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Very encouraging indeed. That is good to hear. Russia has resisted the Western rot!

The problem here is that classical music is the only form of art that did not significantly deteriorate since the dissolution of the Union. The cinema is dead, the literature is no more, the theaters, although all are up and running (there are AFAIK more than 20 theaters in Moscow alone), are all in my opinion giving rather mediocre performances with bad acting and bad production etc., etc. So, the fairly good state of classical music is, I think, more to the credit of musicians then to anybody else.

And, gentlemen, I think you are highly exaggerating the involvement of russian government into the culture affairs. They do get involved into the affairs of Bolshoy and Mariinsky Theaters, but thats pretty much it. After all, the cost of maintenance of all the orchestras, theaters, museums etc. is nothing but a fraction of state's expenditure (it's like a 0,01% of a yearly budget), so I am actually surprised that it is not a common practice worldwide.

Huh... 
Here in Moscow, we now have nine (!) big orchestras (thus excluding all radio, television and theater orchestras as well as all chamber orchestras), of which four I consider as first rate and the other five are good as well, just somewhat inconsistent in their performances. All orchestras as far as I know are state funded, although some probably receiving additional funds from private sponsors as well. The symphonic concerts (not counting all solo and chamber music concerts) are going practically every day and usually there are two or sometimes even three concerts a day. The tickets for good seats cost from as low as 5$ to about 30$ - it depends mostly on venue and soloist. Only Bolshoy Theater charges more than that. The attendance is about 80-90% for most of the concerts.
For once I am actually glad to live in Moscow...

Thanks Fronder, but this PDF МИХАИЛ МИХАЙЛОВИЧ БАХТИН (Michail Bachtin) ends at page 167

Hmm. Are you sure you downloaded (or opened) the right pdf? The file name is russkie_propilei_6_1919.pdf (русские пропилеи том 6) and it contains 256 pages.

Again, go to http://imwerden.de/cat/modules.php?name=books&pa=showbook&pid=1117 and click to Ссылка на файл в формате pdf (jpg) / Link zur Datei im Format pdf (jpg)

Alternatively I could upload it to any site you choose.

Download this pdf -> http://imwerden.de/cat/modules.php?name=books&pa=showbook&pid=1117

pp. 202-235.

There is no OCR version, only this scan. Note also that it is printed (and originally written of course) in old pre-Revolution russian orthography.

pp. 192-201 is Poem of Ecstasy.

Funny when I've read your question I immediately thought about the 3rd Atterberg's symphony Particularly the second part of the second movement (again... ).

Back to the original post, I appreciate your conundrum. I also have too little time left on this earth to waste listening to music I do not enjoy. And I have too little money to waste on recordings that are a shot in the dark.

However, it's really difficult to rate or grade music. Sure, a person can put a grade on a composition, recording, performance or all three. But what does it tell others? Only that this is your assessment based on your personal subjective opinion.

We've had repeated discussions here on UC over the years about quite a few specific composers. One thing that is clear -- there are those who really like certain composers and others who dislike those same composers. It is as true of unsungs as it is of the most recognized composers. There is no consensus.

So how informative would the grade of one person be? You would still need to know what other composers the person liked and disliked in order to create a context. If I rated a particular work a 7 on a 10 point scale, how would you know whether you would like it? Maybe you and I have very different tastes.

A grading scale is basically just a shorthand method for saying "I like it this much." So I concur with Alan. Justification, description, and comparison (when relevant) to other works or composers, would be of greater benefit to others than a grading scale.

Completely agree. For example I personally dislike Raff's symphonies and would not rate any of them above 6/10 (although I like Raff's works for piano & orchestra a lot), while founders of this forum have an opposite opinion. These ratings are too subjective and in most cases does not reflect anything.

What this forum needs is a section where users could ask for recommendations, e.g. where one may ask: "I enjoyed this and that work, but disliked that and that, what more works, in the style I liked, could you recommend me?". This section would be very helpful for the discovery of the unsung works, that you probably will like, especially for new users who have not yet read almost hundred pages of main page (see for example that topic on Rachamaninov-like piano concertos).

Grove has Catoire's Symphony Op.7 as dating from 1889. A lot of the references to 1899 seem to be associated with the Khaikin performance, so a mistake may simply have been repeated a number of times. On the other hand, Wikipedia has the opus numbers immediately before and after Op.7 as dating from 1897, which led to my assumption that the correct date was 1897. Oh dear!

Soviet musical encyclopaedia:
composed - 1899
first performance - 1905

Practically no difference here in Moscow. Same old Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. I actually think that repertoire has become even more narrow during the last decade. On the contrary, I was in Portugal this spring where I was able to hear Braga Santos' 4th symphony paired with Rachmaninov's 3rd concerto - surely that was one of the best concertos in my whole life

The Kohsaku/Kayama PC1 is really a piece of fake classical music - very Rachmaninovian at the outset, but suddenly lurching into faux-Gershwin before returning to the opening material - which is repeated fff ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Absolutely gorgeous, but far too full-on - and the coda to first movement is a piece of grand larceny! The slow movement starts with woodwind phrases against a background of shimmering strings; it's not really like Rachmaninov at all even when the piano enters and includes an absolutely mad sudden accelerando before again returning to more dreamy and then more ecstatic-sounding material. It's really just a series of unconnected episodes, beautifully orchestrated, but unconvincing when compared to 'proper music'. The finale starts and continues throughout in rather jolly early 19thC Germanic-sounding fashion, almost as if Beeethoven had decided to put in an appearance - an idiom totally at odds with what has come so far, but actually rather more integrated in feel.

So, all in all, not a piece to be taken seriously at all. But great fun? Yes, indeed!

Second movement resembles to me Rach's rhapsody, op.43. But overall I agree with your opinion - not strictly academical but very fun indeed.

Fumio Hayasaka PC: The moody first movement, especially, has lost of Rachian gestures. The second, and final movement, though, is a quick-witted, infectiously bright romp. Kind of like the Poulenc PC, eh? It's available on a Naxos CD with two other pieces by Hayasaka.

1st movement is exceptionally good. Thanks for a recommendation.

Oh, I almost forgot. There is also a D minor PC by japanese singer\actor Yūzō Kayama that sounds as rachmaninovian as A. Mathieu's works.

and Gottfried Gasanov two PCs (1948, 1959)

I've never heard of Gasanov. Where can I hear some of his music, please?

Years ago I've heard both concerts live here in Russia.

1st PC is available on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=987dKyqDFdU

Well a lot of compositions has already been mentioned but I would like to add some:

Gabriel Pierne PC (1886) - 1st movement sounds like a sketch to famous Rach's 2nd PC
Evgeniy Svetlanov PC (1976) - very melodic, very russian, sounds a lot like Rachmaninov
Paul Constantinescu  PC (1952) 50% Rachmaninov 50% Vladigerov

There are also two PCs (1927, 1943) composed by Joseph Marx's pupil Richard Flury, PC by Eduard Künneke (1935) and Alain Payette (2000) which are close in style.
And if you don't mind a little bit more lightweighted, kind of cinematic music a la Richard Arnell then you would proabably also like Leroy Anderson's PC (1953) and Gottfried Gasanov two PCs (1948, 1959).

[sorry for poor english]
First of all I have to thank creators of this site for their work, since unsungcomposer among with musicweb-international are, no doubt, two best internet sites devoted to classical music. I am glad that romantic music is a prime focus of this forum, since I, personally, can't even stand late of works of Scriabin\Nielsen\Sibelius\Voughan-Williams and everything more avant-garde is nothing but a cacophony to my ears.
BUT, if you are to draw a line it shoud be 1800 (first Beethoven's symphony) - 1950 (Braga Santos' fourth, which for me always sounded like a solemn funeral march for old music) or even 1955. I've studied history of music of this particular period along with repertoire of orchestras and I have to say that up to the end of WWII non-avantgarde composers were still a leading force (and far outnumbered those who composed avant-garde music) practically in all regions of the world (except for Germany, Vienna, Moscow and Leningrad). Not only in the 'old musical' countries there were dozens of late romantic composers who composed highly attractive romantic music (from Rachmaninov and Atterberg to Ropartz and Joseph Marx), but it was also a time when a lot of new composers schools were emerged all over the world - from Japan and Australia to Argentina and Chlie. These 'new musical' countries gave us literally hundreds of non-avantgarde composers (for example: André Mathieu from Canada ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDb7XAfoTfc&feature=my_favorites&list=FLD2YIXGM8G9j4yCtKiNVRwg ), Arthur Lemba from Estonia ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B_x1gv2_BY&feature=my_favorites&list=FLD2YIXGM8G9j4yCtKiNVRwg ), Fikret Amirov from Azerbaijan ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaKSX0N6GCk ) to name just a few). Rarelly their music were heard outside their native countries but today, in the age of CD and internet, it is not a problem anymore. Even in 60s and 70s there were still romantic works, especially in soviet conuntries (Svetlanov's wonderful PC for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymu_V1LHRTQ ). I have a statistics that clearly shows that even in USA among ~110 composers whose works were published during 50s and 60s about 2\3 composed tonal works (although most of them probably were more or less avant-garde, but still). So I think it is rather unnecessary to exclude innerwar period, because the amount of great romantic music comosed during this time is just too huge to ignore. I also think it is necessary to oblige all uploaders to write short description of music they share, because among romantic works there were a lot of different styles and there are not that much people who have eclectic taste and love them all.