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Querstand is not a large label but they've already produced recordings

One that I have is the Dresdner Streich Trio performing works by Herzogenberg and Reger. From following a web address printed on the back, I find that the label was founded in 1994, and has issued 200 CDs, mostly of organ music. It is owned by a publishing house which itself appears to have been established in 1993 and seemingly specializes in musicology.

http://www.vkjk.de/lang-en/index.html

How about Bomtempo?

The symphonies are available on a Naxos disc. They are fine works, but sound more like Mozart than Beethoven (if my memory serves me correctly).

Gay, harmless, and funny!

Is that a description of Poulenc or his music?

I find his work variable. Those pieces that I admire are

Aubade
Concert champêtre
Concerto for organ
Concerto for piano
Concerto for two pianos
Sinfonietta

On the other hand, there was one CD that I picked up that was simply dreadful, and was immediately thrown out. I think that kangaroos were involved.

Bluster-wise, how would compare The Taneyev 1 coda to that of Tchaikovsky's 1, Hovite?

Well, Taneyev is less noisy, but Winter Daydreams hangs together better. But really they are chalk and cheese. Taneyev doesn't sound like his master, and there is no reason why he should. After all, Kreisler doesn't sound like Bruckner.

In fairness to Taneyev, it should be pointed out that his Symphony No. 1 was written when he was just 18.

(The difficulty here is deciding who counts as unsung. Anyway:)

If you like Dvorak...then you will like ......

I would suggest Smetana (some of his orchestral works are unsung).

If you like Mahler [symphonic -- I've yet to build much of a taste for lieders]...then you will like...

Yes to Rott (which sounds like early Mahler), and add the 17 symphonies of Pettersson (but they are grim, the sort of music that Mahler might have written if he lived longer and endured more horrors). 

If you like [ok, insert sung Romantic Russian composer here!]....then you will like....

(Spoilt for choice) Kabelsvsky, Kalinnikov, Myaskovsky.

Peter, both Chandos and Naxos now have CDs coupling the First and Third Symphonies

I have acquired both those discs, though so far I have only played the Naxos. I had not previously heard the 1st. Its most memorable feature is its almost Brucknerian coda, which doesn't quiet work, it just sounds over blown. For me, the 3rd, with its Scherzo and Intermezzo inner movements, sounds more like a suite than a symphony.  In the past I had been puzzled by the description of Taneyev as a Russian Brahms, but these symphonies did indeed strongly remind me of Brahms (though his chamber works rather than his symphonies). Although I am very pleased that these works have been recorded, they lack the greatness of the 4th, so perhaps Taneyev was right to leave them unpublished.

Any of the three Furtwängler symphonies.

Well, I personally regard the 2nd as a great work. I used to enjoy the 1st, but I listened to again recently and thought that it was a waste of time. I seem to remember that his piano concerto is equally pointless.

On the subject of piano concertos, some of the works released by Hyperion in their Romantic Piano Concerto series have been duds. The two discs of Herz concertos spring to mind.

Opinions are always likely to be divided. Busoni's monumental piano concerto is a case in point. Many regard that as a failure. I happen to like it, but I wish Busoni had not used a choral finale.

Am I the only person who sees a problem there?

No, you are not the only person to see a problem:

"The school orchestra play an extract from Elgar's 3rd Symphony. This work was left unfinished at the composer's death in 1934 and was not completed and performed until 1998, so unavailable (and unsuitable) for a 1961 school orchestra."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1174732/goofs

From the same page:

"When Jenny invites David to the concert, she indicates that the composer is Elgar. David replies, 'I'm afraid Elgar and the Jews don't get along'. This may imply either Jews don't like Elgar (hard to prove) or that Elgar was anti-Semitic. However there is no evidence of Elgar being anti-semitic"

Has someone confused Elgar with Wagner?

There was a paper - more Classical-era-oriented than Romantic, though the problem at its most general is of course known as epistemology and transcends not only era but particular subject ! - a couple of decades back, in several parts, about problems of identification in late Classical symphonies. (Not - trivial ; start with the fact that people published their work as Haydn - or their publishers did it for them - pirate publishers may have brought out works by Haydn under different names also to increase the brand recognition of those names, if a weak memory is serving at all.  That seems to be the least of the problem. Plus as usual composers with similar names so far as the names were identified (hrm, did composers keep receipts of their one-time fees or their royalties? ... royalties, right, should be so lucky) (fortunate for the composers who kept worklists of their own music though, like Raff, Spohr and Mozart, who make later generations' work so much easier...)

The idea of artistic ownership does not appear to have existed in quite the same way in the baroque and classical periods.

Bach happily recycled earlier works by himself and others, such as A & B Marcello, Torelli, and Vivaldi.

And Kraus stole a march (VB 154) on Mozart when he borrowed from Idomeneo: http://www.naxosdirect.co.uk/KRAUS-Symphonies-Vol--4/title/8555305/

Not that Mozart would have minded: his own Symphony No. 37 was based on Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 25.

Reizenstein.

I think that it is also worth mentioning the extraordinary Symphonie funèbre of J M Kraus, written for the funeral of the assassinated Gustav III.

It occurs to me that Delius' reputation has taken something of a dive since the great Beecham/Barbirolli days

Beecham also performed Atterberg, and I much prefer Atterberg to Delius, but so far as I can see Delius still gets more outings. Two of his works will be performed in Brighton on 16 January 2011, namely Walk to the Paradise Garden and Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra. Apparently it is his 150th birthday in 2012, so no doubt there will be a surfeit of Delius when that milestone is reached.

I am not a particular fan of Delius. Mostly I find his works insipid and easy to forget. Partly this is due to the nature of his output. The popular items are his short orchestral works. There are no monumental symphonies.  I personally feel that his better offerings are the various rhapsodies and concerti. The rare piano concerto can be found on disc 39 of the Hyperion series. It may not be Scharwenka, but at least it isn't Herz.

the question wasn't about symphonies that are labeled tragic, but symphonies that are felt to be tragic

The 17 symphonies (two incomplete) of Allan Pettersson are decidedly grim.

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/acc/pettersson.php

http://homepages.uc.edu/~cauthep/allan.html

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cpo77247a.php

Well, Draeseke's 3rd Symphony is labelled 'Tragic', even though the only thing really tragic about it is the funeral march slow movement.

K A Hartmann wrote a Sinfonia tragica, and the 6th symphonies of both Brian and Weingartner are labelled Tragic.

I've never heard a note of any of them, but there is some information on Vladimir here:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/shcherba.htm

It looks as though his only recorded work is his 5th Symphony.