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I've seen several comments both in this thread and on YouTube that this would be difficult, but possible for a composer of sufficient skill to achieve but that would no doubt also mean that it would be an expensive exercise. I've just been listening to the recording (which is still in our Downloads Board here, by the way) but it's very muddy and recessed, so a fair amount of imagination would be required too.

Ah well, thanks Gareth.

I'll hold my hand up and admit that both the Bowen symphonies on the Chandos CD are very much to my taste, they receive splendid performances although I wouldn't really call either a masterpiece.

Re-reading this thread I'm a little confused about the question of the "lost" Symphony No.3. Gareth and former member Albion were doing some fine sleuthing and in this post Albion reports that de Wolfe confirmed that they had the score and then in this later post Albion wrote that he and Gareth were going to examine in person the scores stored by de Wolfe but there's no mention of the result of that visit, if it actually took place. I have a copy of the recording of the 1954 broadcast of the performance of the Third by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ian Whyte but it's a long way from ideal and a modern recording would be a great thing to have.

Can you update us on the fate of the score please, Gareth?

The May catalogue is now "up", but is empty. There's a note:

IMPORTANT! Dear Customers: due to our receiving, charging, packing, and shipping partner having sustained significant damage in recent storms, we won't be able to bring you a May 2024 catalogue. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Thank you for your forbearance!

Here's a trailer for the recording.

I'm sure that Fred can be more specific but the last I heard it was scheduled for late April or during May. So, within the next few weeks unless it's been delayed.

Despite repeated listens I've jut failed to engage with this work. It certainly sounds appealing but there's an emptiness to it, as if it was a student exercise written out of duty rather than out of compulsion to create. So, as Alan writes, some of the elements are there: promising material, inventive and colourful orchestration but the drive to create something memorable is somehow lacking. 

I didn't bother with catalogues. Living only about an hour from central London in the early 70s, it was very easy to make the trip on a Saturday to a couple of stores in the Soho area which specialised in obscure LP labels and even more obscure music: IIRC one was called Harold Stave, long gone now of course.  Oh, the thrill of finding an LP of music by an unknown (to me) composer with the "right dates" (1800-1920 or so) or, even better, a new recording of music by someone who I'd already discovered and loved - Raff was the first such, but other early favourites were Glazunov (almost exclusively on those thick and heavy Melodiya discs) Rubinstein and Goetz. The Genesis, Louisville and Turnabout racks in particular were the first to be scoured for new releases. There was also a rather shifty Melodiya dealer who worked out of an unheated upstairs room opposite Foyles book shop on Charing Cross Road. Going to see him was always a rather grubby experience, but the joy of finding he had a previously unheard Glazunov symphony in stock made it worth while. Sometimes a major label would turn up trumps - Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge's thrilling Esclarmonde and Les Huguenots sets were my first exposure to opera (and remain favourites even now).

But nostalgia isn't what it used to be. It's easy to forget that many of those performances were cut, were of poor technical quality (Melodiya) or featured orchestras in particular which had clearly been selected for their cost rather than their quality (all those Turnabout recordings). Compared to many offerings now, the pickings then weren't only slim in number but also in quality. We have truly been living in a golden age for recordings of the unsung and, as Ilja points out, the digital age - with so many recordings both commercial and off-air freely available to listen to on YouTube - makes things almost too easy.

Fantastic, Martin. Thanks, as ever. The openings of Rheinthaler's Symphony and Kauffmann's Concerto are really promising....

Thanks, Tuomas.

...but the coupling and the prospect of Wee as soloist are beguiling. My fingers are crossed.

I imagine Alan is referencing Tchaikovsky's presumably unconscious (but remarkably direct) copying of a theme from the slow movement of Raff's 10th Symphony in that of his own 5th Symphony a few years later.

Thanks so much for this, Martin.

The CD has the same discrepancies between the printed track times in the booklet and the actual ones, which are the same as the downloads. You're missing no music.

I'm away from home now, without access to either recording, but from memory my impression was that the Leipzig performance has a tad more drive and immediacy. Of course, that may be down to the different acoustic and balance of performers.