Interesting.

I've never heard any Valen nor have I previously heard/seen anyone I know commenting on it. Are those the recordings conducted by Christian Eggen?

Actually, that groovy stuff wasn't any good.  The Oscar Peterson was, and the two Quincy Jones tracks, but that's not much in a CD of nearly an hour.  Perhaps one for a don't buy this thread?

I'm onto this now:
COTIFARL

http://www.theflyingbulgars.com/  This album is called "Aleph"

Just brilliant!  Haven't listened to this for years, and it's good to be home.

Tommo

Yes, they're the Eggen recordings. I've not heard much Valen for a few years. Le cimitiere marin (to give the French title) is an orchestral piece which both I and several friends remember fondly and which has a similar flavour to the works on these CDs. I heard a stack of piano music once of which the Variations op. 23 was the most impressive. At the moment, the orchestral works sound fairly similar to each other - so perhaps I need to listen to them a few more times.

Golly gosh.

Le cimitiere marin is on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZelutbycJE

That's what I thought too, except that Valen's counterpoint is less tonally oriented and more intricately imitative. (And quieter!)

And while on the subject of lesser-known mid-20th-century composers, I see here that a complete set of recordings of the symphonies of Egon Wellesz has just been put together by CPO. Does anyone here know these works? I often find it highly refreshing to spend some while surrounding myself with music of a composer I didn't previously know, or appreciate, so I find things like this very tempting.

"Cocoa, cornichons and Goehr" could be the title of a song from a musical, couldn't it?

A selection of my new cds.

Regionals 2009. This cd contains music perfroemed by top bands like Williams Fairey Band(formely known as Farey Aviation), Foden's Ricahrdson(formerly known as Foden's Motor Works Band), Black Dyke Band and Cory Band. They are perferoming music for the regionals of next year for the National Championships of GB.

Cory Band, Robert Childs.  Acataeon(Gareth Wood); Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes (Vaughan Williams); Visions of Gerontius(Kenneth Downie); Symphony no.10(November Journeys), (George Lloyd arr Vertommen).

Foden's Richardson Band, Bramwell Tovey. (New Music for Brass Band). Flowers of the Forest(Richard Rodney Bennett); The Alcymist's Journal (Kenneth Hesketh); Altitude (George Benjamin); Prague(Judith Bingham); Shadow Songs (Philip Wilby); Variations on a theme of Tippett(various composers).

Thanks. I have looked at that article as it happens, and (as often with this kind of thing) it's a bit too partisan for an outsider to glean very much useful information about the composer, except the fact that there's at least one person out there who thinks he's a great underrated genius...

I think there must be something in Wellesz' symphonies for a Mahler enthusiast like me. I think I shall probably give them a try.

At the moment though I'm spinning Biber's Fidicinium sacro-profanum performed by David Plantier's ensemble "Les plaisirs du Parnasse" which has just arrived. My impression is that they'll do very nicely, even if the sound in my head is always the Concentus Musicus' recordings of a few of the pieces on various 1960s compilations. Biber's instrumental music divides into pieces in which violin virtuosity is in the foreground and those which focus more on ensemble texture, and this collection (like Mensa sonora and Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes) is in the latter category, though more concerned with contrapuntal music than either. The instrumentation is two violins, one or two violas and continuo and the textures often have a close-knit quality making them sound like Viennese string quartets avant la lettre. No.10 (of 12) has always been a favourite of mine, beginning with a particularly exquisite example of what Biber can do with a simple broken-chord figure and the simplest of harmonies.