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The academy is too often interested in the contemporary and the novel - and not only in the sphere of music. Mention any writer, theologian, composer, painter, etc. who is not included in the accepted 'canon', and the response is likely to be derision and rejection.

This forum is therefore important as a place where the musical canon can be challenged. Let's continue to trust our ears and our general musical judgment rather than being misled by an academic establishment too often beset by fads and novelties.

Above all, let's remember that the academics all-too frequently have no clothes...

Goldmark's opera Merlin on Profil. Just listening to the beginning now: the idiom has its Wagnerisms, but frankly I am more struck by similarities with, say, Verdi's Otello. It's an interesting style and somewhat at odds with the more conservative composer I know from the chamber music.

Having listened again to what we have of the radio broadcast of J4, I'm going to hazard that its appearance on CD will be one of the symphonic highlights of 2010 - if it comes out next year!!

I think you sum up Rufinatscha's PC very well, Jim. It's not Romantic flim-flam: it's music that demands to be heard and re-heard. But when you start to get it, there seems to be more and more to get, as it were...

Rubinstein, Rufinatscha, Reinecke, Rheinberger, perhaps?
D. Raeseke, even? 

No time to give an overview - yet!!

But my winner for 2009 would be: Noskowski Symphony No.1 (probably!)

Peter: try the Volkmann symphonies, especially No.1 - a near-masterpiece and very exciting too!!

Just received my copy of the set today. I am currently listening to Raff's PC, and, wow, does Ponti grab the piece by the scruff of the neck! OK, it's all a bit unsubtle, the orchestral support isn't wonderful, the recording's a bit thin - but I think that the more modern performances could benefit from some of Ponti's vim and vigour.

Better than anything by Raff or Berlioz? Er, surely not. On a par with any symphony by Mendelssohn? Hmmm....

Farrenc was certainly an excellent composer - and one of some originality. However, I'm not sure whether her cause is advanced by unwarranted hyperbole. The C minor Symphony is a most interesting and exciting work, certainly repertoire-worthy, but no more so than the works of Berlioz or Raff.

Acte Préalable have announced the release of Noskowski's String Quartets 1 & 2. It's available to order from MusicWeb International here (and will be sent out after Christmas)...

http://www.musicweb-international.com/Acte_Prealable/Catalogue_Acte_Prealable.htm

My CD took 12 days to come from Poland, Peter.

I have just acquired a CD on the Pro Musica Camerata label containing chamber music by the short-lived Polish composer Antoni Stolpe (1851-1872):

2 extant movements of a Piano Sextet in E minor (1868)
Variations for String Quartet
Scène dramatique for Cello and String Quintet
Romance for Violin, Cello and Piano

Frankly, it's absolutely glorious stuff. Some audio samples are available at jpc...

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Antoni-Stolpe-Werke-Vol-1/hnum/9666614

Has anyone else come across Stolpe?

The cpo recording of the Symphony is very good - but also very different from the one on Pan Classics. The most obvious difference is the much more flexible approach taken in the first movement by conductor Hermann Bäumer on cpo (many more accelerandi and ritardandi). The music can certainly take it - and it's well performed by the Osnabrück SO.

The piece is (at nearly 50 minutes) a long listen, of course. So it all depends on your patience with late-ish Romantic, Brahmsian  symphonies. I personally love this period and can certainly recommend the new CD if you think it might suit you too...

Dunno the Latin for 'no problem'; nor the Swedish...

The chamber music is of a uniformly high standard: you could buy any of the cpo CDs with confidence - so it all depends what you like: sonatas, strings only, piano + strings. Follow this link to jpc's Herzogenberg page to try out some audio samples...

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/home/search?fastsearch=herzogenberg&rubric=classic&pd_orderby=score

I would describe Die Geburt Christi as more of an acquired taste, but there are some samples of that too.