conductors as composers

[Gerard]

Yesterday I found - in a jazz cd store - a recording of 2 works by the
_composer_ Skrowaczewski.
His Concerto Nicolò (with Gary Graffman on piano), and his Concerto for
Orchestra.
I've listened to the piano concerto, but wasn't very impressed - maybe
later.

Which other famous conductors have written music, and are there some works
that really are worth acquiring?

I'm NOT talking about famous composers who also did conducting, like Mahler,
Bernstein, Boulez; but rather conductors like Dorati, Klemperer, Markevich.
I suppose there are many others.
But did they write great works?

[Raymond Hall]

Salonen, who admires John Adams, has written works in a similar minimalist-type vein, and is writing a cello concerto as I write. Time will tell about greatness though.

Ray Hall, Taree

[Gerard]

"Raymond Hall" wrote in message
news:790775b1-0034-4e4c...@googlegroups.com...

=============

Right. I have - since many years - a cd with a few pieces by him, one of
those named "LA Variations".
I don't remember how that one was. I should listen again of course.

[cooper...@gmail.com]

Skrowaczewski wrote a nice Concerto for English Horn; there was a good recording that apparently remains in LP limbo (https://www.discogs.com/Mayer-Skrowaczewski-Two-Pastels-Andante-For-Strings-Concerto-For-English-Horn-and-Orchestra/release/7706780). The coupled Mayer works are better; he's a composer who deserves to be better known.

I enjoy some of Martinon's and Markevitch's compositions, but great? I dunno.

AC

[MiNe109]

Double bassists prize Koussevitzky's concerto.

Stephen

[clem...@gmail.com]

I think Salonen's music sounds more like Rautavaara (his teacher) or Dutilleux (who he has championed) or Magnus Lindberg (his classmate at the Sibelius Academy.) Moderate modernism in the post-Debussy continuum. Rather good stuff, actually.

[Terry]

Willem van Otterloo composed some very worthwhile music, as did Eugene Goossens and Lorin Maazel. I have a feeling that Igor Markevich was a composer as well as a conductor. I guess we don't get to hear their works often enough to be able to learn to appreciate them. I heard van Otterloo conduct one of his pieces - for about a dozen wind instruments - and thought it was pretty good.

[Gerard]

"Terry" wrote in message
news:ed388a49-313f-41ff...@googlegroups.com...

=================================

Probably that was his (Otterloo's) Sinfonietta.
I have heard him conducting it as well. And I was very disappointed.
Because the orchestra should have played Sinfonietta by Janacek. That was on
the program.
But they did not play it because not all brass players would fit on the
podium.
Nota bene in a hall were they had played many years already.

Later I had a LP with that Sinfonietta. OK, it was pretty good. But no
Janacek!

[Randy Lane]

Furtwangler composed some symphonies.
And then there's the highly prolific Lief Segerstam. There's 300 pieces attributed to him listed here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_symphonies_by_Leif_Segerstam

[Gerard]

"Randy Lane" wrote in message
news:fc300057-8e36-4f01...@googlegroups.com...

==================

Thanks. How could I forget those two?

Is there any great symphony by Leif (not Lief) Segerstam?

[Kerrison]

Interesting topic. I'm surprised no-one's ever come up with a CD or two of Conductors' Compositions. I suppose the answer is that on the whole they didn't write "great works." Still, the conductors who also composed included Albert Coates, Antal Dorati, Eugene Goossens, Otto Klemperer, Paul Kletzki, Rafael Kubelik, Rene Leibowitz, Jean Martinon, Igor Markevitch, Malcolm Sargent, Jose Serebrier, Constantin Silvestri, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Stanislav Skrowaczewski, Frederick Stock, Leopold Stokowski and Felix Weingartner, as well as the afore-mentioned Furtwangler, Koussevitzky and so on. Some of their works have been recorded or broadcast and some of these can be found on You Tube.

For example, here is Stokowski's youthful but very assured student "Symphony" (in fact it's a 15-minute tone-poem) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXr2R5OsMh0

Klemperer's "Merry Waltz" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqggjg07IH4

Martinon's "Overture to a Greek Tragedy" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6GmuxvmEh0

Sargent's "Impression on a Windy Day" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0h79mIoHaE

Weingartner's "Merry Overture" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2qPcPjVph4

Markevitch's Concert Waltz "Le Bleu Danube" after the Celebrated Themes of Johann Strauss ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNKSPd_SbRo

Kletzki's Three Preludes for Piano ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIhbeYnDi0

Goossens "Tam O'Shanter" Scherzo after Burns ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG1DZ-CV9tc

And so on. I dare say there are other such composers' pieces on You Tube but those will keep you going for a while! Personally, I think a CD compendium of their best short and most attractive pieces might well be of interest.

[dk]

Furtwaengler wrote 3 symphonies. I wouldn't call them great
but they are interesting. They sound like digests of all the
German composers who preceded him rolled into single works.

dk

[Gerard]

"Kerrison" wrote in message
news:230a6d9a-51dd-409c...@googlegroups.com...

===============

Thanks.
This will keep me busy for a while indeed.

[Kerrison]

>
> ===============
>
> Thanks.
> This will keep me busy for a while indeed.

I forgot Paul Paray, who recorded his own "Mass" for Mercury. Other names to be added, though I haven't yet checked You Tube for them, include George Szell, Sergiu Celibidache, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Nikolai Malko, Evgeny Svetlanov, Victor da Sabata and Leonard Slatkin. I suppose if there were any "hidden masterpieces" there we'd know about them by now!

[s888...@aol.com]

Salonen was a composer first who only took up conducting in order to get his compositions played. I very much like his piano concerto among other things

[Dontait...@aol.com]

Yet more names (if not yet cited), this time from the past: Hans Pfitzner, Leo Blech, Max von Schillings, and Sir Hamilton Harty.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

And I forgot Gabriel Pierne.

Don Tait

[Dontait...@aol.com]

And...Walter Damrosch and Howard Hanson.

Don T.

[Randy Lane]

Have we all forgotten Lenny as a composer?

[Arno Schuh]

And of course you mean so called classical music, didn't you?
I ask because you came from a look into the jazz area of the shop.
Of course in jazz, light music, easy listening, symphonic brass etc. for a
lot of pieces cconductors and composers are two in person. How important
these pieces are ...
And appart from conductors - there are organists alive who wrote organ
music, i. e. Guy Bovet, Jean Guillou, Lionel Rogg, Noel Rawsthorne and many
more.. Music that isn't very known in public but is used and played from
other organists, too, and well known in the organ scene.

Arno

[ljk...@aol.com]

Constant Lambert -- equally distinguished as composer and conductor IMO.

Larry Kart

[Andrew Clarke]

On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 7:06:13 PM UTC+10, Gerard wrote:

> Yesterday I found - in a jazz cd store - a recording of 2 works by the
> _composer_ Skrowaczewski.
> His Concerto Nicolò (with Gary Graffman on piano), and his Concerto for
> Orchestra.
> I've listened to the piano concerto, but wasn't very impressed - maybe
> later.
>
> Which other famous conductors have written music, and are there some works
> that really are worth acquiring?
>

Anthony Collins, now best known for 'Vanity Fair' in the 'Light Music' genre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2F8DfklrJI

Andrew Clarke
Canberra

[Juan I. Cahis]

I like very much Furtwängler Symphonies when they are well performed, like
by Barenboim or Asahina on the Second, or by Sawalisch on the Third.

--
Enviado desde mi iPad usando NewsTap, Juan I. Cahis, Santiago de Chile.

[Randy Lane]

Does anyone favor any Bernstein works not conducted/performed by Bernstein?

[dk]

Best known for his Sibelius symphony cycle.

dk

[ljk...@aol.com]

"Rio Grande" is the work that made Constant Lambert famous, and it's a blast, but my favorite Lambert work is his Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments. Somewhat jazz-influenced (Lambert wrote insightfully about jazz and Duke Ellington in particular) and dedicated to Lambert's close friend and fellow composer Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), a suicide, it's one of the most deeply melancholic pieces of music I know. There's a good recording on Hyperion, but my favorite is one on LP (not reissued on CD, I believe) with Richard Rodney Bennett as the soloist. Himself a composer with jazz affinities, Rodney Bennett grasps the works elusive blend of gaiety and despair completely.

Larry Kart

[ljk...@aol.com]

On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 8:28:04 PM UTC-5, ljk...@aol.com wrote:
> "Rio Grande" is the work that made Constant Lambert famous, and it's a blast, but my favorite Lambert work is his Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments. Somewhat jazz-influenced (Lambert wrote insightfully about jazz and Duke Ellington in particular) and dedicated to Lambert's close friend and fellow composer Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), a suicide, it's one of the most deeply melancholic pieces of music I know. There's a good recording on Hyperion, but my favorite is one on LP (not reissued on CD, I believe) with Richard Rodney Bennett as the soloist. Himself a composer with jazz affinities, Rodney Bennett grasps the works elusive blend of gaiety and despair completely.
>
> Larry Kart

Oops -- the Rodney Bennett recording of the Lambert Concerto is on CD:

https://www.amazon.com/British-Piano-Music-20s-30s/dp/B000005GSH/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1470019333&sr=1-2&keywords=richard+rodney+bennett+lambert

[ljk...@aol.com]

>
> Oops -- the Rodney Bennett recording of the Lambert Concerto is on CD:
>
> https://www.amazon.com/British-Piano-Music-20s-30s/dp/B000005GSH/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1470019333&sr=1-2&keywords=richard+rodney+bennett+lambert

It's also on YouTube.

[cooper...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 8:40:21 PM UTC-4, Randy Lane wrote:
> Does anyone favor any Bernstein works not conducted/performed by Bernstein?

Sure. Start with Tilson Thomas's West Side Story (Bernstein's masterpiece, afaic). Also Perlman/Ozawa or (sleeper alert!) Gluzman/Neschling in the Serenade. James Judd's recordings of the first two symphonies for Naxos are at least the equal of the composer's, imo. And Eiji Oue's miscellany on Reference including excerpts from Candide, the Divertimento, and the Mass Meditations is terrific.

AC

[Terry]

I hate programme changes.

[ljk...@aol.com]

More top-drawer Lambert, Summer's Last Will and Testament:

https://www.amazon.com/Constant-Lambert-Summers-Testament-Heroique/dp/B000002ZQN/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1470021551&sr=1-3&keywords=constant+lambert

BTW, don't confuse Lambert's Piano Concerto (an early work) with his Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments. Both works are on Hyperion, but the former is coupled with "Prizefight" and the marvelously titled "Mr. Bear Squash You All Flat," the latter with Lambert's excellent Piano Sonata.

Larry Kart

[Kerrison]

I suppose Morton Gould comes under the heading of 50% conductor / 50% composer, as he not only wrote symphonies, concertos, ballet, film and theatre music, but also made splendid recordings of the music of others. The recent Gould / Chicago SO boxed set is a case in point, with a terrific Nielsen 2nd Symphony, but also first-rate performances of music by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Miaskovsky, Copland and Ives.

Similarly, Jose Serebrier has recorded Glazunov and Dvorak cycles, along with several CDs of Stokowski Transcriptions, as well as his own music, which includes several symphonies and concertos. However, I imagine the chief interest here is in the music of those who might be called 100% conductors, being those solely remembered today for their conducting, like Klemperer and Stokowski, rather than for any music they may have written.

[Andrew Clarke]

Best known among the cognoscenti for his Sibelius cycle, but best known for 'Vanity Fair' everywhere else. He must have made far, far more from royalties on that much-broadcast miniature than he did from the entire Sibelius cycle.

It's up there with 'Elizabethan Serenade' and 'Coronation Scot' in the light music Top Twenty.

Andrew Clarke
Canberra

[Gerard]

"Randy Lane" wrote in message

news:5fa146ad-d8db-41f9...@googlegroups.com...

Have we all forgotten Lenny as a composer?

======================

He was mentioned (and excluded) in the OP.

[Kerrison]

If you click this link and scroll down and then click the little red "play" triangles, you'll hear the first 30 seconds of each of George Szell's "Variations on an Original Theme." These owe nothing to Elgar but rather suggest that "Till Eulenspiegel" had taken tea with Prokofiev ...

http://www.classicalarchives.com/work/397205.html

[Gerard]

"Kerrison" wrote in message
news:ba761a27-13bd-4052...@googlegroups.com...

======================

Thanks,

This sounds very "gemütlich".
Brahms-like at first with a touch of Prokofiev indeed, and a little Dvorak
too.
Some kind of Szell's Haydn Variations.
Very different from Skrowaczewski's works.

[number_six]

On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 6:46:51 AM UTC-7, cooper...@gmail.com wrote:

> On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 5:06:13 AM UTC-4, Gerard wrote:
> > Yesterday I found - in a jazz cd store - a recording of 2 works by the
> > _composer_ Skrowaczewski.
> > His Concerto Nicolò (with Gary Graffman on piano), and his Concerto for
> > Orchestra.
> > I've listened to the piano concerto, but wasn't very impressed - maybe
> > later.
> >
> > Which other famous conductors have written music, and are there some works
> > that really are worth acquiring?
> >
> > I'm NOT talking about famous composers who also did conducting, like Mahler,
> > Bernstein, Boulez; but rather conductors like Dorati, Klemperer, Markevich.
> > I suppose there are many others.
> > But did they write great works?
>

> Skrowaczewski wrote a nice Concerto for English Horn; there was a good recording that apparently remains in LP limbo (https://www.discogs.com/Mayer-Skrowaczewski-Two-Pastels-Andante-For-Strings-Concerto-For-English-Horn-and-Orchestra/release/7706780). The coupled Mayer works are better; he's a composer who deserves to be better known.
>
> I enjoy some of Martinon's and Markevitch's compositions, but great? I dunno.
>
> AC

I see Martinon vico 2, played by Szeryng, was on an LP with Berg's vico.

But when DG issued a CD in the 20th century series, Martinon didn't make the cut.

Berg vico was combined with Schoenberg pico and vico on CD.

Martinon might be in an Eloquence box?

[cooper...@gmail.com]

The VC#2 is in the Eloquence set of Martinon's DG recordings (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/135748/Jean-Martinon-Violin-Concerto-Op-51). Since the work was conducted by Kubelik it's also included in the Kubelik "Original Masters" box (same Presto link, and Presto offers lossless downloads of individual works). There's also a live Ferras performance on Doremi that I have not heard. The Symphony #4 is included in the box of Martinon's CSO recordings. In Hurwitz's memorable description, "Martinon’s own Symphony No. 4 is a predictably colorful but patchy piece, sort of like Dutilleux on an off day." A bit nasty but he's not wrong. The Violin Concerto is a better piece, and the excellent performance doesn't hurt. There have been recordings of a few chamber works as well. I know I've heard the FAQ performance of one of Martinon's String Quartets, but I retain no impression of it at all.

AC

[Ricardo Jimenez]

On Sun, 31 Jul 2016 11:06:02 +0200, "Gerard"
<ghendriks_...@live.com> wrote:

>Yesterday I found - in a jazz cd store - a recording of 2 works by the
>_composer_ Skrowaczewski.
>His Concerto Nicolò (with Gary Graffman on piano), and his Concerto for
>Orchestra.
>I've listened to the piano concerto, but wasn't very impressed - maybe
>later.
>
>Which other famous conductors have written music, and are there some works
>that really are worth acquiring?
>
>I'm NOT talking about famous composers who also did conducting, like Mahler,
>Bernstein, Boulez; but rather conductors like Dorati, Klemperer, Markevich.
>I suppose there are many others.
>But did they write great works?

I have an enjoyable disc of music by famous conductors that includes
orchestral works by Han von Bülow, Felix Weingartner, George Szell and
Robert Heger. The conductor is Leon Botstein. There is also a
performance in my collection by Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago
Symphony of Fürtwangler's symphony #2. I don't find that work
attractive at all.

[Kerrison]

> I have an enjoyable disc of music by famous conductors that includes
> orchestral works by Han von Bülow, Felix Weingartner, George Szell and
> Robert Heger. The conductor is Leon Botstein. There is also a
> performance in my collection by Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago
> Symphony of Fürtwangler's symphony #2. I don't find that work
> attractive at all.

Mention of Weingartner sent me again to You Tube where there are complete uploads of several of his symphonies (Nos. 1 - 7). However, what then popped up, somewhat surprisingly, was something not yet mentioned here, the hour-long Symphony No. 1 by Bruno Walter. For one listener, at any rate, I fear it does not fall into the category of "great music" or indeed "a forgotten masterpiece."

It would seem that in the case of most of these conductors, I believe the expression is: "A cobbler should stick to his last." Having said that, I think Stokowski's quarter-hour "Symphony" deserves its US Premiere at some point!

Anyway, here is the Bruno Walter Symphony for your delectation and I won't be surprised if someone says "watered-down Mahler" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=471zudbaVk4

[Raymond Hall]

Actually, it seems to me that without any doubt, Mahler himself wins the prize of great conductor AND great composer. Shame that we are unable to hear the results of his conducting.

Maybe someone should nominate a thread for greatness in conducting AND as a player of an instrument. Here, the list would be long, and probably highly contentious. ;)

Ray Hall, Taree

[O]

In article <86942027-6f17-4488...@googlegroups.com>,

Raymond Hall <raymon...@bigpond.com> wrote:


> Maybe someone should nominate a thread for greatness in conducting AND as a
> player of an instrument. Here, the list would be long, and probably highly contentious. ;)

So many pianists have used the keyboard as a springboard to conducting
(afraid of losing their chops?) that it would be quite a broad list.

Perhaps we could limit it to those who made their name conducting first:

Bernstein
MTT

are two I can think of...

-Owen

[Gerard]

"Raymond Hall" wrote in message
news:86942027-6f17-4488...@googlegroups.com...

Actually, it seems to me that without any doubt, Mahler himself wins the
prize of great conductor AND great composer. Shame that we are unable to
hear the results of his conducting.

=======================

Sure, but he was excluded in the OP.
Like all famous composers who conducted.


-------------------------------------

Maybe someone should nominate a thread for greatness in conducting AND as a
player of an instrument. Here, the list would be long, and probably highly
contentious. ;)

============================

That would be a very long list.
Why not start with only ONE instrument, like the trumpet?

[cooper...@gmail.com]

You mean someone who continues both to perform at a high level and also conduct. Zoltan Kocsis comes immediately to mind (great pianist, exciting conductor), but you're right that there are many others. There is an amusing story about Andris Nelsons picking up "the instrument of his youth" for the first time in many years in today's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/arts/music/andris-nelsons-tanglewood-boston-symphony-orchestra-wagner-parsifal-bayreuth.html?_r=0

AC

[jrsnfld]

Why settle for two out of three?

Maazel, who was mentioned earlier in the thread, is on CD as the soloist in his own violin concerto, and he won many plaudits on the instrument at an early age. However, he never quite focused on it. Few are his equal as a triple whammy--maybe Bernstein and Previn. I'm not sure what to say about Mitropoulos as a composer--certainly he's worth a listen--but he obviously abandoned that for greatness as a conductor, and he was a virtuoso pianist. Paul Hindemith was regarded as a leading violist and the few documents I've heard of his conducting other people's music (Beethoven, Bruckner) are impressive.

I understand that Bruno Maderna was a violin soloist prodigy before becoming a leading composer of his day. Meanwhile, he was one of the greatest conductors of the 20th Century.

Sawallisch may or may not be your idea of a great conductor, but he certainly reached the pinnacle of the profession. He was a great accompanist at the piano (his infamous "Wagner in a Snowstorm" concert was a pianistic highlight from his Philadelphia days.)

Van Zweden was obviously a great violinist and is now well on his way to being one of the most prominent conductors of our time.

Osmo Vanska was arguably a "great" clarinetist before concentrating on conducting. Rudolf Kempe was at least equally accomplished as an oboist.

Mikhail Pletnev follows Koussevitzky and Rostropovich in the tradition of great soloists who are not always great conductors, but are at least pretty good at it and sometimes about as close to "great" as anyone gets.

I guess Barenboim is too obvious--or simply too prolific--for anyone here, but I have heard him reach greatness both as a pianist and as a conductor.

Who else

[jrsnfld]

Indeed, Kocsis! I might include Vasary in the same elite company, although I've heard even more of Kocsis at this point...

Among the Czechs, Sejna was principal bass before moving to the podium of the Czech Phil. And Talich was also indisputably a great conductor with the highest instrumental pedigree--as concertmaster of the Berlin Phil.

Most great conductors have to learn it all...for example, Kubelik was a violin soloist, accompanied his famous father at the piano, and then of course turned out to be one of the greatest of all conductors in the 20th Century. His compositions are impressive as well.

--Jeff

[Bob Harper]

On 8/3/16 11:03 AM, Raymond Hall wrote:
(snip)

>
> Actually, it seems to me that without any doubt, Mahler himself wins
> the prize of great conductor AND great composer. Shame that we are
> unable to hear the results of his conducting.
>
> Maybe someone should nominate a thread for greatness in conducting
> AND as a player of an instrument. Here, the list would be long, and
> probably highly contentious. ;)
>
> Ray Hall, Taree
>

Note sure about his 'greatness' as a player, but Paul Goodwin was surely
a fine oboist, and is a very fine conductor. As I believe I have
mentioned before, he gave the finest performance of 'Messiah' I have
ever heard (with the Portland Baroque Orchestra 10 or 12 years ago), and
I recently downloaded a concert of Mozart and Beethoven with the
Philadelphia Orchestra that I found excellent in all respects.

And agreed about Mahler--would that we could hear him conducting not
only his own music but Wagner and Beethoven as well!

Bob Harper

[number_six]

On Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 5:56:28 AM UTC-7, cooper wrote:
> snip <

> The VC#2 is in the Eloquence set of Martinon's DG recordings (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/135748/Jean-Martinon-Violin-Concerto-Op-51). Since the work was conducted by Kubelik it's also included in the Kubelik "Original Masters" box (same Presto link, and Presto offers lossless downloads of individual works). There's also a live Ferras performance on Doremi that I have not heard. The Symphony #4 is included in the box of Martinon's CSO recordings. In Hurwitz's memorable description, "Martinon’s own Symphony No. 4 is a predictably colorful but patchy piece, sort of like Dutilleux on an off day." A bit nasty but he's not wrong. The Violin Concerto is a better piece, and the excellent performance doesn't hurt. There have been recordings of a few chamber works as well. I know I've heard the FAQ performance of one of Martinon's String Quartets, but I retain no impression of it at all.
>
> AC

Thanks!

[number_six]

I'd include Gunther Schuller among the "triple threats".

I believe Harnoncourt composed; without achieving renown in that domain, he remains an immortal figure as an instrumentalist, conductor and musicologist.

Someone mentioned Morton Gould already. I second that.

[Raymond Hall]

On Thursday, 4 August 2016 06:24:42 UTC+10, jrsnfld wrote:

> Why settle for two out of three?
>
> Maazel, who was mentioned earlier in the thread, is on CD as the soloist in his own violin concerto, and he won many plaudits on the instrument at an early age. However, he never quite focused on it. Few are his equal as a triple whammy--maybe Bernstein and Previn.

Fully agree about Lorin Maazel. Prodigiously talented. Aka The Pittsburgh Kid.

Ray Hall, Taree

[Tassilo]

Many a conductor has maintained reasonably respectable chops as a pianist while pursuing a career as a conductor. There's a commercial recording on, I think, French Decca from the early fifties of Mussorgsky and Stravinsky songs with Boulez accompanying a tenor soloist.

[Randy Lane]

Bernstein recorder some Mozart Comcerto as aianist for Decca.
Solti accompanied the Melos Quartet in Mozart Piano Quartets for Decca.
And Previn recorded some chamber music on the piano with Kyung-Wha Chung.

[jrsnfld]

Previn goes way beyond mere accompanist. He's recorded chamber music very well (his Brahms and Beethoven trios with Mullova and Schiff, for example). He's also made multiple solo discs, and earned initial fame as a jazz pianist.

--Jeff

[O]

In article <18035a74-7720-459f...@googlegroups.com>,

To tie this thread together, Previn has a great recording of
Rachmaninoff 4 hand piano works with...Ashkenazy!

-Owen

[gmu...@erols.com]

On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 5:06:13 AM UTC-4, Gerard wrote:
> Yesterday I found - in a jazz cd store - a recording of 2 works by the
> _composer_ Skrowaczewski.
> His Concerto Nicolò (with Gary Graffman on piano), and his Concerto for
> Orchestra.
> I've listened to the piano concerto, but wasn't very impressed - maybe
> later.
>
> Which other famous conductors have written music, and are there some works
> that really are worth acquiring?
>
> I'm NOT talking about famous composers who also did conducting, like Mahler,
> Bernstein, Boulez; but rather conductors like Dorati, Klemperer, Markevich.
> I suppose there are many others.
> But did they write great works?

Silvestri also. Fragment from Three pieces for strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAdYOlriSyY

Regards,

George

[Kerrison]

> To tie this thread together, Previn has a great recording of
> Rachmaninoff 4 hand piano works with...Ashkenazy!
>
> -Owen

Of course, the one thing that Previn will forever be remembered for, in the UK at any rate, is the "Grieg Piano Concerto" sketch on the Morecambe & Wise Show some 35 years ago. It is still rated as one of the funniest TV sketches of all time. The video can be seen on this page under the comment that he is also forever known as "Mr. Preview" ...

http://www.classicfm.com/artists/andre-previn/guides/morecambe-wise-previn/#7gbU31wfqZIbj0Rb.97

[Al Eisner]

Why not go for the quadruple whammy? Wasn't Mozart a conductor, as
well as a pianist and a violinist?
--
Al Eisner

[Gerald Martin]

Previn also composed an opera, A Streetcar Named Desire.

[JohnGavin]

Let's put in a good word for Rachmaninoff. There are few recorded examples of his conducting, true, but he must have been quite remarkable given that he was offered the directorship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he turned down.

As a pianist, well, you know.......

Composer? Any time someone low-rates his compositions, I ask them if they know the Vespers. The answer always comes back "no".

[HT]

> Composer? Any time someone low-rates his compositions, I ask them if they know the Vespers. The answer always comes back "no".

The Vespers! Yes! The Paganini Rhapsody. Not so much else.

Henk

[Joe]

I've never really warmed to the symphonies or the concerti (my problem, I believe, and not the composer's) but I am very fond of the Symphonic Dances, as well as the Paganini Rhapsody and the Vespers.

Joe Markley
Plantsville, Connecticut

[Gerard]

"HT" wrote in message
news:2facbfa9-0c1c-4845...@googlegroups.com...

> Composer? Any time someone low-rates his compositions, I ask them if
> they know the Vespers. The answer always comes back "no".

The Vespers! Yes! The Paganini Rhapsody. Not so much else.

================

Huh?
The Symphonic Dances to start with.
Then Symphony 2.

[Ed Presson]

"Joe" wrote in message
news:7a5bd261-fc33-4ef5...@googlegroups.com...

I may have missed mention of "The Bells"-a work I like a lot.

Ed Presson

[Raymond Hall]

On Sunday, 7 August 2016 08:48:42 UTC+10, Ed Presson wrote:
> "Joe" wrote in message

>
> On Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 12:30:12 PM UTC-4, HT wrote:
> > > Composer? Any time someone low-rates his compositions, I ask them if
> > > they know the Vespers. The answer always comes back "no".
> >
> > The Vespers! Yes! The Paganini Rhapsody. Not so much else.
> >
> > Henk
>
> >I've never really warmed to the symphonies or the concerti (my problem, I
> >believe, and not the composer's) but I am very fond of the Symphonic
> >Dances, as well as the Paganini Rhapsody and the Vespers.
>
> >Joe Markley
> >Plantsville, Connecticut
>
> I may have missed mention of "The Bells"-a work I like a lot.
>
> Ed Presson

Isle of the Dead, 3rd symphony, 4th piano concerto, Symphonic Dances. All of these mine aspects that invoke a nostalgia not based on sheer popularity.

Ray Hall, Taree

[Bob Harper]

Some people just don't like Rachmaninoff. To me it's snobbery. Symphonic
Dances--yes. Symphonies 2 AND 3--yes. Concertos 2-4--yes.
Vespers--absolutely. I confess I don't know the piano music that well,
something I need to remedy. At any rate, a pretty high proportion of
excellent music.

Bob Harper

[markm...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 10:52:39 PM UTC-5, Bob Harper wrote:
> On 8/6/16 3:13 PM, Gerard wrote:
> >
> > "HT" wrote in message
> >
> >

> >> Composer? Any time someone low-rates his compositions, I ask them if
> >> they know the Vespers. The answer always comes back "no".
> >
> > The Vespers! Yes! The Paganini Rhapsody. Not so much else.
> >
> > ================
> >
> > Huh?
> > The Symphonic Dances to start with.
> > Then Symphony 2.
> >
> >
> Some people just don't like Rachmaninoff. To me it's snobbery. Symphonic
> Dances--yes. Symphonies 2 AND 3--yes. Concertos 2-4--yes.
> Vespers--absolutely. I confess I don't know the piano music that well,
> something I need to remedy. At any rate, a pretty high proportion of
> excellent music.
>
> Bob Harper

Don't forget the cello sonata. And don't overlook the First Piano Concerto, which, in its revised version, is prime Rachmaninoff.

Mark

[Kerrison]

Does anyone remember the notorious entry on Rachmaninoff in the 5th Edition of Grove's Dictionary which dismissed his music as meretricious rubbish? There's a reference to it in the Wiki article on the composer, as follows ...

His reputation as a composer generated a variety of opinions before his music gained steady recognition across the world. The 1954 edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians notoriously dismissed Rachmaninoff's music as "monotonous in texture ... consisting mainly of artificial and gushing tunes" and predicted that his popular success was "not likely to last". To this, Harold C. Schonberg, in his Lives of the Great Composers, responded: "It is one of the most outrageously snobbish and even stupid statements ever to be found in a work that is supposed to be an objective reference."

But then you can't always believe what you read in Grove. Robert Layton once wrote an article about a Danish composer in one edition that turned out to be a deliberate spoof. The composer's name was actually that of a Danish railway station and the whole thing was a fiction designed to pull the wool over the Grove editors' eyes!

[graham]

The most succinct put-down I have come across is in the 9th edition of
The Oxford Companion to Music. In the entry for Mahler:
"he wrote symphonies (of a sort)"
Graham

[Bob Harper]

Agreed, especially re the Cello Sonata. Don't know the First Concerto
well enough.

Bob Harper

[cooper...@gmail.com]

Whatever one thinks of the PC#1 (I like it, but I like all of 'em), the composer's own recording of it is surely a GRO20thC (ditto the Paganini Rhapsody; the other concerti less so, imo). Strange to see so little comment on the works for solo piano. I can do without the sonatas, but there are many masterpieces among the Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux, and is there no love here for the superb Corelli Variations? Some gorgeous songs as well, especially as sung by the likes of Arkhipova or Davrath.

AC

[jserr...@gmail.com]

Don Gillis

[Terry]

On Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 4:03:52 AM UTC+10, Raymond Hall wrote:
> On Thursday, 4 August 2016 01:55:41 UTC+10, Kerrison wrote:
> > > I have an enjoyable disc of music by famous conductors that includes
> > > orchestral works by Han von Bülow, Felix Weingartner, George Szell and
> > > Robert Heger. The conductor is Leon Botstein. There is also a
> > > performance in my collection by Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago
> > > Symphony of Fürtwangler's symphony #2. I don't find that work
> > > attractive at all.
> >
> > Mention of Weingartner sent me again to You Tube where there are complete uploads of several of his symphonies (Nos. 1 - 7). However, what then popped up, somewhat surprisingly, was something not yet mentioned here, the hour-long Symphony No. 1 by Bruno Walter. For one listener, at any rate, I fear it does not fall into the category of "great music" or indeed "a forgotten masterpiece."
> >
> > It would seem that in the case of most of these conductors, I believe the expression is: "A cobbler should stick to his last." Having said that, I think Stokowski's quarter-hour "Symphony" deserves its US Premiere at some point!
> >
> > Anyway, here is the Bruno Walter Symphony for your delectation and I won't be surprised if someone says "watered-down Mahler" ...
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=471zudbaVk4
>
> Actually, it seems to me that without any doubt, Mahler himself wins the prize of great conductor AND great composer. Shame that we are unable to hear the results of his conducting.
>
> Maybe someone should nominate a thread for greatness in conducting AND as a player of an instrument. Here, the list would be long, and probably highly contentious. ;)
>
> Ray Hall, Taree

Frans Bruggen would head my list.

[Sol L. Siegel]

Kerrison <kerrison1...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in
news:cb6e85a7-6c0a-4859...@googlegroups.com:

> Does anyone remember the notorious entry on Rachmaninoff in the 5th
> Edition of Grove's Dictionary which dismissed his music as
> meretricious rubbish? There's a reference to it in the Wiki article on
> the composer, as follows ...
>
> His reputation as a composer generated a variety of opinions before
> his music gained steady recognition across the world. The 1954 edition
> of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians notoriously dismissed
> Rachmaninoff's music as "monotonous in texture ... consisting mainly
> of artificial and gushing tunes" and predicted that his popular
> success was "not likely to last".

I have mentioned here before that the music critic for the Philadelphia
Evening Bulletion made a very similar statement in a about Rachmaninoff's
2nd Symphony - in a review of a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
It has been more than 40 years since that review was printed, and the
Orchestra still programs (and records) that music with regularity and
celebrates its historic connection with the composwer. It's also been
more than 30 years since the Evening Bulletin went out of business.

- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA USA

[Sol L. Siegel]

Kerrison <kerrison1...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> I forgot Paul Paray, who recorded his own "Mass" for Mercury.

A wonderful piece that should be better known.

[Sol L. Siegel]

s888...@aol.com wrote:


> Salonen was a composer first who only took up conducting in order to
> get his compositions played. I very much like his piano concerto among
> other things

I'm fond of "Insomnia" and his recent Violin Concerto.

[Gerard]

"Gerard" wrote in message
news:6f3fc$579e43b4$546845b9$24...@news.ziggo.nl...

"Kerrison" wrote in message
news:230a6d9a-51dd-409c...@googlegroups.com...

Interesting topic. I'm surprised no-one's ever come up with a CD or two of
Conductors' Compositions. I suppose the answer is that on the whole they
didn't write "great works." Still, the conductors who also composed included
Albert Coates, Antal Dorati, Eugene Goossens, Otto Klemperer, Paul Kletzki,
Rafael Kubelik, Rene Leibowitz, Jean Martinon, Igor Markevitch, Malcolm
Sargent, Jose Serebrier, Constantin Silvestri, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Stanislav
Skrowaczewski, Frederick Stock, Leopold Stokowski and Felix Weingartner, as
well as the afore-mentioned Furtwangler, Koussevitzky and so on. Some of
their works have been recorded or broadcast and some of these can be found
on You Tube.

For example, here is Stokowski's youthful but very assured student
"Symphony" (in fact it's a 15-minute tone-poem) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXr2R5OsMh0

Klemperer's "Merry Waltz" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqggjg07IH4

Martinon's "Overture to a Greek Tragedy" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6GmuxvmEh0

Sargent's "Impression on a Windy Day" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0h79mIoHaE

Weingartner's "Merry Overture" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2qPcPjVph4

Markevitch's Concert Waltz "Le Bleu Danube" after the Celebrated Themes of
Johann Strauss ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNKSPd_SbRo

Kletzki's Three Preludes for Piano ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIhbeYnDi0

Goossens "Tam O'Shanter" Scherzo after Burns ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG1DZ-CV9tc

And so on. I dare say there are other such composers' pieces on You Tube but
those will keep you going for a while! Personally, I think a CD compendium
of their best short and most attractive pieces might well be of interest.

===============

Thanks.
This will keep me busy for a while indeed.

==================

Some other participants seem to have possibilities to listen to 42 Mahler
symphony recordings during one weekend.
But I don't. Hence a late and partial reply.
The Stokowski symphony sounds fine, and should deserve a place on such a
compendium disc.
The Klemperer Waltz has been recorded by Klemperer - this is "known
territory". I have his recording, somewhere.
More later ...

[dk]

On Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 12:27:20 PM UTC-7, O wrote:
> In article <86942027-6f17-4488...@googlegroups.com>,

> Raymond Hall <raymon...@bigpond.com> wrote:
>
>
> > Maybe someone should nominate a thread for greatness in conducting AND as a
> > player of an instrument. Here, the list would be long, and probably highly contentious. ;)
>

> So many pianists have used the keyboard as a springboard to conducting
> (afraid of losing their chops?) that it would be quite a broad list.
>
> Perhaps we could limit it to those who made their name conducting first:
>
> Bernstein
> MTT

Szell and Solti.

dk

[gggg gggg]

On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 2:06:13 AM UTC-7, Gerard wrote:
> Yesterday I found - in a jazz cd store - a recording of 2 works by the
> _composer_ Skrowaczewski.
> His Concerto Nicolò (with Gary Graffman on piano), and his Concerto for
> Orchestra.
> I've listened to the piano concerto, but wasn't very impressed - maybe
> later.
>
> Which other famous conductors have written music, and are there some works
> that really are worth acquiring?
>
> I'm NOT talking about famous composers who also did conducting, like Mahler,
> Bernstein, Boulez; but rather conductors like Dorati, Klemperer, Markevich.
> I suppose there are many others.
> But did they write great works?

(Recent Y. upload):

Repertoire: Igor Markevitch--The Composer (1)