pieces that need more exposure

Just read the post about composers that are unjustfiably ignored, there are composers, not ness.on that list, whose oeuvre has some hidden treasures, overlooked in the modernday concert-repertoire, or there are some masterpieces, hailed by the critics, but never/hardly performed. My little beginning of a suggestion;

Poulenc: Les soirées de Nazelles
Reger: Intermezzi op.45/Telemann-variations
Rachmaninoff: 1st sonata,lol, Chopinvariations
Chopin: op.46
Beethoven: Polonaise/Fantasie
Weber: sonatas, esp.nr.2
Liszt: Scherzo und Marsch
Reubke: sonata/scherzo
Lyapunov: sonata/études
Dale: sonata
Chabrier: pièces pittoresques/bourée fantastique
Balakirev: sonata
Grieg: ballade
Fauré: ballade
etc.
call me oldfashioned, oh, rather don't.

Brahms:Variations on an Original Theme in D major, Op.21(?)
Albeniz:Iberia(performed but not emough IMO considering how great it is)
Chopin: Rondo a la Mazur Op.5
Bach-Busoni:St.Anne Prelude and Fugue
Haydn:Capriccio in G major
De Falla:Fantasia Baetica

Anything by Faure.

Frederic Rzewsky

Tomasino

Mendelssohn Bb Sonata
Chopin Cm Polonaise
Rubke Scherzo

Some of the pieces mentioned are not "overlooked" but are just too damn hard to play.

Pierne Concerto in C minor
Scriabin's Concerto in F# minor
Mendelssohn's Scottish Fantasy
Mendelssohn's Preludes and Fugues
All of Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues
Liszt Ballade Ukraine

Great choices. Let me add to that Albeniz's fantastic 4th Piano Sonata and his Azulejos (which was completed by Granados I believe).

What if 10% of aspiring pianists put the same time and effort, or even half of it, into Iberia that they were going to put into Chopin Polonaises or Liszt Etudes? How much richer would we all be for it?

Liszt.

Especially:

Pensée des morts.
Variations on a theme from Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.
Mephisto Waltzes 2 and 3.
Trois Odes Funèbres.
The Dante Symphony.
Der nächtliche Zug.
The lieder in general!
Christus.
Missa solennis zur Einweihung der Basilika in Gran.

^I'd say all of these are among Liszt's finest works.

Also:

Apparitions.
Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este I and II: Thrénodie.
Andante lagrimoso.
Grosses Konzertsolo.
Weihnachtsbaumin.
The 'other' Lied self-transcriptions (not the third Liebestraume or the Petrarch Sonnets, but the 'other' Liebestraume (especially 1) and works like Am Rhein, im schönen Strome, Der du von dem Himmel bist, Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth, and the revised version of Die Lorelei).
The tone poems not named Les Preludes.
Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters.
Psalm 13.
Via Crucis.

Many more. I think that Liszt's (annoyingly all-over-the-place) output is absolutely full of hidden treasures that are as good as most of the pieces that are more commonly known.

ALSO:

Chopin Op. 46.

R. Strauss sonata:

Zez Confrey: Three Little Oddities

There are a lot of spanish works I would like to hear more often. I especially love the Goyescas by Granados.

My number one choice for this category would be the Brahms variations on an original theme, Op. 21 no. 1, which another poster also mentioned. I think it's absolutely wonderful; for me, it's as good as the Haendel variations, but sadly no one plays it.

Also, Brahms' Op. 1 and 2 sonatas, they get overlooked due to phenomenal Op. 5.

A work that I've recently 'discovered' that certainly fits this category is Shostakovich's piano sonata no. 2.

Khachaturian: Concert Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
Debussy:Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra
Medtner: Piano Concertos
Rachmaninnoff: Moment Musical (i think its op.16)
Mozart Sonata in F (the one no one plays!!!)

K533/494? I'm working on that one right now -- it's a fantastic piece. The 1st movement is so playful and clever.

I also agree about the Debussy fantasy.

Rachmaninoff - Corelli Variations

Hi all,

I'd like to hear more people interpret the 'alternate' version of Scriabin's Etude Op. 8, No. 12 in D# minor:

Besides the Grieg ballade, Rachmaninoff 1st sonata, Chopin op. 46 and Shostakovich 2nd sonata that already got mentioned:

Chopin's Rondo a lá Krakowiac op. 14. IMO the orchestration in it is better than in than in the concertos.

Sergei Bortkiewicz's 3rd piano concerto. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S845YzYmvjk&feature=relmfu

Sibelius's piano music (especially op. 24).

Rachmaninoff's 1st and 4th piano concertos.

And there's lot's of good contemporary music that hasn't made it's way to standard repertoire (yet).

the 1st admittedly hasn't grown on me yet, but yes the 4th is definitely underrated! I particularly enjoy Michelangeli's recording.

Smetena: Czech Dances
Here are a few:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvqlOYlkUtg&feature=related

Clair De Lune.

But really, how about Respighi's preludes on a Gregorian theme? I'm in love with them, there are only a couple recordings I know of.

Schubert 959 could use a little more exposure. I feel it's an even greater sonata than 960.

Tomasino

But aside from the bottomless pit of freight and a certain sense of calculated terror in the slow movement -something that might be almost too scary -why else would you rate this sonata over the D960?

I have heard it in concert many times, I have read through it even more often, but with due respect, none of the other movements match the D960.

But am I remembering right that you didn't care for the treatment of the last movement's theme as much as its earlier A-minor sonata setting? (I could just look this up using pianoworld search, but it's more fun not to.)

-J

Bizet's Variations Chromatiques, William Byrd, the great and mighty Purcell (just ask GMH), Sessions (his music is ignored for reasons I simply can't comprehend, it's marvelous)

beet31425:

OT, have you ever seen the film 'Velvet Goldmine'? The Andante from Mahler 6 was used.

Yeah, lots of supreme scenery in the film, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was absolutely breathtaking in his sensual beauty, but it was the soundtrack which really caught my ear.

Has there ever been a movement which is so desolate and lonely? Those distant cowbells, that sense of yearning and abandonment, truly magnificently beautiful, if a bit uncomfortable.

What are you talking about, Ian?

William Byrd -both his Anglican and RC works- are CONSTANTLY sung in British cathedrals, there has never been any doubt re his status. Check out a recent recording from Durham Cathedral (Priory 801) of his choral works. Also, the weekly broadcast of Evensong via BBC frequently features works of Byrd.

Just wish I liked his instrumental works better, they are so dreary.

Alright, Jason! I was referring to his keyboard works. I guess I'm the dreary type.

Not so much the keyboard works, I was thinking of his consort songs with viol accompaniment. But perhaps you just had to be there at the time.

As we said in the 'Most neglected' great piano composer on Pianist Corner? thread, Heitor Villa-Lobos (one of my favorite composers) needs more exposure. His piano music is almost never played in concert.

Cristina Ortiz performs it very well. Here is a excerpt :

Cristina Ortiz plays Villa-Lobos' Poema Singelo

Anything by Stravinsky or Messiaen.
Hindemith Suite 1922 - and no, I don't care if Hindemith didn't like it.

Hello Beet and Argerichfan,

Ya got me. The yokes on me, and it’s all over my egg besplattered face. After reading your posts, I went off to face the various contradictions you point out.

On one level, there's no accounting for taste, and I could just leave it there. But in thinking it over, I can account for for my taste. When it comes to great music, many of us like best what we know best. I know that's true for me. And of the two sonatas, I know 959 best, in that I actually learned it a few years ago, and played it at as high a level as I’ve ever played anything. I only know 960 in the sense that I've heard it in concerts and recordings and have played through it a few times, and I know it by reputation. For me, then, given a side by side listening of the two, I’m quite sure I’d still prefer 959--and own up that I should not have written in a way that might have implied it is better in absolute terms--if that is, indeed, how I wrote.

That being said, the egg is off--but I still find fault with the outer movements of 959, and more especially, the first movement, which always sounds a little too Beethovenesque to me, a little forced in an LVB direction, and doesn’t seem as authentically Schubert as the often less structured, more lyrical, and more introspective Schubert I know from song. The other A major sonata in question--I think it's 644--which I also learned awhile ago, and could play, for me, at a fairly high level, seems more truly Schubert to me.

Tomasino

Prokofiev Concerto #4
Shostakovich prelude & fugues
Mendelssohn prelude & fugues
Shostakovich concertino (2 pianos)
Liszt b minor sonata
Bartok - everything

???

sorry, just being facetious

figured, but the rest of them were all good suggestions, so I wasn't entirely sure. I remember being disappointed when I first discovered the Liszt sonata, and then it turned out to be one of the most popular pieces ever!

The Mendelssohn preludes and fugues are particularly interesting - the only one on your list I hadn't heard of. Listened to all of them on youtube earlier. Very tasteful!

Felicien David's Les Brises d'Orient. I have a recording of these fantastic piano miniatures by Daniel Blumenthal. The ghosts of Chopin and Beethoven resonate throughout them. Unjustly neglected, indeed.

Everything by Hindemith, in fact. I'm having a great time making my way through his Ludus Tonalis.

If you're not familiar with the Prokofiev 4, give it a good listen... the 2nd movement is stunning. Hardly anyone plays it, they're either busy with the Ravel left Hand concerto or the Prok 3.

Couperin anything (note, there are 2 composers with this name!). I just posted the first Couperin in the ABF recitals!

There are more than two composers named Couperin. They were sort of like the Bach family of France.