Scriabin - Fantasie Op.28

Neat lists, everyone, I especially like Saturnus's contribution.

OK, for my choice. I will refrain from mentioning obscure Sibelius pieces I love, like Kurkikohtaus for instance... oops...

So I will offer this gem:

Korngold's opera Die Tote Stadt.

It is very post-post-romantic, at times kitshy and at times vulgar... but I conducted it in staging rehearsals as an assistant at the Janacek Opera in Brno CZ for a full 5 weeks in preparation for the Korngold Centenary Festival, and grew to love it. I think of some of the melodies every single day since.

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Bela Bartok - Hungarian peasant dances.
Brahms - Hungarian dance No. 1.
Rimsky Korsakov - Lithuanian dance.

1. Liszt - Valse mélancolique
2. Brahms - Piano Sonata no.3 (isn't it actually famous...?)
3. Enescu - Romanian Rhapsody no.1
4. Grieg - Violin Sonata no.3
5. Liszt - 'Christus' (oratorio)
6. Enescu - Concertpiece for Viola and Piano
7. Sorkocevic - Symphony no.3
8. Sibelius - Serenade for Violin and Orchestra no.2
9. Livadic - Nocturne in F sharp minor, 'Soul in an Evening Mood'
10. Elgar - Romance for Bassoon and Orchestra
11. Brahms - Intermezzo no.1

Ottar Taktakishvili first violin concerto. IMHO,one of the most beautiful ever written.

Take your time to discover it. I've been listening for six years only and at this point I have about 1700 cds. However, I can assure you my collection will keep growing, there's a lot of music out there for me to be discovered.

You shouldn't be impressed by the names you read here. Most of the names and works listed in this thread are rare if you are an amateur. I dare to say most of them are actually the first pieces you get when your collection/knowledge in this subject grows.

This works were listed here and I don't think they should be considered as rare stuff:

Ralph Vaughan Williams - 'Serenade to Music' (for Solo Singers and Orchestra)
Schumann - Violin Concerto - Come on, this is one of the most popular vc outhere
Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 1 Op. 26
Mozart - String Quartet K. 464 (or is this by Luchesi? )
Godowsky - Passacaglia based on the first eight bars of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony
Berlioz - King Lear overture
Berlioz - Les francs-juges overture
Beethoven - Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2
Alkan - Concerto for Solo Piano Op. 39
Brahms' string sextets - Really? They're a standard part in repertoire
Beethoven: Cello & Piano Sonata No 3; Archduke Piano Trio
Berlioz Roman Carnival
Brahms Piano Solo Op 119; Piano Quintet; Clarinet Quintet
Bruckner Symph 4 - One of the most famous symphonies, by a very well known composer
Glazunov Violin Concerto A min - A common piece in the repertoire
Liszt Piano Sonata B Min - - A common piece in the repertoire
8. Mozart Symp 39 - Mozart a rare thing?
Respighi Fountains of Rome - One of Respighi's most famous works
Rimsky-Korsakov Russian Easter Festival Overture - Nothin to say about this, too popular
Tchaikovsky Marche Slave - THE PROM QUEEN, probablt the most popular work ever.
Chopin - Polonaise in C minor - Come on...
2. Brahms - Piano Sonata no.3 (isn't it actually famous...?)
3. Enescu - Romanian Rhapsody no.1 - You play at almost every amateur orchestra
11. Brahms - Intermezzo no.1 - Opus number? ... It's a joke, they're part of the standard repertoire also


My list would include
symphonies by Peterson-Berger and Draeseke
Bacri's Une Priere
K. A. Hartmann's violin concerto
Bruckner chamber works (not rare, but also non standard)
Elgar's chamber work from his early stage.
Kabalevsky's Requiem Op72
violin sonatas by G. L. Catoire.
Khrennikov's violin concertos
Tubin - Requiem for fallen soldiers, and his violin concertos
J. O. af Sillen - 3rd symphony and violin concerto
Atterberg - Symphonies and concertos
Szymanowski - piano sonatas, and Metopes.
Andriessen's organ concerto
Kopylov - his marvelous symphony
a few symphonies by Alberich Magnard
Malipiero's violin concerto (even though it's a bit scratchy....)




I'll try to get it. Is it longer and quieter than the second?

This is not about rarities per se; it's about what is not famous. You're right about a few of those like the Brahms' and the Liszt. But I guarantee only a fortunate few have experienced Alkan's Op. 39, the Godowsky, the Mozart K.464, the Glazunov VC, the two Berlioz overtures and even the Beethoven Romance No. 2 (No. 1 is famous). If we were to go by NPR's guide, just about every single one of these in the above list would not be considered "famous," so I think we've done a decent job so far.

Well... they are rarities just because they're not famous.

If EMI, DG or Phillips massively released a cheap cd with Segerstam playing symphonies by Vermeulen they might find their way into the general audience. The same would happen if you put a gun on Vengerov's head and force him to record Guerra-Peixe's concertino, to release it in a cheap and massive way.

What I pointed out is that many works listed as rare are not really THAT rare. There are works even more obscure out there.

Well, if we're to use these as the standard by which we must measure rarities, then none of our contributions can compete.

I don't believe I've heard any of that except Szymanowski.

I wasn't aware this is a competition to list the most obscure classical works in history. I thought it was about decent works that are "not famous".

No one offered a definition of "not famous" except me. I defined this as works not included in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 300. I realise that this list is by no means definitive, but it was something objective to start with as an observable benchmark. Ideally, I guess that 300 is not that high a number but that is all that's readily available which I could think of at the time.

Having stated my assumptions, I then listed various works which I like and which I thought might appeal to others but which are not on this list.

What's wrong with this procedure? Could anyone who thinks it is inappropriate please provide a more appropriate list, or refer to a list, of all classical works which they consider are famous, and provide objective justification based on published results that can be verified. I'm not interested in mere personal opinions. I'll be very interested to see the results. Thanks.

Manuel, you make some good points by breaking down people's contributions and letting the in on the fact that the pieces they thought were not so famous are actually quite common.

But I take strong issue with the following:

Schumann Violin Concerto is an oddity that is disliked by most soloists, who look at it and put it away. It is hardly ever performed in concert. If you say it is "one of the most popular", then what is Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, the Mozart Concertos, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Prokofiev (both of them)... even Elgar and Korngold are performed more frequently than Schumann.

That is not to say that the Schumann piece is [b]bad[/i], I'm just saying that if someone likes it, it definitely does belong on a list of favourite "not-famous" pieces.

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As for Schumann, an honorable mention for quality works, but yet "not famous", are his 3 String Quartets.

They are good, but rarely do you find recordings of all 3 in a set, and are not part of the standard string quartet repertoire.

For string quartet fans, it's worthwhile to check out his 3rd String Quartet, by Alberni Quartet or Fine Arts Quartet.

That's great. Would you please be kind enough to send me a picture of you? So that I can build a bronze idol of you from it?

Nobody has ever said it was wrong. I just listed what I think is rare (even though as I know the works I mentioned, they are not rare anymore to me. Well... they are less rare now ) This is of course a personal thing, depending on each listener's knowledge and apetite on classical music. However, what I pointed out is that many works enumerated here are not, by any means, rarities.



I would be completely wrong If I didn't accept you have a strong point there. And I didn't really like the work until I heard it played by Szeryng. This guy did change my mind and my attitude towards this concerto.

This kind of flippancy is uncalled for; Topaz has articulated himself politely and without a hint of hostility toward you. If you think that his declaration was out of arrogance, you're grossly mistaken. Read Topaz's #4 post back on page 1 to understand. It was a matter of fact that Topaz has based his entire "not famous" list according to what he felt should be included in the Classic FM Hall of Fame. He's the only one who has had enough common sense to establish such a reference. He's absolutely correct that no one else has concretely defined "not famous."

Manuel, I think some resolution will come in this thread if you can provide your own definition for "famous" and who judges what is "rare" or not. Perhaps "fame" needs a scale in order to be understood. If Brahms's String Sextets and Chopin's Polonaise in C minor are famous, then what is Beethoven's 5th and Dvorak's 9th? Ultra famous?

No. They are all very well known works. I'm not THAT interested in cataloging everything I hear. I like the music itself, and don't think I'm ready to waste my time ranking it.

What I was doing here is listing the works that sometime ago seemed rare to me. On the other hand, I named those that never appealed to me as weird stuff (Brahms' sextets, lets say).


This is, in some way, my idea of rarities.