Underrated Composers

This page began with a series of radio interviews I did with Marty Ronish at KHFM radio in 2000. I presented music that for lack of a better word gets overlooked by the vast majority of classical listeners. By no means am I discounting the value of Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven. They clearly deserve the reputation they have, however composers can languish if they never have a champion to bring the music to the masses. Franz Schubert is a perfect example of a composer who wrote for himself and close friends and was forgotten after his death until Robert Schumann began promoting his works some twenty years later. J.S. Bach was forgotten for decades until his work began to reemerge in the 19th century.

I have realized the five years this page has been around that there are many others who value the music of these composers and are drawn to their unique styles and voices. I hope you are able to learn something of value from these underrated composers.

Franz Berwald
Frank Bridge
Ernö Dohnányi
Zdenêk Fibich
Joseph Martin Kraus
Albéric Magnard
Nicolas Méhul
Carl Nielsen
Sir Hubert Parry
Hans Pfitzner
Max Reger
Alexander Zemlinsky

Franz Berwald

Franz Berwald (1796-1868) Struggled throughout his life for acceptance from the musical establishment in his native Sweeden. After playing violin and viola for most of his youth in the Royal Chapel Orchestra in Stockholm he began writing chamber music of which the Grand Septet (1818) stands out. Giving up on music for extended periods of his life he moved to Berlin where he started an orthopedic institute and later ran a brick factory. The lack of success may have stemmed from his "difficult" personality as noted by Mendelssohn after a meeting in Berlin.

Berwald notoriety stems from his orchestral music, particularly the four symphonies he wrote after leaving the orthopedic institute and moving to Vienna in the 1840's. Only one of these (the Sinfonie Singuliére) was performed during his lifetime. They feature an energy and freshness that appeal on a first listening. During this time Berwald also composed several tone poems of which the overture to Estrella de Soria is best known.

Berwald Links

Frank Bridge

Frank Bridge (1879-1941) unfortunately, is best known as the teacher of Benjamin Britten. While this is certainly a credit to his skills as an educator it does over shadow what Bridge acomplished as a composer. As many English composers began, Bridge studied with Stanford at the Royal College of Music. He was a skilled violist playing with the Joachim Quartet and later the English String Quartet. He began to write chamber music at first; writing several Phantasie pieces sharing much with his comtemporaries John Ireland, and Arnold Bax. In 1912 he wrote The Sea which would become his best known orchestral work. While he still used pastoral and folk material, outside forces would move his style in a new direction.

Bridge was deeply affected by the Frist World War. His life-long pacifist views compelled him to rework his style, becoming one of the most forward-looking of the English composers at the time. While he never adopted 12-tone techniques, his music began pushing harmonic boundries from the 20's until the end of his life. Such late masterpieces include the Piano Sonata, the Third String Quartet, The Second Piano Trio, and a work for piano and orchestra Phantasm. Other than Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Bridge's best known work is his Cello Sonata, made famous in a recording by Rostropovich.

Bridge Links

Ernö Dohnányi

Ernö Dohnányi (1877-1960) was a Late-Romantic long after it was fashionable to be one. One of the big three Hungarian composers, [Bartók, Kodály, and Dohnányi] from the time he wrote his first mature works in the 1890's to his late work of the 1950's, his style changed little. This could be considered a drawback if it not for the fact that Dohnányi achieved his ideal music early in life. Bach can hardly be called an innovator yet we treasure his music. Dohnányi's neglect lies in the fact he was overshadowed in his own country by the more progressive music of Bartók. His work is very much in the vein of Brahms, who praised Dohnányi early work. The music is well worth discovering for its musical merit.

Dohnányi Links

Zdenêk Fibich

Zdenêk Fibich (1850-1900) falls somewhere between Smetana and Dvorák in the Czech national school, and they along with Brahms, Schumann and Wagner were major influences. In many ways he preempted innovations by Smetana, including the first use of a Polka in place of a Scherzo in a String Quartet. He also started work on a nationalist tone poem cycle a year before Smetana began work on Ma Vlast in 1874. Fibich's true gift was melody and this is most apparent in his late piano works, called Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences. His opera trilogy Hippoamie and his three completed Symphonies are his most attractive works.

The Quintet op. 42 (1893) is also a masterpiece, scored for the unusual combination of violin, cello, clarinet, horn, and piano. This work presents an lyrical mix of Brahms and Dvorák along with some masterful instrumentation and is one of his most rewarding pieces.

Fibich Links

Joseph Martin Kraus

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) has many similarties to Mozart. They were born six months apart with Mozart being born in Austria and Kraus in Germany. Mozart and Kraus died at about the same time, roughly a year apart. Like Mozart's Requiem, Kraus had recently completed a funeral cantata before he died. The major difference however was Mozart lived in Vienna, a musical capitol while Kraus lived in Stockholm, a musical backwater at the time.

Kraus was born into a well-to-do family and was able to study law in Germany. In 1778 he moved to what would become his adopted home in Sweeden. It was here where he began conducting and had relatively easy success obtaining appointments. In 1782 King Gustavus III sent Kraus abroad to continue his study of music. He spent five years traveling and met such notables as Gluck, and Haydn who both praised Kraus' ambitious symphonies. Kraus is also linked with the "Strum und Drang" literary movement. While he was perhaps one of its younger members. The stylistic effects contributed greatly to his symphonic style; Particularly the minor key works which were so much a feature of Strum und Drang.

Kraus returned to Sweeden in 1788 and served as Hovkapellmästare until his death from tuberculosis. It was this late period in Stockholm which produced his most striking works. In all Kraus wrote 14 symphonies which are still extant. Two cantatas written for Gustave III, two operas, a violin concerto and numerous chamber and solo keyboard works. Kraus is included in that handful of composers who always wrote something interesting.

Kraus Links

Albéric Magnard

Magnard (1865-1914) is often thought of as a French composer who adhired to a Wagnerian approach when composing. Born into an intellectual family on the same day as Carl Nielsen, Magnard first studied law. He then chose to study music at the Paris Conservatore with Massenet and Dubois. He then began studying with and later entered Vincent d'Indy's Schola Cantorum in 1888. This was a school set up originally to teach young French composers about plainchant and Palestrina. It was unique in that it stressed a "complete" education for its students. The school was famous, producing such composers as Georges Auric, Joseph Canteloube, Albert Roussel, Joaquin Turina, and Érik Satie.

Magnard studied with d'Indy for four years and at the end of this time had composed two symphonies, an opera, and many piano pieces. In 1897 he became partially deaf and didn't do his music any favor by refusing all publishing offers. He instead would self publish his music. In 1904 Magnard moved with his family to an estate in Baron (Oise). He spent less time in Paris and had few friends promoting his music. Tragedy stuck on September 3, 1914 when German soldiers entered his house. A battle ensued and Magnard died. His house torched along with many manuscripts. He became a victim of the horrors of World War I.

Magnard produced relatively few works throughout his life but they are of high quality. His four symphonies are his most popular works. The last two display a superior command of technique and orchestration. He also wrote three operas along with their libretti. Serveral fine shorter orchestral works including Hymne à la Justice. A Wind Quintet with piano, String Quartet, Piano Trio, Violin Sonata, and Cello Sonata make up his chamber output. The Violin Sonata is a beast of a work lasting over forty minutes and with a massive piano part. No doubt the dedication to Ysaÿe had something to do with this. Magnard also produced some evocative vocal and piano works. His life as an iconoclast serves as a strong reference point to his music, but this is well worth the journey.

Magnard Links

Etienne Nicolas Méhul

Etienne Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817) is much like his contemporary Hummel in that his fame rests more upon when he lived rather than what he accomplished. Having been born at the right time in France allowed Méhul to become one of the principal composers of the Napoleonic era. Arriving in Paris in 1778, Méhul kept a low profile studying his craft until after the French Revolution in 1789. The climate in Paris had changed and the time was ripe for Méhul's first opera Euphrosine to be performed in 1790. Méhul continued to produce an opera each year. Sometimes enlisting the colaboration of composers like Cherubini and R. Kreutzer. His most famous opera was Joseph (1807), which dubiously lent a tune to the Nazis over 140 years later.

Méhul wrote several patriotic anthems during the 1790's and in 1793 was appointed member of the Institute National de Musique. In 1808 Méhul began to write four symphonies which would represent the finest French symphonies before Berlioz. While these works recieved many performances after Méhul's death as well as praise from Schumann and Mendelssohn, they would fade into obscurity. Two of the symphonies remained lost until 1979 when a set of parts were discovered.

While Méhul was a bit of a one trick pony, Lully, Rameau, and Gluck all bear a resemblance with their focus on stage works. The fact that he branched out into the symphony stands as a bold example to future French composers.

Méhul Links

Carl Nielsen

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) was grouped with other Scandanavian composers of his generation such as Sibelius and Stenhammer, but is vastly different in his approach to music. He is more influenced by Mozart and Palestrina than Brahms and Wagner. Compared to most of his contemporaries, he was way ahead of them in form and dissonance as well as simplicity. He preceded Bartók and Stravinsky by a decade and yet we rarely see Nielsen trying to be "progressive."

Nielsen was born in rural Denmark and studied cornet with his father and violin with the local schoolmaster. He moved to Copenhagen and in 1889 was accepted into the Royal Chapel Orchestra. He held several other major post throughout his life until his death in 1931

He is known today primarily for his cycle of six symphonies, but Nielsen produced a very balanced and diverse output oweing to his success in Denmark during his lifetime. Notable works include: 2 operas, Saul and David and Maskarade. Three Concerti for Violin, Flute, and Clarinet. The Helios overture has become popular as well as the overture to Maskarade. Chamber works including four string quartets, a string quintet, two violin sonatas, and an excellent wind quintet. Choral works of which the oratorio Hymnus amoris is best known. Piano works including the wonderful Chaconne. Organ works include a great late work Commotio (1931).

List of Nielsen's Works

Nielsen Links

Sir Hubert Parry

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) is today pricipally known for writing the famous choral hymn Jerusalem. While this stirring tune was written late in his life, Parry had a successful career that spanned four decades. Born in Bournemouth to a weathy family, Parry studied law and history at Oxford but found time to get a degree in music as well. The requirements apparantly were no whereo as difficult as they are now.

Parry studied in Germany with Henry Hugo Pierson and this Germanic influence is detectable in his music as it was in many English composers at the time. Assosiations with Grove and Stanford as well as his close friend and Wagnerian Edward Dannreuther led to some acclaim in the early 1880's. This was always tempered with the charge that Parry's music was to "turbulent. His Piano Concerto in F sharp major, as well as his Second Symphony "Cambridge" were written during this time. Several Chamber works including a Piano Quartet, a String Quintet and 3 Piano Trios, and a Violin Sonata and Cello Sonata of which many were written with the pianist Dannreuther in mind. Interestingly, several of these chamber work remain unpublished today.

In the late 1880's Parry began to write for the larger forces found in choral festivals such as the Three Choirs Festival. Three oratorios were written as well as an opera. The first of these oratorios Judith brought much acclaim to Perry and after working for many years at the Royal College of Music, Parry became director in 1894. This appointment would last until the end of his life. Some works he wrote late in life include the Songs of Farewell as well as An English Suite for strings.

While Parry can easily be pigeonholed with other Edwardian composers, many of his best works transcend the derivitave styles of his contemporaries and should be included along side the best of Elgar and Vaughan Williams' work

Parry Links

Hans Pfitzner

Though Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) died forgotten and neglected, he was in many ways the equal of Richard Strauss. They lived about the same number of years. They were both branded as Nazi sympathizers even though in both cases, they had a love for Germany and not the Nazis. And they both wrote in a style of Late Romantisism that was very much out of style in their later years. Pfitzner is chiefly known for his opera Palestrina (1911-15), and this has led to a neglect of his significant other works, Particularly his late works, written in a shack of a dwelling during World War II. These works possess a simplicity and directness that makes them very accessable.

Pfitzner Links

Max Reger

Max Reger (1873-1916) is known for his thick, academic style of writing and this is generally the reason cited for his music being unapproachable. It is true that Reger was a master a writing fugues and other academic techniques and was a thick scorer. But this is merely a vernacular of his musical language and once the listener grows accustomed to it, the depth and message may be seen more clearly. What is interesting in Reger is not the technical mastery but the restraint that he excersised in the most unlikley places.

Reger was prolific in every form and his valuable contributions in organ and chamber music cannot be overlooked. As he grew older, his "serious, Leipzig style" gave way to a style he coined as "free, Jena style." Reger aimed at a directness and melodic approach that makes his late works, (from 1915 on) much more expressive. In 1918, the Society for Private Musical Performances was founded by Arnold Schoenberg for the purpose of hearing "neu musik." Rather than playing works from the Second Viennese School, Max Reger was the most frequently programmed composer in the brief three years the society was in existence. The influence Reger had on composers like Bartók, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Webern , and Berg is undeniable.

List of Reger's Works

Reger Links

Alexander Zemlinsky

Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) has the distinction of being Schoenberg's teacher as well as his brother in-law. He also taught the wunderkind Korngold. He composed four very good string quartets which mirror the four quartets of Schoenberg in many ways. What is different is that the Zemlinsky quartets never completely breach tonal methods. He never went beyond his own technique and 100 years later, this might not be considered such a great sin. Due to pressure from the Nazis, the fourth quartet was not publicly performed until 1967 by the Lasalle Quartet, 31 years after it was written. The Lasalle quartet also made the first complete cycle for DG, which is unfortunatly out of print for the time being. Zemlinsky's great achievement however, is his operas.