Indeed, the comparisons with Respighi are well made.It is

Five and a bit years constitute a pretty lengthy time between posts on a thread.

However.....I have no wish to interfere with any member's desire to post about the subject

All I would ask is that references to Marmite be restricted to this, appropriate, thread and do not, as I said all these years ago, Spread any further

Well, it sounds nothing like the Gothic but I think you might like it. The symphony has certainly grown on me....despite it being not normally the sort of music I like particularly well. It IS beautifully written and sustains its length...just!

From DGG? I doubt it.
Goodness......it is a Long, Long time since I bought a DGG disc!! Note that the performers get higher billing than the composer.

Naxos will be releasing the new recording of the Brian Symphony No.7 and Symphony No.16- two of his very best- next month. Alexander Walker and the New Russia Symphony Orchestra have done a superb job with their previous recordings of Brian symphonies so there will be high expectations from fans of the composer. The seventh sympgony was last recorded 40 years ago by Mackerras and the sixteenth has not been recorded since Fredman in the early 1970s so both are due new recordings.

The Herbstsymphonie really is a gorgeous work! No doubt it is too long and it is not even "my sort of music" but it would be futile to deny its beauties. As an example of Romantic Music it is genuinely definitive!

....and here is something astonishing. The performance comes from June 2018. It has taken CPO less than a year to get it onto cd!! Must be unprecedented😁

Indeed you have.....and I have the Suter symphony in my collection (as well as all the Brun cds with their absolutely marvellous booklet notes- a model of the in-depth information the listener needs!).
The most sympathetic reviews can usually be found on Musicweb, written by people who actually like the music. I gave up on printed music magazines when reviews became so short as to be meaningless.

Swiss music is, in my opinion, shockingly neglected. Quite apart from Fritz Brun (whose music you have done so much you save from disappearance) there are composers like Conrad Beck and Willy Burkhard- to name but two- whose music is largely ignored on cd but who certainly merit recognition.

Adriano's point is well made although I think it not unreasonable to relate (rather than compare) an unknown composer's music to another in order to establish some sense of historical and idiomatic context for those who do not know the music but are intrugued to know roughly what it "sounds like".
And we are honoured by his new membership of this forum😁

.....and warmest thanks also from me

Two of the symphonies on my original list will be recorded next January. I am not in a position to reveal which but if I say that the same orchestra and conductor involved in the earlier, recent project are engaged to record the two remaining extant symphonies that may be enough of a clue (and, no, it is not William Wordsworth, although Toccata may well be planning to record at least that composer's 7th.)

The Toccata project is actually completed. All of the piano concertos are now on disc.

I have tried several more times with the Holbrooke Symphony No.3!

My conclusion is that the problem is of Holbrooke's own making. Had he entitled the work "Suite: "The Sea"" then I could accept such a designation and would, respectfully, suggest that this is the best way to listen to it. Ignoring the word "Symphony" and ignoring the movement titles I find it a pleasant, attractive though ultimately unmemorable work. The first movement "Warships" most certainly does not conjure up any warships I know! The second movement is positively Delian and, although I am not a fan of the music of Delius, I can appreciate the beauty of the music. The last movement is a jolly nautical romp based on a sea-shanty, good fun in a "light music" vein. The work "pretends" to something it fails to achieve.

....and it most certainly has nothing of the "gothic melodrama" of early Holbrooke!

The work CAN be enjoyed....but I cannot appreciate whatever merits it may possess as other than the Suite it actually is.

(and I do not enjoy being negative btw!!)

Obviously I shall need to listen to "Ships" several times before reaching a more considered opinion. I was not looking for symphonic argument but rather for some "sense of occasion", some power, something which would strike me as distinctive. Treated as a Suite rather than a Symphony might be a better approach, I concede, but Holbrooke's earlier works (ie those written before WW1) and those inspired by Poe have a particular brooding intensity which appeals to me.

However........after listening several times I shall see if my initial impressions change (as I hope they will!)

As did I
However let's return to Holbrooke😉