Extraordinary forgotten musicians

[Peter]

Josef Labor

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread that pays tribute to remarkable men and women who are now forgotten, but have had a great influence on more famous musicians. To start off with, I think Josef Labor truly deserves to be better known, not least when we consider that from the age of 3 he was left blind as a result of smallpox and yet went on to achieve great things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Labor

[Megan]

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread that pays tribute to remarkable men and women who are now forgotten, but have had a great influence on more famous musicians. To start off with, I think Josef Labor truly deserves to be better known, not least when we consider that from the age of 3 he was left blind as a result of smallpox and yet went on to achieve great things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Labor

What a truly talented, wonderful inspirational person.

[Peter]

Carl Filtsch

Carl Filtsch of whom Liszt once said, "When the little one begins to travel, I’ll close up shop." , was born in 1830 in Sebes/Mühlbach near Sibiu/Hermannstadt, and was one of the most important pianists of the 19th century, despite his short life – he died of tuberculosis at the age of 15. At the age of 12, he was Chopin’s favourite student and already one of the most famous piano virtuosos of his age – comparable to Liszt and Thalberg. He was celebrated in the big musical centres of Europe – Budapest, Vienna, Paris and London. And he created a collection of compositions of remarkable skill and maturity.

Since autumn 1995, an international festival has taken place in Sibiu/Hermannstadt, Rumania. This festival is a competition for piano and composition, which was created for young pianists and composers in memory of an extraordinary musician from Transsylvania.

[hal9000]

Had a listen to some Carl Filtsch - incredibly talented. It's a depressing thought to think of all the potentially lost masterpieces that are forever stuck in the ether because of premature and unforeseen deaths. Just think if Beethoven had died at 15.

[Peter]

Had a listen to some Carl Filtsch - incredibly talented. It's a depressing thought to think of all the potentially lost masterpieces that are forever stuck in the ether because of premature and unforeseen deaths. Just think if Beethoven had died at 15.

Well perhaps the best way to look at it is to recognise how lucky we are to have what we have - what a miracle music is!

[Peter]

Hans Rott

Mahler wrote of Rott:

"a musician of genius ... who died unrecognized and in want on the very threshold of his career. ... What music has lost in him cannot be estimated. Such is the height to which his genius soars in ... [his] Symphony [in E major], which he wrote as 20-year-old youth and makes him ... the Founder of the New Symphony as I see it. To be sure, what he wanted is not quite what he achieved. … But I know where he aims. Indeed, he is so near to my inmost self that he and I seem to me like two fruits from the same tree which the same soil has produced and the same air nourished. He could have meant infinitely much to me and perhaps the two of us would have well-nigh exhausted the content of new time which was breaking out for music."

Rott's mind snapped in October 1880, whilst on a train journey. He was reported to have threatened another passenger with a revolver, claiming that Brahms had filled the train with dynamite. Rott was committed to a mental hospital in 1881 and died 3 years later of Tuberculosis aged 25.

[Peter]

Charles-Valentin Alkan

In his day he was regarded in the same light as a piano virtuoso as Liszt and Chopin. Indeed Liszt thought Alkan's technique was the finest he had ever heard, surpassing his own. I suspect his decline into obscurity was due to the fact that his compositions (which like Chopin's are primarily for piano) are formidably difficult to play. Add to this a rather reclusive nature and the fact that he was Jewish at a time of rising anti-semitism in Europe, it took until the 1960s to rediscover his great contribution to music and piano technique, yet he is still much neglected.
http://www.jackgibbons.com/alkanmyths.htm

[Peter]

Vitezslava Kapralova - A name unknown to most, but she was a hugely gifted Czech composer who died tragically at the age of 25.

http://www.kapralova.org/

[gprengel]

Hans Rott

Mahler wrote of Rott:

"a musician of genius ... who died unrecognized and in want on the very threshold of his career. ... What music has lost in him cannot be estimated. Such is the height to which his genius soars in ... [his] Symphony [in E major], which he wrote as 20-year-old youth and makes him ... the Founder of the New Symphony as I see it.

Wow, I never heard of him before! I just listened to this symphony - it really has great movements (especially the end!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDe48ez9UkY

Thank you, Peter!

[Megan]

Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988) was an English composer and pianist who wrote some of the most unusual 20th century piano music. He maintained a tight control over his output, and, following a poor performance, he banned all public performances of his work between 1936 and 1976. During this time, he kept his name in the public eye through his writing. As a composer/pianist, he is often viewed as being in the tradition of such 19th century virtuosos as Chopin and Liszt.

Sorabji was born Leon Dudley Sorabji in Essex to an Indian father and English mother. His music studies seem to have stopped around 1915 and after correspondence with English composer Peter Warlock started in 1913, he began to work on composition and music criticism.


Link......http://www.interlude.hk/front/sorabji-inspiration/



It is also interesting to read that he is a largely self-taught pianist, he faced much criticism of his early works as being unplayable.

[Enrique]

Charles-Valentin Alkan

In his day he was regarded in the same light as a piano virtuoso as Liszt and Chopin. Indeed Liszt thought Alkan's technique was the finest he had ever heard, surpassing his own. I suspect his decline into obscurity was due to the fact that his compositions (which like Chopin's are primarily for piano) are formidably difficult to play. Add to this a rather reclusive nature and the fact that he was Jewish at a time of rising anti-semitism in Europe, it took until the 1960s to rediscover his great contribution to music and piano technique, yet he is still much neglected.
http://www.jackgibbons.com/alkanmyths.htm

Alkan is a name I know, as a result of having read a book about famous (in their times) pianists.