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I have my copy and the playing is superb. If these soloists and orchestra don't make the case for these works then nobody will.
Sometimes recordings come along that are utterly delightful (I mean this in the most glorious way) and this is one of those recordings. Makes you glad to be able to hear all this music. Bravo to Dutton and all involved with the disc.

Funny that people think only of Hyperion when recording piano concerto works. In this case Dutton was the company that discovered this composer, invested in some great players and has made his works available, so maybe we should hope that they record some more rather than anyone else. Just saying.

Having now spent some time listening to this Paul Lacombe piano trios disc from Dutton, I'm of the opinion that Lacombe was a composer really to be considered as quite exceptional.
Clearly staying in the south west of France and not moving to Paris as Saint-Saëns suggested stifled public awareness of his music but did not hinder his creativity.
The three trios on this brilliantly played recording chart three periods in his life and you can hear the changes he makes as he goes from the first to the second and finally to the third trio. The second trio is in my opinion the most adventurous but I love the way in the third he has started to embrace the more modern sounds and harmonies more akin to Debussy.
I have just noticed that the same players who play on this recording are going to perform the second trio in a concert of theirs at King's Place on Sunday February 6 at 18.30.
As many of us who can should support them in their endeavour to get this really wonderful music out there.  Once again Dutton has a winner.

If anyone is interested I've listened to the disc several times. The piano concerto is a good work I think; it may not be ground breaking (it probably wasn't when it was written) but it shows that Anton Simon had a musical pallet that was certainly worth exploring. The first movement does everything that this sort of piece should. It introduces the work in a fresh and invigorating way and although it doesn't move the symphonic structures of the likes of Tchaikovsky and indeed Rubinstein along it contains several really lovely moments. The second movement is absolutely beautiful, with a melody that sounds like it comes from a much later period. The finale is a fun and with a real sparkle. The piano writing for the whole concerto is sparkly and rich. The pianist Victor Sangiorgio (a Dutton regular) plays with real style and taste whilst making it all sound very natural and almost easy!
The other works show real imagination even if Simon ultimately lacks that last thing that represents true originality and genius. But then so do many other composers of any period. It doesn't stop the music from being good and worth hearing. I liked La Revue de Nuit very much, it's essentially a tone poem that is clearly influenced by exoticism and is quite close in style to Rimsky Korsakov in my mind.
The Plainte Elegiac is quite wonderful. Simon's use of both melody and harmony somehow puts this ahead of what in the other works is traditional. I keep listening to it and it reveals something else on each listen.
The Chaminade is delightful, and not as remote from Simon as one night at first think. Simon was a composer taken out of his native land who then very much assimilates his adopted country's musical style, whilst Chaminade was a composer steeped in the salon music style who occasionally dips her toes into the waters of more serious and larger scale music. I like the suite and would love to hear that Symphony of hers.
The BBC concert orchestra play with real verve and colour and Martin Yates clearly demonstrates a real affection for all the works and brings performances out of the works that they probably on first view don't show. The sound is, as with all Dutton recordings, absolutely first rate.
I think on balance Simon is a bit of a find and more than just being worthy of mention because he contributed to some other composers ballets.
Hope this description of the CD hasn't gone on too long!!!!

I don't think Martin Yates did a "reconstruction". It doesn't say that on the disc I received this morning.
It looks from the wording that he had to create a modern full score and a set of orchestra parts but it doesn't imply or say that he reconstructed the work in anyway.
Could be wrong of course.
I will listen to the disc over the weekend and report back!

Well it's the complete music Vaughan Williams wrote for the film to start with which in my book makes it essential.

Dutton doesn't work only with Radio Orchestras. The BBCCCO is only one of the orchestras they work with. In any case I expect this recording of Scott of the Antarctic was very costly as it says on the CD notes that it was recorded in the Caird Hall, Dundee with the RSNO and Chorus and moving all those musicians from their base in Glasgow would have cost a considerable amount. In Martin Yates' notes he says he used all sources to put this all together and that includes the score that the conductor Ernest Irving used and that was not available in the British Library until very recently so whatever anyone was going to put together prior to Yates was going to be by definition incomplete. This recording is first rate in every aspect and I am so thrilled that it's been done to such a high standard.
I'm pretty certain that anyone on this thread will agree, at least I hope they will.

Those three symphony movements sound like a tasty proposal. I didn't know anything about those. What are they then?

I wonder what other members' thoughts are on Chaminade's large scale one act ballet. Although in the form of Ballet there are certain rules about vignettes and variations, with a couple of exceptions I was surprised at how through composed this work feels. Chaminade had an ear for a good melody, as we know from her huge amount of piano pieces, and Callirhoe is full of lovely tunes, but it is certainly much more than a bunch of little salon pieces. The opening melody is haunting and sets the mood beautifully for the musical development to come. There are long sections of what must be "plot" music and Chaminade was totally able to ring the maximum amount from these sections. The little scherzo after the introduction is scored with total mastery as is much of the ballet. The final Valse nods in the direction of Tchaikovsky but still remains its French heritage. There is so much to enjoy in this piece and I found that I stopped noticing that it was a ballet score until it reaches the second part, it feels that symphonic. I wonder if Dutton could be persuaded to look at the choral symphony? For me this was well worth hearing, I wonder what others feel. I also thought that this performance of the Konzertstuck was fabulously opulent, with the pianist Victor Sangiorgio being completely in tune with the style and the lightness required. He didn't try to make more out the piece than it can take like others have done. A great addition to the Chaminade picture.

Yes it is the 6th of June.....

I called the BBC Concert Orchestra office yesterday after reading Mark Thomas's post and they say it is being broadcast on Radio Three on Tuesday 6th May at 14.00 to 16.30.

Of course it's horses for courses with all music, not just neglected music, but I totally take onboard what was said about the symphony being a commission to celebrate the railway and to that end there is a degree of Soviet bombast in it. I totally disagree about it being an empty work and I disagree even more about the comments regarding the Violin Concerto. Personally I find both works a fantastic insight into a composer who probably had some difficulty coming to terms with the changing times and both the Symphony 4 and the concerto in particular sound to me like his response to this. I find both works way more interesting than almost anything I've heard by Kabalevsky (the exception being the cello concertos and the 3rd charming Piano Concerto) and I think Dutton should be congratulated for having had the courage to put these works out there. Simply writing them off is not good enough for a site as amazing as this one.

Has anyone noticed the English Music Festival programme for this year yet? I just saw it and the opening concert has the Montague Phillips Symphony in C minor. I know that the full score has been missing since around the First World War, and Philips re worked the two middle movements into separate tone poems, but this looks like it could be a "find". As Martin Yates is conducting I presume he may have been responsible for putting the symphony back together, maybe from orchestra parts. I believe Phillips is thought of as a bit of a light music composer but whatever his reputation nowadays,  this symphony is supposed to be substantial. Could be interesting. The concert also includes a previously unplayed Stanford Overture. That should also be of interest to us and presumably the concert will be broadcast by Radio Three as they usually are.

I have tried to find out what is on the Dutton disc but all anyone will say is that it will be worth the wait! Intriguing.

I believe Dutton is bringing out a Chaminade orchestral disc fairly soon.