List of Undiscovered Beauties

[Deinonychus]

I don't know A Young Man's Exhortation but that reminds me of another undiscovered gem of 20th C English music, which also ends quasi niente - Alan Rawsthorne's first Piano Concerto. I did try to learn the piece for a concerto competition at my Uni but it taxed me beyond my abilities somewhat. It is a wonderful piece but doesn't fit easily into the general current of classical music at the time. A similar piece, though better known than the Rawsthorne is the Piano Concerto by John Ireland

[SeanMartin]

Just about anything by Arthur Penn, a now little known composer of operettas in the era 1900 to 1925. Some of his earliest work was done in collaboration, but he was also a lyricist and bookwriter, and it's when he does all three that his talents really shine. Penn seems to have wanted to be an American answer to Gilbert and Sullivan, although his humour isnt quite as dry or focused. Still, you can look at works like CAPTAIN CROSSBONES or YOKOHAMA MAID and see that he may have modeled them after PENZANCE and MIKADO but definitely took them in his own unique direction.

[tickle88]

For horn players (and pianists) The Sonata for Horn and Piano by Bernhard Heiden, written about 1940. Available from G. Schirmer. A delightful work , tuneful and rhythmically interesting. I have the piano but not the horn part, and when I suggested it to my young hornist friend--the one who went to Curtis-- he ordered it. It arrived two weeks before we played it. (That's why he went to Curtis.)

[allegroamabile]

Two works that I am fascinated with right now are the earliest known clarinet concertos ever written, by Johann Valentin Rathgeber, a Benedictine priest, from his Concerti aus "Chelys Sonora," published in 1728. One includes a solo clarinet with a normal baroque orchestra with organ and the other one is for clarinet and trumpet, which functions as a double concerto. They are very brief, delightful works, which I would recommend anyone to listen to them.

[pianogirl23]

liszt's nuage gris
is a beautiful tense piece he wrote after falling down the stairs at a hotel in weimar
and was bedridden for eight weeks after the fall
i haven't ever really heard it that much

liszt's romance in e minor i haven't heard much

[KGill]

While IMO one of Liszt's best pieces, Nuages gris is extremely far from undiscovered...

[oczkom]

The two piano concertos of Zygmunt Stojowski (recently recorded by British pianist Jonathan Plowright) are well worth a read!
See also his violin sonata.
The same can be said for the two recently revived piano concertos of Henryk Melcer and Emil M?ynarski's beautiful violin concerto. By the way if anyone has a score for some of these please submit. thanks. Enjoy!

[The Aspirer]

Uh, I guess these are pretty unknown:

Valerie Capers: Song of the Seasons (It's impossible to find a recording, I've only ever heard it at Interlochen)

Geofferey Toye: Concert Waltz from The Haunted Ballroom

[sbeckmesser]

IMSLP has recently been getting lots of Graupner scores. His orchestral Overtures (actually suites like Bach's Orchestral Suites) are mostly undiscovered, mainly because they have had very few recordings. If you ever wish more of Bach's Suites survived the multitude of Graupner suites would bear investigation. Every one I've looked at has at least one interesting movement. This is extremely well-crafted Baroque music, like the only slightly less unknown wealth of Telemann's suites (which are supposedly all being recorded on the Brilliant label).

--Sixtus

[pocoallegro]

I tend to gravitate towards "undiscovered beauties" frequently, and while they are not all completely "undiscovered," here are some of my favorites that I encourage you to seek out:

Lili Boulanger: Sous bois
Walter Braunfels: Prelude to Die Vögel
Franz Schrecker: the duet in Act II of Die Gezeichneten (think Tristan and multiply the beauty and expression by about one hundred)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains
Herbert Howells: just about anything, but try Sine Nomine for voices and orchestra

I could go on all night, but these are some of my favorites!