# Top Unsung Greats for Beginners and Connoisseurs



## callmebanks (Jun 25, 2011)

Hello classical music forumgoers!

I have a question for some of the more seasoned veterans of the genre. I have recently compiled a list of some of the lesser-known works of genius in the classical/contemporary canon for an article site I contribute to - with a Top 5 section for beginners in the genre to get acquainted with it. I based the list somewhat on the fact that works listed weren't completely household, yet where the names might sound familiar enough to pique interest. I based the selections, after that criteria, chiefly on melody. I might be totally wrong, but I thought that perhaps newcomers might base their taste in the overall melody, whereas advanced listeners might base theirs on more complex features -- such as the technical skill therein, complexity, tonality or the level of abstractness.

Anyway...I would love to amend the article to include a Top 5 section for connoisseurs that might include pieces from the classical era, symphonies (simply because I used symphonies for the first picks and would love to keep some symmetry)...perhaps high in technical skill and relatively unknown (it wouldn't be any fun if the pieces listed were completely predictable!).

So I was wondering if any of you could recommend a piece or two that fits the criteria. Aside from wanting to include the latter Top 5 in the article, I'd also love to extend my own collection!!

I did catch the thread on fringe/obscure composers, but I guess with the specific criteria of complexity and that the piece be a symphony rather limited the choices 

Thanks for any help any of you can provide. The pieces I listed in my original article for beginners in the genre were:

Mendelssohn - Symphony 3, Mvmt 1
Nielsen - Symphony 4 (Inextinguishable)
Borodin's Nocturne Andante piece
Schubert - Death and the Maiden
Berlioz - Reveries; Passions from the Symphonie Fantastique

Cheers


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

callmebanks said:


> Hello classical music forumgoers!
> 
> I have a question for some of the more seasoned veterans of the genre. I have recently compiled a list of some of the lesser-known works of genius in the classical/contemporary canon for an article site I contribute to - with a Top 5 section for beginners in the genre to get acquainted with it. I based the list somewhat on the fact that works listed weren't completely household, yet where the names might sound familiar enough to pique interest. I based the selections, after that criteria, chiefly on melody. I might be totally wrong, but I thought that perhaps newcomers might base their taste in the overall melody, whereas advanced listeners might base theirs on more complex features -- such as the technical skill therein, complexity, tonality or the level of abstractness.
> 
> ...


Welcome to the Forum. I am sure you will be happy among this group of friends. Regarding one of the items on your list, perhaps I have missed something but I only know Schubert's Death and the Maiden as a song and a string quartet. I was unaware of its existence as a symphony. Since you included contemporary you might consider one of the symphonies of Alan Hovhaness, perhaps No 2 "Mysterious Mountain" or No 50 "Mount St. Helens".

Rob


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Beethoven--_Symphonies No.2, 5 and 7 {especially the 2nd movement of the 7th!}_
Sibelius--_Symphony_ _No_._2_
Tchaikovsky--_Symphony No.6 {"Pathetique", especially its 3rd movement}_
Dvorak--_Symphony No.9 {"From the New World"}_
BTW, I know that's six instead of five, but I kinda got carried away there for a minute! Hope this helps you in your quest.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Please, please, PLEASE, do not send them on the wrong path by recommending only one movement of a symphony. Symphonies should be heard in total, not in bleeding chunks.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Ten symphonies for beginners - spanning several centuries and probably still OK for them once they have advanced beyond the beginners stage.

Beethoven - Symphony 6 Pastoral
Schubert - Symphony 8 Unfinished
Mendelssohn - Symphony 4 italian
Berlioz - Sinfonie fantastique
Brahms - Symphony 4
Dvorak - Symphony 8 New World
Saint Saens - Symphony 3 Organ
Mahler - Symphony 4
Sibelius - Symphony 5
Gorecki - Symphony 3

For people who know more and like to explore less known masterpieces:

Raff - Symphony 5 Lenore
Suk - Symphony 2 Asrael
Bax - Symphony 6
Enescu - Symphony 3
Beach - Gaelic Symphony 
Moeran - Symphony 
Zemlinsky - Lyric Symphony 
Myaskovsky - Symphony 6
Schmidt - Symphony 4
Hovhaness - Symphony 50 Mount St Helens


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

If you're talking symphonies more, I'd like to suggest some c20th ones -

*Carlos Chavez'* (Mexican composer) symphonies are great - the 1st, 2nd & 4th are the most often played ones & probably a good place to start with him. You can probably get them all on one disc or why not go "all out" with the VoxBox budget 2 disc set of all of his 6 symphonies, under the baton of his student & countryman, the late Eduardo Mata.

*Paul Hindemith* (German) - wrote a number of symphonic works - _Mathis der Maler, Pittsburgh, Symphonic Metamorphosis on Theme of Weber_ are quite good, and you can probably get them all on the one disc.

*Aaron Copland* (USA) - also wrote 3 numbered symphonies, but the _Dance Symphon_y is more compact, so maybe a good idea to try that first (not to mention his more popular "Americana" works - the ballets _Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring_ & also_ Danzon Cubano_ & _El Salon Mexico_ - picture postcards of the Americas & highly innovative to boot).

*Leonard Bernstein* (USA) - The composer-conductor most famous for his musical _West Side Story_ also composed three symphonies. I only know the 3rd "Kaddish" which has a flair for drama (like everything the man wrote), a very moving and humanistic work, calling for not only soprano solo vocalist and choir (with orchestra) but also a narrator...


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## Whipsnade (Mar 17, 2011)

Art Rock said:


> Please, please, PLEASE, do not send them on the wrong path by recommending only one movement of a symphony. Symphonies should be heard in total, not in bleeding chunks.


Lol. It's like recommending the last 50 pages of a novel.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

@ Art Rock and Whipsnade, your points are well taken and appreciated. However, when I recommended those works to our new friend, I didn't advise him/her just to listen to one movement. What I put in parentheses were merely what I had found to be the strongest and most moving {for lack of a better term} movements for me, IMHO.
@ Art Rock, not for nothing, but I believe you listed Dvorak's 8th Symphony as "From the New World" when in fact it's the 9th.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Yes, typo.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'd say Beethoven's 5th should be one of the first symphonies for someone new to classical music. It's very easy to approach by listening for the initial motif. 

Likewise with Mozart's 40th. Dvorak's 9th and Mahler's 1st are also (IMO) fairly easy to get into. 

Evidently Gorecki 3 is great for casual listeners; my choice of a modern symphony would be Bernstein 2. I think it's hard not to enjoy Haydn 104, Beethoven 6 and 7, Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, and Brahms 1 and 4. 

On the other end, some symphony no one has heard of.... Well, Franck. It's not going to startle the professors, but it is a touch obscure and certainly mis-under-appreciated. Another could be Suk's Asrael symphony.


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## callmebanks (Jun 25, 2011)

Hello again!
Thank you all for your responses. They are genuinely appreciated.

I have sought out many of the pieces listed here as recommendations, though some have been notoriously hard to find.

@GoneBaroque - Pardon my faux pas! When I first heard "Death and the Maiden", it was reworked and performed as a symphony by the symphony-house in my city. The result was truly impeccable and, having loved the performance, I simply remembered the name for the list. You are quite right that it normally exists solely as a stringed quartet.

@Art Rock - The pieces you recommended from Hovhaness and Sibelius are sublime! Thank you for suggesting them! I found a few pieces by Bax....They were a little too Disney Movie Soundtrack for me, in that they tended to be a little fantastical and so prone to fluttery flights of fancy (alliteration unintentional!). Although I realize that precisely that characteristic may make him great to others, it all seemed very devoid of (for lack of a better word) rawness, which I equate with realness. Perhaps I just did not "get" the pieces I listened to...I often don't after just one listen. It usually takes several!

About recommending certain movements only....I hadn't intended to in my article to do that, simply to recommend what I felt the "best" of them were. I realize that most classical purists believe it's foolish to recommend only particular movements of a symphony...however, while listening to only 1 movement may take away from the whole, I still see it as far from useless. Rather than seeing it as akin to recommending the last fifty pages in a book, I see it as something like recommending only 1 or 2 movies in a trilogy. Sure, you need to see them all to truly get the storyline - but what if the second installment is awful?? And is it really so imperative that you get the storyline if you enjoy the other parts? Surely seeing only the first or the third would still suffice to at least enjoy them! Particularly if it's the first, and especially if you only like the trilogy for specific aspects.

Another comparison that I've heard is making love - you can't just skip to the middle or go right to the end...and a symphony is in some ways the same - namely that it builds upon things that have been happening and are happening. But obviously, you don't want every time to be completely and lavishly drawn-out either!

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. Thanks again to everyone who made recommendations 

Marc


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