The music critics and academic musicians of the twentieth century have a lot to answer for. Their systematic denigration of anything they considered to be "traditional" music -- ie, non-revolutionary -- made composers such as Sibelius shut up shop. I recall the premier of Shostakovich's first violin concerto being damned with faint praise, as was the premier of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. All music was post- Schönberg, Webern, Berg, Nono, Stockhausen, Boulez, et al. Bartok was suspicious, Stravinsky was admitted cautiously for his later, cerebral music. In England, William Glock and Hans Keller reigned supreme at the BBC and made sure that no 20th century music with even the hint of a tune or melody was allowed on the air. Practising musicians -- and audiences for music -- may have hated the dodecaphonists and all their followers and hangers-on. But few such people worried what musicians and audiences liked.

Slowly, the hidden music of the 20th century is being brought to light. To read one of the initial criticisms of Rachmaninov's fourth piano concerto, quoted by Yevgeny Sudbin, is to realise just what composers were up against: "It is neither futuristic music nor music of the future. Its past was present in Continental capital half a century ago. .. Mme Cécile Chaminade might safely have perpetrated it on her third glass of vodka". Thank you, learned American critic. On a new CD, Sudbin plays the original, uncut version of Rachmaninov's fourth piano concerto and makes a very fine job of it. The concerto was dedicated to Nikolai Medtner -- another victim of writing "unrevolutionary" music -- and the CD couples this with Medtner's second piano concerto, dedicated to Rachmaninov. Sudbin writes his own programme notes and opines, concerning the Medtner: "Why this concerto is not performed more often nevertheless remains a mystery and is nothing short of scandalous. It offers everything a pianist, or a conductor, can wish for". Bravo Yevgeny Sudbin for the (excellent) performances. And bravo BIS for recording the two works and making them available. Stockhausen's second piano concerto, anyone?