Forgortten composers?

[precipitato]

Hi everybody!

These days, when playing or learning the piano, people seem to dig into the pieces which are in the standard repertoire, e.g. Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff etc. and many more. It seems like the already lesser known composers would soon disappear into complete nothingness :/ Once greats like Louis Spohr and many more...

As such, this as sparkled my interest, to possibly revive these works and perform them in concerts, and for personal enjoyment.
Any suggestions, and share these composers with all of us?
(maybe some of the really difficult works which match those like Beethoven's late sonatas, Liszt's warhorses, Rach's conc 3 and sonatas like these? ^^ to see them deserve to be better known...)

a huge THANK YOU to everyone who replied!

[pianoplayjl]

Thank you for having a heart to revive the old masters. There are a few that really interest me and I think that you can definitely tackle.
There is Thalberg. All his compositions have rarely if not never  been played by the famous pianists like Cziffra. The best stuff that he composed are the operatic transcriptions, particularly the Moses fantasy and The Art of Singing Applied to Piano op70. You can also try his etudes op26 that IMO are comparable to Chopin's etudes. Possibly they might even be up there with Liszt in terms of difficulty. There is also his Norma fantasy which Liszt reportedly played once in one of his concerts. I've only heard portions of his sonata but it ain't bad at all. For a concerto I seriously reccommend his concerto. Roughly around 25 minutes to play. But really look into his other ones because they are screaming to be unlocked.
And there is also Henri Herz whom I think no one has heard of. Most famous for his contribution of a variation to a collaborative work by Liszt 'Hexameron.' I don't know much about his compositions as I haven't heard any of them but I guess anything is better than Chopin reloaded.
And here is one of my favourite composers ever: Lyapunov. I only know his Transcendental etudes op 11 which was dedicated to Liszt hence the name. All are good but I recommend etudes no 4,6,10 and 12.
For classical period there is none other than Hummel which you must have heard of. His sonatas are inferior to Beethoven's but still you should try them because they are better than Mozart's sonatas anyway, IMO.
Charles Valentin Alkan. Arguably the most well known composer I've mentioned. His esquisses are short but fun to play (some of them) and should pose no technical challenges to you at all. Most well known for his etude 'Aesop's feast'. Check out his other etudes and preludes too.
These are the only rare composers I can think off the top of my head and theres bound to be a lot more to last you a lifetime. Goodluck finding a good piece.

JL

[precipitato]

Thank you! Yeap, i have heard of Thalberg too, its such a sorrow Liszt has drowned him so much! His use of 3-hand technique is something that wowed me rather much too. yeah, thalberg has already been on one of my to-do lists thanks for those works recommended!

I have seen some of Sergei Bortkiewicz works too, they dont seem too bad either!

thank you for all your comments!

[49410enrique]

hmm try exploring and reading about Dora Pejačević.

Maštanja / Six Fantasy Pieces; 1

Dora Pejačević (1888-1923) : Phantasie concertante for piano and orchestra (1919) , i'm haiving a hell of a time find a score though

lots of other pretty works by her out there

[thalbergmad]

Dora Pejačević (1888-1923) : Phantasie concertante for piano and orchestra (1919) , i'm haiving a hell of a time find a score though

The CPS has modern typeset Editions of both the above work and the Piano Concerto.

They can be ordered direct from the Croatian Music Information Centre. A most excellent resource.

https://www.mic.hr/products?select_search_by=author&keyword=Dora+Peja%C4%8Devi%C4%87&per_page=10&search%5Border%5D=descend_by_year&commit=Search

Thal

[49410enrique]

The CPS has modern typeset Editions of both the above work and the Piano Concerto.

They can be ordered direct from the Croatian Music Information Centre. A most excellent resource.

https://www.mic.hr/products?select_search_by=author&keyword=Dora+Peja%C4%8Devi%C4%87&per_page=10&search%5Border%5D=descend_by_year&commit=Search

Thal

thanks man! i had been there but i didn't see a translate icon before, much better in english, yeah  totally going to bookmark and come back when i have 200 croatian kuna saved up (i guess i need to read up on how to purchase internationally with us dollars, i have never been paid in croatian kuna).

https://coinmill.com/HRK_USD.html#HRK=200

[pianovlad1996]

I love Dora Pejacevic's TUGOVANJE from fantasy pieces because it reminds me of my mother who died. This piece has an unique colour that makes me cry every time I hear it. Thank you very much for bringing this jewel to our attention.
Love,
Timea. 

[pianovlad1996]

Sorry, I wanted to say TEŽNJA. But the other piece is also moving. 

[simeon_alojipan]

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[williampiano]

Most of Reinhold Gliere's piano works have been long forgotten. In fact, his Preludes op. 30 are no longer printed in books anymore, so IMSLP is the only place that supplies the music for them.
Here are a few. I edited these videos by the way.

[lostinidlewonder]

I am surprised nobody on this forum has heard of Cecile Chaminade.

I was suggested to learn Automne from one of my highschool piano teachers and I have taught it to a number of students myself over the years, it is a great piece and easy to read.  It was sad that this woman lived in a patriarchal society and this meant she was not given permission to ever study music at a univeristy.


There have been a great number of composers that I have never heard of, thanks to websites such as imslp.net we can become more aware of them. I make it a habit to sight read through music from obscure composers, I generally have been impressed by lesser known Russians and South American composers (probably because I love the traditional sounds from those places).

I personally find it much more exciting exploring the music from lesser known composers than studying the standard composers probably because you can be unexpectedly surprised (recordings I have heard from PS members such as Rachfan for example) . There is a never ending stockpile of music that would take many many lifetimes to play through and it is really encouraging to discover gems amongst the rocks.