The charm of forgotten classical music

There is something incredibly charming about lesser-known composers. Most of the classical music we hear are masterpieces. Beethoven 9, Mozart 41 endlessly, so boring! How do we value the worth of these if we do not actually know what was the average? Composers were people too. Most of them are now forgotten, but at the time they wrote music, they were performed, they were decent. Before you start worrying about mediocre music making you mediocre, here is a selection of either charming lesser-known composers producing average-quality classical music, or famous composers' early works that are just nice and following formal conventions, and are thus very relaxing. We don't always need the breakthroughs and the progress etc. There is something horribly narrow-minded about only playing attention to the bits where equillibria broke. Something very modernist. Perhaps there is something anthropological about the excess of available music and the need to ground ourselves in the world (Marc Augé said that, I think, I didn't quite understand, he is not easy to read).

Well, I think listening to average classical music helps us ground ourselves. There are unduly forgotten masterpieces, for sure; but also, listening to a few average symphonies or sonatas, perfectly fitting formal conventions, tropes and clichés of the time just gives some overarching sense of contentment and hope that while all the cracks are filled out with much content, eventually, looking from afar, the picture will become clearer and from the mess we can see that which is truly valuable. In an age of excess (call it supermodernity, if you want, Marc Augé definitely did) and so many daily news it is hard to read and theorise our place in history. Same with music history. Maybe time have contracted, but average classical music gives hope that some things will settle and the core of the structure remains visible in the end. On the other hand, saturation with the very best makes us forget that the not-very-best exists as well; and thus opens up space for the rest of us to try and shape the world a bit.

1) Ignacy Jan Panderewsky - Violin Sonata in A minor


So pretty! Completely romantic, quite unprogressive. But who cares? So satisfyingly excited.

2) Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 1 in C minor



Who doesn't like a good symphony No. 1 in C minor. Very clever, for sure -- but it is exactly what it promises. Just a nice little symphony in C minor, nice sonata forms and all. What's wrong with that? Nothing. Don't overthink.

3) Vanhal - Symphony in D minor



Pure heavy metal!

4) Krommer - Clarinet concerto in E-flat major



This is not really mediocre; it is one of the greatest clarinet concertos probably. Still, it is quite simple, quite unrevolutionary, quite formally conservative. You don't really need to strain yourself. It is just pleasing.

5) Crussel - Clarinet concerto in F minor



Similarly, just really nice!

6) Czerny - Symphony in C minor



Another symphony in C minor! What a nice romantic key - sure, it's C, right in the middle, but it is minor, because it is emotional, and we need the big Sturm und Drang crash in the beginning! (And in the end!) The composer of everyone's favourite Leichte technische Etüden is also a prominent creator of forgotten generic romantic music (in the best-intentioned meaning of the word.)

Truly charming.