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Thanks to Unicorn, I now know that there was a composer named William Crotch. I don't think his name will replace that of Samuel Scheidt in my affections, but it's worth knowing.

I say that because (1) what I have heard of Nietzsche's compositions confirmed the unfavorable opinions that I had heard of them (and I listened to a bit of the Natorp on the JPC site and it sounded better than what I remember of Nietzsche's), and (2) no one [corrected] who, knowing something about Nietzsche, learns that another 19th-century German philosopher also composed music, can fail to think of the comparison. The only other philosophers who composed music that I know of are Theodor Adorno, none of whose music I have heard (or even heard of it being performed) and Roger Scruton (who included a quotation from one of his compositions in one of his books: short though it was, one could already discern the triteness).

Probably a better composer than Nietzsche.

There's an orchestra on CD worse than the Plovdiv Philharmonic? Well, "Omsk" sounds like a suitably barbarous name for it.

I just found out about this recording—a full year after its release was reported in this thread! I happened upon some listings of it on eBay and have just ordered one. I certainly do hope that the series continues! It will be a great day when I can throw my copies of the ghastly performances by the Plovdiv orchestra into the garbage where they belong (not that I often listen to them: doing so always causes me so much consternation as I try to attend to the music and not to the playing).

^Ah, well—good fortune for those who have not already bought the four discs of Gál-plus-Schumann!

Well, maybe I don't really like Stenhammar, then, because he seems to me more appealing when being derivative. I have the same preference for his first piano concerto over his second. I don't think I would ever have bothered with unsung composers in the first place if I disdained derivativeness.

I've never shared, or even understood, the composer's judgment of this work. I far prefer it to the second of his symphonies.

You're joking, right? If not, then the clue is in the orchestra's name! 

Yes, I was joking. The orchestra is called the Plovdiv Philharmonic. Its excellence is proportionate to its fame.

I've got three of the four discs of the symphonies recorded by Maestro Todorov with the Cacophonic Orchestra of Plovdiv. It has been a long time since I have listened to them: my distress at the bad playing of the orchestra seems to have overbalanced my interest in the works themselves. The same balance of pain and pleasure has held me back from buying the fourth disc of the series. If only somebody would record these symphonies with a decent-sounding orchestra!

So there is more than one composer named Szymanowski! ("Szymanowska" is just the feminine form.)

The notes to the Dutton CD of the Blumenfeld and Catoire symphonies say that the mother* of Felix Blumenfeld was named Maria Szymanowska; but, since Blumenfeld was born in 1863, this was obviously a different one.

*Edited, because I somehow posted this with the word "father" at this point!   

Maybe this new performance will make the symphony sound less loud and blowsy...

Well, it hasn't got the Loud and Blowsy Symphony Orchestra—I mean the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, so here's hoping. 

Message re-edited at 10.57 EDT, 20 Feb. 2013: See explanation at end.

I sent an e-mail message to Dacapo (through an address given on their Web site) yesterday evening inquiring about the recordings of the Glass symphonies. By the next morning I had a reply from Mr. Henrik Rørdam, who, after thanking me for my interest, wrote as follows:

We did start what was planned to be a complete symphony cycle in the mid 1990s, but for various unfortunate reasons . . . we decided to cancel the recordings.

We have tried to restart the project several times, but it is very hard to find an orchestra willing to dedicate the time needed for such a project. However, your email, and the correspondence you referred to, gives us an opportunity to look into this repertoire again.

Added in editing: Oops! I initially posted this message before getting an answer from Mr. Rørdam to my request for permission to quote him. When I did get a reply, he asked that I omit the remarks in parentheses that I previously included! So I apologize for the error. Anyone who is curious about the omitted words can write to me directly.

As to why the recordings were never issued I can only guess. But Dacapo got in rather serious financial trouble at about the time when the recordings were made because (if I remember correctly) their American distributors insisted that they took back a vast number of CDs which they believed they had sold. And when they began operating at a normal level of business again, the Plovdiv recordings had been issued, so perhaps they thought there was room for only one Glass cycle on the market.

Thanks for the further information. I have never written to a CD company before, and I don't know if Dacapo would be much moved by the fact that a few people on this site have expressed interest in those unreleased recordings, but I may try sending them a note.

Posted in another thread (on Hans Eklund):

Dacapo did in fact record the Glass symphonies in the 90's with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under (I think) Barry Wordsworth. The recordings were played on Danish radio and announced as forthcoming CD releases. But for some reason they never came out, and I have never been able to find out what happened to them. A pity, because they were (as I remember) a good deal better than the Danacord versions.

To think that recordings of the Glass symphonies have been made with a good orchestra and then just left in the can and never released drives me crazy! I have bought the Danacord recordings because they are the only ones available, and listening to them gives me almost as much pain as pleasure. I appreciate the fact that some guy in Bulgaria would take the trouble to perform and record these symphonies, but the Plovdiv Philharmonic makes ugly, ugly sounds in this beautiful music.