Underrated or unfamous No.1

I’m hoping to make this a monthly regular occurrence. I will select one composer and one piece, both of which will be relatively unfamous, or rather underrated. After selecting an item for the respective categories I will then proceed to have a brief discussion on each. …Without further adieu…

Unfamous Composer: Robert Fuchs [Wikipedia article↑]
“Fuchs is a splendid musician, everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased” wrote Brahms. A Teacher of Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf, Jean Sibelius, among others, Fuchs led a quiet life rarely taking opportunities (even when they where easily attainable) to have his pieces performed. He was promoted by Brahms who especially enjoyed Fuchs’ first symphony. Fuchs’ only claim to fame (be it small) are his Serenades and Chamber music. His music has a Brahmsian quality to it.

Underrated Piece: Dmitri Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 2 in F, Op. 102 [Wikipedia article↑]
Written for his son Maxim’s 19th Birthday, this highly jolly and playful piece was described by Shostakovich as “lacking all artistic merit“, regardless of which he performed the piece numerously and recorded the piece along with his 1st piano concerto. The first movement being fast march-like, the second being slow and contemplative, and the third being a fast polka in 7/8.

If you wish to listen to or purchase CDs of the piece or the composer, I suggest searching Amazon.com. It is also sometimes possible to listen to examples of the CD in Amazon.com.

What with the closure of IMSLP….

What with the closure* of IMSLP, several people are without access to sheet music. While, IMSLP was the major free Public Domain sheet music site, it wasn’t the only one. Many of the pieces on IMSLP are, in fact, from other sites. The main purpose of IMSLP was to collect PD sheet music, both from a scanned score and from Internet sources. The reason for this being so that you wouldn’t have to search throughout the Internet and various smaller PD sheet music sites for a file – it was all in one spot.

The myriad of sites [that were] available on the IMSLP main page although extremely helpful, can be rather disconcerting regarding the sheer number of them. Below I will list a few which I use personally, and believe are of greater significance from the list above:

• Variations Project at Indiana University – low-resolution scans.
• Mutopia – Re-typeset Scores
• Choral Public Domain Library – Collection of Choral Music in various formats
• Sheetmusicfox.com – Reported to contain scores from SMA but not limited to 2 downloads per day
• NMA – Neue Mozart-Ausgabe – Complete Scores of Mozart†

None are as extensive as the 15,000 strong IMSLP collection, but they should be effective in the mean time until IMSLP comes back – which it will.

*There is much to be discussed about the closure of IMSLP, but that is not what I wish to delve into right now.
† An accompanying Complete Recordings of Mozart’s works can be found here. The legality of the site is not stated – as far as I can see. Download with caution.

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