Dear Listers,

After the discussion following a first message bearing the dreadful title
of "Most overrated composers" (oops, I wrote it!  But there originally was
a question mark at the end...), Uncle Dave Lewis and Steven Schwartz start
one of the richest possible threads on overlooked composers.  The hardest
part is indeed to make a selection.

Steven wrote:

>KOECHLIN - Charles, French, roughly contemporary with Ravel.  So
>obscure, he's not even listed in our beloved Moderator's composer list at
>www.classical.net.  There seemed to be a mini-boom in his music during the
>70s, with recordings of the Seven Stars Symphony, the Jungle Book music,
>and some of the piano works, but that's pretty much died down.  An amazing
>composer, little known outside of France.  I know only half-a-dozen things
>in his enormous catalogue.

The sad truth is that Koechlin's music, if not his name, is little known
in France as well.  The revival has been very slow and it still is, but
the discography has grown a little in recent years.  Dr.  Breiling must
have once recommended "Le Buisson Ardent" and this is a wonderfully
captivating work indeed.  Some chamber music has been recorded, as well as
the gigantic cycle for solo flute, "Les chants de Nectaire", almost famous
by now on this list.  Koechlin always had the reputation of being a master
of complicated harmony and polyphony, which was another way to suggest that
he had no melodic gift and no true artistic radiancy.  This, of course, is
unfair, but he once graduated from one of France's best-known colleges for
science and this was (and still is) an unforgiveable sin for our musical
world, very keen on labels and clear-cut categories.

>RESPIGHI - Yeah, yeah, the tone poems and the Ancient Airs and Dances.
>What else? Turns out there's a lot of stuff, very uneven, but at its best,
>a considerable best, especially the works based on Gregorian chant.  I
>recommend the Concerto autonnelle, the Concerto in modo Misolydiano,
>Metamorphoseon, a cello concerto, incredibly beautiful choral work.

I never heard the concerto autunnale, but there is also a beautiful
Concerto gregoriano for violin and orchestra, followed a few years later
by a very original Poema autunnale.

Well, there is no way I could quote all great neglected composers I can
think of within a reasonably-sized message, but one has to start somewhere.
Please forgive me for starting with names I have often quoted here, but
they certainly qualify for this thread:-)

BALAKAUSKAS - His music is slowly spreading out of Lithuania.  Tremendously
attractive and vital, using variants of serial techniques with a freedom of
inspiration and aural seduction which should be quite a revelation to many.
Try his Symphony No. 2, the Ostrobothnian Symphony, Orgy and Catharsis for
amplified cello and ensemble,...  pretty much everything.

KENINS - One of the finest symphonists, not just of Canada or his
native Latvia, but of our time.  His Fantaisies Concertantes for piano
and orchestra, his Concerto for 14 instruments, his Concerto for 5
percussionists and orchestra, the 2nd piano quartet, the Symphony No. 6
"Ad fugam" of course...  Yes, there is much contracunctal mastery here,
rhythmic drive, a broad sound palette, but transcending it all is a
penetrating voice, and a most telling one.

TON-THAT Tiet - Ask Christine Labroche, she writes beautifully about his
music.  Using exclusively Western instruments and avoiding all exotic
devices such as pentatonic scales, he has built a poetic and philosophic
world which is now utterly Oriental.  The sense of temporality is rarely
achieved by performers, but when it is, the result is most evocative and
awesome.  His available discography is shamefully small, and he is slightly
less performed here than another major Vietnamese composer living in
France, Nguyen-Thien DAO: regarded by Messiaen as one of his most talented
students, Dao also has a strong Asian component, but his style acknowledges
definite influences from Debussy and other European composers.

And some others:

MARTUCCI - By now his Canzone dei Ricordi seems to be relatively
well-known, but he certainly was not a "one-work composer" as a French
radio producer put it.  His 2nd symphony and his magnificent Quintet for
piano and strings are genuine masterworks.

VERMEULEN - A very special blend of harshness, personal tragedy and
inextinguishable optimism.  His 2nd symphony "Prelude a la nouvelle
journee" deosn't sound like anything else, a festival of wild colours
taking shape out of chaos.

FORTNER - A major figure in Germany, it seems, but how come he is so little
recorded? His opera based on Lorca's Dom Perlimpin seems very promising,
and the sheer vitality and devastating virtuosity displayed in his violin
concerto much impressed me at first hearing.  Think that the first and last
commercial record of this was conducted by...  Furtwangler.

SCHOECK - All right, not an unknown name for record collectors, but I
wonder how many of us have actually heard "Lebendig begraben" live.

JIRAK - My first experience was his 5th symphony, very finely wrought,
enclosing a somewhat Shostakovian passacaglia, but arguably a bit stiff.
His 3rd and 6th are just as refined, with strong thematic profile, and even
greater urgency.  He lived his last 27 years in Chicago.  Slonimsky said
that he encompassed the very best of several European trends from the early
20th-century.  He deserves wider exposure.

WELLESZ - Maybe the best-known symphonist whose symphonies are all
unrecorded by now.  How I envy Eric Schissel who heard all of them but one.
The recent recording of Prosperos Beschworungen tells a lot about his
Mahlerian dimension, his violin concerto is one of the finest atonal
concerti I know, and his Brucknerian heritage must be quite something.

OSTERC - Central Europe was an effervescent stage for bold experiments, at
the crossroads between late Romanticism, Impressionnism, Expressionnism,
Neoclassicism, Neobaroquism, all kinds of ephemereal "isms"...  One of its
most powerful and original exponents was this Slovenian composer, not too
remote from Hindemith, Bartok and Alban Berg, but a very individual, rough
and vital voice nonetheless.

To follow Steven's steps...  KOGOJ, KOZINA, BRAVNICAR, RAMOVS, MATICIC, and
many others are all from Slovenia.

(STOLCER) SLAVENSKI - Somebody once said that his Simfonija Orijenta,
better known as Religiofonia, was a kind of cheap Hollywoodian soundtrack.
Disturbing it is, but certainly not cheap.  It evokes musical expression of
faith in most major monotheistic religions through history.  The accuracy
might be doubtful but the spiritual intensity and sheer sonorous invention
are unquestionable.  Fans of "pure music" will find much to enjoy in his
2nd string quartet, not so far from Bartok.

SULEK - As Eva Sedak noted, it is remarkable that two of Croatia's
strongest musical personalities both lay way out of the mainstream -- in
opposite extremes.  From the joyful, almost choral 2nd Classical concerto
for strings (1952) to the Brucknerian undertones of the stormy 6th symphony
(1966), and later overt references to Richard Strauss and Tchaikovsky,
Sulek would seem to have moved backwards in time.  But his orchestral sound
is gorgeous and his idiosyncratic idiom gradually reveals itself as a
stubborn, endearing personal voice.

BRUCI - How is it possible that his masterful Sinfonia lesta is never
played any more?

Also Ivan BRKANOVIC, LAJTHA, Ljubica MARIC, RADIC, Vasilije MOKRANJAC...

BENTOIU - His 5th symphony is a highly subjective "survey" of musical
techniques, from monophony and heterophony to atonality.  It is no didactic
work, though, but a surprising and radiant piece.  I would certainly like
to hear more.

ILIEV - Starting from both Bartok and Schoenberg, drawing some inspiration
from Bulgarian peasant music (without quoting it), a most refined composer,
of truly outstanding musicianship.

LILBURN - Well, he might not be overlooked in Britain any more, but he
certainly is in continental Europe.

van WYK - Not so far from Lilburn actually.  His Primavera for orchestra,
based on a Minnelied, is a wonderous work, capturing the spirit of spring
-- including its melnacholy and frailness -- with much sensibility and
stylistic fluency.

I should stop before I come to Nordic music, but I cannot help mentioning
Stenhammar and Tubin, who incredibly still belong to the category of
neglected composers, at least in our concert halls.

My apologies for outstaying my welcome, the thread simply was irresistible.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le