Lost Composers Episode 1

Beautiful Classical Music Melodies From Long Forgotten Composers. 

In this episode:

Ruud Langgaard’s Second Symphony (1914) is directly appealing and expansive though never unfocused study in a Romanticism The central Lento is beautiful and makes the strongest impression based  on a Danish Christmastide hymn unfolding with rapt inwardness, before being thrown into relief by the unworldly quality of an interlude (6'42") which anticipates disquieting visions ahead. Vienna Philarmonic Conducted by Sakari Oramo.

There is not a great deal known about August Halm’s Symphony but it is right on message. It is thoroughly romantic, soaked in pastoral grandiloquence, birdsong, charming visions and gentle imagery. Halm takes a stance that is both reactionary and backward looking  and the result is caught creatively between Tchaikovsky, Mahler (Adagietto), Rachmaninov and John Barry, but no less captivating for that. Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen conducted by Per Borin

Knudåge Riisager, - Etudes No. 5, Adagio Knudåge Riisager was born in Estonia of Danish parents. and the family returned to Denmark in 1900 when Riisager was 3. Riisager alighted on piano etudes by Czerny and fashioned them into a 13-movement work for small orchestra. Soon afterwards he incorporated just over half these pieces - but expanded and re-orchestrated - into a ballet called Etudes. The results are consistently enjoyable with fine distribution between strings and winds and brass. Etudes No. 5 the adagio is here  played by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Conducted by Andreas Delfs.

Kurt Atterberg’s 1st Symohony was written between 1909-11, and revised in. 1913. The second movement which we are about to hear is a long-breathed Adagio. And is played by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi - Symphony No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 3 (1913 Version) II. Adagio 

Taneyev: Next is delectable Adagio in C major, written during the composer's final year at the Moscow Conservatory. Much of Taneyev's youthful work was only discovered years later. The Adagio, published in 1950, is a real gem, especially when it's played with such elegance and refinement. Here it is played by the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Sanderling.

This has been a Composers Unsung production under our PRS licence: