10 Formerly Popular Works That Have Faded From The Repertoire 

And also: Franck: Symphony in D (the New York Times published an excellent article on that topic surrounding the piece) Glazunov: The Seasons Lalo: Le Roi d'Ys (overture and the opera itself) Dohnanyi: Nursery Variations Kodaly: Peacock Variations

Many pianists of the ‘older’ generation (Gieseking, Cortot, Rubinstein, Bolet, Cziffra, Curzon, Larrocha, Ashkenazy, Freire, Ciccolini) had Symphonic Variations by César Franck in their repertoire. Nowadays you rarely hear it in the concert hall.

Hanson s Romantic Symphony is absolutely gorgeous!

It’s a little strange to me that the Hanson isn’t played more often, considering it was used for the end credits of ALIEN. Which makes it probably the most *listened to* work on your list.

I have heard most of these pieces on WFMT, our classical music station. They played the Walton Violin Concerto a couple days ago. Being a Central/Eastern European music freak, I love the Goldmark. They play it every few months or so. I used to listen to an LP of the Khachaturian Violin Concerto when I was a teenager. Loved it. Ditto the Borodin. I've heard excerpts from Elijah, but not the whole thing. It deserves more air play.

Bizet's Symphony in C and L''Arlesienne Suites, Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, Copland's Lincoln Portrait come to mind. All popular in the 50's and 60's, not so much now.

I realize it's considered a "bon-bon", but the Enescu Roumanian Rhapsody #1 was EVERYWHERE c. the 1930's. It really took a hit during the rise of the 1950's "academic" period, and has never recovered. And despite its very attractive opening tune, it's still filled with Enescu's typically unique (and bizarre) folk-inspired idiom. LR

You're reminding me that I'm old. I sang the boy soprano solo for the youth in Elijah as a child. You're right that it's largely faded from the repertoire. Bring it back now!

How strange that, just yesterday, I thought about the Grieg piano concerto that I heard so often and that we could find in every music store when I was younger, and how I almost never hear or read about it nowadays. And today I click on your video and you confirm my impression. Wow!

That video triggers a sequel : pieces that are have recently become much more popular. My pick would be Prokofiev piano concerto No.2

I'm late to this thread, but I thought I'd mention anyway that Minnesota under guest conductor Thomas Wilkins performed Hanson's Symphony No. 2 in October of last year. Wilkins having been in Omaha may have influenced the programming. It was a marvelous piece for me to hear live.

Perhaps I'm mistaken but it seems like Rossini overtures almost never show up on professional concert programs anymore

Back in the late fifties I was just a kid. My Mom and Dad and I went to a keyboard concert series year after year in a small california town. Anyway there was always a piece of two by Chausson, always. Yet at the many per year piano concerts I've attended in the last fifteen years, I have never seen a Chausson piece on the program. He seemed to be a thing back in 1959 or 1960. The only two pianists I can remember by name are Leon Fleisher and Jorge Bolet. I saw Fleischer again in 2013 and asked if he remembered the concert in Modesto, Ca. so many years ago when he was a young man, fresh on the scene. He said he remembered it well. So anyway Chausson is my nomination for Faded Repertoire.

I sang Elijah last October and it was fantastic to sing and went down a storm. You're dead right Dave, by contrast the obligatory Christmas performance of the Messiah generated nothing like the same excitement (in me, the players or the audience). Thanks for your excellent video.

Great video. Modern times seem to be allergic to innocent beauty and warm romantic feelings. I grew up with the Hanson and Goldmark. We are in the process of losing that human touch - emotional while still focused and intelligently structured, appealing to both mind and heart.

My grandparents have an old player piano with several rolls by Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925). Wrote a Piano Concerto, Spanish Dance, Tarantella, Fackeltanz (Dance with Flambeau), etc, many pieces that you never hear.

Love this! Another work that used to be more popular is Ambroise Thomas' opera "Mignon." I've always found it an utterly charming work with some incredible arias. True, it's quite light but a lot of fun, with a few moments of surprising depth. Really wish it turned up more often these days!

Finally a list where I know most of the works! And I totally agree The Walton VC is supremely gorgeous and it’s my dream for Hilary Hahn to make a recording

The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra is playing "Mysterious Mountain" by Hovhannes April 5-6. Be there or be square! The new music director, Michael Butterman, just performed Philip Glass's Piano Concerto #1 a few weeks ago. [Lancaster, Pennsylvania]

Speaking of Karl Goldmark, his Violin Concerto in A minor used to be played and recorded by the great violinists of the day. Nobody hears it nowadays.

The Grieg piano concerto was played in a concert hall near me in the last 5 years by Lars Vogt, Gabriela Montero, Katia Buniatishvili, Leif Ove Andsnes, Javier Perianes, Denis Kozukhin and Vikingur Olafsson (twice), and I might be forgetting some. And there was a reality tv series made about a local tv personality learning and performing it, that was quite popular here in Flanders.

The Puerto Rico Symphony did the Hanson 2 last month. The audience was just crazy for it. Hanson 1, 3 and 6 are also great. Hovhaness’s Mt St. Helen’s Symphony should be in the standard repertoire. It’s a blast, pun intended

There are a number of works about 15-20 minutes in length that don't fit comfortably into modern concert programmes of overture-concerto-symphony. This has particularly hit symphonic poems (apart from R.Strauss) and sets of variations (Dvorak's fine Symphonic Variations for example; Franck's are mentioned in other comments; and I have a soft spot for Dohnanyi's Variations on a Nursery Song which does more with its innocent theme than one would believe possible!)

Dave, I’d love for you to some day discuss Tansman. He was an extremely popular composer in the first half of the 20th century but is basically unknown now. You have positively reviewed some recent recordings. His 6th Symphony and Sinfonia Piccola, in particular, seem worthy of revival!

It seems like Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite used to be kind of popular.

All the more reason to have these works on CD so they can be listened to and enjoyed. As a life long concert goer the Grieg concerto was once so frequently programmed that I started to avoid any concert in which it was played, I had grown so tired of it. Now I can't remember the last time I did hear it so it will certainly deserve a listen to on CD in the coming weeks.

Hanson's 2nd symphony reached it's peek of popularity folowing the film 'Alien'. Personally I hadn't even heard of this composer prior to watching the movie. I'm sure this is true for a lot of music lovers.

I’ve been going to concerts since 1963. I don’t believe I ever heard live Franck’s Symphony in D. I for sure never so far heard live the Goldmark and d’Indy symphonies. Back in October I heard live at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Khatchaturian’s 1st Piano Concerto and some music from Spartacus. There were a lot of Armenians in the audience - Glendale is second only to Yerevan. I’ve only heard live the Grieg Piano Concerto once, in the 1999s with the National Symphony Orchestra. It’s a shame that the Borodin symphony and Kalinnikov’s two aren’t programmed. I’ve seen Adriana Lecouvreur twice live, once with Renata Scotto in San Francisco and with Joan Sutherland in San Diego. It will be done again when some star soprano wants a spectacular exit. In a couple of weeks the Colburn Orchestra will be playing Goldmark’s Violin Concerto followed by Mahler’s 1st Symphony. I’ve noticed and don’t like the tendency for orchestras to play only two works. In this weeks Los Angeles Philharmonic program it’s the Brahms Double Concerto and the Bruckner 1st Symphony. No overture, fanfare, divertimento, just a plunge into a concerto or symphony or tone poem. It may have to do with the attention span of the audience or its need to check their phones. I don’t like it. Happy Listening.

I'd like to hear the Roy Harris Symphony No. 3 again. Well, any Roy Harris...

I love the violin concerto by Khachaturian....Just wonderful today very seldom heard😢

William Grant Still! His Symphony No. 1 was played all over the world, & reportedly the most popular American symphony before the end of WWII. It should absolutely be revived today.

I listened to classical music on the radio extensively in the 1960's. A work that I heard pretty often (that I liked and still like) was the suite from Walter Piston's ballet The Incredible Flutist. I don't think that work is heard much, if at all, today. It is tuneful, appealing, and easy to like; I especially like the tango, and everyone likes the circus band that marches through the town. I don't know if it's in the score, but every recording of that work had a dog barking at the end of that section, a pleasing touch. One also heard two works of Poulenc (both on one LP by the Boston Symphony) -- the concerto for organ, strings, and tympani and the Gloria that I think are rarely performed now. I think they both deserve to be in the general classical repertoire, but I don't think they are. The Frankfurt Radio Symphonyperformed the organ concerto a year or two ago, however.

Raff's 5th symphony back in the day

I always wondered why Perlman didn't take up the Walton concerto. There are very good 21st century recordings of the Khachaturian and Walton from Fischer and Ehnes, respectively.

Dopper: Symphony 7 "Zuiderzee". Raff: Symphony 6 "Im Walde". Ibert: Escales . Mac Cunn: Overture Land of the Mountain and the Flood. Nice topic! Thank you!

Love the Khachaturian Piano Concerto. So sad it isn't performed more often. Also had the chance to see Elijah performed live by a local college choir- with just pipe organ. Amazing experience.

To these, I might add the Kalinnikov 1st symphony. Once rather popular in the concert halls and performed by Toscanini on NBC...even to the point where Glenn Cliffe Bainum made an arrangement of the finale for concert band....it seems to have disappeared from live performances, even though there have been some very fine recordings of the past 40 years.

At the very end you mention von Suppé. Almost always found on New Year's from Vienna. I quite often do them with my Youth Orchestra and my HS Bands. Did Light Cavalry at my retirement concert in May. Students LOVE not just von Suppé but several of the others on this list! A lot of really attractive music here!

Mysterious Mountain is still one of my favorite pieces. Have been trying to get our local orchestra to play it. So far have not succeeded. I especially love the 2nd movement fugue.

MacDowell's 2nd piano concerto used to be a hot item on concert programs . It seems to have gone down the memory hole.

Elijah was performed at the BBC Proms last year and it was a great performance, thoroughly enjoyable. There is for me the gold standard performance on YT Daniele Gatti//French National Orch.with great soloists. However I agree that we don’t hear it being performed very often now. The Walton that very rarely gets a hearing is his Cello concerto, fantastic work and a refreshing change from Dvorak and Elgar that get ubiquitously played. I’m not sure if it was ever very popular.

Moskowski's Piano Concerto was once one of the most popular piano concertos on the planet. Rarely performed anymore...

Schwanda the Bagpiper, hugely popular back in the day.

The last Symphony on a French Mountain Air I heard (Ormandy/Casadesus in the new stereo box) impressed me as beautiful, yes, but not at all a work that highlights the piano. (I had the score as well.) The very nature of the orchestration seems to set the piano in the background as an obbligato. Casadesus obviously loved playing it, but it does hide his light under a bushel. It should be programmed much more and could be done with the orchestra's regular pianist, especially these days. I've never heard the Borodin 2nd in a concert. Inexcusable! Not only Hanson's Romantic but I just heard the Third again today and we should get it too more often. Not only the gorgeous Mysterious Mountain but the Mathis der Maler Symphony seems to have gone missing for a couple of decades. Franck also wrote some wonderful short pieces that never get played: Les Eolides, Psyche, the symphonic interlude from the Redemption. Cherubini's Anacreon Overture used to be a standard concert opener. Toscanini, Furtwangler, Mengelberg, Walter, all used to do it. It's a sweeping, grand piece. Harris's Third Symphony is neglected. Operatically, although it hasn't been standard rep in anybody's lifetime now living, it's a tragedy that Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots doesn’t get restored to the rep. It's a magnificent masterpiece and the fourth act is one of the greatest and most moving in 19th century opera. French verismo, Charpentier's Louise is terrific and would resonate even today.

2:40 Thanks for the Goldmark tip. I found a recording released 2011 by Hänssler. Lovely symphony! I will definitely add it to my collection eventually, IF i can find it. 😊🎼🎶🎶🎶

Oh wow I guess I should feel very lucky! My first and only live symphony I've ever attended included the Khachaturian violin concerto! It was spectacular! My friend who is even newer to classical music than I am said she enjoyed it even more than the bookend performances of Saint- Saëns' Samson et Delilah Bacchanale and Shostakovich's 5th. We were there for the Shostakovich and it did not disappoint, but I had never heard the Saint-Saëns or Khachaturian, so what a treat that was! I can't wait to see another performance!

And Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini is SO much fun! I saw it in Szeged Theatre, it was really so fantastic! It is very difficult to cast, because it really needs 3 first-class tenors (I mean first class), and a great, dark, projective, high tessitura Verdi baritone, also first class himself. If you don't have these all together, I really cannot imagine what can happen, but the opera works so well if you have... the "three tenors" (not that three, but the best available three ones...) on stage! And yes, it has a superromantic story, wild everything happening at once, so not a mainstream thing to contemporary directors... but who cares. :)

I love Borodin Symphony No.02 especially conducted by Kurt Sanderling.

A loving vote for Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231".

Thanks Dave, Very interesting topic. Well, I’m glad that there have been at been at least 5 recordings of the Walton Violin Concerto since 2010. And some good ones no less. It could be worse. But I certainly believe you that they used to be more frequent. It’s such a beautiful work-one of his very best. I hope it doesn’t ever fully go out of fashion.

I think Reinhold Gliere's The Red Poppy and Kabalevsky's The comedians also fit in this category. Also Glazunov/Chopin Les Sylphides

The Grieg certainly hasn't faded from the repertoire where I am!

Thanks so much for this list, Dave. I heard Hanson 2 this fall live for the first time (Minnesota); it was very well-received. People I heard when leaving were surprised they’d never heard it before. Never have heard Borodin 2 live. Sure, neither of these may never be “Top 100” material, but they are nonetheless very attractive. Other than the Grieg I’m not familiar with the others, so seven more new things to listen to!

Great idea for a video. I have most of these on disc and want to dig them out now...

Adriana is still very present in the repertoire and there are running productions of it. It contains a huge number of small roles, which might afraid some companies (as is Andrea Chenier). For me, as for works which I feel that disappeared, there are a lot of overtures like "Guillaume Tell", or the Suppé overtures. Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espanol...Liszt's "Tasso" and even "Les Preludes'', in general, a lot of medium size pieces that were tagged in the past as "Light classical music " and simply evaporated from today's repertoire.

The Kalinnikov First Symphony was once popular-- or so I read. I like it.

I wasn’t aware that Grieg’s Piano Concerto had been dropped from the repertoire. There is certainly no shortage of recordings.

Walton Cello Concerto. My indelible memory: Zara Nelsova with Amsterdam Concertgebuow Orchestra under Haitink, some 55 years ago. (BTW: I now live in Boston since 2016. Elgar's Cello Concerto has been performed twice at the BCO, and will be again soon this season. Snooze...).

Franck : Variations symphoniques pour piano et orchestre. Gounod : Faust.

Ippolitov-Ivanov: Caucasian Sketches. Beautiful, if minor, work that needs to be brought back.

LIke Walton....a colleague of mine and I mentioned that Hindemith seems to have had his day.....once a compositional and conductorial leader, now, I am hard pressed to tell you the last time I heard or played a work of Hindemith's. Must admit that except for Mathis der Mahler, I dont much care for his music all that much.

I'm surprised to see the Grieg piano concerto and Borodin 2 mentioned here. Since 2015 I've attended one live performance by the local professional orchestra, and played it twice in different community orchestras. Borodin 2 still seems popular. I most recently played it in 2019. The Khachaturian violin concerto is a good call. It seemed to be played all the time 20 years ago, but I haven't heard of it being played anywhere near me in a decade, and I've heard it on radio just once in that time.

I think the Grieg piano concerto is wonderful. I played it first in my youth orchestra ( London Schools Symphony Orchestra), on tour to Norway - and the soloist was a local (Norwegian) very young player, who played it so simply and effectively. The melodies are just full of depth. I'd be happy for Beethoven 5 and 9 to continue to decline in popularity. I'm also glad that Gerontius is not quite so frequent. Talking of English music, the York Bowen bass clarinet quintet is really worth a listen.

I think Elijah is every bit as good as Messiah. Every number's a hit, each one better than the last! Also, I miss 'Suites' generally in the concert hall, like Karelia, Holberg, Lieutenant Kije, Hary Janos, L'Arlesienne etc etc

How about the Henselt piano concerto? It was standard repertoire up until the dawn of the recording era, being so incredibly difficult to play note-perfect that Artur Rubinstein dropped it from his repertoire because he feared making errors would become apparent to listeners if they had access to the score and the ability to re-listen repeatedly. It was only revived thanks to Raymond Lewenthal, who recorded it with the LSO under one of your favourite conductors, Charles Mackerras. Fabulous recording by the way, have it here on LP.

On the other side of that coin... here in sunny South Florida, where our "symphonic" options are fairly limited, it seems the programs keep repeating themselves with the same composers, usually from the "Germanic" and "Russian" tradition, sprinkled with a little French here and there. And it just keeps cycling and repeating. I've all but given up on looking for concerts with interesting and unique programs.

Yes, it was Ponselle who quit after the Met didn't let her sing Adriana. Tebaldi also effectively blackmailed Bing into reviving it ("No Adriana, no Renata."). Another opera that has not exactly disappeared from the rep, but has declined quite a bit, in my view, is Faust. Faust was actually the most popular opera in the world 100 years ago. French Grand Opera in general, like verismo, has fallen out.

Chadwick's Symphonic Sketches. Piston's Incredible Flutist. It seems to get played only on July 4. Hanson 3 is still a "frequent flyer" (as is Borodin 2). I would like to hear Hanson's Nordic, and his other symphonies, for a change. And Piston's.

Love most of these and agree with your list. Most are played far less these days.

Sir: I would be grateful if you did a review of the works of Havergal Brian. Thanks! Steve

Weinberger Polka and Fugue would be my addition to the list. Surprised to see Grieg here…it is still among the most frequently-played PCs on my local classical radio station.

A Hanson concert program series, maybe?

Interesting list. I'd agree with most of them, but the Grieg Piano Concerto is still popular in the UK and gets a lot of playtime on Classic FM. In fact to the exclusion of Grieg's other works apart from Peer Gynt. The Norwegian Dances, Symphonic Dances and the wonderful Lyric Suite almost never appear, even on Classic FM where you'd think they would fit the format perfectly.

It is strange and sad how things go out of fashion that really are pretty enjoyable. I have heard all of this music, except the Elijah; I will go searching for that right away. The genre that I am finding interesting right now is Baroque Opera that is not Handel. I just saw a video of Charpentier's David and Jonathas that was just marvelous. It's on Medici TV. I really enjoy your comments. My classical music interest seems to ebb and flow, now that I am pretty Old. I was mad for it when I was younger; but I still appreciate being led to material I do not know.

There are some operas in Henry W. Simon's "100 Great Operas" that haven't gotten much love since that book was published. Who talks about Montemezzi's Amor de tre re? Pergolesi's La serva padrona; Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto; Thomas' Mignon, Flotow's Marta, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Charpentier's Louise, Giordano's Andrea Chenier, Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna, the Menotti operas; heck, even Boito's Mefistofele, which mostly now gets heard by people who are watching Batman Begins.

Very interesting episode indeed And what about Paganini’s famous Violin Concerto on A minor with the fabulous La Campanella?

Dohnanyi's Variations on a Nursery Song deserves to be performed a lot more than it is!

I think Mysterious Mountain could be back in fashion, actually. I hear it on the radio every so often nowadays.

My community orchestra has played both the Grieg and Hovhaness in the last couple years, and I have done more than a few of the others in decades past. Good music, even if it may not fit with what labels want to record.

Perhaps they’re not being recorded as often today, but I can hum from memory the Grieg piano concerto and the Hanson romantic symphony and the Hovhaness mysterious mountain symphony the number of times they are played on my classical music stations! It would be interesting to compare what gets played in the concert hall versus the radio.

Hmmm, I'm not sure the Grieg piano has "faded from the repertoire" given how much it still gets played today, especially as a "first" concerto for conservatory students. Plus, it was performed at the last Cliburn competition in the finals, which is more than can be said about a lot of "standard" concerti like many of the Mozart ones, or other Romantic ones like Saint-Saens or Schumann.

Ditto: Glazounov's The Seasons. Ditto: Goldmark's Rustic wedding symphony. Virgil Thomson: The river, and The plow that broke the plains. Mernotti: Sebastian. Walton's first symphony. Berlioz: L'enfance du christ.

Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 - it enjoyed fluctuating favor, but was never out of favor, at Carnegie Hall during the first half of the 20th century before being consigned, a warhorse behind the plow, to celebrations of Romanian music. The Mendelssohn oratorio is wonderful - I heard the "Call louder!" section in college and never forgot it - but the Hovhaness symphony, if I can judge from its allegro vivo alone, isn't much. The other lesser works, I haven't heard, or haven't in a long time, so thanks for suggesting them! (Your musical knowledge is astonishing.) Is the classical canon a winnowing merely of lesser works or, more rigorously, of those which don't serve, in the opinions of the winnowers, as exemplars of its artistic evolution? The beaux-art school of painting, it seems, found itself in the same predicament - it boasts many beautiful works discarded in favor of modernism. (Fortunately, though, classical music is doing well despite the gatekeepers who, in the words of one critic, "sniff at a foxtrot" - concert attendance is down, slightly, but recorded performances are more popular than ever.)

Elijah is popular in Hungary, at least! It has a major poshy presentation of it in all 3-4-5 years, the next one being this weekend!!! :)

Agree with all you said. Also Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto, Glazunov's Violin Concerto and most Bellini Operas.

I'm going to be busy listening to these. A few I am familiar with.

I'm pleased to report that I have them all and that I've listened to them all within the past year. I have the Abravanel on Rustic Wedding but Beecham also rendered it well before any of them. D'indy has been a favorite piece ever since the Society of Great Music (aka Book of the Month Club, record club...before it was RCA) offered the Living Stereo Munch version. I also have one by Grant Johannesen who was sort of an outlier specializing in French Music (recorded complete Faurè I think)(studied with Cortot) so it's not a big surprise that he did D'Indy. While Grant is a native son of Utah (I even took piano lessons from his sister), I think I still prefer the Munch recording. Khachataurian & Walton have both been (well) recorded by James Ehnes in recent years....heard him perform it live in Salt Lake a few yers ago. Borodin 2 I have by Järvi & Rattle. But other than the Walton and the Grieg, I can't say that I've heard any of these in concert forever. Another piece that was recorded frequently during the '60's (but no more) is Grofè's Grand Canyon Suite. Abravanel recorded it twice...but I can't remember that he ever performed it in concert. The quality of that piece is not in the same league as your other listings, but it has certainly fallen out of the recorded repertoire. Finally, Elijah I heard in 2007 when Bryn Terfel came to sing it with the Tabernacle Choir to celebrate the re-opening of the Salt Lake Tabernacle after seismic renovation. Bryn was an extremely memorable titular character. My sister (one of Piatigorsky's last students before he died) played "It is Enough" with Bryn as a duet....at the end of the concert he gave her the bouquet of roses

When was the last time you saw a new recording or performance of Offenbach’s Barcarolle? It used to be ubiquitous.

How about a list of pieces that are overplayed, like the Pachelbel Canon?

I would argue that the Franck Symphony should be on that list. A marvellous work to experience, but rarely performed these days (in the UK, at least), although I did see it at the proms a couple of years ago, but that was the first performance there in a couple of decades. There's no sign of the Grieg Piano Concerto having faded in the UK. In fact, it was showcased during the First Night of the Proms last year, and has been performed at the concert series 6 other times since 2010, which is pretty good going. Compare that to Tchaikovsky's first concerto, which was performed 4 times between 1990 and 1997...but only three times since.

David, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the best recordings by youth orchestras!

Phillipe Entremont: Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while!! I recently listened to Leif Ove Andsnes play the Grieg. The comments raved about how wonderful it was. I honestly wasn’t impressed. My go-to is Cliburn with Ormandy.

Howard Hanson's Romatic Symphony was one of the compositions that John Williams channeled into E.T.

Great idea (yet again) for a talk. I was very surprised to find the Grieg PC in your selection. It may be that I am speaking for the UK and the piece has become less played by pianists from other countries. That is entirely likely. For me, it is one of those pieces programmed too often here in England. It's good but it's not THAT good. On the other hand, the Borodin should make a come back.

Elijah Op. 70 is lovely

I remember Gorecki's Symphony No 3 being extremely popular in the early 90s. Don't seem to hear much about it anymore. Was it just a fad?

I don’t know if there’s a recording by this violinist, but this past fall Colorado Symphony performed the Khachaturian Violin Concerto with soloist Nemanja Radulović. So at least he’s touring with that work trying to keep it in the repertoire.

The Grieg Piano Concerto? I would have never thought that was lacking in popularity. Seems like it's among the top 10 most popular piano concertos, but what do I know.

Here's my list of faded operas. I have not included any Meyerbeer because his work currently seems to be experiencing a well-deserved revival. Or Massenet, who is hopelessly waiting in the wings for his own revival (though Manon could easily be on this list). In alphabetical order: Amahl and the Night Visitors Andrea Chenier Fra Diavolo Jewels of the Madonna La Juive L'amore dei tre re La Vestale Louise Martha Samson and Delilah

The popularity of Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis and Mathis der Mahler has seriously waned. The former was part of the first concert I attended of the BSO as a teen, but Hindemith is rarely heard in concert halls these days.