There are twenty-three concertos on my list. That is a substantial number and many listed do deserve to be recorded commercially. Very fortunately more than half are available in off-air broadcast recordings for download. Sound quality is variable.

Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962): Phantasy Concerto (1948) *
Grace Williams (1906-1977): Violin Concerto (1950)  *
Arnold Cooke (1906-2005): Violin Concerto (1958)  *
William Wordsworth (1908-1988): Violin Concerto (1955)  *
Robert Still (1910-1971): Violin Concerto (1969)  *
Stanley Bate (1911-1959): Violin Concerto No.1 (1936-37)
                                                  Violin Concerto No.2 (1943)
                                                  Violin Concerto No.3 (1947-50)
Franz Reizenstein (1911-1968): Violin Concerto (1952)  *
Daniel Jones (1912-1993): Violin Concerto (1966)  *
Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990): Violin Concerto No.2 "Rhapsodia Concertante) (1953-54)  *
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999): Violin Concerto (1943)
Robert Simpson (1921-1997): Violin Concerto (1959) (withdrawn)  *
Iain Hamilton (1922-2000): Violin Concerto No.2 "Amphion" (1972)  *
Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014): Violin Concerto (1978)  *
Wilfred Josephs (1927-1997): Violin Concerto (1992)
Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008): Violin Concerto No.1 (1961)
                                                      Violin Concerto No.2 "Mistral" (1995)  *
Hugh Wood (1932-): Violin Concerto No.2 (2003-04)  *
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016): Violin Concerto No.2 "Fiddler on the Shore" (2009)  *
William Mathias (1934-1992): Violin Concerto (1992)  *
John McCabe (1939-2015): Violin Concerto No.1 "Sinfonia Concertante" (1959)
                                                  Violin Concerto No. 2 (1980)  *

The violin concertos which are "missing" are the three of Stanley Bate, the very early concertos by Ruth Gipps and John McCabe and the Hoddinott No.1 and the Wilfred Josephs
There was a time when one might have hoped for at least one of the Bate concertos from Dutton but their enthusiasm for the composer's music has waned.
It is perhaps a little surprising that the premiere of the Hoddinott played by Manoug Parikian in Birmingham in 1961 has never appeared. The concert may not have been broadcast by the BBC but I find it hard to credit that the work was not performed again in Wales. The Josephs, on the other hand, has never been performed.

Please, please do NOT post links without some indication of what the link is to and (very briefly) what it is about!

Simply saying "it is long but amusing" is not helpful to other members.

I do not wish to curb anyone's enthusiasms (I should know....I have plenty ) but...................

The new Wordsworth disc fully lives up to expectations As I listened to the Divertimento I wondered whether the Latvian orchestra might be somewhat feeling their way in music which would of course be totally unfamiliar to them but they seem to get inside the idiom.

The revelation is the Symphony No.8 "Pax Hominibus". Less in thrall to Sibelius than the earlier symphonies this last of Wordsworth's eight is almost Rubbra esque in the way it proceeds with a measured pace and certainty to its enigmatic conclusion. And how imaginative of Toccata to give us the second movement twice with its alternative endings.

I think your point is well-made, Neil, and expressed forcefully

Can we perhaps not go round and round the same old houses on this topic. There is unlikely to be agreement and the discussion has taken us to places we have been to before on a number of occasions.

I do not wish to inhibit debate but ....

https://www.mdt.co.uk/einem-philadephia-symphony-vienna-po-welser-most-orfeo.html

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this cd! I know that von Einem in not terribly well-known and is not really in fashion. I suspect he is seen by most as one of those earnest Austro-German composers wedded to a sort of neo-classical tonality (a bit like his teacher Johann Nepomuk David ) but the Philadelphia Symphony-although "frightfully" old-fashioned and "conservative" is extremely easy on the ear and "Die Stundenlied" (written to a text by Berthold Brecht) is actually rather fine and full of vigour and passion.

For a Russian conductor of his generation and his eminence Rozhdestvensky had an astonishingly enquiring and enterprising approach to repertoire which might usually be regarded as well outside the norm. This was a conductor who recorded Rued Langgaard's "Music of the Spheres" for Chandos and performed all the Vaughan Williams symphonies in St.Petersburg.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jun/16/russian-conductor-gennady-rozhdestvensky-dead-at-87

No doubt there will be fulsome obituaries to follow. A magnificent conductor with a broad repertoire but obviously a particularly fine Shostakovich interpreter.

Thanks for your detailed reply, Gareth.

Given that it obviously costs much more to record a work employing a chorus then I would have thought that Symphony No.1 "Les Hommages" might be a starter or perhaps including Symphony No.7 "Al Aaraaf" along with other works for strings?

Have you gained any impression when CPO will unleash their recording of Symphony No.3 etc on the world? I would have thought that Howard Griffiths himself would not want his efforts to lie around on CPO's (obviously almost endless) shelves when we could actually get to hear the music he had conducted!!

The division into Groups 1 and 2 is to differentiate in my own mind between those composers who are better known and whose other works have a certain "currency" and familiarity. It is NOT to distinguish the "good" from the "bad"!!!! But if I was in a position to choose where to go next with new recordings it would be to those in Group 1. (As is my practice an * indicates the availability of an off-air broadcast for download by those interested.)

Group 1:

Gordon Jacob(1895-1984): Cello Concerto(1955)   *

Sir Lennox Berkeley(1903-89): Cello Concerto(1939)  *

Arnold Cooke(1906-2005): Cello Concerto(1972-73)  *

William Wordsworth(1908-88): Cello Concerto(1963)  *

Daniel Jones(1912-93): Cello Concerto(1986)  *

Arthur Butterworth(1923-): Cello Concerto(1997)
         (the only mature concerto listed which is not available in an off-air
                recording for download)

Wilfred Josephs(1927-97): Cello Concerto “Cantus Natalis”(1961-62)   *

Graham Whettam(1927-2007): Cello Concerto(1962)   *

John McCabe (1939-2015); Cello Concerto “Songline” (2007)   *

(9)

(I have removed the Alun Hoddinott Cello Concerto of 1949 since the composer withdrew the work.)


Group 2:

Richard Hall(1903-82):  Cello Concerto(1943-44)

Ian Parrott(1916-2012): Concerto breve(1961)   *

Denis ApIvor(1916-2004): Cello Concerto(1976-77)   *

Ronald Stevenson(1928-): Cello Concerto “The Solitary Singer”(1968-94)

David Ellis(1933-); Cello Concerto “February Music”(1977/2004)

David Blake(1936-): Cello Concerto(1992)    *

Christopher Steel(1938-91): Cello Concerto(1988)    *

(7)

Yes, I fully understand and accept that. I have removed the symphony from my list above.

I am a little surprised that you have not castigated me for including the unrecorded Holbrooke symphonies, Gareth, but I am never quite sure which still are extant and-equally important and more difficult-how to number them

I am so glad that you liked the Robin Walker, Jeffrey

Is this not exactly the exercise which Martin Yates delights in doing?

....but I accept that it almost certainly should not have been included in the original list.

Oh dandelion and double dandelion....I have yet again left poor old Ruth Gipps off my list Will be remied forthwith

(Please note that this is of course a personal selection. I have excluded those symphonies known to have been withdrawn by their composer, eg Alun Hoddinott's Symphony No.1.
An * indicates that an off-air recording is available for download from this site or You Tube.))

ALAN BUSH (1900-96): Symphony No.3 “Byron”-baritone, chorus + orch. (1959-60)*

ARNOLD COOKE (1906-2005): Symphony No.2 (1963)     
                                                      Symphony No.6 (1983-84)*

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1908-88): Symphony No.6 “Elegiaca”-soprano, mezzo-
                                                                           soprano, baritone, chorus + orch. (1977)
                                                                   Symphony No.7 “Cosmos” (1980)*
                                                                           (may be recorded by Toccata Classics)

ROBIN ORR (1909-2006): Symphony No.2 (1970-71)*
                                              Symphony No.3 (1978)*

ROBERT STILL (1910-71): Symphony No.1 (1954)
                                               Symphony No.2 (1956)

STANLEY BATE (1911-59): Symphony No.2 (1937-39)

DANIEL JONES (1912-93); Symphony No.3 (1951)*
                                                Symphony No.5 (1958)*
                                                Symphony No.12 (1985)*
                                                Symphony “In Memoriam John Fussell” (1992)*
                                                 (all are promised from Lyrita)

RUTH GIPPS (1921-199): Symphony No.1 (1942)
                                  Symphony No.3 (1965) *
                                  Symphony No.4 (1972) *
                                  Symphony No.5 (1982) *

IAIN HAMILTON (1922-2000): Symphony No.1 “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1949)*
                                                       Symphony No.2 (1950-51)*
                                                       Symphony No.3 “Spring” (1979-80)*
                                                       Symphony No.4 (1981)*

JOHN VEALE (1922-2006): Symphony No.1 (1946-47/51)*
                                                 Symphony No.3 (2003)*

ARTHUR BUTTERWORTH (1923-2014):   Symphony No.3 “Sinfonia Borealis” (1979)*
                                                                       Symphony No.6 (2006)*
                                                                       Symphony No.7 (2010)

ANTHONY MILNER (1925-2002): Symphony No.2-soprano, tenor, chorus + orch.
                                                                              (1977-78)*
                                                           Symphony No.3 (1986)


THOMAS WILSON (1927-2001): Symphony No.2 (1965)*
                                                          Symphony No.5 (1998)*
                                                              (recording planned by Linn)

ALUN HODDINOTT (1929-2008):   Symphony No.4 (1970)*
                                                             Symphony No.7-organ + orch. (1989)*
                                                             Symphony No.8- brass + percussion (1989)*
                                                             Symphony No.9 “A Vision of Eternity”-soprano +
                                                                                        orch. (1992)*
                                                             Symphony No.10 (1999)*

SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES (1934-2016): Symphony No.7 (2000)*
                                                                                Symphony No.9 (2011-12)*

SIR RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT (1936-2012): Symphony No.1 (1965)*
                                                                                           (will probably be recorded by
                                                                                                    Chandos)

JOHN McCABE (1939-2015): Symphony No.3 “Hommages” (1978)*
                                                    Symphony No.5 “Edward II” (1998)*
                                                    Symphony No.6 “Symphony on a Pavane” (2006)
                                                    Symphony No.7 “Labyrinth” (2007)*

DAVID MATTHEWS (1943-): Symphony No.9 (2016)

JOHN PICKARD (1963-): Symphony No.2 (1985-87)*
                                            Symphony No.3 (1995-96)*


CD recordings for imminent release:

William Wordsworth: Symphony No.4 (1953) and Symphony No.8 “Pax Hominibus”
           (1986) from Toccata Classics

Thomas Wilson: Symphony No.3 (1979) and Symphony No.4 “Passeleth Tapestry”
          (1988) from Linn Records

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett: Symphony No.2 (1968) from Chandos

David Matthews: Symphony No.8 (2014) from Chandos

"Dilettante or Dabbler" or "Advocate"? You decide

You have, as ever eloquently, drawn attention to the dangers of the broad brush approach to a knowledge and appreciation of the musical repertoire. I recognise the concerns you express.

My position is as outlined. I am content to leave it at that.