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I can vouch for the quality of the DG recording of the Piano Quintet and Trio. By an odd coincidence, just two days ago I posted a review of it on Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taneyev-Piano-Quintet-Trio/dp/B0009AM5GS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1285698284&sr=1-1

By the way, do any other forum members write online reviews? Shouldn't we all be spreading the word?!

There are a couple of very enthusuastic reviews of the music by German critics here:

http://www.luetjeartist.com/212.0.html

"great playing of appealing melodies"..."the sound ...becomes so captivating that it becomes incomprehensible why this piece is played as rarely as it is"  "resplendent and absolutely appealing piece"

I'll definitely give it a go!

Oh, I dunno! It's impossible to gain any idea of quality from those little snatches...just as it would be from tiny excerpts from established masterpieces such as the Wagner operas.

A live recording of d'Albert's opera "Der Golem" is due out from Dabringhaus and Grimm very soon.

http://www.crotchet.co.uk/MDG9371637

In fact, it's already listed on Amazon.de.  If it's anywhere near as good musically as "Die Toten Augen", it should be well worth investigating.

How about that fabulous scherzo in Glazunov's 3rd Symphony? An extraordinary tour-de-force. The first movement is also a fine piece but the slow movement and the finale in particular are not in the same class, I think.

Well....if you don't know of any, in a forum devoted to unsung composers I'm reluctant to mention it but how about Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture? There's also the "Battle on the Ice" from Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky".

Perhaps, though , the best piece of unsung music (though not by an unsung composer) on the theme of battle is Liszt's symphonic poem "Hunnenschlacht" ("The Battle of the Huns"), the first six minutes or so being amongst the finest, most imaginative and certainly most thrilling music that Liszt wrote. After that, though, it does rather go off the boil becoming rather noisy and bombastic. However, this performance on "Youtube" really makes the best of it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/liszt73#p/search/0/VZpXaxWp_1k

http://www.youtube.com/user/liszt73#p/search/1/mqCoXmYNdfY

Yes, I've always been a fan of "I Cavalieri di Ekebu" since I taped it from a radio broadcast many years ago. The music is uneven but there is some splendidly passionate music in Act 1 and the knights' song is infuriatingly catchy!

I'm no authority on Zemlinsky's operas but "Es War Einmal" is enormously attractive, much of the music in Act 1, in particular, being irresistible. The ravishing waltz-like song, the music of which is also used in a purely orchestral interlude, is a tune you'll never forget. The last few bars of Act 1 were composed by Mahler, by the way. There's only one complete recording:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Einmal-Graf-Danish-Johansson-Westl/dp/B00002604E/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1281805213&sr=1-5

Surely, in the effortless way in which he combines his tunes in the finale of the Seventh Symphony, Raff was demonstrating that he was as much a master of counterpoint as Wagner had shown himself to be in the Prelude to "Die Meistersinger" ten years earlier.

I'm very fond of Pierne's Konzertstuck for Harp and Orchestra and play it quite often. It's lush, very srong melodically and beautifully written. The recording that Lily Laskine made still sounds well. There's also that late "Morceau de Concert" for Harp and Orchestra by Saint-Saens which is attractive but rather insubstantial and a splendid "Concierto" by Ginastera, not a Romantic work of course but very attractive with its Latin American rhythms and catchy folky tunes. Gliere's Concerto is also attractive if you've got a sweet tooth (as usual with this composer) and Rodrigo's "Concierto Serenata" for Harp and Orchestra strikes me as one of his best works. But the finest work for the harp must surely be the wonderful "Introduction and Allegro" by Ravel.

I knew the name but I'm from the U.K. and he wasn't a big name over here.
If Alan Rich hated Brahms, isn't he just another in a long tradition dating from the Brahms/Wagner wars? Mahler, Scriabin and Tchaikovsky (who once, according to a translation I read, called him a "talentless git"!) all hated Brahms. So, more recently, did Britten. In fact, isn't Brahms about the only major composer that you can hate without risking being sneered at?
If you can sneer at Brahms, what chance do Raff, Scharwenka at al have?!

Most of Saint-Saens' operas are unrecorded. "Henri VIII" is a wonderfully inspired work yet is hardly known. The others must be worth investigating. Also his oratorio "La Terre Promise".

You don't have to wait to sample Novak's Piano Concerto. Rather surprisingly, it's on Youtube! This is Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLc3d86MhrA

Follow the links for the rest of the concerto.

"In the Tatras" is an enormously appealing work, very tightly argued and an easy way in to his music. The ballet-pantomime "Nikotina" is also very attractive as is the overture "Lady Godiva" but the greatest piece I've come across by Novak is the symphonic poem "De Profundis".  It includes a part for organ. Though not an easy listen, once you pick up the themes it's riveting and, by the end, absolutely overwhelming. I did a review of Libor Pesek's Chandos recording for amazon.co.uk