Classical Listening

[North Star]

Yes, in all likelihood the Silent Songs are Silvestrov's greatest work.

You might want to consider getting the whole box of Hyperion's Brahms chamber music, even if you have other recordings of some of it.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/815OsKGwvXL._SX466_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Chamber-Music-Johannes-Brahms/dp/B001F4YGU0/)

[stlukesguild]

That set looks quite good, but honestly I have solid recordings of almost all of Brahms' chamber works with the exceptions of the Quintets and Sextets:

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/StlukesguildOhio150/BrahmsChamber_zpsx7o9cypr.jpg (http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/StlukesguildOhio/media/StlukesguildOhio150/BrahmsChamber_zpsx7o9cypr.jpg.html)

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/StlukesguildOhio150/BrahmsChamber2_zpsclfdgzrj.jpg (http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/StlukesguildOhio/media/StlukesguildOhio150/BrahmsChamber2_zpsclfdgzrj.jpg.html)

I'm looking at the Talich recording of the Sextets... and the Alexander Quartet... whose recordings of Beethoven I quite like... for both the String Quintets and Sextets.

What IS particularly nice about that box set is that it is not limited to a single ensemble. I tend to prefer to collect various the interpretations of various artists/ensembles/orchestras before I set about purchasing box sets of a complete oeuvre by a single artist/ensemble/orchestra.

[North Star]

That set looks quite good, but honestly I have solid recordings of almost all of Brahms' chamber works with the exceptions of the Quintets and Sextets:

I'm looking at the Talich recording of the Sextets... and the Alexander Quartet... whose recordings of Beethoven I quite like... for both the String Quintets and Sextets.

What IS particularly nice about that box set is that it is not limited to a single ensemble. I tend to prefer to collect various the interpretations of various artists/ensembles/orchestras before I set about purchasing box sets of a complete oeuvre by a single artist/ensemble/orchestra.
It's a good idea to pick the single discs of Raphael Ensemble's sextets and quintets if you don't want the whole box.

Time to spin Sibelius's Wood Nymph (Vänskä & Lahti SO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7tLqZXFMNo

[LitNetIsGreat]

Not classical strickly speaking, probably, but for the last year or more I have been enjoying the occaisional bout of Glenn Miller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n92ATE3IgIs

And all of the usual favourites...

Then just tonight I only thought of reading a little about him, from which I discovered that he died in 1944 when his plane went missing over the English channel while abroad going to entertain the troops. Well I didn't know this, very sad.

[Emil Miller]

I have been learning to play this piece in a simpler arrangement without the introduction but, even so, it's unlikely that it will ever sound as good as this:

https://youtu.be/Coa1XaGQuz0

[stlukesguild]

A marvelous work, Emil! Exquisite transcription of an achingly beautiful passage by Wagner.

[Emil Miller]

A marvelous work, Emil! Exquisite transcription of an achingly beautiful passage by Wagner.

Yes it's such a seemingly simple melody but amazingly constructed through a series of modulations that create the beauty of the piece. It's unlike anything I have played before.

[UlyssesE]

This thread is a treasure. Keep em coming! :)

[Emil Miller]

Having such a large number of You tube videos in my favourites box, I decided to delete some of them but this one's staying.
I have on occasion passed through the village of Limpsfield where Delius is buried next to his wife. Fittingly, Sir Thomas Beecham is also buried in the churchyard which I visited to pay my respects to the composer and a great conductor.

https://youtu.be/004hhSukj80

[stlukesguild]

Delius is one of those composers along with Rachmaninoff, Copland, Puccini... and to a lesser extent, Richard Strauss... who are often reviled by the sworn self-appointed champions of Modernism. Honestly, I can't understand how anyone would rather listen to almost anything by Schoenberg, Webern, or Xenakis than Delius. Then again, I'm admittedly a sensualist and I turn to the arts for pleasure, not for shock and unsettling innovation.

I've been listening to Sibelius recently... another great Late/Post-Romantic whose music was dismissed by the Modernists to such as extent as to reportedly have resulted in his near abandonment of composing or even talking about his music during his later life. Theodor Adorno suggested that if Sibelius is "good" this invalidates the standards of quality from Bach to Schoenberg, while the composer, theorist and conductor René Leibowitz went so far as to describe Sibelius as "the worst composer in the world" in the title of a 1955 pamphlet.

Really?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5zg_af9b8c

[Emil Miller]

Beecham also championed Sibelius and Richard Strauss who praised Beecham's performances of his music.
He was one of a long line of great conductors that seems to have ended with Karajan. I recently purchased a Japanese company's remastered version of Mengleberg's 1924 performance with the New York Philharmonic playing Stauss's Ein Heldenleben that is simply mind blowing in its scope. The sound is phenomenal for its time and if it cannot match the sound quality of Karajan's version with the BPO, it surpasses it in performance: something I never thought conceivable.
Here is an example of the stunning intensity that the giants of the past brought to their conducting: I'm just blown away by the Koussevitzky Boston Symphony rehearsal of Beethoven's Egmont overture ( at 18:36) where the dynamics and precision playing are extraordinary and unmatched by anything I have come across in recent times.

https://youtu.be/LYnqU4AJvtA

[North Star]

Delius is one of those composers along with Rachmaninoff, Copland, Puccini... and to a lesser extent, Richard Strauss... who are often reviled by the sworn self-appointed champions of Modernism. Honestly, I can't understand how anyone would rather listen to almost anything by Schoenberg, Webern, or Xenakis than Delius. Then again, I'm admittedly a sensualist and I turn to the arts for pleasure, not for shock and unsettling innovation.

I've been listening to Sibelius recently... another great Late/Post-Romantic whose music was dismissed by the Modernists to such as extent as to reportedly have resulted in his near abandonment of composing or even talking about his music during his later life. Theodor Adorno suggested that if Sibelius is "good" this invalidates the standards of quality from Bach to Schoenberg, while the composer, theorist and conductor René Leibowitz went so far as to describe Sibelius as "the worst composer in the world" in the title of a 1955 pamphlet.

Really?


I'm a big fan of Schoenberg and like some Xenakis, but otherwise I am in complete agreement over Delius, well, and arts in general as a source of sensual pleasure instead of uncomfort. Delius wrote some very fine music indeed - and was a pioneer in fusing African American music and European classical music.


As for Sibelius, I'm a huge fan - and not just because we're both Finns. I think you are wrong in thinking that the modernists were responsible for Sibelius's silence, though. He had health (and family) issues and needed to stop drinking alcohol, which had been for a very long time his medication for tremor. Additionally, he may have very well served his artistic goals in the last works as well as he ever would have.

Regarding Sibelius's innovations, his handling of time and development, or rather non-development, and textures and harmony, his influence was crucial to Feldman, minimalists and spectralists (along with the French, of course). I recently dug a few relevant passages from the Cambridge Companion to Sibelius and posted them in the relevant thread on another forum (where you are a member as well).


I've listened to a good bit of Osmo Vänskä & Sinfonia Lahti recordings of Sibelius symphonies and tone poems lately, as well as Erich Hoeprich & Nachtmusique's recording of Mozart's Gran Partita. All first rate.

[Emil Miller]

I've listened to a good bit of Osmo Vänskä & Sinfonia Lahti recordings of Sibelius symphonies and tone poems lately, as well as Erich Hoeprich & Nachtmusique's recording of Mozart's Gran Partita. All first rate.

I do not like Schoenberg's ludicrous attempt to create a new kind of music based on excessive use of modulated notes and/or chords as used with discretion by Wagne'. i.e twelve tone music. It was a dead-end leading nowhere because it abandoned the prerequisite of harmony.
The Osmo Vänskä & Sinfonia Lahti recordings have received critical acclaim as Sibelius performances but I ask you to listen to the 1950 recording with the Boston Symphony of the 2nd symphony under Serge Koussevitsky, which, among my other recordings of the work, is the perfect example of maintaining the line from the beginning of the music's development to the most stunning finale that currently exists on record.

[stlukesguild]

The poet, Randall Jarrell, speaking on the limitations of Abstract Expressionism, suggested, "perhaps painting can do without the necessity of imitation, but can it do without the possibility of distortion?" This question seems apt when addressing Schoenberg and his heirs and "atonality". Dissonance brings to bear a powerful emotional impact when employed by Biber, Bach, Rebel, Mozart (the "Dissonance Quartet") Wagner, etc... as these passages stand out in powerful contrast to the tonality of the whole. In this sense it is like the expressive distortions of Michelangelo, Bronzino, Ingres, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, etc... which strike me as having far more potential than absolute abstraction.

Again, there are exceptions. I like Berg's Lyric Suite... and a few other works. With few exceptions, Xenakis just irritates me. I far prefer Giacinto Scelsi or Tristan Murail... but then their works are very much "tonal"... or even "modal" like Medieval music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H__4F3t4IxE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4EIx0XzPzg

I'm also quite fond of Toru Takemitsu who builds more upon late Debussy (and even Brahms' chamber works) than Schoenberg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjvkYQgFbL4

Today I was listening to Furtwängler Conduct Richard Strauss & Bedrich Smetana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-F42vkGuAc

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/085/MI0001085771.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

If only Furtwängler had lived a bit later and been able to take advantage of the improved recording technology. Nevertheless, this recording is marvelous.

[stlukesguild]

My "go to" for Sibelius is Barbirolli:

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/584/MI0003584573.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

... but this Beecham recording is stunning!

http://cdn.discogs.com/_Z7GuLRMe7Ak3h5F9QGzJ9TOzbw=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb()/discogs-images/R-1384793-1317335537.jpeg.jpg

I must credit it with really turning me onto Sibelius.

[stlukesguild]

He was one of a long line of great conductors that seems to have ended with Karajan.

Emil... you may be right with regard to the tradition of German/Italian/French and even Scandinavian composers of the Romantic, Post-Romantic/early Modern era... and I know this is your oeuvre. I would disagree with you when it comes to other oeuvre. Jordi Savall, John Eliot Gardiner, Rene Jacobs, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Masaki Suzuki, Marc Minkowski, Valery Gergiev, etc... all all equally brilliant conductors specializing more in the realm of Baroque and "Early Music", the Classical Era, and in the instance of Gergiev, Russian music... especially Russian opera. These are all areas where Karajan, Furtwangler, etc... were not necessarily the strongest.

[mortalterror]

There aren't enough great English language songs in classical music. I envy Italian and Germans that they can hear so much great music in their native language. Diggin' this tune by Purcell lately (Sound the Trumpet).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDUEI4RDESo

Also, this might straddle the line between popular and classical, but I've been listening to this song by the Jacobean minstrel Philip Rosseter "When Laura Smiles."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svN6RCDtSCk

Rosseter was somewhat popular in his own day, but would probably be forgotten if he weren't the best friend of Thomas Campion. I didn't know that Campion's poems were meant to be played with a lute and he was trying to do some sort of merger of music and poetry like Pound did centuries later. Anyway, Rosseter helped him set tunes to his poetry, published with him, and when Campion died he was the sole beneficiary of Campion's estate. Here's what Campion's songs sound like:

"Shall I Come, Sweet Love, To Thee"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKClQ-Kevjg

It reminds me of that other great English language poet Robert Burns who wrote several hundred popular songs. Everyone has heard "Auld Lang Syne" sung at New Years, but have you heard "A Man's A Man For A' That"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZraF0AYKg

[Emil Miller]

He was one of a long line of great conductors that seems to have ended with Karajan.

Emil... you may be right with regard to the tradition of German/Italian/French and even Scandinavian composers of the Romantic, Post-Romantic/early Modern era... and I know this is your oeuvre. I would disagree with you when it comes to other oeuvre. Jordi Savall, John Eliot Gardiner, Rene Jacobs, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Masaki Suzuki, Marc Minkowski, Valery Gergiev, etc... all all equally brilliant conductors specializing more in the realm of Baroque and "Early Music", the Classical Era, and in the instance of Gergiev, Russian music... especially Russian opera. These are all areas where Karajan, Furtwangler, etc... were not necessarily the strongest.

Point taken. I agree that there are other conductors working in fields that require a different technique to those schooled in music of the period you have mentioned. I would, however, disagree with the view that Russian music might not be conducive to great performances by conductors who traditionally are thought of as belonging to the Germanic school of romantic and post-romantic composition. Mengelberg's 1929 recording of Tchaikovsky's 4th with the Concertgebouw is as stunning as one could possibly wish for.

[stlukesguild]

Of course you are right about performances of Russian Music. That's why I stressed opera. A good many of Gergiev's finest recordings are of Russian operas that have been long ignored of underrated: Rimsky-Korsakov's, Prokofiev's, Shostakovitch', etc... Beyond Mengelberg there was also Kiril Kondrashin, Evgeny Mravinsky, Igor Markevitch, and one would have to include Von Karajan considering his recordings of Tchaikovsky's symphonies. Then you have Bernstein, Robert Craft, Pierre Monteux, Ernest Ansermet, etc... as master conductors of Stravinsky.

[stlukesguild]

For English-Language songs check out Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Jake Heggie, Charles Ives, and many English composers: give a listen to Ian Bostridge' The English Songbook for a good introduction. Is the oeuvre of English classical song equal to that of the Austro-Germans? Of course not. But perhaps only the French come close.

[North Star]

Rattle & Bostridge's Britten orchestral song recording is a beauty, as well.

[Emil Miller]

Of course you are right about performances of Russian Music. That's why I stressed opera. A good many of Gergiev's finest recordings are of Russian operas that have been long ignored of underrated: Rimsky-Korsakov's, Prokofiev's, Shostakovitch', etc... Beyond Mengelberg there was also Kiril Kondrashin, Evgeny Mravinsky, Igor Markevitch, and one would have to include Von Karajan considering his recordings of Tchaikovsky's symphonies. Then you have Bernstein, Robert Craft, Pierre Monteux, Ernest Ansermet, etc... as master conductors of Stravinsky.

Yes we are privileged to have recordings of the great conductors of Russian music but, as great as they are, the acid test comes in actual performance. I was fortunate to see Mravinsky conduct the Leningrad Philharmonic at a red carpet concert in London many years ago: the Albert Hall actually shook with the fortissimo passages in Tchaikovsky's 4th in a performance never to be forgotten.

[Margerma]

What about Bach? Magnificent beauty... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lNyKPV65t4o

[stlukesguild]

Bach and Fabio Biondi. Great pairing. Biondi is one of the current Baroque maestros.

I'm currently listening to Stravinsky's Firebird with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic on BIS:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UOj5aIggL.jpg

This is a marvelous recording... and as always BIS' sound quality is absolutely stunning.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Wow that sounds interesting, will try to have a look at that stlukes.

Just listening to an old favourite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYjGkgzinU

Mozart Piano Concerto 23, which reminded me to check in on here and this thread in particular!

All the best, Neely.

[North Star]

Some recent listening

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B2In4RM7L._SX466_.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00164LYYK.01.L.jpg ]

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000231VD0.01.L.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000006PKI.01.L.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002AQ0.01.L.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001F4YGU0.01.L.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001IO152O.01.L.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000OPPSWQ.01.L.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81suQW38-LL._SX466_.jpg

[stlukesguild]

I took that Lutosławski disc to my studio this afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn't get to listen to it... or much else... due to noise from the neighbors.

Right now I've returned home to Bach... Karl Münchinger's good "old school" recordings of the choral works.

http://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/karl_muenchinger-js_bach_great_choral_works_a.jpg

Listening to the Mass in B-minor right now. I usually lean toward the "Historically Informed Performances" (HIP) but this recording is something else: a wall of sound... massed strings... massed voices... all gorgeous!

[North Star]

Noisy neighbors are a pain. A homecoming of sorts for me as well, as I plan to revisit all the Beethoven sonatas from François-Frederic Guy's cycle.

https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MlfEteugL._SS280.jpg

[Emil Miller]

This 20th century masterpiece never fails to impress. I am, of course, referring to the concerto.


https://youtu.be/_HM19vEelDw

[stlukesguild]

Why did I know Yuja Wang would make an appearance here? :confused5:

I spent today listening to Haydn:

http://img.cdandlp.com/2014/05/imgL/116144044-3.jpg

Haydn is one of those great composers that are underrated due to living in the shadow of a larger genius (Mozart... and later Beethoven). The man literally solidified the common form of the symphony, composing 104 of them... including endless brilliant examples. He is the acknowledged father of the string quartet and one of the greatest practitioners of the piano sonata. This, combined with his choral music, places him near the top of the classical pantheon.

Currently listening to the "Theresienmesse" (Mass for Empress Maria Theresa) performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was an admitted Modernist/Romantic. He was a masterful conductor of Mahler, Beethoven, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Shostakovich, Schubert... and of course, his own music as well. I would have never picked him as a great conductor of Haydn had it not been for a number of recommendations from trusted members at the musical site that Brian and I frequent. At the time, I believe, I got this 12 disc box set for a ridiculous price... something like $20 US. It is easily worth 3 times that much or more. These recordings are among my favorite of Haydn's music.

After the "Theresienmesse" I popped in disc 6: Symphonies 100, 102 & 104 from the "London Symphonies". Again... marvelous stuff beautifully performed.

[Emil Miller]

Here she is again with with a American 'classic' that has been a favourite of mine for 40 years or more.

https://youtu.be/MDxKtkkbE7w

[Emil Miller]

Are you a zombie? if you are not moved by this, the answer is yes.

https://youtu.be/wWnWZcTuqW4?list=RDwWnWZcTuqW4

[desiresjab]

Are you a zombie? if you are not moved by this, the answer is yes.

https://youtu.be/wWnWZcTuqW4?list=RDwWnWZcTuqW4

I have to agree with you. That was transcendant.

[desiresjab]

Is Hayden the most prolific of the legendary classical composers? 104 seems a staggering number of symphonies for any individual.

[stlukesguild]

Haydn was incredibly prolific. Beyond his 104 symphonies he composed 13 operas (although only the last few are ever performed and no where near the level of Mozart's efforts), 68 string quartets, 45 piano trios, 123 trios for baryton, viola, and cello, 14 masses, 3 oratorios, and countless other works.

Having said that, J.S. Bach composed nearly 200 cantatas which have survived (scored for a variety of instruments, vocal soloists, and choir). It is thought that many more cantatas have been lost... as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of his actual output. Add to this other church music including his Magnigficat, Mass in B-Minor, 7 Motets (again with many others lost), four Kyrie–Gloria Masses, the Christmas, Easter, and Ascension Oratorios, the St. Matthew and St. John Passions (again with 2 other passions... Mark and Luke lost) to say nothing of his huge output of instrumental work including concertos and sonatas for various groups of instruments as well as works for solo cello, violin, keyboard, and organ.

In touching on the question of which composers were the most prolific you might also consider the more than sizable oeuvres of Mozart and Schubert which were completed in a rather limited span of time, Mozart dying at age 35 and Schubert at age 31.

The award for the largest oeuvre in classical music is usually awarded to Georg Philipp Telemann. He was a friend to both J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. Telemann's oeuvre oeuvre consists ofmore than 3,000 compositions, half of which have been lost, and many of which have not been performed since the 18th century. Telemann composed 1,043 sacred cantatas and 600 overture-suites (an orchestral composition that was something of a prototype to the symphony... commonly based upon dance structures) as well as a large number of concertos, sonatas, oratorios, chamber music, etc... Telemann was long dismissed/ignored with the thought that all his works sound the same. An criticism also often leveled at Vivaldi's concertos. With the increasing impact of the HIP or Historically Informed Performance movement, many works of Baroque and earlier music have been rediscovered... and given appropriste performances/recordings. This includes Telemann. I have some 20 discs of Telemann's music (although to be honest this is in contrast to the 400+ discs I have of J.S. Bach's music.)

For those interested, the flute concertos performed by Emmanuel Pahud are a good introduction to Telemann:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0obtdzhuQIs

[stlukesguild]

I would also look into any of Elisabeth Wallfisch' recordings of Telemann's violin concertos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OQ0jPy8FrQ

[desiresjab]

I know that a few works of Teleman have been transcribed for guitar. Regrettably, I think I only read through a couple of them when I was active. Many of the forms you mentioned I do not know the normal length of, except I know dance forms are generally short, concertos and symphonies and operas are long and complex. Masses are long too, I guess. Hayden sounds like the Euler of music with that extraordinary output. Averaged out by the year, however, Herr Mozart probably beats most for output. Bach had rather an ideal environment for composing. For poor Mozart, freedom to compose without incredible stress was rare. Yet he managed to get it out. When you are one of the top three for quality, yes, I guess you managed. Look at Ramanujan. His environment was barely helpful to his interests. Yet that level of genius will often out. Still, I wonder how many great genuises of every sort have gone down the drain of history anonymous because the time was not right and they were in a bad place for invention.

Another interesting question you could probably give a good answer to is: Which first class composer has the smallest repetoire? There is some distinction in making first class on a small output. I do not have a trace of an idea on this one, except for the standard itself. First class means stellar. Gauss's standard of first class in math was that you understand Euler's formula on sight. Man, that is pretty stringent. Which stellar great had the smallest repetoire, and how small was it?

[stlukesguild]

Haydn was one of the great innovators of Western Classical Music. He essentially consolidated the key elements of the symphony and the string quartet... and was a major composer in each genre. Yet the whole of his oeuvre... let alone the whole of his essential works... would not likely outlast that of the whole of Bach or Telemann. Most of his symphonies would last all of 30 minutes or less. We're not yet up to Beethoven's let alone Mahler's sprawling hour plus long symphonic excursions. The orchestral suites or overtures as composed by Telemann and Bach were constructed of a series of dance movements that might add up to half and hour of more:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj_ZnUaH2gw

Cantatas range from 15 or 20 minutes to a half-hour+. Oratorios often last 2 hours or more. Bach's single work for solo keyboard, the Well Tempered Clavier is commonly spread across 4 CDs. Speaking of scale, you might also consider complexity of the music. A two hour opera scored for full orchestra, solo vocalists, and chorus is far more involved than a collection of solo piano sonatas of the same length.

Bach had rather an ideal environment for composing.

I don't know how ideal Bach might have thought his situation was. He had repeated disputes with his employers who struggled to grasp the complexity of his music. He was even jailed by them for a period over such a dispute. He envied composers like Telemann, Handel, and others who had access to top-tier musicians, orchestras, and singers... including female soloists... who were banned by the more Puritanical of Bach's employers. His works were often scored to showcase the one or two outstanding soloists available at a given time.

For poor Mozart, freedom to compose without incredible stress was rare... I wonder how many great genuises of every sort have gone down the drain of history anonymous because the time was not right and they were in a bad place for invention.

Mozart struggled in pandering to an aristocratic audience when the audience was shifting to one more bourgeois or middle class. His Magic Flute was incredibly successful with the audiences in Prague, and he might have done far better had he continued to work for such an audience in Prague... or in London, as Haydn did in his latter days, than to continue to strive for aristocratic patrons in Vienna.

Another interesting question you could probably give a good answer to is: Which first class composer has the smallest repetoire?

Well... the answer there depends upon how you define "first class". Mahler's oeuvre consists of 10 symphonies and a few song cycles and little else worthy of mention. Chopin's entire oeuvre is almost limited to works for solo piano and a few piano concertos. Henri Duparc is known almost exclusively for his 17 mélodies (French Art Songs). Hugo Wolf is also known almost exclusively for his songs (lieder). Then you have Mussorgsky, who due to alcoholism, produced a rather truncated body of music including the Night on Bald Mountain, Pictures at a Exhibition, his single opera, Boris Godunov, and a cycle of songs. I suspect, however, that there are many composers of renown having earned their place in the pantheon based upon a single work: Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, etc...

[North Star]

Another interesting question you could probably give a good answer to is: Which first class composer has the smallest repetoire? There is some distinction in making first class on a small output. I do not have a trace of an idea on this one, except for the standard itself. First class means stellar. Gauss's standard of first class in math was that you understand Euler's formula on sight. Man, that is pretty stringent. Which stellar great had the smallest repetoire, and how small was it?

Abel Decaux (1869-1943) produced only one work, Clairs de Lune, for piano (1900-1907). It sounds like something written after Schönberg's atonal works and Debussy's solo piano masterpieces, except that it predates both.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rjaFh5Nb4

Of more well-known composers, I would have to name Ravel, whose opus list is short not least because of his meticulous polishing of every work he published.

[Emil Miller]

Abel Decaux (1869-1943) produced only one work, Clairs de Lune, for piano (1900-1907). It sounds like something written after Schönberg's atonal works and Debussy's solo piano masterpieces, except that it predates both.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rjaFh5Nb4

Of more well-known composers, I would have to name Ravel, whose opus list is short not least because of his meticulous polishing of every work he published.

The question 'which stellar great' had the smallest output ? would, on this performance of Decaux, preclude 'stellar', however, Ravel must be rated as one of the truly great composers despite, or perhaps because of, his relatively small oeuvre.

[North Star]

I've been deriving great pleasure from these recordings this week. 4 CD's, each recreating a Schubertiade - chamber music concerts with similar programming to the events Schubert held himself, with solo and group songs, piano duets, sonatas and ensemble works mixed together.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71B0dmi8IaL._SX466_.jpg (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016VJM6GY/)

[Emil Miller]

Wagner was a revolutionary musical genius but he could only reach such heights because, like Newton, he stood on the shoulders of giants, but my God what greatness.

https://youtu.be/vrd0qTjp2rY

[14ks1855]

If you have not listened to the two cello Concertos by Nino Rota, ..do!

[kiz_paws]

If you have not listened to the two cello Concertos by Nino Rota, ..do!I prefer his Cello Concert n.2 :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKJzOOsZhY

Beautiful!

Welcome, by the way, to you, 14ks!

[Secret III]

I recently discovered Handel, a German conductor that immigrated to England in the 1700's and wrote many classics. I would like to get more of his music. Good stuff. Very Godly and righteous and loyal to the monarchy.

[Pompey Bum]

I recently discovered Handel, a German conductor that immigrated to England in the 1700's and wrote many classics. I would like to get more of his music. Good stuff. Very Godly and righteous and loyal to the monarchy.

Yes, beautiful. But check this out for raw emotion.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpoNjrM5DlY

[Gladys]

I loved the late Schubert piano trio towards the end of "Barry Lyndon".

As for Handel, I adore his operas. From Julius Caesar, for instance:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZwZnlfDaU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unb-z1KT3_c

[Secret III]

I loved the late Schubert piano trio towards the end of "Barry Lyndon".

As for Handel, I adore his operas. From Julius Caesar, for instance:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZwZnlfDaU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unb-z1KT3_c

Another recent discovery of mine is Chopin, a tremendously talented piano player. I listened to his solo piano works for hours.

[Secret III]

double post