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Moving away from symphonies, there are two composers wrote tributes to Bruckner.

Gottfried von Einem's "Bruckner Dialog", Op. 39, uses material from the 4th movement of Symphony No. 9, and Georg Trexler wrote three organ works based on Bruckner's themes: "Introduktion und Passacaglia über ein Thema der VIII. Symphonie von Anton Bruckner", "Meditationen über Themen des ,,Te Deum" von Anton Bruckner", and "Toccata über ein Thema aus dem Gloria der Messe in e-Moll von Anton Bruckner".

I have not yet heard any of these.

19 is for Wind Band. The last movement has a really great Big Tune.

That one is rather special.

Wading through Spotify, I've come across the Svetlanov set of the complete Miaskovsky Symphonies from Warner. Here is a composer completely unfamiliar to me but one that I feel I ought to have some knowledge of. I gather that some symphonies are more highly regarded than others - please could someone give me a bit of guidance as to what might be the most worthwhile way into this large corpus of work?

Having bought that set and played one after another, I'm afraid that they all tend to merge together, but try 2, 17, 21, and 27. None of the symphonies are unpleasant, but some lack greatness. They vary in length and structure. No. 21 is in a single movement, but it certainly works as a symphony, and is highly regarded.

By the way, he wrote other stuff besides symphonies. There are concertos for cello and violin, a whole bunch of rather good piano sonatas, and a couple of sinfoniettas.

http://www.myaskovsky.ru/?mode=works

I recently stumbled upon the Piano Concerto No. 3 and I was amazed. He is on my list of composers to explore further.

So who have I forgotten?

Strauss
Hindemith
Marx
Dohnányi

I would suggest, however, that the tradition was continued in Finland (Sibelius) and Sweden (Atterberg).

So who have I forgotten?

Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer both wrote a couple of symphonies each.

[Maritana]

the delightful English (Irish?) opera Maritana.

Well, it is an English language work. From the booklet: William Wallace was born in Waterford. His father was from Scotland. William Wallace became a Catholic in 1830 and changed his name to William Vincent Wallace. He moved to Australia in 1835, which is where he began to write Maritana. He became an American in 1850. Maritana was first performed in London in 1845, and reached Dublin and Philadelphia the following year. When it returned to Dublin in 1877, it was sung in Italian.

There was another William Wallace who wrote some rather splendid symphonic poems, including one called Sir William Wallace, which is possibly the best.

Well, I just caught that. It is the third performance of the work that I have heard (after the Tyrolean disc and the BBC broadcast) and easily the most convincing (though maybe I'm just becoming better acquainted with the music). Clearly Rufinatscha is the biggest rediscovery since Rott. His style fits neatly between Schubert and Bruckner and I look forward to hearing more of it.

Pantcho Vladigerov - Piano Concertos (5), 2 violin Concertos and piano works written op.16 onwards.

Surely he was Bulgarian?

It's better than the current Bolshoi version.

snoring through Wagner?

I actually experienced just that quite recently: an elderly man on my left had a picnic and fell asleep during Das Rheingold.

Can we honesty expect a top performance from an orchestra whose dress code is too hot to play well in? Who are they dressing up for anyway?  I go concert for the music.

I don't care what the performers wear, but I do get annoyed by middle aged ladies who talk during the music.

Of course, it made me wonder what sort of Princely programmes could be made celebrating Raff, Stanford, Draeseke etc etc.

Surely the next program should be devoted to Potter!

Oddly, I get more bothered about how the men dress. Uniform has its points but usually it's so old hat, and doesn't even fit performances with period instruments (I think I'll check on this with the OAE's CE).  It's uncomfortable to play in too. I'd much prefer to see a T-shirted pianist than one drenched in sweat.

I've just come home from a concert: the violinist Joshua Bell appeared to be wearing black silk pyjamas.

[Symphony No.64, Op.305]

Derek Bourgeois is well known in brass- and wind-band circles, but his latest orchestral work is Symphony No.64, Op.305.

This astonishingly prolific composer has also written many independent orchestral pieces along with concertos for Amateur Orchestra, Op.36 (1971), Bass Tuba, Op.38 (1972), Clarinet, Op.51 (1976), Three Trombones, Op.56 (1977), Double Bass, Op.62 (1979), Organ, Op.101 (1986), Trombone, Op.114 (1988), Euphonium, Op.120 (1990), Horn, Op.121 (1990), String Quartet, Op.138 (1994), Percussion, Op.143 (1995) and Violin, Op.181 (2002).

As with Havergal Brian he seems to have settled down (from the 8th Symphony, Op.184 (2002) onwards) to concentration on symphonic writing. Does anybody know any of this music? 

Here is his website - http://www.derekbourgeois.com/index.htm

I have heard the trombone concerto, and though I thought it pleasant enough, it clearly did not inspire to hunt further, as I was completely unaware of those sixty-four symphonies! Judging from the composer's website, only Symphony No. 8 has been recorded.