There may be a slower Witwe even than Karajan's. Lovro von Matacic, whose lively EMI recording is something of a classic, conducted the work in valedictory, post-Mahlerian manner in Milan around 1980. In a weird sort of way, it's very moving, though Edda Moser had a job to sustain the Vilja-Lied at this tempo.

I have added some more Stanfordian Thoughts articles to the 9 mentioned earlier in this thread:

A Child's Garland of Songs
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Jun/Stanfordian-thoughts-10.pdf

God and the Universe - which version came first?
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Jun/Stanfordian-thoughts-11.pdf

To the Soul. Did Stanford or Vaughan Williams get there first?
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Jul/Stanfordian-thoughts-12.pdf

And am still writing.

Just to complicate matters, in no.5 the broadcast performances under Maurice Handford and Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen make the work sound like a masterpiece in a way neither Handley nor Lloyd-Jones quite succeed in doing, though I prefer Lloyd-Jones over Handley here and in most of the others too. The Handford is an expansive affair such as his mentor Barbirolli might have given.
In no.3, the broadcast by the Pittsburgh SO under Galway is worth seeking out. The recent (2020) broadcast under George Jackson was impressive in movements 2, 3, and 4. The first movement seems the hardest to bring off. Of commercial recordings, I haven't heard the Bostock, but of the others I tend to go back to Del Mar, while wishing EMI gave him a proper sized symphony orchestra instead of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta.
Neither recording of no.4 is acceptable because both treat the Allegretto agitato intermezzo as a lugubrious slow movement, so the symphony appears to have two slow movements and falls apart in the middle. There was a broadcast under Maurice Handford that I've never heard - I wonder what he did with that movement.

In Rhapsody no.1, you only have to compare the first part which Stanford recorded himself with Handley to realize the latter's jig-like treatment (the melody appears in Songs of Erin as a war song) is radically wrong. A 2019 broadcast under Simon Gaudenz considerably better         

Sir Vivian Dunn's zippy performance with the CBSO of 4 movements from The Merchant of Venice, on an HMV LP that has never (I believe) made it to CD was a favourite of my student years. Penny doesn't quite match this panache, though he does of course play it all.

Rather oddly, Gueden can be seen and heard singing "Anna Glàvari" in Italian in a RAI TV film with Bruno Maderna conducting. Gorgeous singing, even in the wrong language, and wonderful conducting, too, but ghastly sound, at least in the version I've heard.

Moser and Matacic can be heard together in a RAI Milan concert performance from the conductor's last years. However, if you like his bright and breezy EMI recording, this couldn't be more different, a slow, nostalgic, valedictory reading, with a Vilja-Lied that demands all of Moser's breath control. Moving, if you're in the mood.

I have only now become aware of this, but it seems that Ermanno De Stefani, the Sheva owner, has noticed that I have issued a couple of discs (so far, Stanford Songs and Debussy Preludes) with Da Vinci Editions and, in a fit of childish rage, has cancelled all my CDs from his catalogue (Stanford complete piano music, Mackenzie complete piano music, Cowen Songs, An Englishman in Italy with Bache's complete Souvenir's d'Italie, British Flute with the CH Horsley Sonata, Rossetti settings including Coleridge-Taylor, Scott and many others, just to name the more significant ones). I had no contract with De Stefani (I had several times proposed one but he always found reasons for not producing one) and was therefore breaching no agreement by placing my wares elsewhere.

More important artists than me have changed label from time to time and I don't know of any case where the previous label has promptly deleted everything.

This being so, I see nothing to stop me from attempting to place the more important issues with another company, but this may take time, and another company may feel that many potential buyers have already bought their copies. Some new projects are under way with Da Vinci Editions.

Lionel, the Steinberg Boston 1969 Elgar 2 is available here  https://www.norpete.com/c1821.html in a double pack with a Cleveland 1957 Enigma and the Cello Concerto (Nelsova/Boston 1969). I've ordered St Laurent Studio CDs from time to time and their quality is good (not too much fiddling around), though documentation tends to be minimal.

Lionel, the Steinberg Elgar 2 was once on a blog that has since disappeared, I'll see if I grabbed it while it was there, I may need some time to explore the hidden depths of my computer

Steinberg was passionately devoted to Elgar 2 (but never conducted Elgar 1, I believe), he even conducted a performance of it with the RAI Turin orchestra in 1953. I've no idea if it has been preserved (I'm not optimistic), but a 1969 Boston performance circulates.

The cycle of string quartets (plus the two string quintets) is unreservedly welcome.

As for the partsongs, while of course any disc that introduces new Stanford to CD has to be welcomed, I had the feeling that an opportunity had been missed. I wrote about all this at (perhaps too great) length when the disc came out - http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Dec/Stanfordian_thoughts_8.pdf - so I will only repeat my disappointment at the cherry-picking selection and higgledy-piggledy order, and note that, when an alternative performance exists (not necessarily currently available), it is often preferable.

No problem! My irritation was directed, not so much at you as at Orchid Classics whose blurb certainly implies ("To poetry by Christina Rossetti, Coleridge-Taylor’s Six Sorrow Songs and A Lament are almost all world-premiere recordings") they are first recordings

"of the Six Sorrow Songs, only the fifth, Unmindful of the Roses, has been recorded before (by the baritone Arthur Reckless in March 1935)".

The complete cycle of Sorrow Songs, and also Lament, were recorded in 2012 by mezzo-soprano Elisabetta Paglia and the undersigned pianist as part of a disc dedicated to settings of Christina Rossetti (Sheva SHO 76). The disc is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/My-Heart-Like-Singing-Bird/dp/B00E3QKX18, directly from the manufacturer  http://www.shevacollection.co.uk/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=74 and was reviewed favourably by MusicWeb http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Aug13/Singing_bird_SH076.htm

I do wish people would do a minimum of googling before claiming first recordings. I seem to spend a certain amount of my time making first recordings, only to have other people come along later with claimed first recordings of the same pieces. I had another recent example of this with Stanford's Triumph of Love

Thrilling news. Two of his finest works

Exciting, certainly.
Unfortunately, Somm have claimed that the "Triumph of Love" cycle is a first recording whereas the following, I hope likewise exciting, disc containing the cycle has been available since last September: https://www.amazon.it/Stanford-Howell-Christopher-Paglia-Elisabetta/dp/B08CJ5PTWK
I have been in contact with Somm, who have assured me that the first recording claim will be removed from their future publicity.

Apart from the duplication, the two discs, between them, make available a goodly number of previously unrecorded songs