In Milos Forman’s 1984 film, Amadeus, court composer Antonio Salieri seeks out Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Archbishop Colloredo’s salon in Salzburg. Circling a group of musicians, all dressed identically in powdered wigs and blue uniforms, Salieri ponders, “Which one of them could he be?” But as we soon learn, a homely, giggling fellow, wearing the same court dress as the others but looking disheveled from cavorting with his fiancée in the dining room, turns out to be the musical Wunderkind.
 
How is it that, on the one hand, one of the most sublime composers in history can be portrayed as the grotesque, cackling caricature of Forman’s movie, and on the other, be represented as the smooth-faced matinee idol that graces wrappers of Mozartkugeln? Though both are recognizable to us as Mozart, his true image surely must lie somewhere in between. What did he really look like? For that matter, can we be sure of the portraits of other classical composers? Because we idealize and idolize these artists, we have often felt a strong need to see them as better looking than we are, sometimes even godlike in appearance.

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Perhaps no 20th century composer for the piano was as technically demanding or as prolific as Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988), who became internationally famous for his extremely dense and fiendishly difficult keyboard works. Yet despite his global fame, due largely to the strenuous promotional efforts of such energetic pianists as Marc-André Hamelin, John Ogdon, and Jonathan Powell, his vast oeuvre is still largely unknown, because of the difficulty and expense of publishing his intricate and immense manuscripts. Furthermore, this music is so virtuosic, only the most skilled, muscular, and artistically committed musicians can approach such monuments of complexity as Le jardin parfumé, the Concerto per suonare da me solo, and perhaps the most mind-boggling of all Sorabji’s works, the four-hour long Opus Clavicembalisticum.

On the surface, Sorabji’s fantastically dense music resembles the apocalyptic works of Alexander Scriabin, though it is important to point out that Sorabji’s harmonies and textures are far more daunting to performers and listeners alike. Yet this challenging music is intensely rewarding, as these electrifying samples may convey.
 
Fantaisie Espagnole
Un nido de scatole
Djâmî
St. Bertrand de Comminges
Rosario d’arabeschi
Gulistan
Piano Sonata No. 4
Le jardin parfumé
Concerto per suonare da me solo e senza orchestra, per divertisi
Opus Clavicembalisticum

Well-known to fans of classical guitar music, but seriously overlooked for his chamber, orchestral, operatic, and vocal works, Fernando Sor (1778-1839) was one of the leading musical figures in Spain and France at the transition between the Classical and the Romantic periods. He was admired in his time as a virtuoso guitarist and as the composer of the once popular but now long forgotten ballets, Cendrillon (1822) and Hassan et la calife (1828), which took him on travels from London to Moscow. His Méthode pour la guitare (1830) was widely praised, and his career as a teacher won him lasting respect. But of his surviving works, many of which languish unperformed and unrecorded, more than a hundred guitar pieces have become an important part of the repertoire and continue to appear on recitals and albums today.

Try the samples below to hear some of Sor’s best guitar music, as well as a few other rarities that deserve some attention.
 
Andante maestoso for guitar
Thème varié in C major, Op. 15c
Divertimento, Op. 23
Fantaisie for guitar, Op. 58
Etude for guitar in B minor, Op. 35/22
Sonata for guitar No. 1 in D major, Op. 14, “Grand Solo”
L’encouragement, for two guitars in G major, Op. 34/4
Duet, for two guitars, Op. 62
Mazurka, for piano
O Crux, for chorus
Ti ricordi che giurasti, ariette
Lagrime mie d’affano, ariette
Il Telemaco nell’isola di Calipso, Preludio
Il Telemaco nell’isola di Calipso, “Care Selve”
Il Telemaco nell’isola di Calipso, “Mia dolce speranza”

When you’re admired by someone as savvy as Ludwig van Beethoven and emulated by Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn, no slouches in the genius department, you’d think your name might be remembered along with theirs, right? And if your music was still being played fifty years after your demise, you’d think your reputation might last into the next century, at least. Alas, like many other celebrated figures who are now unjustly neglected, George Onslow (1784-1853) fell into total obscurity for most of the 20th century, only to be reassessed and revived in recent years through recordings on European labels.
 
A nobleman who enjoyed country life, Onslow established himself as one of the leading producers of chamber music in France, and his elegant works served as models for many of the early Romantics. Yet while other French composers treated their instrumental pieces as calling cards for advancement in the world of opera, Onslow largely avoided the musical theater and devoted himself almost entirely to the production of keyboard sonatas, string quartets, string quintets, and other works for small instrumental groups.

Try some of the samples below to find out if Onslow really was as good as his shrewd contemporaries thought he was.
 
Sonata (Grand Duo) for piano, 4 hands in E minor, Op. 7
Sonata for piano, 4 hands in F minor, Op. 22
Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 16/1
Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 16/2
Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 16/3
String Quartet in G minor, Op. 9/1, (”Variations on ‘God Save the King’”)
String Quartet in F minor, Op. 9/3
String Quartet in C major, Op. 47
String Quintet No. 15 in C minor, Op. 38, (”The Bullet”)
String Quintet No. 26 in C minor, Op. 67
Grand Sextet, Op. 77bis
Nonet in A minor, Op. 77
Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 42
Symphony No. 4 in G major, Op. 71

An American original who lived just long enough to leave an impression with the public, yet not long enough to establish himself as a master, Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920) wrote almost everything we have of his music in less than fifteen years. In that extremely short time, he experimented with both German post-Romanticism and French impressionism, yet quickly discovered a rich style wholly his own. His “late” music, such as the Piano Sonata, The White Peacock, and The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan, shimmer with richly inventive colors and harmonies, and suggest the fantastic heights Griffes could have reached, had he not died prematurely of pneumonia at the Mozartian age of 35.

Play some of the samples below to hear Griffes at his best.
 
The Lake at Evening, for piano
Piano Sonata
A Winter Landscape, for piano
De Profundis, for piano
The Fountain of the Acqua Paola, for piano
The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan, for piano
The White Peacock, for orchestra
Poem, for flute and orchestra
Bacchanale, for orchestra
Clouds, for orchestra
The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan, for orchestra

The post-Romantic (and sometimes mildly modernist) music of French composer, teacher, and theoretician Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) is pleasantly melodious, harmonically rich, atmospheric in mood, and impressionistic in style, but it has not yet found the wide audience it deserves. Listeners who love the evocative fin de siècle music of Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, and Claude Debussy (who, incidentally, all worked at different times with Koechlin and sought his assistance in orchestrating some of their compositions) will regard these samples of his long neglected oeuvre with delight. Though Koechlin’s music has largely been forgotten for over a half century since his death, enough of it has been recorded in recent years to demonstrate his staying power and potential for a full-fledged revival. Vive Koechlin!

String Quartet No. 1
String Quartet No. 2
Au loin
Sonata for flute and piano
Sonata for viola and piano
Sonatine No. 1
Sonatine No. 2
Hommage a Gabriel Fauré
La Méditation de Purun Bagat
La Course de printemps
Les Bandar-log

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739 - 1799) is not exactly a household name, but his musical achievements won him many honors and he became as celebrated across 18th-century Europe as his friends and colleagues, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (Interestingly, Dittersdorf and Haydn, both violinists, and Mozart, a violist, all played together in a string quartet, along with Bohemian composer and cellist, Johann Baptist Vanhal). Dittersdorf’s operas and oratorios brought him enormous success in his time, though he is mostly remembered today for his concert works, including numerous concertos, symphonies, and chamber pieces, some of which are sampled below. So even though he is not quite as famous as his contemporaries, and despite his curious sounding name, don’t just treat Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf as an item of musical trivia — get to know his delightful music, too!

Concerto for harp & orchestra in A major
Concerto for oboe & orchestra in G major
Sinfonia Concertante for viola, double bass & orchestra in D major
Divertimento for violin, viola & cello in D major
Symphonies (6) after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, No. 1 in C major
Symphonies (6) after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, No. 2 in D major
Symphonies (6) after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, No. 3 in G major
Symphonies (6) after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, No. 4 in F major
Symphonies (6) after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, No. 5 in A major
Symphonies (6) after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, No. 6 in D major
String Quartet No. 1 in D major
String Quartet No. 2 in B flat major
String Quartet No. 3 in G major
String Quartet No. 4 in C major
String Quartet No. 5 in E flat major
String Quartet No. 6 in A major

No cemetery in the world boasts more graves of great classical composers and other famous musicians than the massive Central Cemetery in Vienna (Zentralfriedhof Wien), which is the biggest of almost 50 cemeteries in the city. The burial ground, which was opened in 1874, is Europe’s largest in number of interred, holding the remains of over three million people, and the second largest in area. Of course, notables in politics, science, literature, and the arts receive their due among the most visited sites, grouped in the Ehrengräber (Honorary Graves). However, the most celebrated tenants of all are the many musicians, who make this place a natural tourist attraction for Austria’s music capital.

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