Lee Hester writes: >The only things I even own multiples of are a few pieces by Bach (e.g.The >Brandenburgs and some of the more major organ works), The Planets (Was >Holst a one hit wonder? Are there other 1HW's?) and the Russian Easter >Overture (mayhap my favorite piece). One-Hit Wonder implies a composer who wrote one good piece or a piece that is SO much better than the rest of his output. Holst and Rimsky wrote many wonderful scores. A list of some of my favorites, off the top of my head: Rimsky: Russian Easter Overture May Night The Tsar's Bride Capriccio Espagnol Dubinushka Piano Sextet Mlada Snow Maiden Sadko (opera and tone poem) Overture on Russian Themes Fantasy on Russian Themes Symphony No. 3 Scheherezade Holst: Planets Suites (2) for Military Band Folk Song arrangements for a cappella choir Choral Symphony Beni Mora Fugal Overture Fugal Concerto Savitri Scherzo Capriccio Double Concerto Medieval Lyrics 2 Carols for Women's Choir and oboe Terzetto Choral Fantasia Hymns from the Rig Veda 7 Bridges Part-Songs 2 Psalms The Hymn of Jesus Brook Green Suite Egdon Heath Japanese Suite St. Paul's Suite Brook Green Suite 12 Songs of Humbert Wolfe Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo We must remember that not all good pieces get recorded or recorded a lot. The Planets, after all, is a known quantity. I'd bet that not too many recordings of it have lost money. This is a big factor for a label deciding on repertoire. For example, one label wanted Ted Joselson to record the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, because it was (supposedly) more popular, by which they probably meant that there were more recordings of the third than the second. In other words, they were trying to reduce risk to a matter of tautology. Joselson insisted on recording the second instead and, at the time, had the clout. The recording did fairly well, though not a super-blockbuster. It probably did as well as a recording of the Third Concerto would have. And this is Prokofiev. Think of this kind of reasoning applied to less well-known composers. Steve Schwartz *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html