symphony and Rubinstein's piano concerto. These two just made my day!!


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## robertsica (Jan 2, 2011)

bassClef said:


> Depends what sort of thing you like really, but this covers alot of bases:
> 
> John Adams, Hugo Alfven, David Lang, Erno Dohnanyi, Paul Fetler, Zdenek Fibich, Alberto Ginastera, Ferde Grofe, Paul Hindemith, Akira Ifukube, Johan Vanhal, Rued Langgard, Lars Erik Larsson, Lepo Sumera, Darius Milhaud, Silvestre Revueltas, Albert Roussel, Josef Suk, Carl Vine, Pavel Vranicky, Dag Wiren.


Good list there. A few more : Arthur Honegger, Ernest Bloch, Justin Taylor, Francis Poulenc, Edmund Rubbra


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

There's a whole label - Toccata Classics - devoted solely to such music - Music that people have forgotten (or never knew), is unjustly neglected, otherwise unrecorded: www.toccataclassics.com


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*Naxos or not naxos...*


```
Nope, uploading is illegal here (downloading is legal - go figure).
Naxos CD's are cheap and a great way to explore new composers.
Alternatively, you can look at some of the blogs in the blog list on my blog, or here.
```
I've been to your site...your wife is from Shanghai, no kids but you have stocks in Naxos...LOL

Otherwise...I don't understand.

Friendly

Martin


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Just open your ears and mind. Naxos has as many great CD's as the big labels - and as many bad ones as they have.

Quote from my blog:
"The Classical Corner, and its predecessors like the Unusual Concerto series, were popular parts of this blog before the purge. Of course, no longer being able to supply MP3 samples rather limits their use as a blog topic. I think however that I have found a reasonable compromise. In the new installment of the Classical Corner, I will be presenting information about lesser known composers that I like very much, with an Amazon link to a Naxos CD of their recordings. *I am not affiliated with Naxos (or Amazon for that matter), but I selected Naxos because of their excellent price/quality ratio and their relative abundance in shops*, whereas the Amazon site often has good to excellent reviews by consumers. ".


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*I see....*

Quote from my blog:
"

```
The Classical Corner, and its predecessors like the Unusual Concerto series, were popular parts of this blog before the purge. Of course, no longer being able to supply MP3 samples rather limits their use as a blog topic. I think however that I have found a reasonable compromise. In the new installment of the Classical Corner, I will be presenting information about lesser known composers that I like very much, with an Amazon link to a Naxos CD of their recordings. I am not affiliated with Naxos (or Amazon for that matter), but I selected Naxos because of their excellent price/quality ratio and their relative abundance
```
in shops, whereas the Amazon site often has good to excellent reviews by consumers. ". 
__________________
We will always be so much more human than we wish to be...

The price is the main criteria...I see. Thank you! I'll throw out all my Deutsche Grammophon and replace them by Naxos. Good idea.

LOL

You opened my eyes!

Martin


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Original comment deleted. I have found a better option.


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

LOL... at least mr Myaskovsky2002 got a very cool PHP QUOTING style....

I agree, Unknown jewels, mostly and easy to found in Naxos and CPO label (Harpsichordconcerto experted on this).

My Avatar: *Andre Philidor *is totally unknown , I've searching his name in this forum and found very little mentioning. He was a specialist in comical opera, I think the opera lover should check on his stuf. I'm not an opera fan, if you search on Wikipedia you'll know why I use his avatar.


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## jimmosk (Dec 11, 2008)

I'm late to the party, but following the adage that Old News Never Gets Stale, here's a link to my Unknown Composers Page, which is designed for people to share information about their favorite forgotten composers, with detailed-enough writeups so you can get some idea of their musical style, and which pieces to start with.

The UCP is no longer regularly updated, but the information there is still as true now as when it was written.

-Jim


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## Subutai (Feb 28, 2021)

MEDIEVAL MIAMI said:


> I'd prefer something along the post baroque and soviet era realm.
> 
> Thanks in advance.


If you're after Soviet composers may I recommend the following. These are all Naxos releases which is an inexpensive way to get to know them. I know their symphonies (that's my bag):

Markevitch/Weinberg/Kabalevsky/Lyatoshinsky/Khachaturian/Tcherepnin/Myaskovsky/Karamanov/Arutyunian/Stankovych/Tishchenko/Amirov/Avshalomov/Silvestrov/Boris Tchaikovsky/Karayev/Nasidze/Mosolov.

All hidden treasures one and all.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

You should look into the music of Kalinnikov (eg. his two symphonies and the incidental music to Tsar Boris), and Berwald (symphonies No. 3 & 4).

A bit better known are some members of the "mighty handful" Russian composers, e.g. Borodin, Mussorgsky and of coures Rimsky-Korsakov, but they are well known enough to be considered "unkown". Glazunov also fits into that category, although he was too young to be one of the original "mighty five", indeed he was Rimsky-Korsakov's student and his early career was championed by Balakirev.


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