UKH

Sitting in the car on a several hour journey enjoying some Max Bruch. Anyone with any interest in classical music will have heard his much-loved Violin Concerto No 1, but a lot will have heard nothing more. His writing for orchestra with violin solo includes some of the most luscious music of that genre. He wrote two other violin concertos which are deserving of much more exposure, and his Scottish Fantasia is also an appealing piece in the romantic repertoire. Even less well known are the pieces I’m listening to just now, his Appassionata, In Memoriam and the Konzertstuck. The first has a solo entry which makes me shiver, while the first few bars of the Konzertstuck I would recommend to anyone who thinks they don’t like classical.

Do you know the music of George Butterworth?

He was tragically killed on the Somme in 1916, but had he lived he could have become one of our greatest composers.

Two of his best pieces are 

A Shropshire Lad

The Banks of Green Willow

J. S. Bach

His three symphonies contain some luscious, Romantic-era music too. I have the Conlon set on EMI, coupled with his attractive Concerto for Two Pianos. I guess the recordings are knocking on a bit now but they still sound pretty good, I think.

I have heard The Banks of Green Willow. Did he write any more substantial pieces?

I have a 2-disc recording of the symphonies, but I haven’t been impressed by 1 & 2.  This recording is where I picked up on the three pieces mentioned above. 

I don't think so. He and Vaughn Williams were much into developing songs from historical English folk music, and he was a keen Morris dancer. 

Shropshire Lad and Banks of Green Willow are quintessentially English based on his love of the English countryside. Another piece in the same vein is Two English Idylls. The general feeling is that he was starting to develop into a serious composer of great promise who was still only 31 when he was killed in the War.

Certainly I find all 3 of those pieces moving and beautiful works. His music is original but similar to that of his friend Vaughn Williams, who later in life attributed much genre of his work to the influence of Butterworth!

He's not underrated by musicians. Just about every great musician under the sun knows that he was the greatest that has ever lived. His (continuing) contribution simply cannot be exaggerated. 

Felt-

Tongue in cheek?

No, not at all. It's like the Beatles, also underrated. With Shakespeare it's different.

Well it depends on whom you are talking about. For instance, I do not think that John Elliot Gardener (Spelling?) underrates Bach.

Last night fulfilled what I imagined would be a good prom at the Royal Albert Hall. I especially wanted to see Pekka Kuusisto playing (with Nicholas Collon conducting (some as expected from memory), and the Finnish Radio Symphony orchestra). He played the well known "The Lark Ascending" by Vaughan Williams (and I was glad that I was on the 2nd row standing in the arena, as he played it wonderfully, but much quieter than most),

but what was the complete revelation was the piece by living composer Thomas Ades. I expected something uninspiring for me. So I had perhaps underrated this composer, when I heard the brilliant music, "Marchentanze" by him. It was a good pairing with the VW piece, as it has bearing on nature and also on folk songs, and it is a lovely violin concerto, of sorts.

I am not an opera buff, but I am told that Ades operas are good.

Since the OP seems to be aiming at unrecognised music by composers known for other things, I will also mention that Pekka played an encore by Sibelius (as a lead into his 5th symphony which was also excellent). It was his Humoreske No 4, which was haunting, and soul affecting, and a fitting memory for Pekka's mother and brother who died this year.

I recommend listening to the concert on BBC Radio 3 on BBC Sounds.

Banks of Green Willow is almost overplayed on Classic FM.

Not sure about more extensive music, but there are a number of songs with piano accompaniment, from what I remember.

I love to listen to the classical music whilst driving or in the plane. It makes me calmer at times. I love to listen to the classical music whilst driving or in the plane. It makes me calmer at times. Although I am not a big fan of violin concertos. I like piano music and sometimes I play it on my own piano https://steinway.co.uk/piano/royal-albert-hall/ when I have time. As for the traffic, I prefer Chopin Nocturnes. But even his piano concerts are a bit too active at this moment. I miss good old times when I was still able to visit Albert Hall.

Let's go Gen X. Anyone who's played the Sims games will recognise Jerry Martin. I love this:

youtube.com/watch?v=apl52VZLHp8&

Of course modern composers tend to work in many genres, including classical.

Robert Simpson is worth a listen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09kfv0b

I wonder if his Violin Concerto, “Concentric Paths” might be of interest – a bit more challenging, perhaps. There are full performances online, but here's a 2-min intro by Pekka Kuusisto:

youtube.com/watch?v=YHQfkNc5pkY&

Yes, they get great reviews, although I tend to struggle with most operas, unfortunately – even with those by Kaija Saariaho, who’s probably my favourite living composer. Here’s one of her shorter pieces (7 mins), for violin & ensemble, introduced at 48:00 by the conductor:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0019xkz Prom 37: [...] violinist Maria Włoszczowska is the soloist in Kaija Saariaho’s ravishing Vers toi qui es si loin – a wordless love song, adapted from the acclaimed opera L’amour de loin by one of today’s true sonic magicians

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001b5my Prom 52: Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Pekka Kuusisto

I don't know if he is underrated so much as not well known, but Jan Dismas Zelenka does it for me. Wonderfully uplifting chamber works. See especially Heinz Holliger and the Camerata Bern.

I agree with an earlier post in drawing a distinction between "underrated" and "not well known". One of the mega-greats of the early twentieth century, Carl Nielsen, was scarcely known outside Scandinavia until his music was discovered and championed by the likes of Leonard Bernstein, although Robert Simpson had been banging the drum for him in academic circles for years.

As to underrated, can I stick up a hand for Roy Harris? He was one of a group of young American composers who were trying to develop a characteristic American orchestral style in the 1930s, distinct from the German mainstream domination. Of course, Charles Ives and George Gershwin had both produced their own highly idiomatic (in Ives's case incomprehensible) music earlier, but this was a deliberate attempt to create something that was both original and still recognisable. It's that wide, expansive sound that we nowadays associate mainly with Aaron Copeland, but it was Harris who first nailed it in 1938 with his Third Symphony. It was a sensation at the time and hugely influential. Harris however, because he'd found his voice and kept on doing what he knew best, was later snootily dismissed as a one-hit-wonder. 

I first came across him because my wife, who's a radio broadcaster, obtained a copy of his Sixth "Gettysburg" Symphony from the BBC record library at a listener's request. It "fair blew me away". It's still hard to find anyone who's heard of him.

Franz Schmidt 4th Symphony, the magnificent final chapter of the Austro-German symphonic tradition. Strongly recommended if you're a fan of Bruckner, Wagner and Richard Strauss. Not that obscure: Petrenko and the BPO have performed it https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/51178 and there are a handful of recordings. It gets performed about about once a decade in the UK.

youtube.com/watch?v=tiz4yHQUhlc&

Yes, agree that Nielsen is relatively unknown, and perhaps underrated as well. His symphonic works are excellent, with the 4th being the most shock8ng.

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt I think is underrated. 'Summa' (for strings) always puts me in mind of quiet contemplation among the hills and mountains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYSAxi86Wus&t=78s

Also Polish composer Henryk Górecki.  Symphony No 3 is mournful, but beautiful:

youtube.com/watch?v=87DJF1_vwQA&

I finally got the opportunity to hear Nielsen's 4th, "The Inextinguishable", live in the Usher Hall at the Edinburgh Festival some years ago. It didn't disappoint. 

Heard it live a couple of times. That “fight” between the two timpanists is one of the most thrilling musical passages I’ve ever heard. It doesn’t seem to get played that often though, does it?

Fascinating programme started this morning on R4 on the 9.45 slot of Vaughan Williams and how he tracked down the East Anglia sailor's sea songs and shanties. I didn't care too much about the formal singing (baritone) but the lyrical music he derived from them was lovely. Similar in many ways to Benjamin Britten. But the real interest was the story behind the music.

An old hill walking pal of mine came up from Worcester to stay with me in Stirling the weekend before the Queen's Funeral. On the Wednesday of that week he was going to see this performed in an anti-room of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Holds about 300. He reckoned it was being recorded with aim of releasing it for sale. He is a music buff but didn't know this work. I'll have to phone him to see if he enjoyed it.

He loves Elgar, which gives him added enjoyment when walking in the nearby Malvern hills.

Thanks for this – I particularly like the adagio

I read on Wiki that he played cello in the Viennese première of Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night / Verklärte Nacht, which is one of my favourite late-romantic pieces

I wonder if he has seen / would like Ken Russell’s Elgar (1962, B&W, 57 mins), some of which was filmed there:

youtube.com/watch?v=KPNrKx4dKfU& 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgar_(film)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0055952/reviews?spoiler=hide&dir=desc
 

Kevin Volans, White Man Sleeps in particular.

I'll pass that on. Thanks.

That's OK. Thanks for passing it on

I wonder if Howard Skempton’s Lento – which is similar to Górecki & Pärt - might be of interest:

youtube.com/watch?v=CT4arTGagPs& (13 mins)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r9rdl (12 mins) Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics: Artist Tom Phillips on Howard Skempton's Lento for orchestra, a completely tonal piece that he admires for achieving "content with simplicity"; Gillian Moore puts it in the context of the English experimentalist tradition; and the composer himself explains in detail the process by which he developed his initial sketches into the finished work.
 

Robert Spencer, composer of My Boy Lollipop

Discussion over, surely?

Classic FM  moment

They played the second movement of Symphony no 3 (Gorecki) with lyrics taken from a gestapo cell and written by a 15 year old girl before her murder - beautiful but gut wrenching....

Then the dj intoned "ahh relaxing classics on classic fm"

er.....

I think the following, on another piece inspired by the Holocaust (for string quartet & tape), will be a bit more informed (!) - available online after today’s broadcast (Radio 3, 17:00 – 17:30). The track list includes the Gorecki, but I suspect it’ll feature only briefly:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dpf0 Steve Reich’s Different Trains: Minimalism and Memory - Tom explores Steve Reich’s 1988 work Different Trains, its use of sampling and speech melodies, and its evocation of the Holocaust. Our witness is the author and journalist Jonathan Freedland.

It also featured in Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics, in 2011 (10 mins):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r9p32 Matthew Herbert, songwriter and electronic music producer, reflects on the continuing relevance of Steve Reich's seminal 1988 piece for string quartet and tape, where recorded speech leads the melodic lines to create a remarkable and evocative atmosphere. The feature includes commentary from the South Bank's Head of Contemporary Culture Gillian Moore, and we also hear the voice of the composer himself.
 

Thanks, I never actually knew the context of Different Trains (I feel quite the Alan Partridge). Will check that out.

Train fans might also be interested in El Tren Fantasma from Chris Watson, natural history sound recordist (and former Cabaret Voltaire). Remixed samplings of a transcontinental train journey -  youtube.com/watch?v=B5O-pitU9o0&

Yes, the Creag an Dubh Loch of composers.

I guess the context isn't obvious (I only knew because of a Steve Reich interview – which made quite an impact - before I bought the CD: youtube.com/watch?v=BhQfggqNuYM&)

? Alan Partridge & U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday ? (!)

Anyway, hope the programmes are of some interest – if you’ve got time to listen to both, I’d maybe try the shorter one first

I like your Chris Watson recommendation!
 

Different Trains made quite an impact on me when I first heard it ..... I named this new route after the piece: Different Trains (6c) 

Just reviving this thread, because I came upon a Janacek CD. I think he would certainly fall into the under-rated category, or perhaps just neglected.

I picked up this 2-disc CD after a Kendal Mid-day Concert a few years back having sat enchanted by the piano playing of Martino Tirimo. He walked very humbly on to the stage, played from memory for an hour and humbly walked off without a word. When he stopped playing no-one applauded for what seemed like an age, not wanting to break the spell.

The CDs include Janacek’s complete works for piano. I would challenge anyone who hadn’t heard these pieces before to identify, blind, the composer. The music is deceptively very simple and sounds, perhaps, like pieces for practice suitable for a modest pianist. I find it most suitable for when you just want to lie on the sofa and relax into a trance. One of the works is entitled On an Overgrown Path, not an apt name perhaps - my experience of overgrown paths is that they make me rather bad tempered - but the music is a delight. I have located the CD on youtube, where you will find, for a taster, the 4 movement piece called In the Mist

https://youtube.com/channel/UCLqo50zbSwGzchLTzP7SD9g

Janacek also wrote, I think, 2 string quartets which are unjustly neglected.

Anyone mentioned Hummel?

Only last night we attended  a performance by the exciting Mithras Trio plus excellent flautist Meera Maharaj playing Hummel’s arrangement of Beethoven’s 7th. It was great to see these wonderful young people having so much fun. They couldn’t keep from grinning widely. Which is tricky when playing a flute.

Thought I had some Janacek on CD but apparently not, must have been what we used to call 'cassettes'. Definitely watched some in the time Libor Pesek (recently RIP) ruled the roost at the RLPO. Glagolitic Mass, Tarus Bulba and that string quartet possibly.

For a complete change of gear, this a fun commentary on changing fashions in media:  youtube.com/watch?v=3urXygZXb74&