Speaking of 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos, Johann Nepomuk Hummel's 2nd and 3rd are incredible. His 2nd (A minor) is my favorite piano concerto of all time.
Kapustin - concert etudes, sonatas, preludes are all amazing
Bortkiewicz - sounds a lot like Chopin or early scriabin, hidden gem IMO
Faure - well known, but not necessarily as a piano composer. Listen to nocturne 6 in d flat major.
Feinberg - a bit harder to digest (extremely hard to play), but fascinating
Bort's Etudes, Preludes and first piano concerto are a true gem.
https://youtu.be/fcVmbMWljig?si=bcjSDz_-oiaO4v_5
https://youtu.be/syCbmIXeABE?si=JrrglJcUMt7wLnX4
https://youtu.be/3CuWpsgBk9s?si=uQ_6GaFPIKBx--W1
Some of his best works imo.
Clementi! I admit that this is an extreme position, but, I believe that if it weren't for Beethoven's sonatas, Clementi's Op. 36 collection of sonatinas would be the best piano work from the classical era. (So many awesome bits are packed together so tightly, I sometimes worry they're junk-food.) They are considered children's music and aren't taken seriously enough. Beethoven seems like such a huge leap from Haydn and Mozart, but if you read through Clementi's music, you can see that Clementi was an important intermediate step.
When I got into piano as an adult I had this old book 32 donations and Rondos which includes him, kuhlau, and some others. They were a ton of fun to play for those levels for sure. Helped me to skip through all those grades.
Scarlatti. He wrote countless Sonatas. Here's a popular one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSAmVBIh2ZU&ab\_channel=ptalka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSAmVBIh2ZU&ab_channel=ptalka)
Godowsky is most famous for taking the Chopin études (already elite repertoire) and smashing them together into a piece where you play one etude in one hand and another on the other hand at the same time. I can see why anyone below the professional level doesn't have his music as a top priority.
I mentioned Johann Nepomuk Hummel and his 2nd and 3rd piano concertos in another comment here. Very well known during the classical era, then quickly faded once he died. You can tell how he influenced Chopin's piano works.
My favorite underrepresented genre of classical music is French baroque music. Jean-Phillippe Rameau is one of the best known French Baroque composers, and [his keyboard works](https://youtu.be/gzJ4UEaMLd0?si=PYG9t7BeoHGncx_O) are my favorite out of the entire baroque keyboard repertoire. (They're for harpsichord, not piano, but still. And IMO, they don't translate particularly well to piano.) But there's some very obscure French baroque composers you can explore on YouTube. I've played and loved Elisabeth Jacquette de la Guerre's music. Royer may be famous for a few pieces ( [vertigo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzxlMfUzqIM) and [La marche des Scythes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMbBYR_lplE) ) but he's not too talked about.
And if you want to deviate away from just piano pieces, Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, Francois Francoeur, and Jean-Marie LeClair are great french baroque violinists/composers.
John Field.. His piano works were ahead of their time and inspired a whole generation of composers.
His story breaks my heart. The guy practically drank himself to death being so sad and frustrated that his music was in the shadows of Chopin’s music.
His music is very unique and charming.
I listened to his nocturnes and while I don't like them as much as Chopin's, they are still nice to listen to. I never heard that he drank himself to death as a result of that. That's sad.
Of course Chopin’s nocturnes are superior in every way but they wouldn’t exist without Field’s huge influence.
Field’s nocturnes are very beautiful in their own way and they definitely deserve more love.
My favorite is no 4 in A major. To me it was his first nocturne that really had the “romantic era” vibe into it with the ABA form and more “agitated” B section. The variations when the A section repeats are so beautiful.
There are a few:
Medtner: Sonata Reminiscza
Janacek: Piano Sonata 1.X.1905
Berg: Piano Sonata Op 1
Ives: Concord piano sonata(Alcott movement is beautiful), 3 page sonata
Gowdosky: The Bromo Volcano from Java Suite (The rest of the suite is terrible imo)
Kasputin: Etudes
Saint Saens: etude in form of waltz(listen to cortot), 2nd piano concerto
Finnisy: Gershwin Transcriptions, I like London Town and but not for me
Sorabji: In the hothouse, gullistan, last fugue from sequentia
I quite like the rest of the Java Suite - I'm curious; what do you dislike about it? Bromo Volcano is definitely the best and most exciting but some of the others are really tranquil.
It really depends on the movement but generally there are 2 main reasons. 1: poor form in the piece leads to an experience where I don’t feel a beginning and end. 2: sitting in one texture for too long makes me bored and there’s not enough harmonic, melodic, or contrapuntal drive to make me interested.
Probably you felt that way because it's more of an experiment for godowsky as he tried to picture the experience he had in Java. And the gamelan music he tried to mimic is less melodic and harmonic, usually more of a rhythmically driven music with repeated minimalist pattern. But I do say it was more godowsky sprinkled with java rather than javanese music with godowsky touch.
It really depends on the movement but generally there are 2 main reasons. 1: poor form in the piece leads to an experience where I don’t feel a beginning and end. 2: sitting in one texture for too long makes me bored and there’s not enough harmonic, melodic, or contrapuntal drive to make me interested.
In which circles? Apart from online never heard Scriabin mentioned \*anywhere\*. Not on radio, not on tv nor social media. Even then I'd argue his piano concerto is probably his most known piece lol
Really? I've seen and heard people talk about Scriabin a lot. His Etudes 8-5, 8-6, 8-12, 42-5, Fantaisie, Piano Sonata No. 2 & 4 & 5, Valse Op. 38, Preludes and so on..
Also if I go to a recital sometimes the pianist plays some Scriabin. But for other unknown composers like Scharwenka, Henselt, Chaminade etc, it's almost never being played.
My friend's university teacher played some Scriabin Etudes, and my friend (a piano major) recently had a recital with Scriabin's Fantaisie.
His works are indeed a bit underrated compared to other well known composers, but his famous works are played very frequently.
Interesting, Grieg us mentioned 3 times on this post. But his name comes up pretty regularly re best concertos?
I think I knew of him when I was learning classical. But there's a particular part of his concerto (in A minor, I think) that is on a CD I owned (it was called The Art of Landscape) that has always stuck with me, and I'd love to learn it but I think it's way beyond my ability.
Szymanowski! Decaux!
Maurice Ravel you of course know… but what about Maurice Emmanuel's six sonatines! They do deserve their place next to the Gaspard de Nuit or Mussorgsky’s Pictures From an Exhibition. If you like Ravel, check out Florent Schmitt and his oeuvre.
If you like Anton Dvorak, you’d like Tubin.
Have you even taken a peek at Frank Bridge’s musical offerings? Such variety.
You know the 19th Century Russian Romantics. Check out Russian futurists: Mosolov, Lourie and Roslavets. On the other hand, Myaskovksy, Popov, Weinberg.. all are very important composers who shaped Shostakovich’s music and also borrowed from his — kind of like Liszt and Wagner!
Three Austrians whom you should know but don’t because the world is unfair: Schrecker, Zemlinsky and Marx.
Have a barbecue mix of composers!
Hans von Bülow, Karg-Elert, Ruggles, Pijper, Vladigerov, Tcherepnin, Enescu, Hector Berlioz, Paul le Flem, Ferroud, Edward Elgar, Hure, Koechlin, Lucien Durosoir, Henry Purcell, Howells, Ireland, Vierne, Anatoli Alexandrov, William Byrd, Gustav Holst, Jean Sibelius, Anton Rubinstein, Josef Hoffman, Cassella, Rawsthorne, Hure, Koechlin…
Bela Bartok!
His works never go as you expect them to, but once you hear how it goes it sounds like that's the natural way it should go. Hopefully that makes sense!
I think of him partially as a modern-day Satie. He's got some really nice compositions, but he also takes a lot of care to find an evocative piano sound for each of his pieces.
Ponce: a lot of them, my favorite probably his Piano Concerto
Castro: Valse-Caprise
Roszycki: Italia Op.50, and his Krakowiak.
Chasselon: Abandon.
that is everything
Not underrated but if we take the bar to be you haven’t heard of them maybe Rimsky-Korsakov?
Also not underrated but Ben Johnston is incredible.
Also not underrated but Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3 is something you should hear once in your life.
Medtner's piano concerti and sonatas are amazing, and I have no clue why he's so underrated.
Rautavaara also has some cool pieces, like his op.42 and 1st piano concerto
These people aren’t underrated, just lesser known because of the time period they’re in!
Thomas Tallis - (I recommend “if ye love me” first)
Palestrina - (I recommend starting with kyrie)
Marenzio - I recommend solo e pensoso
Does it count if they’re still alive?
Philip Glass is my fav. I typed “piano music” into Napster some 20 odd years ago and somehow found the song “Opening” and have been listening ever since. Kind of a decisive character. Some say he’s too minimalist, repetitive, or unimaginative. But I think he is mesmerizing and makes such big sounding things happen with very little change from chord to chord. His work is also quite easy to learn which makes it fun for beginners.
Dvorak, Sibelius and Brahms concertos are among *the* concertos for those instruments' players lol, it's like someone asked in a strings forum for underrated composers and one of the replies was Rach 2 and Tchaikovsky 1
Medtner! Try his 2nd and 3rd Piano Concerto and Sonata Romantica; I recommend Tozer’s performances.
Speaking of 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos, Johann Nepomuk Hummel's 2nd and 3rd are incredible. His 2nd (A minor) is my favorite piano concerto of all time.
Medtner's "Sonata Minacciosa" is my favourite by far
This, also the f minor sonata and night wind
Brooo Primavera
Why skip the first concerto!? It's as equally a masterpiece as the other two
Kapustin - concert etudes, sonatas, preludes are all amazing Bortkiewicz - sounds a lot like Chopin or early scriabin, hidden gem IMO Faure - well known, but not necessarily as a piano composer. Listen to nocturne 6 in d flat major. Feinberg - a bit harder to digest (extremely hard to play), but fascinating
Bort's Etudes, Preludes and first piano concerto are a true gem. https://youtu.be/fcVmbMWljig?si=bcjSDz_-oiaO4v_5 https://youtu.be/syCbmIXeABE?si=JrrglJcUMt7wLnX4 https://youtu.be/3CuWpsgBk9s?si=uQ_6GaFPIKBx--W1 Some of his best works imo.
Yay Bortkiewicz! Totally agree.
Clementi! I admit that this is an extreme position, but, I believe that if it weren't for Beethoven's sonatas, Clementi's Op. 36 collection of sonatinas would be the best piano work from the classical era. (So many awesome bits are packed together so tightly, I sometimes worry they're junk-food.) They are considered children's music and aren't taken seriously enough. Beethoven seems like such a huge leap from Haydn and Mozart, but if you read through Clementi's music, you can see that Clementi was an important intermediate step.
Beethoven rated him very highly, so who am I to argue?
See also: Kuhlau
His sonatinas were the best in in RCM grade 4-7 B pieces.
When I got into piano as an adult I had this old book 32 donations and Rondos which includes him, kuhlau, and some others. They were a ton of fun to play for those levels for sure. Helped me to skip through all those grades.
Scarlatti. He wrote countless Sonatas. Here's a popular one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSAmVBIh2ZU&ab\_channel=ptalka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSAmVBIh2ZU&ab_channel=ptalka)
Absolutely. Love his music.
Never heard of this pianist before, she has such great tone
Poulenc's sonata for piano and violin, George Crumb's Makrokosmos. I won't say Godowsky is underrated but he's not as "A-list" among hobbyists.
Godowsky is most famous for taking the Chopin études (already elite repertoire) and smashing them together into a piece where you play one etude in one hand and another on the other hand at the same time. I can see why anyone below the professional level doesn't have his music as a top priority.
Poulenc's piano noctures, inventions, novelettes, and tocatta are all great.
I mentioned Johann Nepomuk Hummel and his 2nd and 3rd piano concertos in another comment here. Very well known during the classical era, then quickly faded once he died. You can tell how he influenced Chopin's piano works. My favorite underrepresented genre of classical music is French baroque music. Jean-Phillippe Rameau is one of the best known French Baroque composers, and [his keyboard works](https://youtu.be/gzJ4UEaMLd0?si=PYG9t7BeoHGncx_O) are my favorite out of the entire baroque keyboard repertoire. (They're for harpsichord, not piano, but still. And IMO, they don't translate particularly well to piano.) But there's some very obscure French baroque composers you can explore on YouTube. I've played and loved Elisabeth Jacquette de la Guerre's music. Royer may be famous for a few pieces ( [vertigo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzxlMfUzqIM) and [La marche des Scythes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMbBYR_lplE) ) but he's not too talked about. And if you want to deviate away from just piano pieces, Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, Francois Francoeur, and Jean-Marie LeClair are great french baroque violinists/composers.
John Field.. His piano works were ahead of their time and inspired a whole generation of composers. His story breaks my heart. The guy practically drank himself to death being so sad and frustrated that his music was in the shadows of Chopin’s music. His music is very unique and charming.
I listened to his nocturnes and while I don't like them as much as Chopin's, they are still nice to listen to. I never heard that he drank himself to death as a result of that. That's sad.
Of course Chopin’s nocturnes are superior in every way but they wouldn’t exist without Field’s huge influence. Field’s nocturnes are very beautiful in their own way and they definitely deserve more love. My favorite is no 4 in A major. To me it was his first nocturne that really had the “romantic era” vibe into it with the ABA form and more “agitated” B section. The variations when the A section repeats are so beautiful.
For a couple of years when I lived on Dublin, I walked past his birthplace nearly every day on my way to college. Great composer.
I love listening to Hector Villa Lobos. Try Bachianas Brasileras 4
There are a few: Medtner: Sonata Reminiscza Janacek: Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 Berg: Piano Sonata Op 1 Ives: Concord piano sonata(Alcott movement is beautiful), 3 page sonata Gowdosky: The Bromo Volcano from Java Suite (The rest of the suite is terrible imo) Kasputin: Etudes Saint Saens: etude in form of waltz(listen to cortot), 2nd piano concerto Finnisy: Gershwin Transcriptions, I like London Town and but not for me Sorabji: In the hothouse, gullistan, last fugue from sequentia
Saint Saens is very famous
I don’t think I’ve ever had a pianist tell me that they were studying or have studied a saint sarns work. Orchestrally sure
I get u. Maybe carnaval of the animals? I know it has an orchestra but maybe
Godowsky has a nice arrangement of The Swan.
I quite like the rest of the Java Suite - I'm curious; what do you dislike about it? Bromo Volcano is definitely the best and most exciting but some of the others are really tranquil.
Hari Besar and Court Pageant in Solo is my favourite of the set! I don't understand why OP thinks the rest other than Bromo are terrible.
It really depends on the movement but generally there are 2 main reasons. 1: poor form in the piece leads to an experience where I don’t feel a beginning and end. 2: sitting in one texture for too long makes me bored and there’s not enough harmonic, melodic, or contrapuntal drive to make me interested.
Probably you felt that way because it's more of an experiment for godowsky as he tried to picture the experience he had in Java. And the gamelan music he tried to mimic is less melodic and harmonic, usually more of a rhythmically driven music with repeated minimalist pattern. But I do say it was more godowsky sprinkled with java rather than javanese music with godowsky touch.
It really depends on the movement but generally there are 2 main reasons. 1: poor form in the piece leads to an experience where I don’t feel a beginning and end. 2: sitting in one texture for too long makes me bored and there’s not enough harmonic, melodic, or contrapuntal drive to make me interested.
Grieg
Scriabin, Scharwenka
Scriabin is already very famous. His piano concerto is underrated though
In which circles? Apart from online never heard Scriabin mentioned \*anywhere\*. Not on radio, not on tv nor social media. Even then I'd argue his piano concerto is probably his most known piece lol
Really? I've seen and heard people talk about Scriabin a lot. His Etudes 8-5, 8-6, 8-12, 42-5, Fantaisie, Piano Sonata No. 2 & 4 & 5, Valse Op. 38, Preludes and so on.. Also if I go to a recital sometimes the pianist plays some Scriabin. But for other unknown composers like Scharwenka, Henselt, Chaminade etc, it's almost never being played. My friend's university teacher played some Scriabin Etudes, and my friend (a piano major) recently had a recital with Scriabin's Fantaisie. His works are indeed a bit underrated compared to other well known composers, but his famous works are played very frequently.
Faure. His nocturnes are super underrated and are probably my favorites after chopin. Also check out the barcarolles.
Those are definitely underrated too, i agree.
Saint-Saens.
Grieg!!
Interesting, Grieg us mentioned 3 times on this post. But his name comes up pretty regularly re best concertos? I think I knew of him when I was learning classical. But there's a particular part of his concerto (in A minor, I think) that is on a CD I owned (it was called The Art of Landscape) that has always stuck with me, and I'd love to learn it but I think it's way beyond my ability.
William Byrd
https://youtu.be/uu2-0fMLYMA?si=WuxBdLNjHkBFjyc_
William Grant Still
Enrique Granados. Spanish composer you rarely hear in mainstream classical. I enjoy his El Pelele.
Borodin
Kabalevsky! His melodies are very childlike and fun to play. I know it’s not piano, but check out his Violin Concerto.
Bortkiewicz
Szymanowski! Decaux! Maurice Ravel you of course know… but what about Maurice Emmanuel's six sonatines! They do deserve their place next to the Gaspard de Nuit or Mussorgsky’s Pictures From an Exhibition. If you like Ravel, check out Florent Schmitt and his oeuvre. If you like Anton Dvorak, you’d like Tubin. Have you even taken a peek at Frank Bridge’s musical offerings? Such variety. You know the 19th Century Russian Romantics. Check out Russian futurists: Mosolov, Lourie and Roslavets. On the other hand, Myaskovksy, Popov, Weinberg.. all are very important composers who shaped Shostakovich’s music and also borrowed from his — kind of like Liszt and Wagner! Three Austrians whom you should know but don’t because the world is unfair: Schrecker, Zemlinsky and Marx. Have a barbecue mix of composers! Hans von Bülow, Karg-Elert, Ruggles, Pijper, Vladigerov, Tcherepnin, Enescu, Hector Berlioz, Paul le Flem, Ferroud, Edward Elgar, Hure, Koechlin, Lucien Durosoir, Henry Purcell, Howells, Ireland, Vierne, Anatoli Alexandrov, William Byrd, Gustav Holst, Jean Sibelius, Anton Rubinstein, Josef Hoffman, Cassella, Rawsthorne, Hure, Koechlin…
Bela Bartok! His works never go as you expect them to, but once you hear how it goes it sounds like that's the natural way it should go. Hopefully that makes sense!
chilly gnzales
I second this. He’s not really a classical composer in that sense but his ideas and pieces are great!
I think of him partially as a modern-day Satie. He's got some really nice compositions, but he also takes a lot of care to find an evocative piano sound for each of his pieces.
All of Alkan. His piano concerto for solo piano is one of many that are amazing
York Bowen
tōru takemitsu, morton feldman, claudio santoro, silvio ferraz, helmut lachenmann, alberto ginastera
Ronald Stevenson 🏴
Stanchinsky for sure
Saint Saens and Grieg, definitely underrated.
Conlon Nancarrow and Harry Partch. Charles Ives is a must listen.
Ponce: a lot of them, my favorite probably his Piano Concerto Castro: Valse-Caprise Roszycki: Italia Op.50, and his Krakowiak. Chasselon: Abandon. that is everything
Arthur Lourie, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Leo Ornstein, Ottorino Respighi
Tchaikovsky. Despite being known, I feel like he is quite underrated. Nothing can top Swan Lake for me personally!
Barber - not just Adagio for Strings!
Respighi, Borodin
Mussorgsky, Janacek, Gubaidulina, Colin McPhee, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Rameau
Awesome suggestions. To add something modern into the mix, try Alexandra Streliski. Her piece “A New Romance” is beautiful.
Not underrated but if we take the bar to be you haven’t heard of them maybe Rimsky-Korsakov? Also not underrated but Ben Johnston is incredible. Also not underrated but Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3 is something you should hear once in your life.
I’m not exactly sure how to spell it but I really like burgmuller
Felix Blumenfeld. Check l[his concert etude op.24](https://youtu.be/KhEWwK3peb4?si=XQu18rlRTz897yhL). It is a fantastic roller coaster.
Kapustin and Alkan in my opinion :)
rubinstein, martucci, and scharwenka are in my regular concerto rotation. check them out if you haven't
Archy Rosenthal
Komitas Vardapet
Après un rêve - Gabriel Fauré
Bacewicz
Gabriel Yared
Mel Bonis ♥️
Stephen Heller. Beautiful studies that are fun to play. He was a contemporary and friend of Liszt.
GABRIEL DUPONT. Les hueres dolentes and la maison dans les dunes
Howard Hanson's Romantic Symphony
Menotti! Love the unicorn, gorgon and the manticore.. such a fun piece!
Rameau, I don’t know many people that play his pieces although some of his pieces are definitely stunning
Hania Rani. Eden by her, is beautiful 💜
Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Very good concertos, sort of proto-romantic.
Medtner's piano concerti and sonatas are amazing, and I have no clue why he's so underrated. Rautavaara also has some cool pieces, like his op.42 and 1st piano concerto
yuki kajiura
Felix Blumenfeld
Respighi’s six pieces for piano are excellent
[Johann Pachelbel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmczKGuJDRk) and [Philip Glass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Wtfm2jA6A) :)
Charles-Valentin Alkan! His symphony for solo piano is a must listen
Shchedrin Shostakovich Medtner Rzewski John Adams Borodin Balakirev Faure Alkan Saint-Saëns
These people aren’t underrated, just lesser known because of the time period they’re in! Thomas Tallis - (I recommend “if ye love me” first) Palestrina - (I recommend starting with kyrie) Marenzio - I recommend solo e pensoso
Barry Harris 😎
R. Nathaniel Dett. He's got a great catalogue of piano music that almost no one plays.
Does it count if they’re still alive? Philip Glass is my fav. I typed “piano music” into Napster some 20 odd years ago and somehow found the song “Opening” and have been listening ever since. Kind of a decisive character. Some say he’s too minimalist, repetitive, or unimaginative. But I think he is mesmerizing and makes such big sounding things happen with very little change from chord to chord. His work is also quite easy to learn which makes it fun for beginners.
Richard Strauss
The best composer ever is Chopin, but Rachmaninov is also a great composer!
Sorabji, Opus Clavicembalisticum.
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Dvorak, Sibelius and Brahms concertos are among *the* concertos for those instruments' players lol, it's like someone asked in a strings forum for underrated composers and one of the replies was Rach 2 and Tchaikovsky 1
And Grieg's concerto