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Your Somewhat Obscure Classical Recommendations

... let's continue with Franz Schreker, once a highly regarded composer. After he was outlawed by the Nazi regime, his music had some kind of a comeback, but still remains quite undervalued.



 
- Anton Arensky Piano Concerto in F minor (1st & 2nd Mvmt.)

- Sergei Bortkiewicz Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat Major (1st & 2nd Mvmt.)

- Alexander Scriabin Etude No. 12 Op. 8 in D-Sharp minor
 
Great thread! I'm reviving it to add some favorites not mentioned yet:

Carl Vine - Piano Sonata No. 1 (1990), here played in a PHENOMENAL performance by Michael Kieran Harvey, to whom the piece is dedicated:


The Vine Piano Sonata No. 1 is possibly my favorite piano sonata of all time.

Peter Sculthorpe - Irkanda IV (1961)


There is something haunted and dangerous about this piece as if the violin is stranded in the middle of the vast and hostile Australian outback.

Toru Takemitsu - To the Edge of Dream (1983)


Takemitsu's orchestration on this piece is stunning.

Edgard Varese - Arcana (1925-1927)


Fans of Jerry Goldsmith's score to Planet of the Apes will like this one I think.
 
The symphonic poems (purely instrumental, no vocals) from Paul Ladmirault.
He was a student of Gabriel Faure in the same class as Ravel.

One example of his symphonic poems is "En Foret" (in the forest):

 
Very cinematic is the symphonic music of Anatoly Liadov
(PS: there are different ways to spell his name).

Baba Yaga has a fantasy theme, but you can very well imagine it under a Starwars movie from John Williams.




Kikamora is rather brooding music:




And no, you do not want to ever meet Baba Yaga or Kikimora ;)
 
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And also cinematic, but with a more pastoral feel, the symphonic music from (the better known composer) Frederick Delius.

Brigg Fair would fit nicely in the animation movie Watership Down (with the rabbits in the english countryside):

 
I've just discovered John Foulds. There are four volumes of his orchestral work with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Beautiful stuff. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=John+Foulds&i=popular&ref=nb_sb_noss
 
Guillaume Lekeu was a promising young composer mentored by Cesar Franck who contracted typhoid fever and died the day after his twenty-fourth birthday. I claim no great knowledge of him or his works, and in fact the piece I am going to link you is the only one of his that I've heard. It's his Adagio for String Orchestra, a beautiful and melancholic work written after Franck's death, and an excellent demonstration of just what was lost when he died.

 
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