A few very famous works tend to dominate the classical airwaves when spring arrives: Mendelssohn’s Spring Song, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) and Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, etc. But suppose the winds of fashion and popularity had blown in a different direction over the last 50 to 100 years and a completely different set of composers and works had become the cream of the classical crop? Here follows an alternative universe classical music playlist for springtime.

Francesco Landini

Blind organist Francesco Landini was the most popular figure in the Italian trecento. Landini was just as adept at composing complex polyphonic music as he was joyful, simple ditties like Ecco la Primavera (Echoes of Spring Spring is Here), which was at the top of the trecento hit parade in 1360 or so.
 

David Munrow & The Early Music Consort of London - Landini: Ecco la Primavera
 
 

Johann Casper Ferdinand Fischer

Johann Casper Ferdinand Fischer composed his set of eight orchestral suites La Journal du Printemps around 1695. They are among the earliest major works for orchestra, preceding by quite some time more famous orchestral works of Johann Sebastian Bach or George Frederick Handel. They are extraordinary pieces as well, with a sense of grace, balance, and depth that sounds with a familiarity not often encountered in obscure repertoire. Hampered by a confusing manuscript and arcane printed edition, both lacking instrumental details, these important works are new to us, only recorded for the first time in 2007.

Michi Gaigg, L’Orfeo Barockorchester - Johann Casper Ferdinand Fischer: La Journal du Printemps, Suite No. 4 in D minor - “Passacaille”
 
 
Antonio Vivaldi — With a Twist

And while we’re on the subject of the Baroque, perhaps many are not aware that Antonio Vivaldi’s famous concerto La Primavera from The Four Seasons also exists in a vocal version, with words. Apparently, Vivaldi didn’t want to see this great tune get underutilized.

Cecila Bartoli, Il Giardino Armonico - Vivaldi: Dorilla in Tempe - “Dell’Aura Sussurrar”
 
 
 
Follow the Lieder

While it is not exactly “alternative universe” material, the realm of Lieder and art song tends to get overlooked. It offers a huge number of spring-themed choices, however, including selections ranging from Schubert to Ned Rorem.

Elly Ameling & Jörg Demus - Franz Schubert: Im Frühling
Felicity Lott & Graham Johnson - Gounod: Chanson au printemps
Emilio de Gogorza - Debussy: Romance “Voici que le printemps”
Roberta Alexander & Tan Crone - Charles Ives: Spring Song
Phyllis Curtin & Ned Rorem - Rorem: Poems of Paul Goodman - “Rain in Spring”
 
 
Spring Symphonies

There are way more symphonic works about spring than just Robert Schumann’s First Symphony. Take for example the outstanding Symphony No. 2 in A major of 19th-century American composer John Knowles Paine, or take your pick of symphonic poems by Sibelius, Glazunov, or Kabalevsky. Charles Koechlin’s La course du Printemps is a setting of Rudyard Kipling that is part of a series of musical works based on The Jungle Book.

 
 
Zubin Mehta, New York Philharmonic - John Knowles Paine: Symphony No. 2 “In the Spring”
Osmo Vänskä, Lahti Symphony Orchestra - Jean Sibelius: Spring Song
Evgeny Svetlanov, USSR Symphony Orchestra - Alexander Glazunov: To Spring
Igor Golivschin, Moscow Symphony Orchestra - Kabalevsky: Spring
Heinz Holliger, Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgarten SWR - Koechlin: La course de Printemps
 
 
Christian Sinding

The impact of spring is felt in small-scale instrumental works as well. Norwegian composer Christian Sinding’s Rustle of Spring was once a standard favorite found in most piano benches in America; today it is relegated to alternative universe status. The others examples here are well known only to those who play the koto or classical guitar respectively, however, come springtime these pieces do figure into the mix, slipped into recitals as encores.

Frank Glazer, piano - Sinding: Rustle of Spring
Lise Daoust, flute & Marie Joseé-Simard, marimba - Michio Miyagi: Haru No Imo
David Russell, guitar - Barrios: Valse da Primavera
 
 

Spring for the Modernist in Your Life

Spring has also captured the imagination of ultra-modern composers; Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring can even be seen as the work that heralded the onslaught of modernism. Far less riotous a reception has greeted the wispy George Antheil, peppy Darius Milhaud, and ominously otherworldly Luigi Dallapiccola works heard below. Webern student and follower Philippe Herscovici’s Spring Flowers (1947) is a tiny, crystalline 12-tone piece which does seem to evoke little flowers breaking through to the sun; its 50 seconds is the only music to have survived from Herscovici’s pen from between 1939 and 1959, a period he spent, at first, fleeing the Nazis and that ended with him placed under Soviet censure.

 
 
Jagdish Mistry, violin - Antheil: Printemps I
Darius Milhaud, Orchestre du Radio Luxembourg - Milhaud: Little Symphony No. 1, “Printemps”
Mojca Erdmann, soprano & Arbeit Reimann, piano - Dallapiccola: La primavera ha venido [first setting]
Steffen Schleiermacher, piano - Herscovici: Spring Flowers
 
 

Sousa is Not Just for Summer

To close, a little bit of Americana. President Rutherford B. Hayes instituted the annual Easter Egg roll at the White House in 1887, and in 1903 John Philip Sousa immortalized this event in his piece for band, Easter Monday on the White House Lawn. Just the sort of thing to get one’s spring off to a bang; we don’t know why this hasn’t become better known, but this raggy, non-march has a great chance of moving out of its alternative universe status into that of an American classic.

Col. Lowell Graham & USAF Heritage of America Band - Sousa: Easter Monday on the White House Lawn