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Warner is going to reissue (April 6) a 10-CD "Pierné Edition", with past recordings from their catalog, including the complete piano works by Diane Andersen, which had never been reissued on CD before (in spite of my many requests to EMI !).
Of course, we would have loved an exploration of his operatic catalogue or a good modern recording of Saint-François d'Assise, but that will still have to wait... Let's enjoy what we'll be given.

Naxos has just issued Roussel's operetta Le Testament de la Tante Caroline.
First commercial recording of a work that was only known through (private) recordings from the French radio.
A welcome addition to the general public knowledge of this delightful French light répertoire.
https://youtu.be/Pt3a7A9tcq0

[possibly]

A recapitulative update on Palazetto Bru Zane projects:

Bru Zane also announces in a mailed newsletter :
"The upcoming discographic collaborations of the Palazzetto Bru Zane will contribute to approaching a broad range of Romantic pieces:
-- arias from Italian operas sung in French by Benjamin Bernheim (Deutsche Grammophon),
    (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9312644--boulevard-des-italiens)
-- César Franck's chamber music (Fuga Libera),
-- Gabriel Fauré's complete songs (Aparté)
-- a recital of French arias sung in Italian, German, Russian and French by Marina Rebeka (Prima Classic).

Other projects announced here and there are :
FRANCK Hulda [Madaras]
OFFENBACH Le Voyage dans la Lune (a new complete and revised version)
OFFENBACH La Vie Parisienne (the video of the Théatre des Champs-Elysées production is already available).
SPONTINI La Vestale [Rousset]
CHERUBINI Les Abencerages [Vashegyi]
MEYERBEER Robert le Diable [Minkowski]  (already recorded in Bordeaux, starring Erin Morley)
GOUNOD Messe de Clovis et FAURE Requiem [Niquet]  https://www.facebook.com/PalazzettoBruZane/posts/5129622860401861
Musiques de Bal et ouvertures Françaises [Roth]
JONCIERES Lancelot (to be recorded in Saint-Etienne this season)
possibly a CD of SAINT-SAENS Frédégonde with a French cast, following the Opéra de Tours production, this season.

No news of 3 projects that were reported or altogether cancelled due to Covid :
MASSENET Bacchus (from the Montpellier Festival -- reported twice)
THOMAS Psyché
HAHN La Carmélite, also reported twice...

[Le Timbre d'Argent]

The Palazzetto Bru Zane is announcing the release, for late August, of the recording of Le Timbre d'Argent, recorded 3 years ago at the Paris Opéra-Comique, in its exciting collection of French Opera.  Just a bit in advance for the Saint-Saëns anniversary.....

a particular favourite of mine is Gounod's Le Tribut de Zamora and Saint-Saen's Ascanio on B records.

Except Bru Zane had nothing to do with the recording of Ascanio.
But you have good reasons to rejoice as BZ plans many more exciting projects (among which) : 3 Reynaldo Hahn (L'Ile du Rêve, La Carmélite, O mon bel inconnu), Lancelot (Joncieres), Psyché (Thomas), Charles VI (Halévy), Phèdre (Lemoyne), Le Docteur Miracle (Lecocq, much less know than its Bizet counterpart), Yes (Yvain).
Just a reminder that they recently issued a set of 10 Cds with totally unknown material recorded in the last 10 years, as well as an exciting original version of Gounod's Faust....
There are also questions whether recent productions of rare works will see commercial issues : Madame Favart (Offenbach), Maitre Péronilla (Offenbach), Le Timbre d'Argent (Saint-Saëns). Another French rarity is due out soon : Massenet's Don César de Bazan (without PBZ).

Here's an "unusual" request, in the sense that it doesn't really concern an "unsung" composer, but still it concerns a "rare" enough performance :
Here from France, I cannot access nor download the performance of Stephen Hough playing the Mendelssohn 1st concerto on Queen Victoria's own pianoforte.
Would someone be kind enough to download (if at all possible) and share it ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007tq5/bbc-proms-2019-queen-victorias-playlist
You'd be a darling, as they say accross the Channel !

Offenbach's rare Maître Péronilla has been performed at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris last week-end, with an exciting cast, and will be broadcast later in June.

https://www.forumopera.com/maitre-peronilla-paris-tce-paris-plus-fin-que-bouffe

A rare opera by Moniuszko, "Il Paria", has been recorded during the last Moniuszko Festival in Warsaw and Poznan. 

https://www.festivalberlioz.com/Visions-et-nonne-sanglante#container

The Berlioz Festival in La Côte Saint André, near Lyon, will propose a concert featuring several French rarities, including all the sketches that Berlioz left for his unfinished opera "La Nonne Sanglante". The concert will be recorded for broadcast.
Furthermore the cast is very promising. Daniel Kawka, the conductor, is not a household name, but nonetheless a gem of a conductor. I heard him some years ago in Dukas' Ariane, and it was absolutely outstanding. This is, to my knowledge, his first collaboration with the Palazetto Bru Zane, but I hope there will be more.

The Freiburg opera continues its eclectic search for new titles, and offers a discovery of Franck's rarest opera, HULDA.  That should be exciting !

https://www.theater.freiburg.de/de_DE/spielplan/hulda.15384600

https://www.examiner.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/rare-opportunity-hear-elgars-caractacus-14440194

This concert by Martyn Brabbins was (or will subsequently be) recorded, probably for Hyperion, according to my source of information.

Hello to all (and particularly the Forum admins).
Question : In your Download section, do you allow video broadcasts, or only radio/audio broadcasts ?
Thanks.
Eric

To be issued this month. 
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/zdenek-fibich-die-braut-von-messina/hnum/7136657


There was already a pretty good recording of the work on Supraphon (with Benackova).

In the wonderful series of rare French operas released by the Bru Zane Foundation, here comes a new jewel :

www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/charles-gounod-cinq-mars/hnum/2629081

Here are links to a 2 part-PDF of the Roger-Ducasse catalogue of works, since it doesn't seem to appear in the composers' catalogues index.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ond4ke5s2cgs6mi/Catalogue%20Roger-Ducasse%201.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bietjsvhtjn4gr9/Catalogue%20Roger-Ducasse%202.pdf?dl=0

Hello All !
Glad I discovered this wonderful forum !

I just happened to find a new recording of Roger-Ducasse's complete piano works, which I've been hoping for for a long time.  I've tried to get Stephen Hough interested in this composer, but unsuccessfully... This brand new 3-CD set has been (wonderfully, from little I've heard so far) recorded by Martin Jones, another champion of piano rarities, for Nimbus.

Roger-Ducasse is, in my opinion, a rather injustly neglected composer who'd deserve a resurrection in the concert halls.
His totally forgotten opéra-comique, CANTEGRIL, is a brilliant depiction of the lively atmosphere of a small pyrenean village, and its "piquant" characters, around the love affair of Cantegril (a pleasant version of a village Don Giovanni, and the sweet Francezine).  The score recalls at times Canteloube (the orchestral interludes), and Ravel (the lively Octet).

His ballet "Orphée", on the steps of Ravel's Daphnis & Chloé and Roussel's Bacchus & Ariane, is a wonderful, richly-orchestrated work which deserves a complete recording, and not just the 3 excerpts available on Naxos.