Sorry no, that is not it. But we may say that the composer's is a household name and that in the extract we hear him at the peak of his achievement as it were.

454 is Beethoven's Sonatina for mandolin & piano in C minor, WoO 43 in an arrangement for recorder and guitar, played, I suspect, by Michaela Petri and Lars Hannibal.

Let's try Beethoven's Sonatina for mandolin & piano in C major, WoO 44/1 for 454 and blame a dodgy Amazon listing! 

The fact that puzzle 445 has not been solved already counts as a win for us we think. There is a big difference between "solved before hints" and "solved after hints" which should perhaps be recognized somehow in the results, since it is now clear that no one actually knows the work. Anyway let us now begin the seriously simple hints: the renowned composer of puzzle 445 was a great organist who taught Ravel Enescu and Schmitt. This was the last major composition he produced in the course of a long productive life.

It is indeed - written in 1924 and quite adventurous for a gentleman organist who received his education in the eighteen-fifties:


The extract comes from the last movement thereof. We can see why Mr. Fragment suggested early Webern, but do not quite understand why no member knew the work itself.

HERE and HERE is puzzle 456;

HERE and HERE is puzzle 457;

HERE and HERE is puzzle 458.

As anticipated the first two are probably quite obscure, but there is a connection between the three puzzles vaguely along the lines of some of Mr. Inquisitor's sets.

It is indeed - well done! And the connection is the toit not the boeuf.