The ‘lost’ music of Vaughan Williams is an interesting story but what else has been ‘found’? | | Classical music

TThe discovery of a new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams has set the world alight this week. Well, not really, but it’s a big deal. In a box in the archives of Morley College in London Elaine Andrews discovers a classic song by Vaughan Williams. Titled Before the Mirror, it sets Swinburne’s poem inspired by Whistler’s painting.

The hearing was played Radio 4’s PM Monday (58 mins in) shows the music of the amazing tonal journey and ambiguity, which was written some time after Vaughan Williams married Adeline Fisher in 1897. And the manuscript works, its crossing and correction, is a fascinating knowledge of Vaughan Williams.

But a single song is small compared to the wealth of music that would otherwise be wasted in libraries, museums and galleries around the world. One of the most important musical finds of all time was a collection of manuscripts written by Florence Price that was found in an apartment building in St. Anne, Illinois in 2009, Price’s summer home, which included her two. violin music, Fourth Symphony and many other pieces.

That discovery not only revealed great music, but also revealed the importance – and prejudice – of historians. The discovery of unknown historical works by the most famous composers – a page of Mozart, an exercise by Beethoven, a painting by Haydn, they say – often happens because historians know where to look for the ephemera of lives whose instruments were created over the years. But that was not the case for Price, or for other songwriters who hated music. Their work must be “lost” because no one was looking for it.

That’s why some of the deepest holes in music history — works that we know composers wrote and lived, but which their history says are now “lost” — are written by women. Francesca Caccini painted more than 13 works in her lifetime in 17th-century Italy, but only one has survived today. Ruggiero’s release. This is a piece where the roles of men and women are reversed and it is the women who save the men. Caccini’s other twelve operas may be “lost”, but have researchers been searching for them as hard as they are searching for Bruckner’s page or Mahler’s letter? My bet – and the hope of music history – is that the most important collection of the story of the first theater in Italy can still be revealed in the attic or tied up in a trunk in a dusty warehouse.

The same goes for the three full-length operas Joseph Bolognawho lived a remarkable life in France in the 18th century, as a composer, violinist, orchestra leader, fencer and soldier, becoming a colonel in the only black regiment. But Bologne’s heritage suffered from the cultural discrimination that restored slavery and took away his contribution to the revolution and to the music community after his death in 1799. Now that Bologne’s work is finally finding its place there must be a renewed focus on restoring these important “lost” operas that they did not deserve.

Thank goodness for waiving this rule, as when the musical instruments of the 16th century composer Maddalena Casulana were found in St Petersburg in 2022 and. Laurie Strauss: but again, there is much of his work to be found, as it is Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Barbara Strozziand Maria Theresa of Paradis – and many more.

You know, there are also lost songs whose absence has been known for centuries – we can only dream of what they could be. Bach’s St Mark Passion and his many cantatas, Monteverdi’s Arianna and other stage works, many quartets and sonatas that Brahms discarded as unsuitable, or Sibelius’s Eighth Symphonyapparently burned by Sibelius himself.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra announced that the Lithuanian conductor Giedre Šlekytė he is expected to be the next music director, replacing Thomas Søndergård from the 2027 season. The appointment comes after only two works: the well-received weekend of Mahler’s First Symphony, and the next stage of recording, but, as RSNO director Alistair Mackie said: “When he joined us last year, his musical ideas and the way he works with the players spoke for themselves. Giedrė gives the orchestra room to rest and play.” It’s exciting news for the musicians who are having a great year so far – and both RPS Ensemble Award and ABO Innovation Award already under his belt.

Šlekytė performed at the Staatsoper in Vienna, as well as Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel at Covent Garden, and led the Brahms cycle with the Staatskapelle Berlin in Toronto. There are interesting programs for it on the Internet, from Hannah Eisendle and Berlioz in Dallas to Martinů in Amsterdama list of repertoire that the RSNO will no doubt continue to explore. Her appointment also makes her – ironically – the only female conductor currently leading or scheduled to lead any major UK orchestra; the finalist was his fellow Lithuanian, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, and his change to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

This week, Tom has been listening to: Meco’s Moondancer: from the genius who gave the world Star Wars and Other Galactic Funkthis is one of the best disco symphonic songs, in which – of course – the arrangements are very high, very successful, and a pleasure to listen to from the country.