In November 2014 I started celebrating the lives and music of neglected composers on my programme on CBC Music, In Concert. The segment is called the In Concert Revival Hour – it’s an hour-long feature on the compositions and life story of an under-appreciated composer – salvaging deserving music from the scrapheap of history.
I often get asked for a list of all the composers who have been celebrated on the Revival Hour. Some of them, you may have heard of. Some not at all. All lived interesting lives you never hear about, not even in music school – especially 19th century women, of whom there were many more than I was taught.
Here they are, in broadcast order. Episode 1 aired November 9, 2014.
#1: Anatoly Lyadov (1855-1914) 🇷🇺
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
Master of miniatures, Lyadov was socially awkward. He would sometimes cut his nails while teaching composition to Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
He was so shy, in 1913, he didn't even show up to a great banquet celebrating his life achievements. pic.twitter.com/j6doAfV1NP
#2: Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) 🇨🇿
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
Dussek is the reason audiences can see pianists. Before him, they played with their backs to the audience. Not Dussek. He was so good-lookin', he turned the piano around.
He's been called the first modern musical superstar. pic.twitter.com/1QXmbdBmNw
#3: Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) 🇵🇱
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
In 1917 during the 🇷🇺 Revolution, Bolshevik troops threw his piano into a lake (!!!) then burned down his family home.
Szymanowski was one of the first openly gay composers - he even wrote a homoerotic novel. It was lost in a fire in 1939. pic.twitter.com/SmQgDBlJNx
#4: Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) 🇩🇪
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
Kind of an early Miguel from @pixarcoco. His mother hated musicians, so he learned how to play the recorder in secret. (Which begs the question, how!?) He hid a violin in his closet.
Also, he composed more than 3000 pieces of music.
!! pic.twitter.com/l5392RXL6r
#5: Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995) 🇭🇺🇺🇸
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
Winner of three @TheAcademy Awards. You may have heard his music in Ben-Hur, Spellbound & A Double Life.
Led a double life as a concert composer and always felt his music was overlooked in the concert hall. Which it was, and still is. pic.twitter.com/mxjmoV9nJb
#6: Arnold Bax (1883-1953) 🇬🇧
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
Obsessed with Ireland, he spent years in Co. Donegal watching the sea and looking for faeries hidden in the hillsides.
He called himself a "brazen romantic" and his music could be called the same. (It's fantastic!) pic.twitter.com/tVF1ItZnPK
#7: Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) 🇨🇿
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
Son of a cobbler who lived in a church. Fled Europe during WWII. He went for long walks alone at night in Queens to solve creative problems.
He preferred news in French so he tuned into @icircpremiere from Montreal.
Also, what a smile, eh! pic.twitter.com/goTNGSYy6O
#8: Karl Goldmark (1830-1915) 🇭🇺✡️
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) September 30, 2019
A superstar in his own time with operas staged on three continents. But because he was Jewish, his music was later banned by the Nazis.
One of many composers who have been mostly forgotten - thanks to the Nazis.
Time to unforget them. pic.twitter.com/18EKJf53bO
#9: Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) 🇬🇧
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) October 1, 2019
A prominent suffragette, she was once arrested at a protest and jailed for 2 months. She organized a women's prison chorus and conducted - with a toothbrush.
Guess why her music was often overlooked.
The first of 21 #womencomposers on this list. pic.twitter.com/0BeiWVpTTF
#10: Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) 🇫🇷
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) October 1, 2019
Not only did he look like Gandalf, he could climb mountains like Gandalf. He scaled Mont Blanc - in his 70s - alone!
He designed his own summer villa in the south of France, where he wrote several tone poems inspired by the Jungle Book. pic.twitter.com/jAVDqUoSKm
#11: Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) 🇨🇿
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) October 1, 2019
Known as the Bohemian Bach.
Composed the oratorio “Under the Olive Tree of Peace and the Palm Tree of Virtue the Crown of Bohemia Splendidly Shines Before the Whole World.”
His music was long forgotten, locked for decades in a cupboard. pic.twitter.com/zAppzXSX2J
#12: Carl Czerny (1791-1857) 🇨🇿🇦🇹
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) October 1, 2019
A name that makes piano students break out in a cold sweat, for the countless technical studies he composed.
He memorized all of Beethoven's piano music. Every note. Audiences would call out an opus number, and he would play it on command. pic.twitter.com/dgZpNKFfvn
#13: César Cui (1835-1918) 🇷🇺🇱🇹🇫🇷
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) October 1, 2019
Military fortifications expert & Russian army general. Wrote music in his spare time. One of the "Mighty Handful".
His dad was a soldier in Napoleon's Grande Armée who had the good sense to marry a Lithuanian girl instead of freezing to death. pic.twitter.com/6vNp1fN8I7
#14: Ole Bull (1810-1880) 🇳🇴
— Paolo Pietropaolo (@paolopp) October 1, 2019
He climbed the highest mountain in 🇳🇴and the Great Pyramid of Giza just so he could be the first to play violin at their summits.
He built a castle in Pennsylvania and called it Valhalla. Ibsen wrote a play about him.
Also, his name was Ole Bull. pic.twitter.com/JVozF1dcIh