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Like Alan, I used to think Wilhelm Berger was a thoroughly unjustified neglected composer. But the more I have heard of his compositions the less I think his neglection was entirely unjustified.
He was a very solid and skillful composer firmly rooted in Romanticism and his works are mainly large scale and rather lengthy, but not very imaginative in my opinion. So in the end it is often a bit of a disappointment.  One expects more, especially more moving melodic lines and more daring harmonies and modulations.
Of his String Quintet – which, incidentally, can also be downloaded from here - I happen to have a recording, made from a radio broadcast last year. Just like the Piano Quintet I find it  nice, but rather long and unimpressive.
Still I am looking forward to recordings of his Symphonies.

The WDR has broadcast this recording in july of this year. It is indeed a pleasant, romantic symphony written in the Mendelssohn-Raff tradition.

Thanks, Mark.

It is a pity that within a couple of hours this thread has gotten bogged down in babbling about the costs of photo-copying!

Hi everybody,
Recently I found a recording of the 1st String Quartet by Georg Rauchenecker
(1844-1906). Not great but rather pleasant to hear and in any case good enough to get interested in his oeuvre. According to Wikipedia (Grove pays no attention to him) he left a great amount of compositions: chamber music, symphonies, opera's and choral music, but as far as I know only his 1st String Quartet has been recorded and it also seems the only work that is still available in print. I hope I'm wrong.
Anybody?

Yes, but for broadcasts from WDR I'd use their own Radio Recorder. It's free, it's easy to use, it has a scheduler as well and the sound quality, as Alan may confirm, is quite good.

For those who are interested in the symphonies by Ewald Sträßer: his 1st symphony op 50 will be broadcast by WDR 3 (Germany) on Sunday Sept. 20 between 1 pm and 3 pm.

Let me make it clear that I think - probably like most members of this forum - that Sterling does a terrific job in bringing the unknown and forgotten repertoire to the market! No question about that! It just that I find these symphonies by Hermann not very appealing. If I am the only one, so be it. It means Sterling has, again, made the right decision.

Though I share Alan's admiration for Bo Hyttner's efforts I find precious little that grips my attention when hearing these symphonies. The music is going on and on and invites merely to mindless listening. Afterwards nothing remains.

In reply # 13 peter_conole mentioned the 5 unpublished symphonies by the Belgian composer Hendrik Waelput. I happen to have an old radio broadcasting recording of Waelput's 2nd symphony. It might be unfair to judge his symphonic output by one performance of one symphony but I think the neglect of this composer is not entirely unjustified.
On the other hand I think the 5 symphonies by an other Belgian composer, Josef Ryelandt, deserve more attention than they get nowadays.

In my opinion one of the best of the unsung clarinet concertos is the concise one-movement concerto for 2 clarinets & orchestra by the Swiss composer Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee (whose 3rd Symphony, by the way, is re-issued by Sterling). Apart from the both melodic and virtuoso clarinet parts the orchestra has a substantial part that goes beyond the perfunctory accompaniment.

Hello everybody,
It is has been some time since the last entry in this thread but as I have joined this forum yesterday this is all pretty new to me. I'd like to add some composers:
Waldemar von Bausznern (8 symphonies!)
Hugo Kaun
Max Trapp (7 symphonies!)
Heinz Tiessen
Fritz Brun (9 symphonies!)
Karl Bleyle
Paul Buettner
Ewald Straesser
Robert Volkmann
Robert Fuchs

Of all these composers I have a recording, mostly from a (poor) radio broadcast. While they may not be really great symphonists their compositions are often interesting and sometimes appealing.

Hello,
I am new on this forum. I am rather amazed that nobody seems to be familiar with the WDR Radiorecorder. It is just a piece of cake to make a recording of a broadcast of WDR programs. Just get a look on de WDR website
http://www.wdr.de/radio/home/radiorecorder/start/index.phtml
Good luck