I've been meaning to create this thread for over a year now.
This thread is dedicated to more obscure classical works, both old and modern, that I think others would enjoy. I'll be adding new titles once or twice a month.
You are free to contribute, but I have some contribution rules:
Please follow my format in title piece and composer (what version of recording, as known -- don't waste time hunting it down if you don't know). Video links can get geoblocked, removed by the user, and just copyrighted out of existence and the person who wanted to hear it, won't even known what you had linked to.
Please post a video link to the piece of music; covers, links to CD/LP listings, does not let somebody hear it. Video links must be on safe sites like YouTube (for example).
No download links.
Please, only one contribution per user, per week. I don't want to bombard the thread with so many titles that a reader ends up not hearing most of it.
No famous of well known pieces/composers. Only I may break that rule. ;-)
Let's try to keep it to relatively short pieces. Most readers are not going to spend thirty or more minutes per piece.
With that in mind, I present this simple but beautiful piece...
Rutter was born in 1945 and composes religious songs, choral and orchestral pieces. If you year for the days of old school satisfying music, you will want to delve more into his works. I also suggest a piece title "Candlelight".
To the general population I'd think all but those very small number of well known composers are obscure. Anyway, four of my favourite works (Desert Island Discs):
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) - Les Boréades (his last opera) - I like baroque opera & soundtracks, yes, I'm that sad.
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) - Kleine Kammermusik (a collection of small pieces, as catchy as hell)
Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) - violin concerto - he was well known at one time, composer of the score of Things To Come & Master Of The Queen's Music, but now well out of fashion (he doesn't even get picked for the BBC Proms these days). I love all his stuff, but the 50s violin concerto is my favourite.
Mieczyslaw Vainberg (now known as Weinberg 1919-1996) A Russian composer (& friend of Shostakovich) Symphony #4 & violin concerto. An LP I borrowed from the library in the early seventies, & many years after bought the CD, still a firm favourite.
More to follow. I think that once you get into classical music, after a while you tend to go the the lesser known composers.
No famous of well known pieces/composers. ... If you year for the days of old school satisfying music,
No famous OR well-known pieces/composers If you YEARN for the days of old school satisfying music ...
I daresay my entire collection of 600+ albums is music by lesser-known and forgotten composers. But depositing only one per week is quite limiting. My tastes are for dissonance & atonality after WWI (say from around 1921 up through about 2010 or so).
"Le buisson ardent" Charles Koechlin
The first version I bought was the 1987 Cybelia CD, with Segerstam conducting:
The 2nd (and easier to get) version is on Hanssler Classic, conducted by Holliger. [available, I think, as an online download purchase]
I wouldn't call Rutter obscure, at least not in current Classical music circles. Classical music radio stations, anyway, have him in solid rotation (including the one I oversee).
But anyway, I'll start with something that's both modernist and listenable.
Frank Martin Harpsichord Concerto (1951-1952)
The youtube link is the definitive recording, from a Vox album conducted by the composer in the 1970s not long before he passed, which also includes a couple of his great Ballades for solo instrument and orchestra - in this case Piano and Trombone. (But that's not three, I'm not violating the rules - it's just that those are great too, adn they're on the same album.)
Whenever I'm in the mood for the style of music represented by Goldenberg's and DeBenedictus' scores for Columbo, it's Martin I turn to first.
My friend Rameau’s championing of Weinberg is music to my ears. I do have to slightly adjust his description, though. He was a Soviet composer, but Polish, not Russian. When the Nazis invaded, the rest of his family fled west, were captured and killed in the camps; he went east and with Shostakovich’s support eventually ended up in Moscow. Any of his symphonies are worth hearing, especially those with the superior sonics of recent Naxos recordings, and his violin and cello concertos are wonderful.
So, Weinberg having been mentioned already, I’ll suggest Boris Tishchenko, a pupil of Shostakovich, whose absolutely bonkers 7th symphony, also on Naxos and conducted by Dmitri Yablonsky, simply has to be heard to be believed.
I wouldn't call Rutter obscure, at least not in current Classical music circles. Classical music radio stations, anyway, have him in solid rotation (including the one I oversee).
I'm a bit bemused by that myself. All that and then to post some Rutter. His Christmas album is always popular for example. Anyway, a nice idea for a thread.
So, Weinberg having been mentioned already, I’ll suggest Boris Tishchenko, a pupil of Shostakovich, whose absolutely bonkers 7th symphony, also on Naxos and conducted by Dmitri Yablonsky, simply has to be heard to be believed.
So, Weinberg having been mentioned already, I’ll suggest Boris Tishchenko, a pupil of Shostakovich, whose absolutely bonkers 7th symphony, also on Naxos and conducted by Dmitri Yablonsky, simply has to be heard to be believed.
Ta, I'll give that a go.
Listening to it now, first time in a while (Mrs TG abhors it!) and I’m reminded of Danny Elfman saying that he wrote The Simpsons theme to be as annoying as possible (unless I dreamt that) - well BT7 has a whole second movement like that - gloriously vulgar, and probably fiendish to control in the orchestra.
And I only picked up on him being Polish rather than Russian not to be clever, but because the stories of the Soviet-era composers adds so much to the understanding of the music. I know a lot of people here get it, but have I not said time and time again that you can enjoy listening to film music in a bubble, but to understand it you need to be aware of the music of (especially) the 20th century concert hall composers such as Prokofiev, Bartok, Khatachurian, Shostakovich - on whose shoulders many of our favourites have stood?
I wouldn't call Rutter obscure, at least not in current Classical music circles. Classical music radio stations, anyway, have him in solid rotation (including the one I oversee).
I'm a bit bemused by that myself. All that and then to post some Rutter. His Christmas album is always popular for example. Anyway, a nice idea for a thread.
Well, the OP did state: Only I may break that rule. ;-)
As I'm travelling I'm away from my music library, but a name which is not so common (perhaps not obscure) for whose works I have been interested these last few years is Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969).
Apart from the Violin Concerti (6 of 7, I don't have #6) I find her Piano Quintets and Violin and Piano works particularly good.
I wouldn't call Rutter obscure, at least not in current Classical music circles. Classical music radio stations, anyway, have him in solid rotation (including the one I oversee).
I'm a bit bemused by that myself. All that and then to post some Rutter. His Christmas album is always popular for example. Anyway, a nice idea for a thread.
Well sure he's obscure....to people who don't regularly listen to classical music. The average person would know some names, but those would be the legends like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. You'd be lucky to hear someone nod in familarity when you say "Stravinsky." If you're a classical music aficionado, then Rutter is probably pretty well known. Hell, say "Jerry Goldsmith" to a non-film score buff and you'll get blank stares. "Obscure" never means "unknown to fans."
I never heard of him and I spent a decent batch of time in my younger days listening to classical music stations. I haven't in many years, so I don't know who anyone is anymore. This thread is a welcome idea and I look forward to rediscovering classical music.
Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) - violin concerto - he was well known at one time.
But now, alas, only in rhyming slang. “Going for an Arthur”. As opposed to a “J Arthur”, which is related but handier.
Oddly enough, we watched Things To Come only last night. I had it on LP in the 70s, paired with his Colour Symphony. Glorious music, if a shade overused (and the first commercially released soundtrack? Think I read that about the 78rpm album that was produced).
I probably listen to classical music more than film music, so it’s not quite clear to me how to identify when someone or some composition is considered "obscure". (Like it would be tricky for me to identify when a film composer is considered "obscure".) Why, sure, I get that everyone knows Beethoven's 5th Symphony or Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps; but there's a lot of stuff that may appear to be common knowledge to some and is in fact obscure to others, or vice versa.
I am quite enamored with John Cage's charming and at times oddly regal Suite for Toy Piano." I first heard this on an ear-opening 2 LP set from 1970: Music for Keyboard 1935 to 1948 performed by Jeanne Kirstein.
These works, for piano, prepared piano, and toy piano are each miniature gems and composed prior to Cage using chance elements to write music.
Over the years I've heard many versions of the Suite for Toy Piano, but I still think Kirstein nailed it. Roger Sessions later orchestrated the piece and it sounds magnificent.
The Kirstein album is now available on a 2 CD set which also includes works by Morton Feldman.
