Just in reference to my observation earlier that during the last few years (say 5+ or so) a very great number of British symphonies have become available either on cd for the first time or through downloads of broadcast performances...

At a rough count the number I have come up with, ranging from Arnell to Bate to Alan Bush to Arthur Butterworth, and on through Cooke, Fricker, Hamilton, Hoddinott, Daniel Jones, Malcolm Lipkin, McCabe, John Veale to William Wordsworth is 56.

That is worth repeating: 56 British symphonies, previously unheard (at least by me ;D) now on cd or in radio broadcasts uploaded for others by generous individuals who had recorded these broadcasts. And all over the last half decade.

If anyone had told me ten years or so ago that this would be the situation I would have responded-"dream on!!"

It makes the current missing number of around ten symphonies seem paltry in comparison.

I am just so happy that I have lived long enough to enjoy the bounty :)

I have always had a bit of a problem with RVW's professed agnosticism. He wrote so much religious music and so much of it is inspired. It do not for one moment believe that he was motivated by a cynical exploitation of the market for such music in Britain.

However the inner workings of his mind and his particular approach to spirituality in music must remain too personal to a much more complicated man than the avuncular public persona which-to an extent-he played up to in later life.

Vaughn-Williams,Ralph - Sancta Civitas: And I saw a new heaven (Adagio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IvwKxD_afs

John Gardner was a very fine composer. He wrote a great deal more music than Veale and a lot of excellent choral music. I think that the Symphony No.1 is probably Gardner's finest orchestral work and it can, of course, be obtained cheaply from Naxos.  When it appeared soon after the end of the Second World War the symphony was often described as 'Baxian'. The Symphony No.2 was written for a youth orchestra-although one would not guess that this was so from listening to the piece.

I thoroughly recommend it as well as the Veale but I have to admit that it was the latter which made the greater impact on me. In fact, after your earlier comment, I listened to the Veale again to decide whether I was being in any sense over-enthusiastic. I wasn't ;D The Veale Second is written with such assurance and confidence. It knows exactly what it wishes to say and delivers over its more than 30 minute span. There is almost a sense in which one feels that the composer-writing in the mid-1960s-is very consciously asserting that he does not care whatever the contemporary critics might think or write. He is going to compose a very traditional, lyrical symphony and to hell with fashion. The third movement-Andante con amarezza-is profoundly moving. Yes..there is a sadness which might be reminiscent of Malcolm Arnold but without the anger and overwhelming angst. Even just listening to this movement alone might well convince many listeners. The finale has a magnificent fugue. The symphony is defiantly tonal but in no sense "soggily" romantic. It has steel but no "barbed wire" (if you get my drift ;D)

But what comes over to this listener at least-and what I am trying to convey-is the sheer assurance of the composer in using the full orchestra. It is definitely not the music of some minor figure lurking in the shadows compared to his much more illustrious and better known contemporaries or immediate predecessors. It is music which proudly proclaims its stature as a major contribution to British music. I would rank it more than able to stand alongside any of the symphonies of William Alwyn or Malcolm Arnold.

Now-of course-individuals respond to music in different ways. I would be unbelievably rash and foolhardy to insist or demand that others must share my own enthusiasms. But I can attempt to share my own impressions of a work and hope that others who have similar tastes to mine could give a work which they might have chosen to ignore a chance :)

No is the answer to your question. Holloway's Symphony was premiered at the Proms in 2000 and was greeted with very considerable acclaim by the critics. The description of it is at least intriguing and in fact I think a lot more than that:

http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Holloway-s-first-Symphony-premiered-at-BBC-Proms/189&LangID=1

The other Holloway work which 'deserves' recording is the Fourth Concerto for Orchestra:

http://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Robin-Holloway-Fourth-Concerto-for-Orchestra/26158

No off-air recording of either work has surfaced on You Tube or here.

I understand where Neil is 'coming from' (as it were) living where he does......although even without decent cd selling shops I would have thought it possible to obtain cds by post. Many of us live a very long way from decent record shops these days-indeed there are very few of these anywhere (sadly).  Off-air recordings are all very well but I infinitely prefer to have a cd on my shelves. Accompanying the cd are the booklet notes-often of invaluable assistance in understanding more about the music on disc. Recording quality is almost certainly superior to the off-air version-which, in the case of a recording made decades ago can be of such poor quality as to render the music a disservice. No financial benefits accrue to the performers if the music they play is recorded by an individual at home and then posted online.

I have often been somewhat critical of companies like CPO, BIS, Chandos, Dutton over aspects of their recording policies or practices but the debt which many of us owe to these companies for making huge tracts of the less well known repertoire available over the last 25 years or so is absolutely immense. Indeed it has transformed our musical experiences beyond measure.

The new Symphony No.5 has been commissioned from John Pickard by John Grimshaw, the Chairman of the Havergal Brian Society. John Pickard dedicated his String Quartet No.5 to John Grimshaw but the latter's reciprocity is an act of amazing generosity :)

As for quieter than No.2.........I doubt it; the new symphony has three timpanists with four drums each ;D

Hmmmm......I am not sure that James Stuart has in fact posted the Symphony No.8 "The Mountains of Mallorca".

Derek Bourgeois's own catalogue of his music indiicates that the work is 73 minutes long. There is a version for wind band which has been recorded by the "Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides" but, again, Bourgeois says that this is 77 minutes long. What we have from James Stuart is 23 minutes in duration.

Anyone have any ideas ???

Regarding the issue of "patience" or lack of it, yes, there is almost certainly in my case (I can only really speak personally here) a degree to which that is affected by a "sense of mortality".

Paradoxically however it is the very flood of recordings of obscure repertoire over the last twenty years or so-so much of that both unexpected and incredibly welcome-that makes me more anxious to see the much smaller number of gaps in the recorded repertoire filled. When there seemed no prospect of ever having any Havergal Brian symphonies on cd (to pick an example of one such composer) the sense of a vast gap in the availability of music one thought deserved public availability was inchoate. But as the shelves filled up with recordings one had never dreamt possible the number of such gaps both diminished but became more obvious. With-now-only two of Brian's 32 symphonies awaiting commercial recording by professional orchestras my own sense of anticipation (I shall avoid the word "impatience") grows more acute.

And, yes, of course, I accept that some of the music I would like to see on disc will possibly never "make it" or, if it does, that will not happen in my lifetime.

And...I repeat (again and again!) how amazing it is to have had so much made available both by record companies and through the generosity of other music lovers who have made off-air recordings available-whether in excellent, good or merely tolerable sound quality.

But...this was not the actual point of my original post. What I was querying were the different attitudes taken to information regarding recordings already made but not yet released, the more open policy of some companies and the reluctance of others to provide such information.

To give two more examples: we know that a recording was made between 23 and 27 September last year in Turin by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai under Damian Iorio of Ildebrando Pizzetti's Symphony and his Harp Concerto. I believe that recording was for the Naxos label. The company will release the cd in the fullness of time.
Yes...I do hope that the release will be sooner rather than later but I can wait ;D It is great news that the Symphony will finally have a commercial presence-which it fully deserves.

Similarly this too was splendid news "SPSSO (st. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra) has signed a contract with the U.S. company Naxos, a leader of the worldwide classical music market, for recording of a compact disc of Petersburg’s outstanding composer Boris Tishchenko (1939-2010). The program will include the maestro’s opuses of the very last years, Symphony No. 8 and Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Strings, and one of his earliest works, Three Songs to Words by Marina Tsvetaeva in the version for voice with orchestra."

What I was seeking was a more open attitude to giving the potential public recordings to look forward to. It is of course a reasonable attitude to adopt to prefer to be "surprised" by new releases and I respect that point of view. But I think that I can be surprised whilst still having a period of months (even a year or two?) to savour that surprise :)

Dear Relm
I can't entirely agree  Youtube videos have often low sound quality and many old lps uploaded are beyond level of listening.
Best

Some of us lack patience because we don't have much time left.   My kidneys and heart say so.

Why cannot other companies be more open?