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Lesser known symphonies


A Lark Ascending

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John Ludy

Who is he? Can't find any references via Google.

Sorry, this was an inside joke. John was the husband of Lynne Ludy, a coworker at JRM/Delmark back in the day. John was an introvert and seemed to spend all his time composing. He had stacks of his work next to the piano in their apartment. On rare occasions he would play some of them for close friends. I'm sure John Litweiler heard a few. They moved home to central Michigan in the '70s and divorced. John passed away a few years ago.

Sorry for the derailment.

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I bought a Wellesz box a few months back - only listened through once but enjoyed what I heard.

Although it's not named a symphony I'd recommend Nicholas Maw's 'Odyssey' - orchestral music on a Mahlerian scale.

Also interested (though again only superficially familiar) with the Henze and Hartmann symphonies.

Is Martinu little known in the States? Although not likely to pack 'em in like Mahler or Shosty, he's pretty well known in Europe with several cycles of the symphonies available.

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John Ludy

Who is he? Can't find any references via Google.

Sorry, this was an inside joke. John was the husband of Lynne Ludy, a coworker at JRM/Delmark back in the day. John was an introvert and seemed to spend all his time composing. He had stacks of his work next to the piano in their apartment. On rare occasions he would play some of them for close friends. I'm sure John Litweiler heard a few. They moved home to central Michigan in the '70s and divorced. John passed away a few years ago.

Sorry for the derailment.

Oh, yes, now I remember -- vaguely, but I remember.

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Tippett got a brief mention earlier. Took me a long time to warm to him but once you get his sound world in your head, very rewarding. The 4th is the one I keep coming back to - there's a haunting melodic/harmonic passage at the start that seems to generate the piece - had it stuck in my head for days. The 3rd is a strange piece - direct quotes from Beethoven 9 and a long vocal 'blues' (the upper class British variant!) section at the end.

A living composer I'm following with interest is David Matthews - 7 symphonies so far, 6 recorded (I believe the 7th is not far away). Tonal and conventional in many ways but quite astringent; warming up in the more recent symphonies with clear allusions to RVW and, especially, Sibelius (though I believe he's very Beethoven inspired). He's not avant garde in any sense but he's far from a rehasher. Worked alongside his brother David with Deryck Cooke on the reconstruction of Mahler 10 and also with the Britten estate.

I've also been enjoying the Weinberg symphonies that both Chandos and Naxos have been releasing.

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John Ludy

Who is he? Can't find any references via Google.

Sorry, this was an inside joke. John was the husband of Lynne Ludy, a coworker at JRM/Delmark back in the day. John was an introvert and seemed to spend all his time composing. He had stacks of his work next to the piano in their apartment. On rare occasions he would play some of them for close friends. I'm sure John Litweiler heard a few. They moved home to central Michigan in the '70s and divorced. John passed away a few years ago.

Sorry for the derailment.

Sorry to learn John passed away. A good man and a wide-ranging music lover. Leon Kelert used to warehouse his trad jazz label in the Ludys' bookstore.

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  • 2 years later...

I have long been interested in exploring lesser known composers from primarily the Classical and Romantic periods with a few from the Baroque period as well. In looking through my collection this morning I listed  quite a few of those composers with symphonies on my shelves.

Louise Farrenc - the only female composer on my list

Berwald, Rheinberger, Clementi, Taneyev, Krommer, Goldmark, Raff, Fibich, Stenhammar, Lachner, Boyce, Reinecke, Kalivoda, Zemlinsky, Anton Rubinstein, Madetoja, Pichel, Abel, Potter, D'Indy, Kalinnikov, Vranicky, Volkmann, Svendsen, Chadwick, John Knowles Paine

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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