Underappreciated Composers/Works?

This Estonian composer - Erkki-Sven Tüür, rules.

And I'm not only saying this because he is of the same nationality as me :P

He is one of my favorite of today's composers.

Well in AriDzona there are a lot of unappreciated composers...especially on the Phoenix radio...the classical station plays NOTHING but the Mozart barfett and the un-hiding of Haydn.... they must be scared of major 7ths! No...don't add a C# to a D major chord...why when you can make it a C NATURAL?? :w00t:

:dry:

Edit: I should note my father does all the unappreciated composer stuff. That actually sounds good.

Someone said Jacques Hetu and I almost poo pooed my pants. Great bassoon concerto :P

As far as unappreciated, I'd say Mosolow (listen to ZAVOD) is definitely up there, Alkan (aesop's feast), Webern (I'm biased-I love his stuff), Crumb Crumb! and Kabalevsky to name a few. Also, if you're not in Scandinavia, I think Aho doesn't get enough credit.

Others: Phillipe Hersant, Takemitsu.

I think Szymanowski gets pummeled by his friend Prokofiev simply because Szymanowski wasn't as daring and was also a homosexual. Krol Roger is BRILLIANT.

Boulez is great too, but I don't know if he falls as underappreciated. My two favorites of his NOtations pour Orchestre and Marteau sans Maitre.

edit: I'm almost embarassed to say it, but I don't know much of Griffes music.

I think Szymanowski gets pummeled by his friend Prokofiev simply because Szymanowski wasn't as daring and was also a homosexual.[/Quote]

Szymanowski wasn't as daring? You should listen to Mythes.

A recent work I've come upon that I think the world needs to hear: Reflet D'un Temps Disparu for cello and orchestra by Chinese composer Chen Qigang. He was a student of Messiaen's, and his music is absolutely superb and should deserve as much attention as Tan Dun and Bright Sheng.

Bohuslav Martinu..for the 6 amazing symphonies and the concerto for Timpani Piano and 2 orchestras.

To me, Mendelssohn's Preludes and fugues for piano are dismissed all too easily. I know his writing is sloppy and a voice will disappear for periods at a time - but they are still great works!

Hauer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrgai8YBjys&feature=related

Actually maybe he's not so great. Some of my favorite music though (maybe you could blame that on my hearing).

Charles-Valentin Alkan.

Concerto for solo piano and the etudes in op. 35!

In the spirit of hyphenated Charleses,

Take a look at Charles-Marie Widor! He's known now mainly for his organ symphonies but equally impressive are his works for chamber ensembles, solo instruments, duos etc.!!!

Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński

His Piano Concerto no.1 and 2 are fantastic. His first concerto, is my favorite piano concerto of all time, even more than Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev.

Domenico Alberti.

What of Erkki Melartin? The dude was practically overshadowed by Sibelius. I listened to his violin concerto by chance, it was on some classical music station. It was absolutely beautiful and I looked more into him. I have the score of his 6th symphony on my computer and interestingly enough it actually contains almost direct quotes from Mahler's 7th symphony. Melartin himself was influenced by some of Mahler's music, even leading the premiere of his 2nd symphony if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, yes, Melartin is absolutely amazing, it surprises me how relatively uknown he is in comparison to other composers. I was actually more pleased with his 6th symphony than I have by any Sibelius outside of the 7th. The same with the violin concerto. But eh, that's me.

Oh, and Griffes. My god, one of his pieces almost made me cry it was so beautiful. He died young though, that's probably why he's so unknown.

I had a listen to some Melartin on YouTube (that wonderful depository for all kinds of music) and if you like his symphonies you might like to investigate Kurt Atterburg, a Swedish composer of a similar era.

The most underapreciated figure in Nordic music is the Estonian, Eduard Tubin. His ten completed symphonies are a fascinating commentary on his and his country's fortunes in the middle of the twentieth century, ranging from the quasi-impressionist First and Second 'Legendare' of the Thirties, the patriotic Third 'Heroic' and Fourth 'Lyrical', and the later symphones which are rather darker dating from his exile in Sweden. His style has occasional shades of Prokofiev, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams and later Berg, but nonetheless a very individual style and a brilliant sense of symphonic pacing as well as effective orchestration. The Eighth Symphony is probably his greatest work; listen to the devastating climax of the finale before the music dies to a single dissonant chord in the strings.

Alban Berg and Bela Bartok are pretty well-known but don't get nearly enough attention given what they wrote. The same is also true for Bohuslav Martinu who has been mentioned already.

There's a brilliant contemporary of Brahms by the name of Friedrich Kiel; mostly a chamber music composer but wrote a symphony and, I believe, violin concerti as well. He particularly contributed to the viola repertiore.

Jon Leifs, Raff.

Paderewski is a bit underrated in my country.

Discovered also:

- Rheinberger

- Ton Bruynel

- Bazinni (NOT his 'La ronde des Lutins but his Stringquartets etc.)

- Ciprian Porembescu (He wrote Violin Concerto wich I can't find on YouTube. He is famous for his Balada ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR8pgEKsrIs ) but wrote Violin Concerto's as well)

- Henri Vieuxtemps

- Anton Rubinstein (listen to his Piano Concerto 4:

- Martynov

- Karmanov

- Taktakishvilli

- Vladigerov

- Urmas Sisask

- Szeligowski

- Otto Olsson

- Komitas

- Kurt Atterberg

- John Fernström

- Johan Ludwig Bach

- Johan Michaël Bach

- Vorisek

- Svetlanov

- Alfvén

- George Lloyd

- Bortkiewicz

- Arkhangelsky

- Diepenbrock

- Stanford

- Tansman

- Znedek Lukas

- Hubay

- Koechlin

Check for more composers this channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/HenriVieuxtemps

That's QUITE the list you have there. It's sad but true though, that's not half of the under rated composers.

I nominate Jules Van Nuffel. A Belgian composer, even most Belgians have never heard of him, but he's a genius! Youtube him, you'll find some amazing works. All religious music, though.

FRANK ZAPPA!

also I don't know if these guys are underrated or not but...

Toru Takemitsu

Conlon Nancarrow

Who are they?

Who are they?

was that directed at me?

Yes :)

Yes :)

Alright, well...

Frank Zappa was best known for his rock music, but he originally set out to be a modern composer. Towards the end of his career he began recording music with more classical-like ensembles. For instance, his work with the London Symphony Orchestra, (Check out Frank Zappa, LSO Vol. 1). The Ensemble Modern (Check out The Yellow Shark, there are videos of it on youtube.... Dog/Meat, also Then Ensemble Modern plays Frank Zappa: Gregarry Peccary and other Persuasions) and his work with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporian (The Perfect Stranger). All of his studio albums are great too. Particularly Roxy and Elsewhere, Hot Rats, One Size Fits All, there are sooo many.

Toru Takemitsu is a japanese composer (20th century) who was influenced by Debussy and Messiaen. His work is really interesting because he blends elements of Eastern and Western culture, philosophy, and musical ideas. Check out

Conlon Nancarrow is this crazy guy who was from Arkansas, but involved with communism and all this crazy political stuff and ended up an exile in Mexico. He was discovered by Ligeti, I believe. He wrote a lot of music for player piano that is unplayable by humans. It is really, really wild stuff. I also like his string quartets 1 and 3.

Oliver Knussen might also be worth mentioning but I havent really heard that much of his stuff. He was friend and interpreter of Takemitsu and his music.

:P sorry about that, I knew who Zappa was, but the others sound interesting! I'm going to listen to their music :)

:P sorry about that, I knew who Zappa was, but the others sound interesting! I'm going to listen to their music :)

Cool, hope you like them!

I listened to Nancarrow's string quartet no 3! I really liked it.