Composers of the "classical school"

[kay3087]

So, with the exception of a few obvious composers, does anyone know of any obscure, or relatively unknown, rarely played, classical composers that composed pieces for solo piano? Sonatas, preludes, orwhathaveyou. I would go through each of them one by one but that seems too tedious, and of course I trust the judgement and taste of this forum. 

[thalbergmad]

Well there are hundreds of them, but the ones that i think are worth visiting are Dussek, Eberl, Wagenseil, Vogler and especially Woelfl.

I cannot understand the neglect of Woelfl, but at least some of his concerti and sonatas have now been recorded. The Op.33 sonatas are georgous examples of the sonata form that i would rather hear than anything by Mozart. The piano concerto No.1 i can imagine becoming more regularly played in the future.

As Classical began to move towards romantic, Tomasek, Kalkbrenner & Cramer are worth having a look at and Steibelt can be immense fun.

I am sure i have neglected to mention many.

Thal

[kay3087]

Excellent post my dear good sir. I will listen to Woelfl first then.

[richard black]

Antonin (or sometimes Anton) Reicha is a personal favourite.

[weissenberg2]

Hummel & Weber.

[thalbergmad]

Hardly obscure and Weber is romantic in my opinion.

Thal

[weissenberg2]

Hardly obscure and Weber is romantic in my opinion.

Thal

Weber is classical. Have you heard the piano concerti?

I did not know how obscure they wanted and Hummel is not exactly performed often.

[weissenberg2]

More suggestions:

Arnold, Samuel

Balbastre, Claude-Bénigne

Beckwith, John

Benda, Georg

Bennett, John

Carr, Benjamin

Cimarosa, Domenico

Jadin, Hyacinthe

Kuhlau, Friedrich

Ries, Ferdinand

Van Helmont, Charles Joseph

Carel Anton Fodor

[communist]

Leopold Kozeluch

[thalbergmad]

Weber is classical. Have you heard the piano concerti?

Yes thanks and they would be one of the reasons i would put him in the romantic bracket. With the Concertstuck, even more so.

Thal

[thalbergmad]

I did not know how obscure they wanted and Hummel is not exactly performed often.

A hell of a lot of Hummel has been recorded. He is not even remotely obscure.

Thal

[communist]

A hell of a lot of Hummel has been recorded. He is not even remotely obscure.

Thal

It depends what they mean by obscure. I see how one can say Hummel is obscure since you don't see his works performed very often granted most of it has been recorded. I personally would not consider him obscure, just less famous.

Yes thanks and they would be one of the reasons i would put him in the romantic bracket. With the Concertstuck, even more so.

Thal

Weber is in between classical and romantic, some of it sounds romantic whilst some of it sounds classical.

[communist]

Are Moscheles & John Field considered classical

[thalbergmad]

Early Field such as the Sonatas and first Concerto are pure Clementi, but the nocturnes and other 6 concerti i would consider romantic.

I have not had a great deal of experience of Moscheles outside of his 8 piano concertos, but would consider him romantic.

The reasons i could not put very well into words. One gains a feeling from the music.

Thal

[thalbergmad]

Weber is classical. Have you heard the piano concerti?

[weissenberg2]

That does not prove anything. The konzertstuck sounds Romantic but that does not mean Weber is full a Romantic composer. The C major and E-flat major sound fully Classical as do many of his works.

[weissenberg2]

Do you like the Weber concerti?

[thalbergmad]

I think they are great ROMANTIC concerti. If they were not romantic, Hyperion would not have recorded them in that series.

I find it difficult to debate with someone who likened Mendelssohn to Schumann in another thread

Thal

[weissenberg2]

I think they are great ROMANTIC concerti. If they were not romantic, Hyperion would not have recorded them in that series.

I find it difficult to debate with someone who likened Mendelssohn to Schumann in another thread

Thal

How are they are Romantic? I don't see how they are remotely Romantic. Mendelssohn and Schumann aren't THAT similar but I find they are somewhat in the same vain.

They included them because Weber is in between Classical and Romantic, as is Kalkbrenner who they included.

[thalbergmad]

Weber leans towards full blown romanticism in his concerti to a greater degree than Kalkbrenner in my opinion, especially in the 2nd concerto and konzertstuck.

Kalkbrenner is amongst the group of composers that bridged the gap between classical and romantic, but he more than warrants his place in the Hyperion series as his concerti "can" be used as effective virtuoso display vehicles.

You are picking the wrong pieces for your argument here. If they were not Romantic Concerti, Hyperion would not have recorded them thus.

Thal

[weissenberg2]

Weber leans towards full blown romanticism in his concerti to a greater degree than Kalkbrenner in my opinion, especially in the 2nd concerto and konzertstuck.

Kalkbrenner is amongst the group of composers that bridged the gap between classical and romantic, but he more than warrants his place in the Hyperion series as his concerti "can" be used as effective virtuoso display vehicles.

You are picking the wrong pieces for your argument here. If they were not Romantic Concerti, Hyperion would not have recorded them thus.

Thal

I agree the konzertstuck is completely romantic (great piece). But the other concerti are not, they have some Romantic elements about them (chordal runs) but they have many classical elements about them, E.G. the orchestra plays the exposition then the piano comes in, the first movements are in sonata form.

I am not just talking about the concerti here. Some of his early works are fully classical sounding (E.G. rondo in E-flat, piano sonata no.1). The majority of them sound in between classical and romantic. There are some that sound completely romantic (E.G. sonata no.3 in D minor). Therefore I find that his name is appropriate for the thread.

[thalbergmad]

This is a thread about composers of the classical school and the thread initiator was interested in obscure composers.

Weber is an entirely inappropriate example as he is not obscure and he is not classical.

Xenakis would have been a better example.

Thal

[weissenberg2]

This is a thread about composers of the classical school and the thread initiator was interested in obscure composers.

Weber is an entirely inappropriate example as he is not obscure and he is not classical.

Xenakis would have been a better example.

Thal

As Communist had said, obscure is a matter of perception. Too some people it may mean "rarely performed" or too some people it may mean "rarely recorded, almost never performed".

He is in between Romantic and Classical (like Schubert and Hummel)

Not to mention she said "relatively rarely performed" and I think Weber and Hummel fall under that category.

[thalbergmad]

She said "relatively unknown, rarely played" and she was referring to Classical composers.

Weber is almost as daft a suggestion as Schubert would have been.

Thal

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I find this all very surprising. Weber is surely early romantic, and he's not obscure at all.

In response to the initial query, Dussek is the most obvious suggestion.

[weissenberg2]

I find this all very surprising. Weber is surely early romantic, and he's not obscure at all.

With the exception of a few pieces how often do people really perform Weber?

You don't think some of his pieces sound Classical?

[retrouvailles]

You don't think some of his pieces sound Classical?

No. He is an early romantic, just as Mendelssohn, Field, Moscheles, Hiller, and many others are.

[cygnusdei]

George Onslow (1784-1853) seems to have written quite interesting music. Here are a couple of albums of his piano solo and 4-hand works:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001VZ89QK
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ6J30

[landru]

In response to the initial query, Dussek is the most obvious suggestion.

Here's another vote for Dussek. I play a couple of his Melodic Etudes (not virtuouso stuff by any means...) and I think their musical quality is up there with the other classical greats. I would love to see his sonatas recorded more and even programmed for performances!

[thalbergmad]

Me too sir. Some of them are simply divine.

Thal

[thalbergmad]

The Munich Library has recently digitalised some Woelfl, which has been downloaded by me old mate Leo.

One of the pieces was the Op.33 sonatas which i attach for those who might be interested.

They are rather lovely.

Thal

[cygnusdei]

BTW, has anyone heard of *this* composer ...... ? 

[thalbergmad]

Heard of the man, but not the music.

Thal