Thread: Composers famous for one piece - do you know more by them?

Barber: try Knoxville Summer of 1915 (one of my favourite classical pieces), the violin concerto, the string quartet (the middlemovement being the original version of the Adagio).

Warlock: the curlew is a really beautiful song cycle.

Originally Posted by Andre

Sinding - The Rustle of Spring

This is a very pretty, picture postcard or chocolate box piece. I wonder who has heard anything else by this guy, because I don't remember doing so.

Being Norwegian, I have heard some other music by Christan Sinding, a few songs and a couple of other piano pieces. What's strange about the Rustle of Spring is that it seems to be way more well-known outside Norway, which is the opposite of how things usually are with these kinds of things. Having heard Grieg since I was a little kid, I had hardly heard of the Rustle of Spring until I was well into my twenties, and was a little shocked when I read that some people consider it the world's most played piano piece. (Which I have a hard time believing, even though it probably often pops up in collections à la "Romantic Piano Favorites" etc.)

I was thinking of Khachaturian and his Sabre Dance. But I think there's an adagio from Spartacus that is also popular, so maybe it disqualifies him..

I will put on this list also:

Gustav Holst and his famous Planets

For me, It is excellent work, especially if you listen to it, live, in a concert hall....but i must admit that i dont know any other work of Holst....

I have several Holst CD's (orchestral and choral). Great composer in the pastoral English tradition in most of his other works.

Dare I say Leonard Bernstein with West Side Story? I'm sure a five minute google search would remedy this, but I have never heard anything else by him.

John Cage and 4'33. I've only ever also heard his Living Room Music. Did he ever write something close to resembling a piece of music?

Paginini's other works too often fall into obscurity when his 24th Caprice is mentioned.

-PPP

Originally Posted by PicklePepperPiper

John Cage and 4'33. I've only ever also heard his Living Room Music. Did he ever write something close to resembling a piece of music?
-PPP

I think that is a piece that more people have heard of, than actually heard. (Attended a performance etc, I mean, I see how this can easily be read the wrong way, as in not heard because.. well, you know.)

What little I've heard of his music for prepared piano was actually surprisingly "accessible". Not only did it resemble music, it sounded exactly like music.

Try the other two violin consertos by Bruch,the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orch,
the three symphonies,which I have on EMI with Conlon and the Gurzenich orchestra of Cologne,and the oratorio The Song of the Bell,based on an epic poem of Schiller.
All are very attractive works.
The Paul Dukas symphony in C,his only surviving one,is one of the most unjustly neglected symphonies I know. The opera Ariane &Barbe Bleue is like Pelleas&Melisande on steroids-a truly great opera. Get the recording conducted by Leon Botstein on Telarc.
The opera L'Amico Fritz by Mascagni is a gentle pastoral opera,and very sweet,the exact opposite of the grim Cavalleria Rusticana.Get the classic recording on EMI with Freni and Pavarotti.
Konigkinder,or the Royal Children, by Engelbert Humperdinck(the real one) is something any one who love Hansel&Gretel should hear. It's a much more complex story,with many more characters,and the hero and heroine die in the end, but that's no reason not to hear it.

Yes, I agree with Jake WYB that I wasn't thinking of those composers who have many popular works (no matter that one or two may be over-played compared to some of thier other works). I was thinking of those composers who are in the classical music public's imagination (& collective memory?) for only one work. But I suppose Boccherini (known for not only the famous minuet, but also the 8th cello concerto) and Holst (known not only for The Planets, but also his St. Paul's Suite which is often played live and on air) are borderline cases.

Thanks everyone for your replies - I am particularly (now) interested in the Boccherini works mentioned by Harpsichord Concerto & I also saw Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz at the library (as mentioned above by superhorn). Thanks for mentioning Warlock's The Curlew, Art Rock. I intend to get into some of these & other suggestions down the track.

But it's a bit sad that most of these composers must have laboured away intensively over long careers, and yet (now) only one of their works are regularly played in concert or on radio. I have been fortunate to see some of their lesser known works live, such as the Bruch piano trio I mentioned. But it is mainly through recordings that the lesser known (but perhaps not necessarily "lesser") works of these composers can become better known to classical music listeners generally. In some cases the shadows cast on the rest of their works by that one great "hit" is a long one indeed, but thankfully many performers with their recordings today are working to dispel some of those shadows, and throw some light on the rest of their interesting careers...

I think Anton Rubinstein is a good example of a composer who had many successful works in his lifetime but later faded into obscurity. I mean, today, all most people know is his Melody in F and perhaps the Romance from the Six soirées, but what of the fantastic piano concerti and symphonies? The twenty operas and the chamber music? The charming piano music (and Rubinstein was by many accounts, the best pianist of his day)?

Originally Posted by Air

I think Anton Rubinstein is a good example of a composer who had many successful works in his lifetime but later faded into obscurity. I mean, today, all most people know is his Melody in F and perhaps the Romance from the Six soirées, but what of the fantastic piano concerti and symphonies? The twenty operas and the chamber music? The charming piano music (and Rubinstein was by many accounts, the best pianist of his day)?

I absolutely love his Piano Concerto No. 5 and plan to get a lot more of his output, but I can't say I know of this Melody in F. I'll go try to find it. The piano concerto is loaded with great themes.

[Edit: Listening to the melody in F on my Rhapsody account now. It does indeed sound familiar.]

Originally Posted by Art Rock

I have several Holst CD's (orchestral and choral). Great composer in the pastoral English tradition in most of his other works.

I would hardly dismiss holst as a 'pastoral' composer in the best of his other works
just because there is the odd dreadful piece (somerset rhapsody/cotswold symphony/winter idyll)


The perfect fool
Egdon heath
Fugal Overture
Savitri
Beni Mora
Japanese Suite etc etc..

I'm surprised no one mentioned Pachelbel's Canon yet, unless it's too obvious. There's a One Hit Wonder for you.

Originally Posted by Huilunsoittaja

I'm surprised no one mentioned Pachelbel's Canon yet, unless it's too obvious. There's a One Hit Wonder for you.

It's only mentioned in the third post in the thread.

Originally Posted by Norse

Being Norwegian, I have heard some other music by Christan Sinding, a few songs and a couple of other piano pieces. What's strange about the Rustle of Spring is that it seems to be way more well-known outside Norway, which is the opposite of how things usually are with these kinds of things. Having heard Grieg since I was a little kid, I had hardly heard of the Rustle of Spring until I was well into my twenties, and was a little shocked when I read that some people consider it the world's most played piano piece. (Which I have a hard time believing, even though it probably often pops up in collections à la "Romantic Piano Favorites" etc.)

I had never heard Rusle of Spring before it being mentioned in this thread, so I find it hard to believe it's the most played piano piece in the world. It's totally unmemorable.

Fucik's Entrance of the Gladiators belongs in this thread.