Erkki Melartin's Music

Not much information could be found about Erkki Melartin (1875-1937), even though he was considered one of the most prominent Finnish composers in the beginning of the 20th century. Interestingly, his wedding march appears to be extremely popular in his homeland – perhaps, even more than Mendelssohn's one, which is not losing ground for almost three hundred years. As concerns other works of Melartin, I can't recommend them highly enough. Merging romantic tradition with impressionism in his music, Melartin indeed had been composing something truly special. For starters, here is Sleeping Beauty. Butterfly Waltz, for Piano, Op.22 No.17 – small but very lovely piece.

Che fiero costume by Giovanni Legrenzi

Relatively little is known about Baroque composer and organist Giovanni Legrenzi, though it is explainable – of 19 operas he composed (which by itself is quite an impressive amount), most haven't survived, and in this light it is a little wonder that historians and musicologists weren't very interested in a biography of a person, whose remaining legacy is quite sparse. Given that he was among forefront composers in his time, it is particularly sad to see only three of fourteen his oratorios having managed to reach the present day as well. To do the best that I can, I want to share with you one of Legrenzi's survived works – for all that he did (including giving lessons to young Vivaldi), he deserves more recognition than he already has. Here is sheet music of Che fiero costume in F Minor, enjoy!

The Spider's Feast – Albert Roussel

Albert Roussel is a very unique name in French music and, dare I say, overall in classical. Despite lesser-known than Maurice Ravel – with whom he was close friends, – or Eric Satie, who was Roussel's student, his works – and, to lesser or even the same extent, personality – had been highly influental: admittedly, a group of composers Les Six, same as quite a few young composers of the beginning of the 20th century, were known to highly regard his oeuvre. Speaking of which, its diversity is startling: most notably, it includes impressionist and neoclassical periods, contains eastern motifs, brought by Roussel after traveling around the world – he at all served as a naval officer for about 7 years, – but draws upon classicism even so. Also, before his efforts, a common belief existed that French symphonic music isn't even possible, but Roussel proved musicologists wrong.

Here is his piano arrangement of his famous ballet, enjoy: Le Festin de l’Araignée (The Spider's Feast), Op.17. Below is the original version, for your listening pleasure: