Josef Rheinberger - German organist and composer

Let’s face the truth: we know awful lot of great pianists and piano composers, but are mostly unaware of gifted and prolific organists. At least so was I until recently – of course, I listened to organ music, but with rare exceptions (like Olivier Messiaen) it wasn’t written by dedicated organists. When I first heard a piece by Josef Rheinberger – it was Organ Sonata No.13 – I felt that a man who wrote it should have spent a considerable part of his life playing organ: without that, I thought, it would be impossible to create a sound that rich. As it turned out, I wasn’t mistaken – Rheinberger played organ since the age of seven and was admitted master of counterpoint. You may find his opus 161 here: Organ Sonata No.13, Op.161.

Salvator Rosa - A Man of Many Talents

There is a Chinese proverb going “Man of many talents is master of none”, and it is perhaps taken way too seriously by many - we don't know a lot of gifted persons who participate in different activities. However, men of many talents and masters of more than one existed – take Leonardo da Vinci or Salvator Rosa. Even though Rosa is not a person of the same caliber as his legendary predecessor (also Italian, by the way), he is the only painter, poet, satirist, and in the same time composer I know. Selve, voi che le speranze is his small but very amiable piece, and it can be found by the following link: Selve, voi che le speranze, for Voice and Piano.

Poème élégiaque by Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was a composer, conductor, and violinist. He was born in Liège, Belgium in 1858 and during his life never hesitated to amuse people: say, Pablo Casals, one of the greatest cellists ever, insisted that Ysaÿe was the only violinist to play in tune he has heard. To justify those other violinists we can assume that Casals had a perfect pitch and it was more inaccurate tuning than their own fault; however, that doesn’t affect the fact that Ysaÿe was outstanding musician – even an international violin competition was created as a tribute to his mastery. Here is his twelfth opus for violin and piano: Poème élégiaque in D minor, Op.12.

Etude No.2 in F Major by Edmund Neupert

Edmund Neupert was a Norwegian pianist, composer, and pedagogue. For his piano skills he was compared to Franz Liszt, but playing was not only one his talent - he was also a good teacher. It is well known that even though many people can play well, they not always can transfer their knowledge to others. Neupert, however, could. Here and now he is unable to help anyone with phrasing or articulation because of force majeure circumstances (such as his death in 1888), but his works live through the ages. For anyone who wants to master the skill of piano playing here is one of his etudes: Etude No.2 in F Major, Op.17.

Sonata No.6 by Zinck

Hardenack Otto Conrad Zinck was a German-Danish composer who had probably passed all requirements to be called a child prodigy when he was five – while his peers barely knew a difference between harp and lute, he already performed for the head of Danish state and concurrently alcoholic Frederick V. Zinck’s teacher was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach who gave him singing lessons. Between this and then he was playing piano, flute, and violin. And when Zinck instructed the choir members, people gathered nearby to listen – what is it if not intravital recognition? Being not very well-known today, he deserves postmortem fame as well, and I suggest downloading one of his piano sonatas. Sheet music of the sixth can be found here: Sonata No.6 for Piano in D minor. Enjoy!

O mio Piccolo tavolo ingombrato - Aria by Leoncavallo

Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. He was born in 1857, and his first major work, Pagliacci, was performed in 1892. It had some success, but certainly didn’t bring Leoncavallo universal recognition. However, as of today, it is the only staged work of him – even Chatterton, arguably the first record in the world to sell a million copies, is forgotten. Given that Leoncavallo is considered one of the greatest Italian librettists, ignoring his other works is somewhat disrespectful. Take, for example, Zazà – yes, certain arias from this opera can be heard time to time, but what if even they will fall into oblivion? I think all I can do is act to prevent and inform more people about Leoncavallo's music. Here's his aria O mio Piccolo tavolo ingombrato from Act III of Zazà.

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Ernst Levy

Born 1895, Ernst Levy was a Swiss pianist, composer, and pedagogue. A title of Forgotten Genius, a compilation of him playing Liszt and Beethoven, speaks volumes – as well as listeners’ comments: they concur that Levy’s interpretation of great composers’ sonatas is outstanding. For all its atypical freedom (Levy was often ignoring accents and other nuances), they sound fresh and unblemished, giving no reason to criticize performer’s approach.

Unlike many contemporaries, Levy, who paid little attention to accredited norms (including supremacy of serialism), managed to stay accessible – his works are borderline: they sound recognizably modern within the framework of their tonalities and without sliding into emotionless postmodernism cross-cutting the second half of the 20th century. Albeit Levy is virtually unknown to a wide audience, his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra had its premiere in New York, where it was warmly received. Sheet music of this notable piece is available here: Ernst Levy - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

Three Melodies for Piano, Op.21

Hans Huber was a Swiss Romantic composer, primarily influenced by Liszt, Brahms, and Schumann. Like his foregoers, he composed in a broad range of works – from operas and symphonies to piano concertos. And the same as Franz Liszt, who had been ignoring formal rules and composed a single-movement concerto, Huber had his own vision how many movements should they have. In his opinion, four was optimal. Also he was a chorister and a pianist. You can find a cycle of Huber's earlier works here: Three Melodies for Piano, Op.21

Sonata No. 1 by Zelenka

Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Czech composer, born in 1679. I really liked what Wikipedia writes about him: “The most appreciated Zelenka's sacred works are represented by masses” – isn't that quite fun that his masses are appreciated by masses?..

Works of Zelenka were twice rediscovered, twice in sixties: in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively. But even this belated recognition can’t anyhow affect the fact that we don’t have a decent portrait of a Baroque master of counterpoint. It seems nonsense (we know all great composers by sight!), but it’s true: we can make assumptions of what a man Zelenka was only listening to his music. It is even more interesting in this way, though.

Zelenka’s Sonata No. 1 is available for download here: Sonata No.1 for Two Oboes (or Two Violins), Bassoon and Basso Continuo, ZWV 181.