I guess Horowitz did a lot to popularize Scarlatti, Clementi and perhaps Scriabin, but I'm not really sure exactly how popular these composers were before he began playing them a lot.
I think he may also have done a lot popularize Kreisleriana although I'm not sure to what extent.

I guess one could say Hamelin has done a lot to popularize realtively obscure composers in general(Alkan, Godowsky, etc). I'm not sure how popular Iberia was before de Larrocha started playing it.

Can anyone expand on the details or extent to which Horowitz popularized these composers?

Any other pianists that you think of who did a lot to popularize either certain composers or specific works?

Rubinstein was much admired for his Chopin interpretations but I wouldn't say he specialized in him. His repertoire was quite broad.

I'm curious how they managed to popularize these composers to such an extent. Surely, others had played Scarlatti, Clementi, and Scriabin before Horowitz. Brahms even quoted Scarlatti (with/without attribution) in one of his pieces. Scriabin was influential and well-known during his lifetime (he died when Horowitz was just barely a teenager.) The same is certainly true with Chopin/Rubinstein.

I imagine that the answer goes beyond these individual pianists. For example, Horowitz was not the only one working with Scarlatti during his (Horowitz's) lifetime. Meanwhile, the musicologist/harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick was very busy performing, researching, and writing about Scarlatti's music, life, and influences. It is thanks to him - and a day spent looking up and calling all the Scarlattis in a Spanish phonebook - that we even have most of Scarlatti's unpublished manuscripts. Meanwhile, Scarlatti's music was made part of the synthesizer revolution by Wendy Carlos and her famous "Switched On" album. Meanwhile, the sonatas were performed by such popular pianists as Emil Gilels, William Kapell, and Glenn Gould. In 1984-85, Scott Ross recorded all 555 sonatas. Meanwhile, musicologists were being inspired by all of this performance and scholarship and continued to increase Scarlatti's fame and popularity through their own research and scholarship, and of course, where would we be without the many sheet music publishers, not to mention the countless piano teachers who assigned Scarlatti's work to their students? (and those students who then grew up to pass Scarlatti on to THEIR students?)


The greatest influences may be hard to trace, because all of these players in the popularization of Scarlatti's music were undoubtedly influenced by each other. Furthermore, they surely influenced different sectors of society. The pianists are much more influential on non-scholarly audiences and piano students who haven't a clue what the musicologists are doing. The musicologists are more influential on other scholars and professional performers. Piano teachers in conservatories and universities are influenced by both; students, in turn, are influenced by their teachers (and their teachers' assignments).

Oh, and I forgot to mention the tremendously powerful influence of the Norton Anthology.

I wonder whether Sofronitsky could count as a man who popularized Scriabin music. He was certainly a very well respected interpreter of his works.

Both Granados and Albeniz were championed by de Larrocha throughout her performing career. I would think that she had a lot to do with those two composers' status in the repertoire of many pianists today.

Regards,

It is hard to say because he was barely known outside Russia during his lifetime and all recordings by him are in somewhat shoddy sound-quality. I think that YouTube (and internet in General) is what really made Sofronitsky's art accessible and well-known internationally.
Not that I wouldn't adore his playing

Liszt could be credited as doing quite a lot to popularize Schubert through the song transcriptions.

Tomasino

It's very interesting to think about the idea that performers populirized composers and not the other way around. It never occured to me really, although I do know that Mitropoulos "did quite a lot" for Prokofiev in the States but I never thought of it extensively...

Maybe we are being a little too influenced by the recording industry? Just maybe... It just seems so hard to pin point an exact relation between two names. (not that it absolutely can't happen, but it just feels improbable).

I think that brilliant Sam has it correct with the idea of a more general movement for a composer at the same time. (Wasn't it Mendelshon who 'rediscovered' Bach, btw?)

Everytime I hear or think of Chopin, I think of Evgeny Kissin (and the other way around!) Glenn Gould-- definitely Bach and the Goldberg Variations!

That's the usual story, but I think it's a little more complicated than that. Bach was never really "lost" for musicians, just to the public. For example, Chopin apparently knew a chunk of the WTC by memory, but I don't think he ever actually played any of it in public concerts. It would not surprise me if it never crossed his mind as a possibility. Bach was too "dry" and "learned" for concerts. I think the reason Mendelssohn is given so much credit for "rediscovering" Bach is because he presented large Bach works in public (I think one or more of the big choral things - I forget which) after a long absence.

The St Matthew Passion was the significant one, I think.

On the other hand, how influential was he on the pianists, scholars, teachers, etc who were in Russia - for example, Horowitz, Gilels, Richter who were extremely popular outside of Russia... If he influenced these popular performers to perform Scriabin's music outside of Russia, and those performances pouplarized Scriabin, then in fact Sofronitsky was incredibly influential outside Russia, even if nobody knew his name or the connection.

Interesting idea. I think that composers very often popularize performers, and I think that it is possible for the relationship to go both ways:

1] An unknown pianist begins his career by playing the works of popular composers; thus, he gains international attention and becomes known as an interpreter of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, etc. In this case, the composer made the performer famous. This is surely the case when someone who is relatively unknown performs an unusual complete set: for example, I know of Frederic Chiu because of my interest in Prokofiev (he did a great job recording the complete piano works). I know of Annette Servadei because of my interest in Sibelius (she did a great job recording the complete piano works). I know of Scott Ross because of my interest in Scarlatti (he was the first to record all 555 sonatas). But someone who records the complete Beethoven Sonatas won't necessarily gain the same recognition, because so many people have recorded Beethoven's Sonatas.

2] That same pianist, now world-famous, begins performing works of an unknown composer. Because the pianist is now famous, people listen to him, and thus the unknown composer gains international attention and becomes world-famous. In this case, the performer makes the composer famous.

Chopin was always very popular, so I don't think it's correct to say Rubinstein popularized Chopin. Nor is this thread about pianists ones personally likes or personally connects with some composer.

So far the list of possible connections seems very small:
1. de Larrocha....Spanish music and Iberia in particular?
2. Gould....Goldberg Variations
3. Horowits...possibly Scarlatti, Clementi. Scriabin and Kreisleriana

More examples?

Horowitz--Rach 2nd Sonata
Lewenthal, and later Hamelin--Alkan (although "popularize" is a big stretch, but at least more people know about Alkan now)
Bugs Bunny--Liszt 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody.

I'm not sure what you mean by popular. I don't have the impression that that the Goldberg Variations are popular, or that Glenn Gould's recordings have opened a breach of some sort in the popular ignorance of classical music.

As for Iberia, it was well received from the beginning, before Alicia de Laroccha was born. A great deal of Spanish music has been part of standard repertoire since the 19th century, when the composers all went to Paris. All of the important French musicians promoted the Spanish composers and their music. Today, as then, I am sure that there are very few people who know this music who are not musicians or deep connaisseurs of classical music.

I don't believe that there are more than two Spanish pieces that have broken a little out of the bounds of classical musicians and serious listeners. One is the concerto de Aranjuez, due, I believe, to the lovely Miles Davis disc. The other is Asturias, which Andrés Segovia played the world over, and which has been used in movies and TV commercials to no end. Highly recognizable, but I'll wager that practically nobody would be able to name the piece or the composer.

I mean popularity among those interested in classical music or those playing classical music.

(I've heard the Goldberg Variations at many rock concerts. It was even used as the main theme in a movie)

I think Wilhelm Kempff did a lot to popularise some of the lesser-known Beethoven Sonatas, but I have to hand it to Kissin for his interpretations of pieces like La Campanella and the Rachmaninov Preludes, even though they were already very well known pieces his interpretations seem to have made them popular even with non-Classical fans!

And you could argue that David Helfgott popularised the Rach 3 but I think that was more the film than his poor interpretation

-Argerich for Ginastera's Danzas Argentinas
-Gilels for Medtner's Sonata Reminiscenza
-Hewitt for Couperin
-Howard for Liszt's lesser-known compositions
-Katchen for Brahms' lesser-known compositions
-Tanyel for Scharwenka

Though not primarily a pianist, Hershy Kay for Louis Moreau Gottschalk, half a century after Theresa Carreno's heroic but ultimately unsuccessful efforts. (I suspect no such efforts would have been necessary had Gottschalk, who was so immensely popular everywhere during his lifetime, had somehow managed to live past 40).

For Goldberg, my vote goes to Wanda.

The first recorded version of Goldberg Variations was by Wanda Landowska in 1933, on her Pleyel harpsichord.

The piece was essentially unknown before this; only music scholars were familiar with it.

I just love Bach's original title:

"Keyboard Practice
consisting of
an Aria
with Diverse Variations
for the Harpsichord
with Two Manuals.
Composed for Music Lovers,
to Refresh their Spirits, by
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Composer,
Kapellmeister, and Director Chori Musici in Leipzig."

http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/essay/cu4.html


Mel

Cziffra helped Liszt's popularity, at least for works like the Gallop.

I think Hough's recording of Hummel concertos, along with Ian Hobson's recording of Hummel sonatas, triggered a bit of a Hummel revival that is still kind of sputtering along (odd, they all have last names starting with "H").

Although the work still isn't "popular", I think the recordings of the Prokofiev 5th concerto by Richter and Francois showed that it was a viable piece (and playable), and that first-rank pianists thought it was worthwhile. Maybe the Browning and Hollander recordings should be included, too - I'm not sure of the chronology.

Although I know other pianists played his stuff, for some reason I tend to think of Aimard as doing the most to get Ligeti's piano music out into the world.

Wasn't Tchaikowski's Piano Concerto in Bbmi Van Cliburn's signature piece?