Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner The Best Neglected Pieces and Composers

They're out there, but most people are unaware of them or just plain unaware of how good they really are. I have some, and I would like to see if any one else does too. Here goes mine for neglected pieces:

Hummel - Piano Concertos
Busoni - Piano Concerto
Liszt - Spanish Rhapsody (starting to get performed more)
Grieg - Ballade
Schumann - Sonata #3 "Concerto without an orchestra"
Rachmaninoff - Sonata #1

Now for neglected composers, I got:

Medtner
Alkan
Grieg (Other than his piano concerto, his music is not very well known)

And I know there's many, many more out there. Hopefully we can get a good list of both pieces and composers that are neglected. Then we can do our part, which is to give them a chance.

Alfred Schnittke deserves a place amongst the great twentieth century composers...so im gonna add him to the list...his music is often atonal, but very emotional, and often combined a number of muscal styles often jarringly juxtaposed...and its the darkest most psychologically disturbing music ever! Since his death in the early 1990's he is starting to be performed much more often, but he's nowhere near being anything like a mainstream artist.

He has a number of good piano work, is second piano sonata is on of my favorites of his...ill add that to the list to.
And His concerto for piano and string orchestra is amazing, and his piano quintet is a masterpiece

In general i would say the performing community shoud do more to promote twentieth century repertoire (by that i mean serial and atonal music)

I love Hummels piano sonata's!!!!

Nicholas Flagello is a great composer who died only recently (1994), he has a lot of good works for piano (2 waltzes, a great piano sonata, an etude and a bunch of other things)and orchestra. You can read some more about him at www.flagello.com . I have learned his 2 waltzes, and I think they are very interesting pieces, a nice mix of modernisn and romantacism.

I have a special liking for Leon Kirchner's Piano Sonata. For me, it belongs right alongside the Barber, Carter, and Sessions sonatas as being one of the best American piano sonatas out there.

Although I had heard his name quite often, I just recently discovered what a great composer Samuel Barber is. He is relatively famous I guess, but not as much as he should be IMO. I think he really stands out when all the 20th century composers begin to sound the same. I also think Alkan deserves more attention, especially by us pianists searching for the most insane of challenges.

Mike

I'm going to have to add Prokofiev's 2nd Concerto, it's just too good to not be performed more often. The first movement is one of my all time favorites.

WARNING: BRAGGING BELOW
--------------------------------
I saw Volodos perform the Prokofiev 2nd and it was amazing...well he was amazing. But I was a little distracted because I could hear him humming and singing to himself the parts he was playing or about to play. This was due to the fact that I was sitting front row center, and he was unusually close to the edge of the stage, putting about 5 feet between him and myself. I believe I was more nervous then he probably was because I felt like anything I did he would notice and might knock his concentration off. I was like sitting there frozen trying not to breath, worrying that I would drop something or cough. Granted, the sound wasn't as good sitting that close, but I wouldn't have traded that seat for any other in the house. It was quite an experience...
--------------------------------
END OF BRAGGING

Jean Sibelius has some very good piano stuff. International Piano Quarterly wrote a good-sized article on his piano works about a year or year and-a-half ago. I had already stumbled upon some of his stuff, and really liked some of it. His sheet music is almost impossible to find via normal channels though. Naxos is putting out a complete "cycle" of his piano works. Many of the discs are available already.

Leos Janacek is a terrific, nearly ignored composer. I include a link to a discussion at another site.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/music/messages/69526.html

How about the area of women composers? There are quite a few pieces by Clara Schumann that I really like. Also, I think Chaminade's Automne Op. 35 is gorgeous!

April

I'm not real familiar with most of his stuff, but one of my teachers did give his "Romance" to work on and I really enjoyed it...

The "other" Danza Espanolas by Granados. We always hear #s 4 and 5. But numbers 2 and 8 (for example) are absolutely AWESOME.

Mompou is much neglected, yet much of his music is certainly the equal of, if not greater than, Satie.

Thanks for the info, Rick! -- I was not aware of this music.
I love unwinding after a long day to Sibelius' Sym #4 & 6 -- Esp #4!

_Brad

I'm playing Granados' Valses Poeticos lately, and it's really a beautiful work. I think it's often unfairly discounted as being a "pedagogical" work (it was written as a prelude to some Schumann and is close to the simplified Brahms waltzes in difficulty.)

I'll second the motion on Mompou as well and believe that his works make much better concert music than Satie. He's a superb miniaturist - I especially like the Scenes from Childhood.

Jeffylube, I saw Volodos play the 2nd prokofiev too! It was INCREDIBLE! I was right off to the side, on the stage, in one of those boxes. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I was just thinking about this subject, and i really think Prokofiev is largly ignored. I believe him to be a genius as great as Chopin or Liszt. His music, for its time, was very progressive, but very well structured. I believe just as Rachmaninoff is " coming back" , i believe that people will soon see Prokofiev's music for what it truly is.

Prokofiev ignored? The 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th sonatas are all quite common. (And I think the 8th is gaining respect - the 9th, however, does deserve more performances...) The Toccata makes regular appearances as well.

And of course everyone knows the 1st and 3rd concerti. I'll agree though that the 2nd could stand more hearings. I also try to get people fired up about the 5th concerto. It's easily my second favorite (the 3rd being my first), and Richter's recording is stunning.

Of course, some Prokofiev still deserves more hearings. The Visions, Sarcasms, and Romeo & Juliet suite are all very good, as are several of the lesser known pieces.