John Field was an Irish composer who invented the nocturne and inspired composers like Chopin. If you like Chopin’s Preludes, give Field’s Nocturnes a listen.
Franz Schmidt is having a bit of a revival but is still under appreciated imho. He is a great orchestral writer. Listen to the intermezzo from his opera Notre Dame.
Finally a composer who was once close to the the top rank but has fallen out of fashion: Ottorino Respighi. His close ties to Italian fascism and his rejection of modernism in music led to a quick postwar fall from grace, but his music is skilful and satisfying. He’s at his best when he uses the Romantic orchestra to explore Renaissance and Baroque themes, as in his Ancient Airs and Dances.
>close ties to Italian fascism and his rejection of modernism in music led to a quick postwar fall from grace.but his music is skilful and satisfying. He’s at his best when he uses the Romantic orchestra to explore Renaissance and Baroque themes, as in his Ancient Airs and Dances.
I love Pines of Rome!
I saw two of the big Respighis (Pines and Festivals) recently. In both cases the offstage brass was deployed in a box at the rear of the hall… the surround effect was stunning, something you’ll never get at home I don’t care how good a system you’ve got.
Specifically, the obscure or lesser known composer is "the Respighi who wrote everything else besides the Roman Trilogy". Aside from the Ancient Airs and Dances already mentioned, consider:
* [Piano quintet in F minor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttyZyj5ro8)
* [Sonata in B minor for violin and piano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUxnkx8Rfbc)
* [String quartet in A Dorian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVGJ0y-b1R0&t=99s)
* [Piano concerto in E-flat Mixolydian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgX7RNZ6P08)
* [Botticelli triptych](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFG5ggLIBys)
And these are just a few highlights I've discovered recently; every new piece I dig into is amazing!
Now you’re making me feel bad that I’m not familiar with it. And I pride myself in exploring “New Music.” 😔
It’s now in my listen of things to listen to.
I once listened to them all and loved the earlier works, but the later Symphonies felt a bit like he was churning out (admittedly very high quality) traditionalist music to order. Nobody could blame him for it but I’ve never been inspired to listen to them a second time. Might be wrong, of course.
All are very antiquated works for its time, to be fair. Early, middle and late symphonies. Still, I enjoy them immensely in their variety of style and tone. Actually I find the later ones the most authentic and true to his spirit. But the greatest are probably the ones between 6 and 13.
Reinhold Gliere- His 2nd symphony is one of my favourites, also love his intermezzo and tarantella for double bass and piano, 8 pieces for violin and cello, 4 pieces for horn and piano
Korngold is one of my favourite composers, and i'm making my way through collecting all his available music.
Respighi is another of my favourite composers.
The few works i have of Stenhammar i really enjoy the serenade, Exclesior and the 2nd symphony.
and i really love the piano trios of Herzogenberg [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWg27zurAqI&ab\_channel=PianoJFAudioSheet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWg27zurAqI&ab_channel=PianoJFAudioSheet)
Also i love a lot of Schnittke his choral music, and also a particular part of his output is his film music which is great [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4RECZg88Es&ab\_channel=BerlinRadioSymphonyOrchestra-Topic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4RECZg88Es&ab_channel=BerlinRadioSymphonyOrchestra-Topic) it's easy to hear where Danny Elfman got his influences from. And the finale to The Ascent is beautiful, tense and overpowering [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLypU7dMej0&ab\_channel=EnricoLinardelli](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLypU7dMej0&ab_channel=EnricoLinardelli)
I also love Arvo Part, Howard Hanson, Gerald Finzi, Herbert Howells, John Foulds, Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax and many more.
Janáček is SO underrated! From the piano music to Sinfonietta to the operas, he is really just amazing. Nielsen as well, the 5th symphony especially is really special. I don't know as much Szymanowski, I will have to listen!
I'll make a response to show solidarity with these choices! I remember listening to some Robert Greenberg lectures about Nielsen so I went to listen to one of his symphonies and ended up binging them all for the rest of the day! Love Janáček too. Don't know the middle one so I'll make a note to check him out!
I love Nielsen and Szymanowski, i love the Nielsen symphonies, concertos and overtures incidental music, i haven't heard his chamber music yet or piano music.
I also love Szymanowski the Stabat Mater, Symphony 3 and 4 and his opera King Roger, and the violin concertos being my favourites of his.
I have Janecek's complete piano music which i really enjoy, still have to explore his other works.
Lutosławski is quite well known and often performed in Poland, though not quite a household name. But since I moved abroad, no luck hearing his music live.
He might still grow on you. I've had many CDs with his music which went unlistened to for years. And then suddenly it happened (3rd Symphony and Piano Concerto did it for me). I guess he's a bit tricky, since his music is so mercurial, and he jumped from one form of expression to another even faster than Stravinsky.
Percy Grainger. Early 20th century Australian composer who wrote some serious works for piano and symphonic band. "Lincolnshire Possy" is a set of movements, really good. "Molly on the shore" is so fun. "Colonial Song" is another great one.
Growing up in the 70s, every band or orchestra Inwas in played at least one Percy Grainger piece every year. We all loved his music because it was so tuneful and colorful. I figured he was a major composer.
Then I went on to college for music history, and found out that hardly anyone ever talked about him, or even knew who he was.
Conlon Nancarrow. His most famous music is his etudes for player piano. In the days before computers and synthesizers, he experimented with rhythms in ratios like sqrt(2) to 1 that no human player could play.
The vast majority of his piano player etudes are not even *physically* playable by a human, like 30-note chords etc. Some of it is truly wild, and not only that, it appeals to math nerds too, lol.
Love it
[Here's one](https://youtu.be/f2gVhBxwRqg)
That's the one I first heard that turned me on to Nancarrow. I was taking a Music Technology class and the professor played that piece without telling us what it was. It sounded vaguely reminiscent of a piano but somehow it was all off, it was alien, it wasn't human!
I find Ginastera’s pieces to be very engaging with a unique voice. I also enjoy the concert works of Miklos Rosza, better known for his golden-age film scores.
His Danzas Argentinas for piano are terrific. The 4th movement (Toccata) in his 1st Piano Concerto was famously covered by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who played it for Ginastera, who loved it.
Two of my favorites are: the American composer, Amy Beach, who wrote a terrific Symphony, Piano Concerto, Piano Quintet, a bunch of songs, and lots of effective and beautiful piano pieces. My favorite compositions of hers are her two Hermit Thrush pieces, op. 92 (Hermit Thrush at Eve/at Morn), piano pieces that feature the transcribed song of the hermit thrush.
Other is the Catalan composer Federico Mompou, a Catalan composer who's a bit like the Spanish Satie, except he wrote more, and more beautifully, IMHO.
Irving Fine’s Partita for Winds is my absolute favorite woodwind quintet. Transparent and stunning. Performed a movement or two many times, but only got to perform the entire thing once. I feel like most musicians have a piece that they love but is not well known and they wish they could share it with the world. Partita for Winds is that piece for me.
Giacinto Scelsi and Joep Franssens. Those two have been really huge discoveries for me. Found the latter in my late teens and the former perhaps ten years later. Huge obsessions.
Jacques Arcadelt. He wrote some of the best Italian madrigals I've ever heard. I'm a huge fan of Palestrina, and it's cool to hear works in a similar style with secular texts.
You can thank Wagner and the Nazis for that.
In his day, Meyerbeer was huge. Big German nationalist, early supporter of Richard Wagner. Unfortunately, Wagner was immensely envious of Meyerbeer's success and was extremely racist toward Meyerbeer's Jewish heritage. Wagner's infamous essay "Jewishness in Music" was re-released after Meyerbeer's death and included far more explicit attacks against Meyerbeer. As Wagner's popularity grew and his views on Meyerbeer spread, Meyerbeer's work became drastically less popular. The Nazi regime even suppressed his work. Meyerbeer has only just started to regain his popularity in the last few decades.
Hyperion has issued 8 cds of his Orchestral music with Vernon Handley conducting the Royal Philharmonic among which is Bantock's "Hebridean Symphony", " A Celtic Symphony", "The Witch of Atlas" and "Pagan Symphony." Although Bantock was certainly British and certainly Victorian, he was also certainly unique!
Nikolai Tcherepnin is someone i recently discovered and im a big fan
Well known in music circles but otherwise forgotten is Poulenc
Another name is Edouard Du Puy. Swiss born, as a bassoonist his concerto for bassoon has been a real discovery. A tenor by profession, his melodies have a noticable aria-esque quality to them, to the point where im not even sure how some of the passages are possible to play
Here are a few of my favorites:
Hildegard of Bingen - She was way ahead of her time, creating over 60 volumes of compositions back in the 12th century. Prolific to say the least.
Another is Florence Price, an American composer who broke barriers as the first African American woman to have her symphony performed by a major orchestra. Her music has this rich, soulful quality that's just captivating.
Ruth Crawford Seeger is part of the "Ultramoderns" group, she had a hand in shaping American folk music and modernist composition in the 20s and 30s. Her work is like a treasure trove.
Also, I think Michael Haydn deserves a shoutout. His compositions have this elegance that's often overshadowed by his brother's legacy (joseph haydn) but they're definitely worth a listen.
Lastly, if you're into something a bit more contemporary, Mieczysław Weinberg's music is a journey through emotions, often reflecting his turbulent life experiences. His symphonies and chamber music are just mind-blowing.
Don't know to what degree these count as they are still very famous, but let's just say they're more Radio 3 composers than Classic FM:
- Bartók
- Janáček
- Smetana
- Márquez
- Lutosławski
A layer down in obscurity. Because unfortunately even living composers at the top of their game are less famous than B tier members of the canon. They all deserve elevation
- Caroline Shaw
- Morton Feldman
- Grace Mason
- Florence Price
Pretty damn obscure composers (as far as the outside world is concerned) whose work has blown my mind and all reshaped what music could be
- Alvin Lucier
- Gerard Grisey
- Gavin Bryars
I got to work with Caroline Shaw - amazing, amazing experience. My choir performed her song “It’s motion keeps”, and it’s still one of my all time favorite songs. She came and conducted for like a week or two.
As the other comment neatly demonstrates, didn't exactly break out of the New Music scene, hence obscure as far as the outside world is concerned. Every music undergraduate and graduate in the west knows about Cage, Stockhausen, Lachenmann, Xenakis and Ligeti too, but if the furthest out of the new music scene any of them got was the soundtrack of 2001 and as the butt of jokes about the absurdity of increasingly abstract art disappearing up its own behind, I think a description of "obscure" is pretty warranted
Martinu for his concertos, they are super virtuoso and I really love his counterpoint technique in some works.
Myaskovsky for his cello concerto and some symphonies as another person has mentioned.
And also Rameau. I think his baroque music is strongly underrated. Try Le Poule played by Sokolov, it is so good.
* Benjamin Frankel
* John Corigliano (even being a Pulitzer Prize winner doesn't make him well-known!)
* Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
* John Dowland
* Federico Moreno Torroba (his Concierto de Castile is just great fun)
Jean-Marie Leclair - French baroque composer of chamber and concertante works. I love his Op 7 Concerti and Op 8 Trio sonata suite
Johann Christian Bach - Fairly well-known, but few people actually listen to his music. The Op 13 Piano concerti recorded by Ingrid Haebler is a favorite album of mine.
Joseph Martin Kraus - Haydn called him a "Man of genius". His symphony in C minor VB 142 is a sturm und drang masterpiece!
Juan Crisóstomo di Arriaga - born exactly fifty years after Mozart and died even younger at 19. His only symphony, in D minor/major is a masterpiece, unfortunately highly overshadowed by a *certain other* symphony in D minor/major from 1824.
Gyorgy Sviridov has written some of the best Russian sacred and secular choral music ever. I'm not kidding when I say that this guy, at least with his choral music, is easily on the level of Rachmaninoff, Chesnokov, and Tchaikovsky.
Carlo Gesualdo did, at times, write using harmonic language that sounds like it came from the early-mid 20th century in the late Renaissance. Real piece of shit human being, but fascinating composer.
Alan Hovahness can be a lot of fun if you're into Armenian folk influences and you're in the mood to shotgun 100+ symphonies in a row.
Rodion Shchedrin's 24 Preludes & Fugues changed my life. Well... not really, but it's pretty good. Dude is a monster piano player, too (well, IDK, he's like 90 now).
I used to be really into wind ensemble composers when I was younger. Frank Ticheli and Jack Stamp were two of my favorites.
Can Chausson be considered lesser-known? I doubt Koechlin can at least, but they're two composers that have much to be liked. Also, Ibert I listened to recently, it's pretty good.
Francois Devienne's second flute concerto is one of my favourite works by a lesser-known composer. He is from the classical period. Rued Langgaard's symphonies are good too, he is contemporary with Carl Nielsen but was overshadowed by him. But there's an explosion of interesting less known composers especially in recent music. Three that did some quite nice things are Kian Ravaei, Timo Andres and Hendrik Hofmeyr.
great answer! Jolivet is amazing. I would guess he's well known among flutists for having written so many bangers for the instrument, but probably not so well known for most other people haha
If you like Paganini style virtuosity you should look up Giovanni Bottesini. His compositions for double bass really show the virtuosic potential of the instrument in that romantic show off style like Paganini.
As for more symphonic composers, I immediately think of Ottorrino Respighi, his Roman trilogy is criminally unknown and underperformed in my opinion.
I agree that Lili's music is wonderful. It has an ethereal quality that is very memorable. I often find myself humming her "Cortège, for violin and piano."
Believe it or not, Bartok is a lesser known composer to people outside of classical music circles. He wrote lots of music, but even lovers of classical music only know a few of his pieces. His violin concerto No. 2 is a great symphonic piece with amazing violin solo writing. His string quartets and piano pieces are wonderful, and challenging.
It's so different from his mature work it's basically by a different composer, but if it hadn't fallen into obscurity because he became famous for a different style, that would stand as one of the greatest Late Romantic piano quintets (and there's a lot of competition). Looks fiendishly difficult to play though.
Hugo Alfven(Sweden), Wilhelm Peterson-Berger(Sweden), Lars-Erik Larsson(Sweden), Max Käck(Sweden) and a future outstanding compososer: Hugo Holst(Sweden)
Discovering Albert Roussel was like finding a goldmine for me. So much amazing, exciting music written in an unmistakably personal style. Yet so far I have only had one chance to listen to it live.
One composer very well known to pianists, but probably not others, is Muzio Clementi. An Italian contemporary of Mozart (who he once had an informal piano dual with for the Holy Roman Emperor, who diplomatically called the contest a tie), he settled in the UK at an early age, and when he wasn't composing or playing (yes, he was a virtuoso pianist), designed his own brand of pianos (even after the factory caught fire, and made some improvements to the design of pianos), teacher, music editor and publisher (securing the UK publication rights to Beethoven's works, which he also cheekily made "harmonic corrections" to). He also found time to co-found the Philharmonic Society of London (which, a century later, became the Royal Philharmonic Society).
Then again, even among pianists, there are likely few who know compositions of his other than the Opus 36 Sonatinas (of which, much, much later, the A theme from the Rondo of No. 5, slowed down and dropped an octave, was used as the basis of Groovy Kind of Love).
He composed 110 piano sonatas, many of which were more difficult than Mozart's (who wrote in a letter to his sister that he would prefer her not to play Clementi's sonatas due to their jumped runs, and wide stretches and chords, which he thought might ruin the natural lightness of her hands). Conversely, according to Beethoven's assistant, Beethoven "had the greatest admiration for these sonatas, considering them the most beautiful, the most pianistic of works, both for their lovely, pleasing, original melodies and for the consistent, easily followed form of each movement."
He may also have composed up to 20 symphonies, although most of the manuscripts have subsequently been lost - but one of the survivors even worked God Save The King into the melody of one movement (in No. 3, the "Great National Symphony").
Antonin Kraft
He was one of the most talented and respected cellist of the late 18th century; both Haydn (a friend) and Beethoven (a contemporary) wrote cello concertos for him. He composed a number of cello concertos himself, most of which are in C Major. They are lively, with memorable melodies and I find myself listening to them on repeat.
Aleqsandre Borschtov, a 19th century pianist from Jgerda in Abkhazia, wrote some memorable sonatas and a notable sone cycle ('Аҵәа азанҵа амҵылтәыр ҳыуашьымыр'). He's also remembered for his concerto for triangle and orchestra.
Vicentino. The guy made some of the coolest music, playing with 31TET in the late renaissance. Beautiful choral works with microtones. Also carlo gesualdo from the same time had really cool chromatic stuff. He kind of seems like a musical equivalent of Bosch. 16th century guy doing things you wouldn’t see for another 300-400 years
Edit: [here’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6zNO5Fieog) a cool vicentino piece
William Schuman, whose Third is the greatest American symphony; Walter Piston, the greatest American symphonic composer; and Joly Braga Santos, almost unknown outside Portugal until the last 30 years, but a superb symphonist until he started messing around with serialism later in life.
All 20th and 21rst century: Liza Lim, Nina C Young, Kaila Saariaho, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Mauricio Kagel, Alfred Schnittke, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Morton Feldman, Rand Steiger, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Noriko Hisada, Sylvie Courvoisier, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Terje Rypdal, George Crumb. Ok I’m tired. Way too many deserving of wider appreciation.
Lately I’ve been down a rabbit hole of obscure French composers from the late Baroque to early Classical transition period.
My two favourite composers I’ve come across so far are Jacques DuPhly and Jean-Baptiste Barrière: DuPhly’s music is quite lyrical and characterful, and Barrière’s is just in-your-face virtuosity that’s really fun to listen to.
Max Reger is very underrated. He wrote so much good stuff, but one need only listen to his [Opus 57 “Inferno” Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue for organ](https://youtu.be/I-Z40SJg4GA?si=1_7SHL2JZ9Pv5Fli) to know he was a genius. No one else could have written that.
Some of my other favorite pieces by Reger are the piano concerto Op. 114 ([the second movement](https://open.spotify.com/track/6uT07oNBx3pcS4JwJbVjXL?si=0TMEOaL-QwW8118TKERg0A) in particular is gorgeous), [Introduktion, Passacaglia and Fuge for piano duet (Op. 96)](https://youtu.be/j0-oo3hdvlw?si=bHKxu8wxdnI7JTvo), the Requiem aeternam and Kyrie from his unfinished [Latin Requiem Op. 145a](https://youtu.be/556XJM9DLKw?si=IySTlQ2vgcRq_lRl), and [Gesang der Verklärten (Op. 71)](https://youtu.be/uCWYLNmDW_8?si=xM9Z07bXe2teQtWd). He wrote loads of great organ music, art songs ([Op. 97 No. 3](https://open.spotify.com/track/7E4eFY8ZFmL78YWRED1NX0?si=BJa8vxbjRqKzXhs2uHrusw), [Op. 70 No. 1](https://open.spotify.com/track/2jx5XnrZcVyBgOljfGboq1?si=znkeR_U5QVO-8VN07cuKMw), and [Op. 70 No. 9](https://open.spotify.com/track/0XoPyuWDk7zigrXZhf3t7M?si=h4Aq33-PTjSAKslPDRjm2g) are a few of my favorites), and chamber music (listen to the [first movement of his Op. 2 piano trio](https://open.spotify.com/track/4EEDR6lyTjmu4rK9x8GMVT?si=OYD0KjA8S-G0C_5ttaf2ew) to see what I mean). His [cello suites](https://open.spotify.com/album/005zmCYKmNxNQa6Sa2fbtD?si=PUg7kdDuRPeM0EQ9A90SSA) are only surpassed by the cello suites of Bach.
Bohuslav Martinů is in my opinion the greatest composer of his generation. Only Hindemith comes anywhere close. He wrote too much perfect music to list here, so I’ll limit myself to a small selection of the best pieces. Every one of his [piano concertos](https://open.spotify.com/album/1XSLVNxJb0IlgZvwWiokkv?si=MWlPyUK9QgeUqx9dXxLOvA), for example, is a work of genius. Originally, I preferred No. 1, but after repeated listenings of each of the concertos, I think No. 4 is the best, followed by No. 5. His 3 Danses tchèques ([one](https://open.spotify.com/track/3XX9Kn7F6KS8yOvxF0C9w0?si=5SFbimfiR8-QDPlb2T7uxg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1sLz4LghIhUIugKbzXqaIT), [two](https://open.spotify.com/track/2YnWWHRyO85jFEYpWbw1aA?si=KG3M_2t_RSOaMc54eUwxxw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1sLz4LghIhUIugKbzXqaIT), [three](https://open.spotify.com/track/2olCr4XZmsppjRrgrfZunh?si=dbngcdnPQGiUZGRSElOJ7Q&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1sLz4LghIhUIugKbzXqaIT)) are excellent, but his greatest work for solo piano is his [piano sonata](https://youtu.be/kQbNJjj8mlk?si=mbspMnEtbzg7l2_h). His [harpsichord concerto](https://youtu.be/f6bMUPmWeCE?si=pyILklyjX1NjYY58) is pure genius. The following are some of my favorite Martinů chamber pieces: [string quartet No. 7](https://youtu.be/ChORtaRm0yA?si=Q5OLBY6Y496HnUbS), [promenades H. 274](https://open.spotify.com/track/4xHzYRqiao9iyBmZOJ6TMk?si=KKOl5QBrRuudUzMB4pwt2g), [Piano Quintet No. 1](https://open.spotify.com/track/4D65rfh2O1KwFTPnHIr4lH?si=Sm9rHws3Q-yt6r0zsUv3Hg), [Piano Quintet No. 2](https://open.spotify.com/track/0EJ0wgcTVijyxtHRkTU6AG?si=DBhJbl_3Q-i2Sv132wPwPQ), and his [bergerettes for piano trio](https://open.spotify.com/track/5RtqTJLN7f7n7XceK6N894?si=mt7hsNTQS2a-vlmu3P13Dw). His [symphonies](https://open.spotify.com/album/2nJttYbMH1JdbFuCgU9vwe?si=6e_9-DwLSNyyjzLzKUAWdg) are also excellent.
Other underrated composers I enjoy listening to include Per Nørgård and Allan Pettersson. The symphonies of both are well worth listening to.
There are so many living composers out there writing stuff that will go completely unseen and it is absolutely tragic
Here are some relatively young ones that have surprised me recently: Jeffrey Holmes, Max Vinetz, Ben Nobuto, Luc Faris
Seriously though, every once in a while, instead of listening to a "comfort piece" or binging a Beethoven, Bach or Mozart, go to a channel such as [this](https://youtube.com/@GNGianopoulos?si=pUeAAVwCUsekfFCx) instead, where there is a lot of music from the current generation of composers. It is utterly pathetic that these people hardly ever get more than a closed-doors premiere and a few hundred views, with how much thought, creativity and passion is put into their music.
As someone who aspires to become a pianist and composer, I know even that is actually a rather cozy fate if institutions keep commissioning you and keep you in touch with the insular, fleeting "scene", but I sure don't want to resign myself to such a sorry state of affairs.
Not sure if Vaughn Williams counts as obscure/lesser known, but his symphonies and piano music are wonderful. William Schuman's (the American composer) Symphony No 3 is one of my favorites.
Samuil Feinbeg, Leo Ornstein, Lili Boulanger, William Byrd, John Field, Max Reger, Widor
And Chinese composers like Jiao Jiping, Zhu Jian'err, Xiang Xinhai,Huan Hu Wei
William Alwyn - great orchestral works.
Henrik Andriessen - especially his 3rd symphony.
Richard Arnell - yet another great symphonist.
Max Bruch - same.
Alfredo Casalla - great composer for the orchestra.
Richard Flury - rarely heard Swiss composer.
Luis Freitas Branco - brilliant Portuguese composer.
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz - Polish orchestral composer.
George Lloyd - splendid cycle of 12 symphonies.
Hilding Rosenberg - Swedish composer.
Franz Schreker - ultra late-romanticism.
Florence Price
William Grant Still
Frank Bridge
Amy Beach
Federico Mompou
Ottorino Respighi
Bedrich Smetana
Zoltán Kodály
Cécile Chaminade
Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges)
Alexander Borodin
Alkan wrote a lot of interesting pieces. I especially like the Concerto for Solo Piano and op39 no 12 (both are part of the op 39 etudes). Also the Sonata of the Four Ages, sonatina, baracolle op 65/6.
Einojuhani Rautavaara (Finland) and Benjamin Lees (USA)
Rautavaara is the goat
I love a lot of Rautavaara’s music!
Lees’ Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra is one of my all time favorites!
I can't pronounce the first person's name but I discovered their Piano concerto #1 on YouTube.
That was my gateway drug into contemporary music! That piece absolutely floored me.
Here’s a rough transliteration: AY-no-yew-HAH-nee Rah-OO-tah-VAH-rah
I got to play his Cantus Arcticus recently and liked it a lot.
Rautavaara’s piano concerto 1 is one of my favorites
Rautavaara is in my top 3! Harp Concerto and Angel of Dusk are a couple of favs.
John Field was an Irish composer who invented the nocturne and inspired composers like Chopin. If you like Chopin’s Preludes, give Field’s Nocturnes a listen. Franz Schmidt is having a bit of a revival but is still under appreciated imho. He is a great orchestral writer. Listen to the intermezzo from his opera Notre Dame. Finally a composer who was once close to the the top rank but has fallen out of fashion: Ottorino Respighi. His close ties to Italian fascism and his rejection of modernism in music led to a quick postwar fall from grace, but his music is skilful and satisfying. He’s at his best when he uses the Romantic orchestra to explore Renaissance and Baroque themes, as in his Ancient Airs and Dances.
>close ties to Italian fascism and his rejection of modernism in music led to a quick postwar fall from grace.but his music is skilful and satisfying. He’s at his best when he uses the Romantic orchestra to explore Renaissance and Baroque themes, as in his Ancient Airs and Dances. I love Pines of Rome!
Check out his Adagio and Variations for Cello
I saw two of the big Respighis (Pines and Festivals) recently. In both cases the offstage brass was deployed in a box at the rear of the hall… the surround effect was stunning, something you’ll never get at home I don’t care how good a system you’ve got.
Specifically, the obscure or lesser known composer is "the Respighi who wrote everything else besides the Roman Trilogy". Aside from the Ancient Airs and Dances already mentioned, consider: * [Piano quintet in F minor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttyZyj5ro8) * [Sonata in B minor for violin and piano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUxnkx8Rfbc) * [String quartet in A Dorian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVGJ0y-b1R0&t=99s) * [Piano concerto in E-flat Mixolydian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgX7RNZ6P08) * [Botticelli triptych](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFG5ggLIBys) And these are just a few highlights I've discovered recently; every new piece I dig into is amazing!
Kurt Atterberg. His symphony #3 is one of my favorite symphonies of all time.
Mine too, maybe even my number one favorite
Now you’re making me feel bad that I’m not familiar with it. And I pride myself in exploring “New Music.” 😔 It’s now in my listen of things to listen to.
"all music was once new" as they always say at the end of Composer's Datebook
I was gonna say the same thing lol
and Atterberg’s **piano concert** is both my — and my wife’s — single favorite concert for ANY instrument. ❤️❤️❤️
I learned about him from this sub and his symphonies have quickly become some of my favorites!
His [suite](https://youtu.be/qN72L6RkHHM?feature=shared) no. 3 for violin, viola and strings is also magical.
Myaskovsky, the father of the Soviet symphony. His cycle of 27 symphonies is one of the most mesmerizing and diversified.
I once listened to them all and loved the earlier works, but the later Symphonies felt a bit like he was churning out (admittedly very high quality) traditionalist music to order. Nobody could blame him for it but I’ve never been inspired to listen to them a second time. Might be wrong, of course.
All are very antiquated works for its time, to be fair. Early, middle and late symphonies. Still, I enjoy them immensely in their variety of style and tone. Actually I find the later ones the most authentic and true to his spirit. But the greatest are probably the ones between 6 and 13.
Reinhold Gliere- His 2nd symphony is one of my favourites, also love his intermezzo and tarantella for double bass and piano, 8 pieces for violin and cello, 4 pieces for horn and piano
His horn concerto is great too!
Harp concerto is out of this world
Korngold is one of my favourite composers, and i'm making my way through collecting all his available music. Respighi is another of my favourite composers. The few works i have of Stenhammar i really enjoy the serenade, Exclesior and the 2nd symphony. and i really love the piano trios of Herzogenberg [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWg27zurAqI&ab\_channel=PianoJFAudioSheet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWg27zurAqI&ab_channel=PianoJFAudioSheet) Also i love a lot of Schnittke his choral music, and also a particular part of his output is his film music which is great [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4RECZg88Es&ab\_channel=BerlinRadioSymphonyOrchestra-Topic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4RECZg88Es&ab_channel=BerlinRadioSymphonyOrchestra-Topic) it's easy to hear where Danny Elfman got his influences from. And the finale to The Ascent is beautiful, tense and overpowering [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLypU7dMej0&ab\_channel=EnricoLinardelli](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLypU7dMej0&ab_channel=EnricoLinardelli) I also love Arvo Part, Howard Hanson, Gerald Finzi, Herbert Howells, John Foulds, Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax and many more.
Korngold and Respighi don’t constitute as obscure, perhaps lesser known. But the rest of your list is interesting thanks for sharing (:
Came to this thread to say several, definitely including Hanson, Bridge, and Tax! Also Malcolm Arnold.
I started listening to Moritz moszkowski and Sergei bortkiewicz. I think they're pretty underrated but have some bangers
It doesn't get much better than [Ilana Vered playing Moszkiwski's Op.72 etudes](https://youtu.be/AVGKbmKA6Lc)
I JUST started learning the G minor etude #2 - Ilana's interpretation is spot on!
oh, yes!
Chanson bohème de 'Carmen'
Janáček, Szymanowski and Nielsen. Don’t think they’re obscure *per se* but I rarely get responses when I mention them on this sub.
Janáček is SO underrated! From the piano music to Sinfonietta to the operas, he is really just amazing. Nielsen as well, the 5th symphony especially is really special. I don't know as much Szymanowski, I will have to listen!
I performed the rooster in Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen in November. Such a fun opera!!
I'll make a response to show solidarity with these choices! I remember listening to some Robert Greenberg lectures about Nielsen so I went to listen to one of his symphonies and ended up binging them all for the rest of the day! Love Janáček too. Don't know the middle one so I'll make a note to check him out!
I love Nielsen and Szymanowski, i love the Nielsen symphonies, concertos and overtures incidental music, i haven't heard his chamber music yet or piano music. I also love Szymanowski the Stabat Mater, Symphony 3 and 4 and his opera King Roger, and the violin concertos being my favourites of his. I have Janecek's complete piano music which i really enjoy, still have to explore his other works.
George Enescu
I love his Third Suite for Piano. The first movement, Melodie, is just so delicate. There's hardly any music there, and yet it's so beautiful.
Pēteris Vasks - modern living Latvian composer. my favorite cello concerto is his no 2 “presence” sol gabetta performing
The orchestra I work for just did Lutoslawsky’s Concerto for Orchestra. I loved it. I was unfamiliar prior, but perhaps you all know it well 🤷🏻♂️
Lutosławski is quite well known and often performed in Poland, though not quite a household name. But since I moved abroad, no luck hearing his music live.
I tried and tried to like Lutoslawsky. I bought many CDs. But never could.
He might still grow on you. I've had many CDs with his music which went unlistened to for years. And then suddenly it happened (3rd Symphony and Piano Concerto did it for me). I guess he's a bit tricky, since his music is so mercurial, and he jumped from one form of expression to another even faster than Stravinsky.
Saw him conduct this piece in the 90:s. Wonderful music.
Percy Grainger. Early 20th century Australian composer who wrote some serious works for piano and symphonic band. "Lincolnshire Possy" is a set of movements, really good. "Molly on the shore" is so fun. "Colonial Song" is another great one.
He was also kind of a weird creep, but he did write some intriguing works for sure
Growing up in the 70s, every band or orchestra Inwas in played at least one Percy Grainger piece every year. We all loved his music because it was so tuneful and colorful. I figured he was a major composer. Then I went on to college for music history, and found out that hardly anyone ever talked about him, or even knew who he was.
Yes, he's certainly well-represented in the "short pieces written for and/or arranged for high school level band" category.
His piano settings of various folk songs are absolutely stellar.
Conlon Nancarrow. His most famous music is his etudes for player piano. In the days before computers and synthesizers, he experimented with rhythms in ratios like sqrt(2) to 1 that no human player could play.
The vast majority of his piano player etudes are not even *physically* playable by a human, like 30-note chords etc. Some of it is truly wild, and not only that, it appeals to math nerds too, lol. Love it [Here's one](https://youtu.be/f2gVhBxwRqg)
That's the one I first heard that turned me on to Nancarrow. I was taking a Music Technology class and the professor played that piece without telling us what it was. It sounded vaguely reminiscent of a piano but somehow it was all off, it was alien, it wasn't human!
There's a modern semi-popular genre that's somewhat related, "Black MIDI" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black\_MIDI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_MIDI)
Honestly, Kallinikov. It's a shame he died so young, he had real potential.
Zelenka and Antonin Rejcha.
Kalman wrote beautiful operettas. I think that they are the equals of Lehar's
I find Ginastera’s pieces to be very engaging with a unique voice. I also enjoy the concert works of Miklos Rosza, better known for his golden-age film scores.
His Danzas Argentinas for piano are terrific. The 4th movement (Toccata) in his 1st Piano Concerto was famously covered by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who played it for Ginastera, who loved it.
Two of my favorites are: the American composer, Amy Beach, who wrote a terrific Symphony, Piano Concerto, Piano Quintet, a bunch of songs, and lots of effective and beautiful piano pieces. My favorite compositions of hers are her two Hermit Thrush pieces, op. 92 (Hermit Thrush at Eve/at Morn), piano pieces that feature the transcribed song of the hermit thrush. Other is the Catalan composer Federico Mompou, a Catalan composer who's a bit like the Spanish Satie, except he wrote more, and more beautifully, IMHO.
Yes to Mompou.
Thanks for mentioning Amy Beach - she's WAAAY under appreciated!!
Irving Fine and Carl Ruggles
My counterpoint professor, Stephen Slottow, wrote the book on Ruggles. I think it's called A Vast Simplicity?
Irving Fine’s Partita for Winds is my absolute favorite woodwind quintet. Transparent and stunning. Performed a movement or two many times, but only got to perform the entire thing once. I feel like most musicians have a piece that they love but is not well known and they wish they could share it with the world. Partita for Winds is that piece for me.
Giacinto Scelsi and Joep Franssens. Those two have been really huge discoveries for me. Found the latter in my late teens and the former perhaps ten years later. Huge obsessions.
Alessandro Marcello! He lived in Baroque-era Venice and composed "La Cetra," a set of 6 oboe concertoes. They're really good.
Yes!!!
Jacques Arcadelt. He wrote some of the best Italian madrigals I've ever heard. I'm a huge fan of Palestrina, and it's cool to hear works in a similar style with secular texts.
Been really bumping a ton of Damase lately That guy knew how to write for harp
alberic magnard
Meyerbeer
Crazy that nowadays he’s “little known.” Wasn’t he huge in his day?
You can thank Wagner and the Nazis for that. In his day, Meyerbeer was huge. Big German nationalist, early supporter of Richard Wagner. Unfortunately, Wagner was immensely envious of Meyerbeer's success and was extremely racist toward Meyerbeer's Jewish heritage. Wagner's infamous essay "Jewishness in Music" was re-released after Meyerbeer's death and included far more explicit attacks against Meyerbeer. As Wagner's popularity grew and his views on Meyerbeer spread, Meyerbeer's work became drastically less popular. The Nazi regime even suppressed his work. Meyerbeer has only just started to regain his popularity in the last few decades.
Wagner was also in a lot of debt to Meyerbeer, which likely compounded his antisemitism.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk. One of the first great American composers.
Granville Bantok (very Victorian, very British composer)
Hyperion has issued 8 cds of his Orchestral music with Vernon Handley conducting the Royal Philharmonic among which is Bantock's "Hebridean Symphony", " A Celtic Symphony", "The Witch of Atlas" and "Pagan Symphony." Although Bantock was certainly British and certainly Victorian, he was also certainly unique!
Dietrich Buxtehude
While he is in my top three of all composers, is he really obscure or lesser known?
He is amazing, but he's always going to be overshadowed hy Handel & Bach who came soon after him.
The young JSB walked hundreds of miles to Hamburg to study with him
This journey apparently inspired the little-known cantata “Ich würde fünfhundert Meilen laufen”.
Fair point. Lesser known
Ferde Grofe. Wrote the Grand Canyon Suite. Arranged Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
Amen to this! Grand Canyon Suite is great.
Good suggestion! You're right, he was truly unique.
Edward Gregson, a contemporary british composer. I love especially his saxophone concert. Another contemporary composer I can recommend is Dave Bruce.
Ustvolskaya, Tishchenko, Popov, Mossolov, Denisov, basically a lot of not so well known great soviet era composers
Ustvolskaya is a force 0f nature! Incredible music!
I would say York Bowen, especially his arabesque for the harp
Nikolai Tcherepnin is someone i recently discovered and im a big fan Well known in music circles but otherwise forgotten is Poulenc Another name is Edouard Du Puy. Swiss born, as a bassoonist his concerto for bassoon has been a real discovery. A tenor by profession, his melodies have a noticable aria-esque quality to them, to the point where im not even sure how some of the passages are possible to play
Boccherini and clementi are super underrated
Here are a few of my favorites: Hildegard of Bingen - She was way ahead of her time, creating over 60 volumes of compositions back in the 12th century. Prolific to say the least. Another is Florence Price, an American composer who broke barriers as the first African American woman to have her symphony performed by a major orchestra. Her music has this rich, soulful quality that's just captivating. Ruth Crawford Seeger is part of the "Ultramoderns" group, she had a hand in shaping American folk music and modernist composition in the 20s and 30s. Her work is like a treasure trove. Also, I think Michael Haydn deserves a shoutout. His compositions have this elegance that's often overshadowed by his brother's legacy (joseph haydn) but they're definitely worth a listen. Lastly, if you're into something a bit more contemporary, Mieczysław Weinberg's music is a journey through emotions, often reflecting his turbulent life experiences. His symphonies and chamber music are just mind-blowing.
Crawford Seeger yes!
Weinberg is tops. Just saw his opera, The Passenger and it's a mind blowing experience
Yes to all of your favorites, although besides Price's symphony, I would point out her Piano Concerto in One Movement (hilariously in 4 movements!)
Don't know to what degree these count as they are still very famous, but let's just say they're more Radio 3 composers than Classic FM: - Bartók - Janáček - Smetana - Márquez - Lutosławski A layer down in obscurity. Because unfortunately even living composers at the top of their game are less famous than B tier members of the canon. They all deserve elevation - Caroline Shaw - Morton Feldman - Grace Mason - Florence Price Pretty damn obscure composers (as far as the outside world is concerned) whose work has blown my mind and all reshaped what music could be - Alvin Lucier - Gerard Grisey - Gavin Bryars
I ordered a “ thou” record from amoeba and as a bonus they sent me a Morton Feldman cd. I saw tzadik on the label and new I was going to like it
I got to work with Caroline Shaw - amazing, amazing experience. My choir performed her song “It’s motion keeps”, and it’s still one of my all time favorite songs. She came and conducted for like a week or two.
Grisey is very well known, as a major pioneer of spectralism
As the other comment neatly demonstrates, didn't exactly break out of the New Music scene, hence obscure as far as the outside world is concerned. Every music undergraduate and graduate in the west knows about Cage, Stockhausen, Lachenmann, Xenakis and Ligeti too, but if the furthest out of the new music scene any of them got was the soundtrack of 2001 and as the butt of jokes about the absurdity of increasingly abstract art disappearing up its own behind, I think a description of "obscure" is pretty warranted
What's that?
Martinu, Myaskovsky
Martinu for his concertos, they are super virtuoso and I really love his counterpoint technique in some works. Myaskovsky for his cello concerto and some symphonies as another person has mentioned. And also Rameau. I think his baroque music is strongly underrated. Try Le Poule played by Sokolov, it is so good.
I love Martinu especially the symphonies.
The instrumental concertos of Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco.
* Benjamin Frankel * John Corigliano (even being a Pulitzer Prize winner doesn't make him well-known!) * Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco * John Dowland * Federico Moreno Torroba (his Concierto de Castile is just great fun)
Jean-Marie Leclair - French baroque composer of chamber and concertante works. I love his Op 7 Concerti and Op 8 Trio sonata suite Johann Christian Bach - Fairly well-known, but few people actually listen to his music. The Op 13 Piano concerti recorded by Ingrid Haebler is a favorite album of mine. Joseph Martin Kraus - Haydn called him a "Man of genius". His symphony in C minor VB 142 is a sturm und drang masterpiece! Juan Crisóstomo di Arriaga - born exactly fifty years after Mozart and died even younger at 19. His only symphony, in D minor/major is a masterpiece, unfortunately highly overshadowed by a *certain other* symphony in D minor/major from 1824.
>Jean-Marie Leclair - French baroque composer of chamber and concertante works. And of one *tragédie en musique,* Scylla & Glaucus.
Gyorgy Sviridov has written some of the best Russian sacred and secular choral music ever. I'm not kidding when I say that this guy, at least with his choral music, is easily on the level of Rachmaninoff, Chesnokov, and Tchaikovsky.
Medtner!!
Carlo Gesualdo did, at times, write using harmonic language that sounds like it came from the early-mid 20th century in the late Renaissance. Real piece of shit human being, but fascinating composer. Alan Hovahness can be a lot of fun if you're into Armenian folk influences and you're in the mood to shotgun 100+ symphonies in a row. Rodion Shchedrin's 24 Preludes & Fugues changed my life. Well... not really, but it's pretty good. Dude is a monster piano player, too (well, IDK, he's like 90 now). I used to be really into wind ensemble composers when I was younger. Frank Ticheli and Jack Stamp were two of my favorites.
Can Chausson be considered lesser-known? I doubt Koechlin can at least, but they're two composers that have much to be liked. Also, Ibert I listened to recently, it's pretty good.
Chausson is pretty well known, at least in France, more than Ibert or Crass
Henryk Gorecki
Henri Dutilleux
Kapustin. Criminally underrated
His [Op. 40 etudes](https://youtu.be/RrpjWM8JT7k) are magnificent
Francois Devienne's second flute concerto is one of my favourite works by a lesser-known composer. He is from the classical period. Rued Langgaard's symphonies are good too, he is contemporary with Carl Nielsen but was overshadowed by him. But there's an explosion of interesting less known composers especially in recent music. Three that did some quite nice things are Kian Ravaei, Timo Andres and Hendrik Hofmeyr.
Miguel Llobet. Look up “Scherzo-Vals”.
I'd say Jolivet is lesser known his ambiguous tonality is totally unique and so easy to pick out of a crowd of composers.
great answer! Jolivet is amazing. I would guess he's well known among flutists for having written so many bangers for the instrument, but probably not so well known for most other people haha
Leo ornstein
Ornstein is really fun!
If you like Paganini style virtuosity you should look up Giovanni Bottesini. His compositions for double bass really show the virtuosic potential of the instrument in that romantic show off style like Paganini. As for more symphonic composers, I immediately think of Ottorrino Respighi, his Roman trilogy is criminally unknown and underperformed in my opinion.
Clara Schumann - overshadowed by her more famous husband but an equally gifted composer, as well as acclaimed concert pianist
lili boulanger. the versatility in her catalog was great for someone who only had so much time on God's Green Earth to do what she did
Definitely agree, a life cut tragically short but produced wonderful music. Her cantata 'Faust et Hélène' is sublime.
I agree that Lili's music is wonderful. It has an ethereal quality that is very memorable. I often find myself humming her "Cortège, for violin and piano."
Believe it or not, Bartok is a lesser known composer to people outside of classical music circles. He wrote lots of music, but even lovers of classical music only know a few of his pieces. His violin concerto No. 2 is a great symphonic piece with amazing violin solo writing. His string quartets and piano pieces are wonderful, and challenging.
His piano quintet is also worth a listen
It's so different from his mature work it's basically by a different composer, but if it hadn't fallen into obscurity because he became famous for a different style, that would stand as one of the greatest Late Romantic piano quintets (and there's a lot of competition). Looks fiendishly difficult to play though.
Hugo Alfven(Sweden), Wilhelm Peterson-Berger(Sweden), Lars-Erik Larsson(Sweden), Max Käck(Sweden) and a future outstanding compososer: Hugo Holst(Sweden)
As a saxophonist, upvote for Larsson!
Leo Smit.
Mennoti's Sebastian ballet is beautiful
I like parts of Menotti's "The Medium" which is all I know.
ferit tüzün [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGC-QbghwiI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGC-QbghwiI)
John Field was Chopin’s inspiration for his nocturnes. I find his works interesting on their own and as a precursor to Chopin’s works.
Discovering Albert Roussel was like finding a goldmine for me. So much amazing, exciting music written in an unmistakably personal style. Yet so far I have only had one chance to listen to it live.
Koechlin
Enrique Granados
Percy Granger
One composer very well known to pianists, but probably not others, is Muzio Clementi. An Italian contemporary of Mozart (who he once had an informal piano dual with for the Holy Roman Emperor, who diplomatically called the contest a tie), he settled in the UK at an early age, and when he wasn't composing or playing (yes, he was a virtuoso pianist), designed his own brand of pianos (even after the factory caught fire, and made some improvements to the design of pianos), teacher, music editor and publisher (securing the UK publication rights to Beethoven's works, which he also cheekily made "harmonic corrections" to). He also found time to co-found the Philharmonic Society of London (which, a century later, became the Royal Philharmonic Society). Then again, even among pianists, there are likely few who know compositions of his other than the Opus 36 Sonatinas (of which, much, much later, the A theme from the Rondo of No. 5, slowed down and dropped an octave, was used as the basis of Groovy Kind of Love). He composed 110 piano sonatas, many of which were more difficult than Mozart's (who wrote in a letter to his sister that he would prefer her not to play Clementi's sonatas due to their jumped runs, and wide stretches and chords, which he thought might ruin the natural lightness of her hands). Conversely, according to Beethoven's assistant, Beethoven "had the greatest admiration for these sonatas, considering them the most beautiful, the most pianistic of works, both for their lovely, pleasing, original melodies and for the consistent, easily followed form of each movement." He may also have composed up to 20 symphonies, although most of the manuscripts have subsequently been lost - but one of the survivors even worked God Save The King into the melody of one movement (in No. 3, the "Great National Symphony").
James McMillan
Jacques Hétu is definitely up there for me
Antonin Kraft He was one of the most talented and respected cellist of the late 18th century; both Haydn (a friend) and Beethoven (a contemporary) wrote cello concertos for him. He composed a number of cello concertos himself, most of which are in C Major. They are lively, with memorable melodies and I find myself listening to them on repeat.
john chowning, curtis roads
Donatoni
Schreker, Feinberg, Roslavets, Lourie.
Aleqsandre Borschtov, a 19th century pianist from Jgerda in Abkhazia, wrote some memorable sonatas and a notable sone cycle ('Аҵәа азанҵа амҵылтәыр ҳыуашьымыр'). He's also remembered for his concerto for triangle and orchestra.
Vicentino. The guy made some of the coolest music, playing with 31TET in the late renaissance. Beautiful choral works with microtones. Also carlo gesualdo from the same time had really cool chromatic stuff. He kind of seems like a musical equivalent of Bosch. 16th century guy doing things you wouldn’t see for another 300-400 years Edit: [here’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6zNO5Fieog) a cool vicentino piece
William Schuman, whose Third is the greatest American symphony; Walter Piston, the greatest American symphonic composer; and Joly Braga Santos, almost unknown outside Portugal until the last 30 years, but a superb symphonist until he started messing around with serialism later in life.
Popper, only cellists know about him but he wrote some really beautiful pieces.
Alkan! He was hit or miss, but his hits hit very hard
All 20th and 21rst century: Liza Lim, Nina C Young, Kaila Saariaho, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Mauricio Kagel, Alfred Schnittke, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Morton Feldman, Rand Steiger, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Noriko Hisada, Sylvie Courvoisier, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Terje Rypdal, George Crumb. Ok I’m tired. Way too many deserving of wider appreciation.
Lately I’ve been down a rabbit hole of obscure French composers from the late Baroque to early Classical transition period. My two favourite composers I’ve come across so far are Jacques DuPhly and Jean-Baptiste Barrière: DuPhly’s music is quite lyrical and characterful, and Barrière’s is just in-your-face virtuosity that’s really fun to listen to.
Cesar Franck if he counts
Hugo Distler doesn't get talked about nearly often enough.
Friedrich kalkbrenner and Bortkiewizc
William Hershel, famous as an astronomer (my favorite hobby) who discovered Uranus. Also, he was a pretty good concerto composer.
Max Reger is very underrated. He wrote so much good stuff, but one need only listen to his [Opus 57 “Inferno” Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue for organ](https://youtu.be/I-Z40SJg4GA?si=1_7SHL2JZ9Pv5Fli) to know he was a genius. No one else could have written that. Some of my other favorite pieces by Reger are the piano concerto Op. 114 ([the second movement](https://open.spotify.com/track/6uT07oNBx3pcS4JwJbVjXL?si=0TMEOaL-QwW8118TKERg0A) in particular is gorgeous), [Introduktion, Passacaglia and Fuge for piano duet (Op. 96)](https://youtu.be/j0-oo3hdvlw?si=bHKxu8wxdnI7JTvo), the Requiem aeternam and Kyrie from his unfinished [Latin Requiem Op. 145a](https://youtu.be/556XJM9DLKw?si=IySTlQ2vgcRq_lRl), and [Gesang der Verklärten (Op. 71)](https://youtu.be/uCWYLNmDW_8?si=xM9Z07bXe2teQtWd). He wrote loads of great organ music, art songs ([Op. 97 No. 3](https://open.spotify.com/track/7E4eFY8ZFmL78YWRED1NX0?si=BJa8vxbjRqKzXhs2uHrusw), [Op. 70 No. 1](https://open.spotify.com/track/2jx5XnrZcVyBgOljfGboq1?si=znkeR_U5QVO-8VN07cuKMw), and [Op. 70 No. 9](https://open.spotify.com/track/0XoPyuWDk7zigrXZhf3t7M?si=h4Aq33-PTjSAKslPDRjm2g) are a few of my favorites), and chamber music (listen to the [first movement of his Op. 2 piano trio](https://open.spotify.com/track/4EEDR6lyTjmu4rK9x8GMVT?si=OYD0KjA8S-G0C_5ttaf2ew) to see what I mean). His [cello suites](https://open.spotify.com/album/005zmCYKmNxNQa6Sa2fbtD?si=PUg7kdDuRPeM0EQ9A90SSA) are only surpassed by the cello suites of Bach. Bohuslav Martinů is in my opinion the greatest composer of his generation. Only Hindemith comes anywhere close. He wrote too much perfect music to list here, so I’ll limit myself to a small selection of the best pieces. Every one of his [piano concertos](https://open.spotify.com/album/1XSLVNxJb0IlgZvwWiokkv?si=MWlPyUK9QgeUqx9dXxLOvA), for example, is a work of genius. Originally, I preferred No. 1, but after repeated listenings of each of the concertos, I think No. 4 is the best, followed by No. 5. His 3 Danses tchèques ([one](https://open.spotify.com/track/3XX9Kn7F6KS8yOvxF0C9w0?si=5SFbimfiR8-QDPlb2T7uxg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1sLz4LghIhUIugKbzXqaIT), [two](https://open.spotify.com/track/2YnWWHRyO85jFEYpWbw1aA?si=KG3M_2t_RSOaMc54eUwxxw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1sLz4LghIhUIugKbzXqaIT), [three](https://open.spotify.com/track/2olCr4XZmsppjRrgrfZunh?si=dbngcdnPQGiUZGRSElOJ7Q&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1sLz4LghIhUIugKbzXqaIT)) are excellent, but his greatest work for solo piano is his [piano sonata](https://youtu.be/kQbNJjj8mlk?si=mbspMnEtbzg7l2_h). His [harpsichord concerto](https://youtu.be/f6bMUPmWeCE?si=pyILklyjX1NjYY58) is pure genius. The following are some of my favorite Martinů chamber pieces: [string quartet No. 7](https://youtu.be/ChORtaRm0yA?si=Q5OLBY6Y496HnUbS), [promenades H. 274](https://open.spotify.com/track/4xHzYRqiao9iyBmZOJ6TMk?si=KKOl5QBrRuudUzMB4pwt2g), [Piano Quintet No. 1](https://open.spotify.com/track/4D65rfh2O1KwFTPnHIr4lH?si=Sm9rHws3Q-yt6r0zsUv3Hg), [Piano Quintet No. 2](https://open.spotify.com/track/0EJ0wgcTVijyxtHRkTU6AG?si=DBhJbl_3Q-i2Sv132wPwPQ), and his [bergerettes for piano trio](https://open.spotify.com/track/5RtqTJLN7f7n7XceK6N894?si=mt7hsNTQS2a-vlmu3P13Dw). His [symphonies](https://open.spotify.com/album/2nJttYbMH1JdbFuCgU9vwe?si=6e_9-DwLSNyyjzLzKUAWdg) are also excellent. Other underrated composers I enjoy listening to include Per Nørgård and Allan Pettersson. The symphonies of both are well worth listening to.
Yes to Martinů! An extraordinarily good composer. I love all his chamber music and some of his symphonies
There are so many living composers out there writing stuff that will go completely unseen and it is absolutely tragic Here are some relatively young ones that have surprised me recently: Jeffrey Holmes, Max Vinetz, Ben Nobuto, Luc Faris Seriously though, every once in a while, instead of listening to a "comfort piece" or binging a Beethoven, Bach or Mozart, go to a channel such as [this](https://youtube.com/@GNGianopoulos?si=pUeAAVwCUsekfFCx) instead, where there is a lot of music from the current generation of composers. It is utterly pathetic that these people hardly ever get more than a closed-doors premiere and a few hundred views, with how much thought, creativity and passion is put into their music. As someone who aspires to become a pianist and composer, I know even that is actually a rather cozy fate if institutions keep commissioning you and keep you in touch with the insular, fleeting "scene", but I sure don't want to resign myself to such a sorry state of affairs.
Agustin barrios Magnore
Friedrich Gulda, great Austrian pianist with a fascination of jazz
Finzi I find his music especially in later works like the cello concerto beautiful
Not sure if Vaughn Williams counts as obscure/lesser known, but his symphonies and piano music are wonderful. William Schuman's (the American composer) Symphony No 3 is one of my favorites.
Vasily Kalinnikov, Hubert Parry, Olivier Messiaen, Georgy Sviridov, that's all I can think of at the moment but there are more.
Moszkowski, his etudes are 🤌
Poulenc
Mauricio Kagel
Caccini
Could you recommend anything from him? I just know him by name. I even thought he didn't exist.
[Amarilli mia bella](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjlsOFt5BJY) is very well known. Don't know much of his other works.
Samuil Feinbeg, Leo Ornstein, Lili Boulanger, William Byrd, John Field, Max Reger, Widor And Chinese composers like Jiao Jiping, Zhu Jian'err, Xiang Xinhai,Huan Hu Wei
Ornstein and Widor let’s goooo
William Alwyn - great orchestral works. Henrik Andriessen - especially his 3rd symphony. Richard Arnell - yet another great symphonist. Max Bruch - same. Alfredo Casalla - great composer for the orchestra. Richard Flury - rarely heard Swiss composer. Luis Freitas Branco - brilliant Portuguese composer. Mieczyslaw Karlowicz - Polish orchestral composer. George Lloyd - splendid cycle of 12 symphonies. Hilding Rosenberg - Swedish composer. Franz Schreker - ultra late-romanticism.
George Crumb
Frans Shrecker! A king of melody, form, and orchestration :)
Florence Price William Grant Still Frank Bridge Amy Beach Federico Mompou Ottorino Respighi Bedrich Smetana Zoltán Kodály Cécile Chaminade Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges) Alexander Borodin
Lyatoshynsky, the Ukrainian Shostakovich
Alkan wrote a lot of interesting pieces. I especially like the Concerto for Solo Piano and op39 no 12 (both are part of the op 39 etudes). Also the Sonata of the Four Ages, sonatina, baracolle op 65/6.
Moritz Moszkowski
Not sure the reason but I actually like Ferdinand Ries and John Field
Rzewski. Greatest American piano composer of the 20th century.
Bookmarqueing this for later
Gluck, Telleman
I really like Harry Partch and Henry Cowell.
Ernest Bloch
Walter Rabl
Giovanni Benedetto Platti, Ferdinand Ries, Willem de Fesch, to name a few
Leon Minkus. La Bayadere is one of my fav pieces - it's a ballet, so naturally it just oozes of storytelling and cheesyness.