"Inessential" Classics

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And talking of smittims - I had a two-page letter from him this morning. It seems he's in good or reasonable health but finds that 'Life's too short for the internet'. I'm inclined to agree!

Well many of us miss him nevertheless.

But to return to topic, Thomas Pitfield was a fine composer, who was neglected in his later years and still more so since his death. I got to know him when we sat on the same committee for a couple of years.

[Martin]

I should like to recommend the String Quartets of Elizabeth Machonchy and Hindemith's Kammermusik pieces. And from earlier times, the music of Landini and the organ works of Sweelinck are both a significant improvement on some of the repetitious extracts that are frequently served up on R3.

[DublinJimbo]

I'd like to put in a mention for Lepo Sumera, whose 3rd Symphony is a craggy, volcanic and sulphurously atmospheric evocation of Nordic Landscapes, but quite fresh and original in sound

Your mention of Sumera prompted me to listen to his 6th Symphony, which is the only one I have in my collection (the recording is by the Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Järvi). Further investigation is called for, I feel.

[DublinJimbo]

I'll nominate a trio of Russians: Arensky, Taneyev and Weinberg. (Okay, Weinberg was born in Warsaw, but was only 20 when he moved to the USSR at the outbreak of the Second World War and then spent the rest of his life there.)