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I know nothing about that sort of forensics but it might certainly be worth a try.  This sort of science--requiring a laboratory I suppose--may well cost more money than anybody would want to spend on a "minor" composer.  We'll probably have to live without such an investigation.

I like it too.  I suppose you can make the case that it is superior to her other symphonies.  However, since none of us have heard all her other works we should maybe wait before giving this symphony first rank among all of the the composer's works.

There is actually quite a list of compositions that Mayer re-worked.  I have been looking into her chamber music some more lately and here is the list (as yet incomplete; there may be more examples).
- string quartet in e-minor (there his a thread here that I started about years ago).
- string quintet in d-minor (there is a thread on that one too).
- The d-minor piano trio.
- The violin sonata in F op. 17 is a reworked version of the "duo" for cello and piano, also in F (quite a bit earlier than op. 17 I think).
- Finally I just recently found this:  Typesetting the cello sonata in B flat Major I encountered very early in the first movement a passage that is exactly identical to a passage from the from movement 1 of the cello sonata in A* (of which I published a typeset on IMSLP).  Looking at the two movements I found that they are related and that the A-Major version is almost certainly the second, reworked one.  I don't know yet if the other three movements are also related or not.

In all the cases I looked at (in detail, since I typeset the scores) the reworking is a thorough overhaul, generally making the piece more concise, the themes more characteristic and the works more mature.

I also typeset two violin sonatas in c and D (never published in her lifetime). The autograph of the c-minor sonata is crammed full with often hard to read pencil corrections, most of them very hard to read and to interpret.  I typeset the ink version of the sonata (which in my eyes is plenty good) but Mayer appears to have a revised version in mind there too.

As to dating the autographs: Mayer's handwriting appears to change over the course of her career and an expert could probably date many autographs by that more accurately than Runge-Woll did. 

* There is a recording on youtube (HIP unfortunately--though I feel that the piano that is used is probably superior (in the many left hand fast passages) to a modern piano but the cellist has all the choppy, phrase destroying technique that one associates with HIP).

I have played op. 77a (decades ago in a house concert).  It is plenty chromatic, full of accidentals.  It is however very enjoyable (in a bucolic way) for both players and listeners.

It is inspired by Beethoven's serenade op. 27 for the same instruments, a masterpiece which is about as unsung as music by Beethoven can become.

I have heard a violinist in concert who kept breathing audibly--in fact more than audibly, very disturbing in slow movements (the concertmaster of the "Zürcher Kammerorchester"--if I remember correctly; it is a long time ago now--yet I still remember!).  It does not have to be the technology.

Abou "German" music:  In cultural/artistic contexts German means everyone whose primary language is German.  Grillparzer, Gottfried Keller, Storm, Fontane are all German writers. In the same way Bruckner and Brahms both count as German.  Especially in the 1870s when Germany as a nation state was still very very young.

I suspect this video making has become addictive for him.  Underneath his shenanigans though he is a serious person.  His best stuff, e.g. his series on the Haydn symphonies has really been very good, similarly the one on Shostakovich's symphonies (where he gives an intro into the works in addition to giving his judgement on recordings).  He has figured out ways to talk about music to lay people without either falling into the jargon of Conservatory lessons or using the flowery but meaningless metaphors of so many critics.

Like all opinionated people he has a whole bee-house in his bonnet.  But his main problem now is that he is too prolific (like many composers BTW).

No idea. I just use my ears. It does help, of course, if there is some originality on offer.

This is where the crux is:  Our ears hear what our brains want them to hear.  Confirmation bias for all of us on all sides.

I stand corrected, Eric. I remember from my youth when anorexia appeared in the public press as a major problem for young (mostly) women.  I am still wondering where this eating disorder of Mayer's suddenly appeared from. In spite of the venerable age of anorexia Mayer's "eating disorder" was never mentioned until about two years ago and now we find it in many places.

My opinion on the book is low for the reasons I mentioned but obviously my opinion on Mayer herself is not at all dependent on the book.  BTW, John: If you had to guess Korngold's birth date from his music which year would you guess? 

I'd say what is good for the goose...

I googled the author of this book a while ago.  She has written a series of biographies of a rather varied set of people.  But she has no particular expertise in music, Mayer is the first musician  among her "victims".  The big mouth title she has chosen is the consequence of that IMHO.  I don't think there is much useful information in the book.

BTW recently I found in various paragraphs on the composer an "eating disorder" that poor Emilie allegedly suffered from. I suspect this bit of guesswork first appeared in this book.  Of course there were exactly zero physicians who would have arrived at such a diagnosis among Mayer's contemporaries...

I think the elephant is useless.  It can be made to work either way.

I am actually "grabbed" by quite a few of Mayer's symphony movements, e.g. the first of the f-minor or the slow movement of the b-minor (instrumentation not hers, but still).  I prefer them to Farrenc's.  Both of them however did their best in chamber music IMHO (like many male colleagues BTW).

There is one thing about Mayer that occurred to me only recently: Not only isn't she the female Beethoven, in one respect she is Beethoven's opposite.  At the beginning of her career she went straight for the most prestigious genres: the string quartet and the symphony.  Then, at some point around 1860, she gave up on them and proceeded to write in such "minor" genres as piano trios or violin and cello sonatas.  I'd say Loewe ought to have guided her better on this.

I have recently taken a deeper look at her violin sonatas and found some really good music among them.  Unfortunately the only recording of them (Alexandra Malarovich) is not well played (the pianist is ok).  Among other things there is an egregious rhythmic error in the the first movement of the e-minor sonata.

We will never know how a symphony of hers from the 1870s would have sounded.

I know the Schubert overture of course--and also symphony 6, both of which I have played in the orchestra.  I could quote Wagner ("welscher Schund und welscher Tand") but that would be unfair since Mayer was clearly not in his camp.

But Spohr kept coming back the the inferiority of Italian composers and Rossini in particular in his memoir.  Also E.T.A. Hoffmann in his tale of "Kater Murr" insinuates that German music is superior to other styles.

I was mostly just surprised to find Rossini-isms in, of all composer's, Mayer's music; I had her down as serious and intense, i.e. very German.  It appears that she also had a sense of fun.

I stumbled on this curiosum on youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiBjbYWSW3o

It is a performance of the overture in D by Mayer (University of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Magdalena Pawlisz).  Quite fine for a university orchestra except for the often sticky tempi.

But the Rossini imitations that appear in the piece are rather surprising to me.  I would have expected Mayer to share the contempt that German musical elites generally had for Italian music and Italian opera.

I like him in many ways.  He has strong opinions but they are a product of his passion for music.  And he is right more often than not IMO.  What keeps making me cringe though are his attempts to sing--"attempts" being the key word.