SCHWARTZ'S GUIDE TO UNDERRATED MASTERPIECES
(G.F. HANDEL - Werner JOSTEN)

(Falla - Gurney)

(Khachaturian - Lutoslawski)

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Handel

The operas are performed but still obscure. Try Giulio Caesar. Of the oratorios, try the monumental Israel in Egypt. Stunning choruses. "Dixit Dominus" is one of those pieces that almost do the impossible: make you forget Bach's Magnificat. "The Ways of Zion Do Mourn" -- an ode on the death of Queen Caroline -- is truly noble. I haven't said anything about the instrumental music because I figure it's not overlooked. Besides, I want to use the space to plug Harry Christopher's recording of the complete Chandos Anthems -- one masterpiece after another.

Hanson

For years, I just wasn't sure about his music. Was it too "nice"? At his best when he's quiet. His loud passages can become hectoring. On the other hand, an original voice. You identify a Hanson piece within two measures. Symphonies 1 and 2 are known. Number 6 is my favorite. Other things to try: Four Psalms for baritone and string sextet, Concerto da camera, Piano Concerto, Lament for Beowulf (genuinely powerful), Merry Mount (suite and selections from the opera), Mosaics (brilliant orchestration), and the string quartets (the symphonies on a smaller scale, which helps tone down the occasional stridency).

Harris

Another American composer not Piston, Copland, Carter, or Schuman, and therefore in eclipse. I like everything I've heard, except for the Symphony No. 4 "Folk-song".

Harrison

Lou, from California. Influenced by Asian music, he comes closest to Hovhaness, but on the other hand you'd never confuse their works. Try the symphonies.

Herrmann

An American composer and conductor long resident in England, where he became more a part of the British music scene. Herrmann has an odd style, based on a unique, immediately-identifiable sense of harmony. He can get more out of two chords than any other composer I know. One of the outstanding film composers, he worked with Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons), Hitchcock (Vertigo, Marnie, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Man Who Knew Too Much), Truffaut (Fahrenheit 451), DePalma (Sisters, Obsession), Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans), and Scorcese (Taxi Driver). He also has several non-movie works, my favorites of which are a Symphony and a Sinfonietta for String Orchestra, the precursor to the Psycho score.

Hindemith

A major master known for 2, possibly 3, works. Of the 5 seminal composers of this century -- Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Webern, being the others -- Hindemith had more brains than the rest of them put together. This does not, however, mean he was a greater composer than any of them. Still, the critics who claim to be bored by his "academicism" (what a word!) have their ears on wrong. Although a capable teacher (Schoenberg was a great teacher) who spent time in the academy, a less pedantic composer never drew breath. How can you listen to Der Daemon or even the percussion passage in Symphonic Metamorphoses and call the composer a pedant? For some it must be easy. The music is of uniformly high mastery. If you can find them, pick up the magnificent Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto (also magnificent), all the music for a capella chorus, Apparebit repentina dies for chorus and orchestra, Concert Music for Piano, Brass, and Harp, Symphony in E-flat, Symphony in B-flat, all the Kammermusik, and the sonatas without opus numbers. His When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd is a monumental work. I realize it's chock full of complexities, but it mainly just knocks my socks off. I prefer the Shaw recording to the composer's own.

Holmboe

Twentieth-century composers not living in Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, St. Petersberg, or New York have a tough row to hoe, as far as recognition is concerned. It took nearly forty years after the composer's death for Nielsen to be recognized, mostly because his career was based in Copenhagen. His countryman Vagn Holmboe faces the same problem, as does the Swedish symphonist Alan Pettersson. Holmboe writes outstanding symphonies and string quartets. The Swedes have begun to record his work. I recommend any of the symphonies (he wrote at least 10), the String Quartet No.  8, the Brass Quintet, and the Recorder Trio. If you like Hindemith and Nielsen, you should have little trouble with Holmboe.

Holst

Nothing is really known outside The Planets. This is a major composer after a few early works. I recommend 12 Songs, Two Carols, 4 Songs for voice and violin, the canons, 6 Medieval Lyrics, Seven Partsongs by Robert Bridges, Brook Green, Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Choral Symphony (poems by Keats), Double Concerto, Fugal Concerto, Fugal Overture, Hammersmith (the band version), Psalm 86, Lyric Movement for viola and orchestra, St. Paul's Suite, the two Suites for Band, and the Terzetto. His settings of British folk songs for a capella singers are wonderful. He differs from Grainger (who takes on all kinds of music) in that he sets best those pieces which come closest to his characteristic mood of rapt contemplation.

Honegger

A major composer now coming back. The symphonies and Le Roi David are no longer obscure. Try Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) -- a flat-out masterpiece.

Hovhaness

People either love him or loathe him. I don't loathe him. He is fantastically uneven, but at his best ... Lou Harrison has called him one of the greatest melodists of all times. He's also a man intoxicated by counterpoint. Try the Concerto for Orchestra 1 "Arevakel", Concerto for Piano 1 "Lousadzek", Fra Angelico, Magnificat, Triptych, Prelude and Quadruple Fugue (FANTASTIC! Exciting as Bartók), and, of course, the St. Vartan Symphony. The last may whet your appetite for more of his symphonies (last I heard, he was somewhere in the high 20s).

Howells

An early follower of Vaughan Williams, known mainly for his church music. He hasn't a large catalogue. Hymnus Paradisi for choirs, soloists, and orchestra is his most ambitious work, but I find it uninvolving. The church music is wonderful, including the Collegium Regale and the St. Paul's Service. His solo songs are gem, among which "Come Sing and Dance" and "King David" are probably classics of English song. I also like very much his early piano quartet.

Ireland

Piano Concerto. It's got the intimacy of the Schumann concerto. Not a Big Wow piece, but loveable. Sextet for clarinet, horn, and string quartet -- strong affinities with Brahms's chamber music, in particular the clarinet and horn trios. This is a very early work, and thus not free of the influence of Stanford. The impressionistic Ireland comes later.

Ives

Who would have thought Ives could write hits? Certain pieces tend to be re-recorded -- Symphonies 2 & 3, The Unanswered Question, Three Places in New England. I'd like to plug the Symphony no. 1, for a change. It was written as a graduation exercise for Ives's Yale composition prof, Horatio Parker. It sounds a lot like Dvorák, even though it's still pretty quirky (in the first movement, he seems determined to modulate through every single key) -- all in all, a lovely work and an indication of what he might have become had he decided to become someone other than Ives. String Quartet no. 1 is the chamber equivalent. However, I'd like to especially call the choral works to your attention. Ives is a GREAT choral composer. Surprisingly, no two works are alike, so it's hard to describe them in general. Suffice to say, that his favorite of all his pieces was his setting of Psalm 90, which runs from monotone to whoops to a chorale of great beauty at the end. The Three Harvest Home Carols introduced Ives to me. Strong, moody pieces. General William Booth Enters Heaven exists as a song for voice and piano, and it's a great song. However, I prefer the orchestration and the added chorus in the arrangement of 1919. Finally, the Variations on America the Beautiful. The orchestration by William Schuman is pretty well known, but the work was written for organ. On a pipe organ, the loopiness really comes through, especially the Gilbert & Sullivan variation.

Jacob

Gordon Septimus. A pupil of Vaughan Williams with the reputation of admirable craftsman. His idiom resembles the sophisticated Vaughan Williams of the Partita, the Concerto accademico, and the Piano Concerto. About the only stuff that gets recorded is essentially "light music," with little pretension to anything more. A quick check of Grove's reveals that Jacob has titles in his catalogue that hint at greater substance, which of course I've never heard. I can recommend especially the Five Pieces and the Divertimento, both for harmonica and strings, the Concerto for Piano 3-hands and Orchestra, and the William Byrd Suite, an arrangement of Byrd keyboard pieces for band. In live concert, I've heard exquisite songs for voice and string trio on lyrics by William Blake. These last convince me that there's more to this composer than a good time.

Janacek

Let me second all the recommendations made so far and add the operas The Cunning Little Vixen, The Makropoulos Affair, and The Adventures of Mr. Broucek.

Jolivet

A writer of concerti, none of which are well known. Musical Heritage was big on him for a while. Take anything. 20th-century French, he comes closest to Honegger but he's really his own man. An imaginative use of percussion instruments and a tremendous concern for balance and form distinguish his works.

Josquin

Quite simply, one of the very greatest ever. The Renaissance, which by the way has more great composers per square inch than any other period in western culture, thought he was the best of the lot. The "Prince of Music," if you can divorce that term from the short guy in Minneapolis. High points: the Deploration de Johannes Ockeghem, Ave Maria, Missa Ave maris stella, Missa Pange lingua, Missa L'homme armé, Missa de Beata Virgine, Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae, Missa Merica, a fabulously difficult motet Praeter rerum seriem (in 3 different meters). All this may lead you to believe that he took himself way too seriously. However, he is also a master of secular music. It's the clarity of texture in all his work that attracts me so much.

Josten

A composer I run across occasionally but don't know much about. A 20th-century naturalized American whose work was taken up by Stokowski, among others. Now, he seems to have fallen off the edge. What I've heard is terrifically uneven. However, his Symphony in F packs a punch. I believe the fellow who wrote the score to the movie Patton stole from it. Some of the ideas are real close.

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