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Exists middle age Verdi unsung? I would say that the Hymn of the Nations (1862) is the answer.
The Hymn comes back in Chandos 10659, together with "Libera me" from collective Mass for Rossini (1868), an alternative version of an aria with chorus from Force of Destiny, and the (recorded several times) Four Sacred Pieces. G.Noseda conducts Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Regio, Torino.
I concentate on the Hymn, really unsung (I could attend just an actual performance in 1981). It is an occasional Cantata for a London exhibition. The verses of Arrigo Boito (twenty-years old!) appear today old fashioned and rhetorical (but what else to expect from texts for occasional cantatas for exhibitions in 1862?).
The recording history of the Hymn is, in my knowledge, quite short.
Toscanini resurrected the work in wartime 1943 (interpolating "The Star Spangled Banner" and "The Intenationale" as homages to US and USRR, and adding them to the quotations of "God save the Queen", "La Marsellaise" and "il Canto degli Italiani", and changing the text dedicated to Italy).
I listened a lot of times to the recording (with tenor Jan Peerce a rather inflated and rhetorical soloist).
The Toscanini's recording raised polemics in US when, some years ago, it was sold in video format cutting "The internationale".
After decades of neglect, there were a good version with Pavarotti, Levine and Chicago forces (I have it in a box of 74 CDs: Verdi's complete output); an average version by Fabio Armiliato, Marcello Panni and French Nice forces (Real Sound;I think not  much circulated outside Italy).
Now we have this version with a tenor of very good timbre and scant, as far as possible, rhetoric.
I rate the piece, if a kind of oddity, playful and tuneful : its timing is 12' 46".
Intriguing may be also the "Libera me" for soprano (B.Frittoli) chorus and orchestra (Verdi contribution to the collective Mass for Rossini and first version of "Libera me" for his own complete Requiem Mass).
I wonder if anybody wants to write something about that champion of the unsung: the Mass for Rossini (1868) composed, one piece for each, by
Antonio Buzzolla
Antonio Bazzini
Carlo Pedrotti
Antonio Cagnoni
Federico Ricci
Alessandro Nini
Raimondo Boucheron
Carlo Coccia
Gaetano Gaspari
Pietro Platania
Lauro Rossi
Teodulo Mabellini....and Giuseppe Verdi.
I have got the Rilling recording (Haenssler, 1989), very seldom -I must condfess-listening to it.
   

In 1911 Torino, Italy, enjoyed a particularly rich season of 33 symphonic concerts.
There was an impressive list of conductors : Toscanini (5 concerts), Mengelberg (2), V.Safonoff (3), F. Steinbach (2), the young Vittorio Gui (7); Tullio Serafin (2). And a very impressive list of composers-conductors: Debussy (1 concert); Elgar (2); Kajanus (2); d'Indy (1); Piernè (1). I have omitted lesser names.
The majority of the works programmed were (as usual then) contemporary or "modern" (wasn't Wagner modern in 1911?).
The most performed composers were:
1) Wagner (orchestral excerpts)
2) Beethoven
3) Debussy (indeed the most performed in relation to his not large orchestral output)
4) Brahms
5) R.Strauss
6) Elgar
7) Martucci
Sibelius
Unsung (more or less) pieces (by today's standards) (I have indicated the conductor when on paper interesting or exceptional):
-Arensky Variations on a theme of Tchaicovsky (Safonoff)
-Bach-Mahler Suite for orch. (cond. Toscanini!)
-Bolzoni Occasional Cantata
-M.E.Bossi Concerto for organ, strings, horns and timpani (composer at the organ, son Renzo Bossi cond.)
-M.E.Bossi Intermezzi Goldoniani (Serafin)
-Bruneau Prelude from Act Four of Messidor (cond. Piernè)
-Chabrier Gwendoline overture (cond. Debussy!)
-Da Venezia Suite Veneziana (cond. Mengelberg !)
-d'Indy Fervaal prelude to First Act (Piernè)
-d'Indy Istar (cond. d'Indy!)
-Dukas Prelude to third Act of Ariane (cond.Debussy!)
-G.A.Fano Cantata on verse by Heine and Carducci (Serafin)
-Gade Echoes of Ossian, concert overture (Mengelberg)
-Goldmark Sakuntala, Concert overture
-Goldmark In the garden from Rustic Weddind Symphony
-Golmark Prelude to Second act of Queen of Sheeba (all cond. by Gui)
-Jaernefelt Preludium
-Jaernefelt Ballet scene (both cond. Kajanus)
-Lalo Namouna suite (d'Indy)
-Liadov The enchanted lake (Safonoff)
-Kajanus Finnish Rhapsody
-Kajanus Berceuse (both cond. Kajanus)
-Kuula Popular song (Kajanus)
-Luigi Mancinelli Scene Veneziane, Intemezzi for Cleopatra (composer conducting)
-Martucci First Symphony
-Martucci Novelletta, Tarantella (Toscanini)
-Martucci notturno (Gui)
-Massenet Scenes Alsatiennes (Gui)
-Melartin First Symphony, scherzo only (Kajanus)
-Palmgren The seasons (Kajanus)
-Piernè Ramuntcho suite (Piernè)
-Rabaud La Procession Nocturne
-Reger Eine Lustspiel Ouverture (Steinbach)
-Respighi Aretusa (Serafin)
-Roger Ducasse Sarabande (Debussy)
-Roger Ducasse Suite Francaise
-Scriabin First Symphony (Safonoff)
-Sinigaglia Le baruffe chiozzotte, overture (Serafin)
-Svendsen Carnival in Paris (Gui)
-Wolf-Ferrari The secret of Susanna, overture (Serafin)
Of course the gap and spread between average public and contemporary music had not begun.
That would begin very slowly and very gradually after first world war.A bit less slowly and less gradually after the second.
I would ask if the afore programs (from a golden age?) can suggest to anyone comments and/or comparison with present time.

It's a Chandos record of orchestral excerpts from Italian Opera, by Cilea, Puccini, Catalani, Giordano, Ponchielli, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Verdi , Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari (Noseda, B.B.C. Phil., CHAN. 10634). At first it reminded me of some decade ago and I thought that then similar records (obviously with shorter music timings) were frequent.
But better considering my record collection I found just one LP by Galliera and Philharmonia (Emi, late 50s or early 60s) recalling this one and more unitary and daring.
The Galliera contained the same three Catalani exceprts in the Chandos, two Wolf-Ferrari (only one common to Chan.), two Mascagni (not in Chan.: from Guglielmo Ratcliff and Le Maschere) and even a substantial (at least in length: 8' 41") interlude from Giulietta e Romeo by Zandonai and a merely symphonic piece by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli (Waltz from the suite Notturno Romantico).
Anyway, today there is scant place for a record of short orchestral operatic excerpts (of course there is more for vocal excerpts,  for singing stars: see-or better- hear recently Kaufmann Verismo Arias and Fleming Verismo, both with a lot of worthy rarities).
I am quite fond of the Chandos record, mixing few sung pieces (but almost never heard out of their full context) and a greater bunch of unsung ones.
I understand that some may prefer Bruneau to Zandonai, Cilea and Giordano. That's the object and the richness of the forum.
I like (in my limited knowledge) all four of them (no one obviously in the first flight) and, in the Italian trio, I would put Zandonai first. 

Has anyone heard the Symphony op.5 by Henry Rabaud?
I Know of no recording. His opus 2 -Divertissements sur des chansons russes-; opus 6 -La procession nocturne;opus 7 Eglogue, after Virgil sound to me very fine (they have been recorded by Dervaux Emi; Segerstam MP; La Procession also by A.Jordan Erato). Amusing and entertaining to me the dances from the opera "Marouf" (again recordings EMI and MP). 

I understand that Tchaikovsky heard a performance of Raff's Third Symphony and wrote a positive review about the work.
I am puzzled by a kind of close affinity between a rhytmic-melodic figure recurring at long, and more than once, in Raff's Finale and the rhytmic-melodic figure that pervades the whole third movement of Tchaikovsky much later (and much better) Sixth Symphony (the passage is used by the composers in different contexts; and Tchaikovsky use appears much subtler and more  determined).
Has anybody the same impression about such "affinity" and about the very existence of the affinity? If so, he/she will certainly be able to explain in better English, and better musical knowledge, than mine. 

Obviously many composers, performed in their own country, are much less (or not at all) abroad.
Let's consider Delius (certainly not overexposed in U.K.).
In my city, Torino, in a 45 years concert experience I could hear in concert  just "The walk to the paradise garden", "Brigg fair" and "Two aquarelles".
Can anybody comment about Delius visibility in actual concert outside U.K.?

Mahler last concert as conductor took place on the 21st of february 1911.
It was an "Italian" program comprising (besides Mendelssohn Italian Symphony) works of four real Italians:
Leone Sinigaglia "Le baruffe chiozzotte" overture.
Giuseppe Martucci Piano concerto n.2 (the first was then not edited).
Ferruccio Busoni: Berceuse elegiaque (world premiere).
Marco Enrico Bossi : Intermezzi goldoniani.
On April in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that identical program will be performed again (in Mahler death centennial year
commemoration) by the Israel Philharmponic under G.Noseda (Muti was due to conduct the concert, and on the very 21st of february, but he had to withdraw on account of an accident).
I would like to know if somebody knows if some similar event is foreseen elsewhere in the world (I don't think).
And I wonder what do you think about the worthiness of the four Italian works and composers (who, in the last 100 years have fared differently: shortly, fairly well Busoni, less well Martucci (but growing); indeeed smaller fortunes for Bossi and-mostly- Sinigaglia.