# Compositions receiving première recordings decades after completion



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Listed below are 20 examples, sorted by year of completion, from my music collection for which each opus had to wait _decades_ to expierence their world premières on albums.

Feel free to add some others you may have ...

1908 Florent Schmitt's _Quintette_, first recorded in *1981* (album issued 1983) [73+ years]
1910 Ernest Bloch's opera _MacBeth_ *1997* live recording (a 2-CD set in 1999) [87+ years]
Between 1910 & 1913 Nikolai Roslavets wrote _In the Hours of the New Moon_ which debuted on disc in 1990 [77 > 80 yrs.]
1916 _The Kairn of Koridwen_ by C.T. Griffies complete on disc in 1994 [78 years]
1918 Charles Tournemire's _Symphony No. 6_ (1995 CD) [77 years]
1920 _The Ballad of the Gnomes_ by Respighi, recorded *1990* ('92 album) [70+ years]
1923 _Le Miroir des Jesus_ by André Caplet, 1992 [69 years]
1929 _Introduction to Chôros for orchestra & guitar_ by Villa-Lobos, (1995 CD) [65+ years]
1930 _Concerto for Organ and Orchestra_ by Jón Leifs, (1999) [69 years]
1932 Luigi Dallapiccola's _Partita_ (2009) [77 years]
1937 Stefan Wolpe's _Passacaglia_, recorded *2002* for a 2006 album [69 years]
1938 _Concerto for Violin and Orchestra_ by Nikos Skalkottas (1998 album) [60 years]
1939 William Alwyn's _Violin Concerto_, (1993 CD) [54 years]
1942 _The Island_ by Philip Sainton, (1993 CD) [50+ years]
1944 Alexandre Tansman's _Symphony No. 6_ (2006 CD) [61+ years]
1946 Charles Koechlin's _Le Docteur Fabricius_ (2004 CD) [58 years]
1957 Alex North's _Concerto for Piano and Orchestra_ ('95 album) [38 years]
1962 Morton Feldman's _Structures_, recorded in *2009* for a 2011 album [48+ years]
1962 Maurice Ohana's _Tombeau de Claude Debussy_ (1998 CD) [36 years]
1965 Richard Rodney Bennett's opera _The Mines of Sulphur_ (2005 album) [40 years]

Imagine what path(s) 20th century music could have taken if Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_ remained unheard for 70 or 80 years ...


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I am unsure that any of the works you mention come close to equalling the Rite. Some seem worthwhile but lesser works to me and some even seem to have been merely lucky beneficiaries of a time when more music than ever before gets recorded. And that's the thing: so much gets recorded these days.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Well, virtually everything written before 1910. 

(Plus, the Wolpe Passacaglia was first recorded n 1954. I know a concert pianist who worked on it for years, but blew out his hand before he could perform it.)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Here are some other classics in that crowded field (20th century only):

1911 Langgaard - _Symphony no.1_ (1992) - 61 years
1913 Bax - _Spring Fire Symphony_ (1986) - 73 years 
1927 Brian - _Gothic Symphony_ (1990 2CD) - 63 years (I'm leaving out an earlier, pirate LP release)
1930 Langgaard - _Antikrist _(1986 CD) - 56 years
1935 Holmboe - _Symphony no.1 _(and many other, later ones) (1994 CD) - 59 years
1949 Sorabji - _Sequentia Cyclica_ (2020 7CD) - 71 years
1955 Nørgård - _Symphony no.1 Austera_ (1986 2LP) - 31 years


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I don't know if all of the *Weinberg* symphonies have been recorded, I can't find Nos. 9, 11, and 15 on Spotify or Amazon. And I can't find a complete box of them, which is a shame.

They are prime candidates for this thread.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Holst: HAMMERSMITH (Original band version)*

The original band versions was composed in 1930 and premiered by the Marine Band on April 17, 1932.

Holst transcribed the work for orchestra.

It has an interesting history:

http://windliterature.org/2013/10/27/hammersmith-by-gustav-holst/

http://www.windrep.org/Hammersmith:_Prelude_and_Scherzo

First recording that I am aware of is with the Eastman Wind Ensemble: British Band Classics Volume 2 in 1959.

This work is now part of the standard band literature. I have performed it twice and I have heard a performance with the Marine Band.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

MarkW said:


> Well, virtually everything written before 1910.
> 
> (Plus, the Wolpe Passacaglia was first recorded n 1954. I know a concert pianist who worked on it for years, but blew out his hand before he could perform it.)


Ah, you are referring to the solo piano version, I expect. The "mode" CD indicates that the orchestral _Passacaglia_ is a world first. Still, even the piano solo _Passacaglia_ waited around 17 years between its manuscript's completion and its first recording - not a short waiting period.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Prodromides said:


> Ah, you are referring to the solo piano version, I expect. The "mode" CD indicates that the orchestral _Passacaglia_ is a world first. Still, even the piano solo _Passacaglia_ waited around 17 years between its manuscript's completion and its first recording - not a short waiting period.


okay.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

SanAntone said:


> These works had performances prior to recordings, they may not have been completely unknown.


True, they had concert performances ... but some of them may have had only 2 or 1 performance(s) and afterwards their manuscripts languish in publishers' catalogues.

This is the situation with Franz Waxman's oratorio _Joshua_, which I listened to last night. The composer's son - John W. Waxman - writes in the liner notes that "The present recording is the first complete performance of _Joshua_ since the Los Angeles performance of 1961" [the 'present' recording was done in 2004 for Deutsche Grammophon's 2006 CD]
It premiered in Dallas, TX during May 1959; the Dallas Times Herald wrote "Franz Waxman's oratorio _Joshua_ is big ... in its musical forces ... impact ... ideas and exaltation."
The 1961 LA production was only its 2nd incarnation, meaning this "big" work experienced a 45-year neglect until commercially available on disc.










... and now this CD is itself 15 years old! Seems to me that this oratorio continues to be neglected. Does any TC member chat about it besides myself ... plus maybe a few others?


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Prodromides said:


> True, they had concert performances ... but some of them may have had only 2 or 1 performance(s) and afterwards their manuscripts languish


This is extensively the case with most works today. A premiere then nothing else or if a champion exists it may get a season's worth of performances and then into the dust bin.


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