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I am currently trying to find out what the coupling might be. More news anon - I hope!

I have news from cpo that they will be bringing out Jadassohn's Symphony No.4 in a performance by the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie under Israel Yinon. No release date has been set, but the piece is so good it'll be worth the wait.

The parts of the F minor symphony (1882) are at Zürich.

Sudbin in PC2 is much subtler and more sensitive than the barnstorming Demidenko, but with no lack of pianistic wizardry. The accompaniment feels more symphonic in scale too - making the piece seem altogether bigger in scale. For me it is a revelation. I really can't comment on PC1 because I don't know it well enough: suffice it to say that the new recording by Subin exhibits the same qualities as No.1

I am in seventh heaven - having just discovered Yevgeny Sudbin's two magnificent recordings of Medtner PCs on BIS - No.1 coupled with Tchaikovsky's PC1, and No.2 coupled with Rachmaninov's PC4 (in the original version).

Not only is Sudbin's pianism incredible in itself, but Medtner's PCs are given the sort of treatment that elevate them from shadowy contemporaries of Rachmaninov's PCs to a new level - passionate, wide-ranging, utterly fascinating works. The accompaniments - not by the usual suspects in terms of orchestras or conductors - are stunning, maybe because there is no element of routine about them.

I just hope that No.3 is planned to complete the cycle. All lovers of stupendous piano-playing, sell whatever shirts you have left and get these recordings...

This music is very original. No.1 is a traditionally-structured work in an attractive late-Romantic style, but No.2 is more like a rhapsodic tone poem in two movements with violin solo - and seems rather more serious in tone.

Toskey makes comparisons with Chausson, but J-D's music sounds less luxuriant to me - although pleasing, there is a higher general level of dissonance than with Chausson (e.g. his Poème). Incidentally, Toskey vastly underestimates the length of each piece: No.1 takes approx. 34 mins, and No.2 approx. 40 mins, whereas Toskey estimates 25 and 20 minutes respectively!!

I doubt whether the super-concentrated, terse style of the later Brian is going to please too many listeners, to be honest. I find those of them I have heard resolutely earthbound most of the time, but I'm no expert.

There is really no follow-up to the Gothic, although Nos.2-4 are all pretty big pieces. My favourite of these is the choral/orchestral No.4, although this is a dense, battleship of a piece which is itself very hard to come to grips with.

No, the sound quality is nothing like as good as the Naxos - no comparison at all. The Testament set is hissy and rather washy in sound, although with plenty of impact. But it's no use pretending it's a modern digital studio recording.

Duly tidied up, Pengelli. Don't hit the return key when typing in the box and your posts will come as you want them to.

BTW, the Boult set is simply wonderful. An absolute must-buy, and very well remastered in case you're wondering...

It's good to welcome you, Martin. And thanks for revealing details of this forthcoming release which should knock a few people's socks off! Or, hopefully, many people's socks off!!

At 9.30 am this Saturday, 28th November, BBC Radio 3 - as part of its regular CD Review programme - will be devoting a major slot of an hour or so to recent recordings of music by Spohr. The occasion is the 150th anniversary of his death.

John White: is this a triumph for your tireless advocacy or has there been a major change of policy at the BBC?

Nope - no news about the Herzogenberg VC/Odysseus Symphony release from cpo. Sorry! (Nor about the Urspruch Symphony/PC or Klughardt VC/Symphony 3.)

The cpo Dornröschen is indeed the performance recently broadcast - conducted by Schirmer in Munich.

Brahms 2 - especially the finale - is one of the all-time great symphonies. For an experience that will absolutely lift you off your feet, try the DVD of Karajan's performance from 1973 with the BPO.
Mahler 2 is a great, great symphony too, I agree, as is Elgar 2.
As for others: Raff 2 and Draeseke 2 are both great works too, the one bustling with activity and showing how a classically-oriented symphony could be written as music was going off in a much heavier direction, and the other showing how the more advanced music of Wagner and Liszt could be absorbed into symphonic form. Draeseke 2 also has some remarkable premonitions of the horn writing of Richard Strauss (coda to 1st movement) and Mahlerian sonorities (2nd movement).
A personal favourite is J. P. E. Hartmann's 2nd - wonderfully individual and fully up to the level of Berwald. Other marvellous 2nds include: Stenhammar 2, Wilhelm Berger 2 and Herzogenberg 2. 

Since I never had any of these older recordings - and in the light of the Hyperion series (and many other issues on other labels) - is this set actually worth buying, even at super, super bargain price? If so, which are the essential performances it contains and in what way(s) aren't they bettered elsewhere?