# Great works that almost never premiered



## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

Do you know of any great works that almost never happened? Not that had bad premieres, but, for some reason or another, almost never premiered. I'm thinking of Schumann's violin concerto which he composed in 1853, but didn't premiere until 1937. The story surrounding it is interesting(especially if you love the work), from wiki: " .... Though Joachim performed Schumann’s Fantasie, he never performed the Violin Concerto. After playing it through with the Hannover Court Orchestra (of which Joachim was the concertmaster) for Schumann in October 1853, Joachim retained the manuscript for the rest of his life. After Schumann’s attempted suicide in February 1854 and subsequent decline and death in a sanatorium in Endenich, Joachim evidently suspected the Concerto was a product of Schumann’s madness and thought of the music as morbid. ..... Joachim’s opinion prevailed on the composer’s widow Clara and on Brahms, and the work was not published in the Complete Edition of Schumann’s works and was in effect kept secret throughout the 19th century. Brahms did however publish, in a supplementary volume of the Schumann Edition, ‘Schumann’s last musical thought’, a theme on which Schumann had begun to compose variations in early 1854. Schumann had thought the theme had been dictated to him by the spirits of Mendelssohn ....Joachim deposited the manuscript of the concerto with the Prussian State Library in Berlin, and stated in his will (he died in 1907) that the work should be neither played nor published until 100 years after the composer's death, i.e. until 1956. However in March 1933, during a spiritualist séance in London attended by Joachim's two grand-nieces, the sister violinists Jelly d'Arányi and Adila Fachiri, a spirit-voice identifying himself as Robert Schumann requested Miss d'Aranyi to recover an unpublished work of his (of which she claimed to have no knowledge) and to perform it. In a second message, this time from the spirit of Joachim, they were directed to the Prussian State Library. Yet no more was heard for four years, until in 1937 Schott Music, the music-publisher in Mainz, sent a copy of the score to Yehudi Menuhin asking for an opinion. He played it through with Hephzibah Menuhin, and reported to the conductor Vladimir Golschmann in July 1937 that it was the historically missing link of the violin literature. Menuhin planned to deliver the world premiere at San Francisco, and announced it for 3 October, but was interrupted by the appearance of Jelly d'Aranyi, who claimed the right of first performance for herself on the basis of the spiritualist messages..... it was Kulenkampff who gave the first performance, on 26 November 1937, with the Berlin Philharmonic. ". 

Can you think of another great work that had a similar rough time in getting to the concert hall?


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony comes to mind...


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

*Schubert*

Great C Major Symphony - written on 1826 not premiered until 1838
Unfinished Symphony - written on 1822, not premiered until 1865(!) almost 43 years
String Quintet in C - written in 1828 not premiered until 1850

Come to think of it, there are many works of Schubert that he never heard performed when he was alive! They were performed many years after his death! :tiphat:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bizet's Symphony in C. Written in 1865, never performed, forgotten, and effectively lost until 1935. Although the composer had no interest in this work, it's quite popular now.

For passage of years, consider Haydn's Cello Concerto in C, a repertoire mainstay now. It was likely performed after its composition in 1761-65, but was lost until 1961 when the score was discovered in the Prague National Museum.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

For a long gap betweeen composition and performance Berwald's 3rd symphony 1845 - 1905.


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

Shostakovich's 4th symphony


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## CyrilWashbrook (Feb 6, 2013)

Hans Rott finished his brilliant Symphony in E major in 1880. The premiere was in 1989.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

CyrilWashbrook said:


> Hans Rott finished his brilliant Symphony in E major in 1880. The premiere was in 1989.


What Rott-en luck. :devil:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Some examples on this similar thread I made a while back:
http://www.talkclassical.com/24419-unpublished-supressed-hybernation.html

Although probably not "great" works (certainly not considered these guy's greatest works) I wouldn't go without these (all mentioned on the above thread) -

Schoenberg Brettl-lieder (Cabaret Songs) - over 70 years before it was published (1900s-1970s)

Debussy Piano Trio "No. 1" - about 100 years time lag (1880s-1980s)

Puccini - Messa di Gloria - waited decades for wider dissemination after its initial performance (withdrawn by the composer, I think). Composed 1880s but didn't get additional airings until after Puccini's death (sometime after 1920's).

Shostakovich's record in this regard is bad, of course due to politics. Several works banned or suppressed during Stalin era. The 4th symphony as mentioned, also the 4th string quartet and Violin Concerto #1. Composers in many Communist countries formed a habit of "writing for the drawer," putting things away in hope of regime change when one day they might be allowed to be performed. Also re Shosty, after initial performances, Lady Macbeth of Mzensk was canned by Stalin, so too the Piano Trio #2. Even in the more moderate Khrushchev era, the lyrics of his Symphony #13 'Babi Yar,' had to be altered to commemorate not only Jewish victims of the Holocaust, but also the non-Jewish ones. It was hard to get this symphony performed, and even though it was premiered, for the rest of the Soviet era is basically languished in the shadows. A moderate dictatorship is still a dictatorship when music is concerned - composers always have to watch their backs in this kind of context.

Bruckner as well, due to all those revisions, editions, inconsistencies (a nightmare). I remember reading that an edition regarded to be accepted as definitive by most conductors of his 4th symphony wasn't premiered until the 1970s. So a pretty massive 100 year time lag there!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I've never read that Shostakovich's Piano Trio #2 (1944) was suppressed or anything less than popular. Would be interested in knowing more about that if it's true.


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