# What are some obscure works by well known composers that you recommended or like?



## Conrad2 (Jan 24, 2021)

Hi all, I created this thread so people can share and discuss relativity unknown works by almost universally listened to composers that they enjoyed and feel need more recognition. For example, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Shostakovich, Bach, and Tchaikovsky would be well known composers.

I ask that when you post please _include _your *preferred recording* or a *Youtube video*, if you feel inclined, so as we are scrolling through, we could listen to the pieces that you enjoyed and recommended. Thank you!

Definition: 
Obscure: not well known


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## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

Beethoven's String Trios. I don't know how obscure they are but I discovered them by accident and love them.










I only have this recording which I haven't played in a while.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

I have ordered a CD of Dvorak's St. Ludmila, an oratorio which I haven't listened to yet.

I enjoy Mendelssohn's Paulus oratorio. I don't know if it is considered "obscure," though:





Haydn's violin concertos





There are a fair number of obscure works by Monteverdi, like:





Mozart Misericordias Domini, which has a theme very similar to Beethoven's Ode to Joy:





Handel Occasional Oratorio:


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Geistliches Lied and Deutsche Motette are well known in choral circles but not so well known among general listeners, though they probably don't qualify as obscure. _Merciless Beauty_, on the other hand, might actually be obscure, as I'm the only known fan of the strange little triptych …

Johannes BRAHMS: *Geistliches Lied* (1856)
:: Pedersen/Det Norske Solistkor [BIS '11]




This is a deceptively simple work of great beauty that conceals a structure of unexpected complexity-a rather ingenious double canon as it turns out. In that regard, it might be thought of as the Romantic counterpart to Tallis's _Miserere nostri_. The exceedingly well-matched and balanced Norwegians sing in as pure and flawless a manner as humanly possible while managing not to sound neutral/generic/faceless-no mean trick. It's all very sublime.

Richard STRAUSS: *Deutsche Motette* (1913/rev. '43) on Rückert's "Die Schöpfung ist zur Ruh gegangen"
:: Ericson/Stockholmer Kammerchor & Rundfunkchor Stockholm [EMI]




This very chromatic (yet still tonal) 20-minute vocal extravaganza features four soloists (SATB) set variously against a 16-part choir (SATB x 4), with three additional soloists used in places. Most performances seem to use three or four voices per part in the choir, providing a fairly dense backdrop/texture for the soloists to emerge out of and merge back into (in a manner not too dissimilar from the way that solo strings emerge from/merge into the greater string body in _Metamorphosen_). The work has an orchestral tone poem feel about it and might be thought of as going from dreamy sunrise to sunset lullaby, having climbed a mountainous fugue in between; and the spirit/character of the music is that of _Eine Alpensinfonie_ stuffed into _Metamorphosen_, with more ecstatic peaks and soaring lines than you can shake a stick at, but also possessed of a certain serenity-it's all very (and uniquely) Straussian.

The ardent and ecstatic performance by Ericson and his doubled-up Stockholm forces is the most compelling that I know of this brutally taxing work; only the bass-light/soprano-heavy balance and less-than-profound basses (who sometimes sound as if they're trying to sing lower than they can actually sing) give cause for complaint.

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: _*Merciless Beauty*_ (1921)
:: Langridge, Endellion Quartet minus viola [EMI]




 (32'25"-38'58")
These three little pieces for voice and string trio (two violins & cello) are settings of rondels likely mis-attributed to Chaucer. "Those strange cold Chaucer Rondels," as Simona Parkenham describes them, are indeed strange and cold, stripped-down and severe anomalies in Vaughan Williams's output (comparable in that respect to the contemporaneous Sonata for Violin & Cello in Ravel's output). Recordings of these little songs are few, but Langridge is in superb form here and I'm wholly satisfied with this account.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Here are a couple:


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## Conrad2 (Jan 24, 2021)

Dirge said:


> Geistliches Lied and Deutsche Motette are well known in choral circles but not so well known among general listeners, though they probably don't qualify as obscure. _Merciless Beauty_, on the other hand, might actually be obscure, as I'm the only known fan of the strange little triptych …
> 
> Johannes BRAHMS: *Geistliches Lied* (1856)
> :: Pedersen/Det Norske Solistkor [BIS '11]
> ...


Thank you for describing each of the pieces you liked and recommended in detail. I appreciate it.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Conrad2 said:


> Hi all, I created this thread so people can share and discuss relativity unknown works by almost universally listened to composers that they enjoyed and feel need more recognition. For example, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Shostakovich, Bach, and Tchaikovsky would be well known composers.
> 
> I ask that when you post please _include _your *preferred recording* or a *Youtube video*, if you feel inclined, so as we are scrolling through, we could listen to the pieces that you enjoyed and recommended. Thank you!
> 
> ...


Beethoven's Mödlinger Tanze. Mozart fantasy for a musical clock, Shostakovich's viola sonata, Bach's klavierbuchlein for WF Bach, Tchaikovsky op 72/5 meditation, Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)




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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

There are quite a few Bach cantatas that are "obscure", i.e. not known to very many people.


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