I have the Fanelli CD!

Alexandre Dénéréaz I have added to my listening list.

Accusing Brun of "spasmodic syntax" reminds me rather of all the negative remarks about Havergal Brian, another composer whose style does not yield up easily to casual listening, but whose music is highly rewarding for those who make an effort to understand Brian's way of thinking. To go from an antipathy to Brun to damning the Swiss en bloc is frankly bizarre.

Incidentally, on the subject of rescuing neglected Swiss composers, it seems to me that a lot of French composers have been very poorly treated. André Gedalge is one case in point. Then there is a fantastic symphony by Louis Thirion which is completely unknown.

Andrew J Baker - Stafford-based composer with at least 20 symphonies to his name. I know about him because my sister met him. Some of his work is on Soundcloud in synthetic performances.

Wilfred Josephs is missing from the list. Twelve symphonies, only one recorded.

I do think spoken words in a piece of music are a grave mistake. It is natural (for evolutionary reasons even) to pay more attention to speech than music, so when the speaker is speaking, you don't really hear the music, and when the speaker is not speaking, you are posed for the next bit of speech.

Thanks to mjkFendrich for the Sutermeister piano concertos. Much deserving of a modern recording!

I was browsing Spotify the other day, and came across a CD of the music of Mario Pilati, starting with the Concerto for Orchestra. It didn't mean much to me until I played it and it was then VERY familiar. Of course, I have the CD, and had just forgotten about it; such are the perils of age. I remember now looking up the composer's life history after discovering him for the first time.

My mother was fond of the music of Alan Rawsthorne, and particularly praised the 2nd piano concerto. She would point with approval to how the composer gets straight on with the job, opening the work with the first subject, without any messing around with portentous introductions. Pilati's Concerto for Orchestra is like that - the work opens at once with the first subject, which is a huge tune that can really stick in your mind. How audiences would love it if it could ever be got into the concert hall! It's quite surprising it hasn't been nicked to front a TV series. (Or maybe it has - I wouldn't know!)

Bourgeois's later symphonies should not be ignored. They may not be "great", but they are certainly enjoyable listening, and would be great for an amateur orchestra looking for something original to play. I recommend #90 and #101 as starting points.

This is a pet hate of mine. Just because you like something doesn't make it good, and just because you dislike something doesn't make it bad. I think most critics are not actually capable of judging the quality of a work, and just go by personal taste. Plus, of course, the assumption that a composer outside the standard canon must be bad, or he wouldn't be neglected. Whereas anyone famous must be good. It's the same in the visual arts, and its refreshing when you see an art critic lay into, say, Damien Hirst. I have a theory that Picasso, in his late years, actually tried to produce bad drawings to dare art critics to call him out - which none would dare do, of course.

I have to say I find Holbrooke #4 rather disappointing. I have no problem with it being called a symphony, but he overworks the Schubert scherzo and doesn't really add anything much.

... was to try and make some inroads into the mass of CDs I have bought but never played. Difficult, given my penchant for buying large "complete" box sets. So I am working my way slowly through the complete Liszt piano music and all the Haydn symphonies, while dipping into the complete Mozart edition!

Interesting.

I would make two observations:

1) One should be able to say of a piece of music, "This is very good but I don't like it", and conversely, "I love this, but it's dreadful".

2) There is a real difficulty in evaluating unfamiliar music is distinguishing between a bad composition and a bad performance. Obviously, none of the critics at the premiere of Rachmaninoff's 1st symphony could do this, and the course of music history might have been different if they could have.

I remember hearing him say that his ambition was to hear every piece of music that was ever composed, and thinking that it was a shame he didn't make it more possible by conducting more non-standard repertoire. Then again, I do recall him conducting the LSO in the first movement of Raff 5.

Graunke's violin concerto is available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaAGYFTr3c

The first two movements are rather unmemorable, but the jaunty finale is worth hearing.

Very interesting! He even has his own orchestra, the Symphonie-Orchester Graunke. I checked streaming services but it seems mostly he records operetta and the like on CD. I have never heard of Edition Sedina ("since 1962") and it seems to be his personal company as well ... "We carry all compositions of the famous composer and conductor KURT GRAUNKE either on CD or as notes. You can also get the complete notes for a symphony orchestra of every composition by Kurt Graunke on request". I think "famous" is a slight exaggeration.