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Emil was very critical of his contemporaries and once wrote that he thought music had been in decline since Schumann. He formulated his artistic credo as follows (source again the biography; apologies if my translation is unidiomatic): "People who practise and love music need more of what could be called good "house music" (Emil's own inverted commas), which neither descends into vulgarity nor ascends to speculative heights, but which above all rests on the secure foundation of natural, melodious and harmonious beauty." From what I have heard of his music, I think he stayed true to that credo and didn't really aim for grand symphonic statements.

Yes, the 7th is mentioned in some detali in the biography (but of course as the 4th, since that was the numbering that Hartmann himself used). Actually that was the symphony whose slow movement was so close to the correspoding movement in Gade's 4th symphony that the composer had to rewrite it. Hartmann had a very strained relationship with the Danish critics, and this was easy prey to them. One critic even printed the notes in his review to show that the two themes were identical.

According to the worklist in the biography, the scores of symphonies 1-3 (or 4-6) were published, but the d minor remained in manuscript. However, Danish regional orchestras performed these works with some regularity until the 1960s (I think the performances on youtube are from radio transmissions of these), so there would be a chance that performing material exists somewhere.

According to Inger Sørensen's biography of Emil Hartmann (unfortunately available in Danish only), it was the composer himself who decided to call op. 29 "symphony no 1", apparently discarding the first three symphonies as juvenilia. This in spite of the fact that one of them had been performed several times in Berlin while Hartmann stayed there. One reason could be that, when he got to Leipzig and the Gewandhaus orchestra rehearsed the symphony, the musicians declared that while the themes were very beautiful in themselves, the working out of them was insufficient with too little counterpoint. They decided not to perform the symphony.

While I haven't heard a note of any of the symphonies, it is my impression based on what else I have heard by Emil Hartmann that he was content to compose within the lyrical Nordic tradition of his brother-in-law Gade. Already in his lifetime he was accused of being unoriginal and at one point even had to recompose a movement from a symphony because people thought it was so close to Gade's 4th that it almost amounted to plagiarism. But if you don't mind the absence of a sense of strife and confict, and like mellifluous, lyrical music, then I think you will enjoy Emil Hartmann.

It is, however, rather striking that while complete cycles of almost all other 19th-century Danish symphonists of note (Gade, the elder Hartmann, Hamerik, Lange-Müller etc.) have been recorded, and much else by Emil is also on disc, as yet no company has shown any interest in the symphonies.

There is a brief summary on the Arctic Philharmonic's website

https://arktiskfilharmoni.no/en/events/klippeoerne/

I've listened to this album, and Mark's impression of the music based on the audio extracts seems correct to me. String quartet no 4 is not only completely tonal, but even tuneful. It is dedicated to the memory of Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych and based on songs written by him. His best known song is the Carol of the Bell, and the first movement is based on that. It isn't a deep work but very enjoyable.

Piano trio no 2 is also written in a language far removed from the prevalent in the 1950s when it was written. Mostly I'd say it sounds like a late romantic work, but a few passages also reveal its 20th century origin. At half an hour it's quite substantial. I think it's a good work, somewhat reminiscent of, say, Babajadian's piano trio.

String quartet no 5 is clearly outside our focus here.

Mention of the second volume of J. P. E. Hartmann's piano works on Danacord in another thread reminds me that the same label has just brought out another disc (double actually) of Danish piano music, that of Victor Bendix:

https://www.danacord.dk/frmsets/records/901-02-r.htmlrl

The sonata and the 8 pieces have been recorded before by Peter Seivewright on Rondo, but as fas as I'm aware the rest are first recordings. It is, of course, mostly short pieces, but I though I'd mention it anyway.

By the way, a new biography of Bendix has also just been published, where you can read about the notorious scandal surrounding the birth of his son, Victor Schiøler, who became one of Denmark's leading pianists. I see this has already been mentioned in another thread so no more about it here. Unfortunately the biography is only in Danish.

I'm from continental Europe (Denmark), and if I had to name just one overall favourite composer, RVW would be the one. So he has made that much headway here 

But seriously, I think you judge the situation correctly. I don't quite understand why because I completely agree that VW's music is on par with that of Sibelius and Nielsen and quite a few better known composers. But then Sibelius and Nielsen also enjoy a much larger standing in the English-speaking world than elsewhere, apart from Scandinavia, of course. I think we could equally say that Nielsen is world-famous in Denmark - some of my acquaintances are quite surprised that we discuss him in a forum devoted to unsung composers. But it seems to me that British composers in general have problems making headway in continental Europe. I remember reading an anecdote once, according to which a work by a modern British composer had been performed before the break by a Danish symphony orchestra. In the break the source of the anecdote heard a prominent Danish composer say to a prominent Danish critic, "So that's how they write in Britain". To which the critic replied, "And we don't like that". The source claimed that the "we" sounded as if it was supposed to include the whole Danish music establishment.

But as to VW, perhaps the modal nature of his music speaks against his acceptance. I once suggested "The Lark Ascending" to a violinist friend of my daughter. After listening to the first few minutes she declared that "it was far too Chinese for her"(!)

Though he never married, Kuhlau had to support quite a large family consisting of his parents and siblings, which is why he had to write a lot for amateurs. This is at least part of the reason for the nature of much of his piano music. What he really wanted to write was operas and concert music, and I don't think the piano quartets will disappoint.

Near the end of his life Kuhlau's home, including the manuscripts of many works, was destroyed by fire. To help him a wealthy Copenhagen music lover commissioned a set of string quartets from him. However, his health was broken, so only one quartet was written before he died. But the quartet is very fine, imho.

Järvi's Alfven 2 was the very first CD I ever bought after taking the leap from LPs, so it has some sentimental value for me. That said, I agree with much that has been said here, including the sound quality of the old recordings. I don't know the Willen cycle, but what I have heard of the cpo I like a lot. It has clarity and freshness. But I still think Järvi is very good in some of the tone poems, where his approach works better for me. I find the Legend of the Skerries (Skärgårdssägen) very atmospheric and the Uppsala and Dalecarlian Rhapsodies fun and upbeat.

Thanks a lot for all this very interesting information 

I really like to read composer biographies so this is most welcome news - and so shortly after the book on Humperdinck. I wasn't aware of another English-language biography on Respighi, apart from a translation of Elsa's book, which I haven't been able to get. But then I'm afraid that, since reading Imogen Holst's biography of her father, I'm generally rather suspicious of biographies written by relatives or close acquaintances. They may not be able to have the required distance to the subject. Though of course Imogen Holst almost went to the other etreme and hurt her father's reputation more than she helped it - at least so it seems to me. 

Yes, I agree that sometimes he seems to trash a recording just because he thinks the site needs another "CD from hell" review. The premise of these reviews seems to be that there is only one correct way to play a piece of music, and since the reviewer knows what that is, he/she is free to trash away. In other words, raising your own preferences to absolute standards. It seems to me that this is a kind of "old-school" way of reviewing (at least to judge from the writings of critics from the past like, say, Hanslick, Peterson-Berger and Virgil Thomson), whereas the approach of quite a few critics today is that there is room for more than one view on the performance of a work.

That also seems to me to be the case here. I knew and liked the Korngold symphony from the Downes recording on Chandos, but I have to say I was immediately gripped by the excitement of the new Wilson version. I'll probably choose Wilson more often from now on, but that doesn't mean I will never listen to Downes again. I find it a fine, coherent, purposeful performance. As stated earlier in this thread, it shouldn't be necessary to trash one performance just because you prefer another.

I suppose at least some of the animosity comes from the hype about her being a 21st century Mozart etc., plus the fact that she is felt to be lecturing people about what is good music and so on. But isn't the lecturing a rather typical thing for people her age? I have now been a teacher of 15-20-year-olds for about 25 years, and it is my experience that many people enter that period of their lives with quite strong opinions about what is right and wrong (sometimes based considerably on parents' opinions, which may of course also be the case here). Opinions which they then modify as they mature and get experience. I'd like to reserve judgment on Alma's music until in about 5 or 10 years when, as I wrote earlier, I hope she has found for herself the path she wants to pursue.

On another note, I also think that, at a time when classical music is in serious danger of losing its audience, any young person who prefers Beethoven to Bieber is a sign of hope.

I agree that there is nothing wrong with Alma composing in a light vein. Didn't some of us at least get hooked on classical music to begin with because of the tunes?

However, this blogpost suggests it may not only be innocent love of a specific style:

https://blogs.nmz.de/badblog/2019/12/11/dealing-with-guy-deutscher/

I don't know Mortiz Eggert so I can't say how trustworthy he is, but judging from a brief search he does have a pretty secure position in the German music establishment. That of course doesn't prevent him from being opinionated.

Still, in a sad way this reminds me of the story of Rued Langgaard. A domineering father forces his brilliant offspring to compose in a certain way which he believes to be "the only true way". In Langgaard's case it certainly resulted in a lot of misery, but he also did go on to write mature compositions.

I think it's fine if Alma Deutscher goes on composing in the way she does now if that's what she wants, but less so if it is the result of some doctrine.

Off-topic I know, sorry, but as far as I know JPE Hartmann's Hakon Jarl is a stand-alone overture to Adam Oehlenschläger's spoken-word tragedy. I don't think Hartmann wrote any opera on the topic. And now of course back to Reinecke.