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Go for it - they're all wonderful symphonies!

Alan, I like both Wood's and Searle's symphonies.  The first time I heard a recording of the latter, maybe twenty years ago, I was instantly struck by its energy, its sense of going somewhere, and its ues of twelve-tone technique in such as way as to make it sound dissonant but tonal.

I have the Daniel Gregory Mason 1st symphony, in an old recording (LP, I think) with Howard Hanson and the Eastman Rochester Orchestra. 

In no order:

Moeran Symphony
Samuel Barber Symphony #1
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Symphony #2, "To the South"
Humphrey Searle Symphony #2
Walter Piston Symphony #2

There are many more than five, but these are among the ones that I return to most frequently.

You can download a performance by the Ulster Orchestra from the "British broadcasts" area on this site.  It's quite a good symphony.

My instances of "not getting it" tend to be of a composer's specific work(s) rather than of a composer per se.  I enjoy most of Cesar Franck's organ music, but his symphony leaves me absolutely cold.  And while I love Brahms's symphonies, choral works and concertos (with the exception of the 2nd piano concerto), I really have a hard time sitting through most of his chamber music, piano music and songs.  I don't have any real difficulties with atonality or twelve-tone music - those are languages, and it all depends on how the composer handles the language.  I do enjoy Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies.  The only two composers whose music I dislike tout court are Philip Glass and Elliot Carter. 

I definitely agree with the idea of Magnard as being at least slightly influenced by Bruckner.  The first time I heard Magnard's Third Symphony (on the radio), I had tuned in sometime during the first movement and didn't know what I was listening to.  By the end, especially the last couple of minutes, I was convinced that it had been by a French disciple of Bruckner.  The Magnard Third is, I think, one of the very small handful of undiscovered masterpieces.

Most of Moeran's music is beautiful, if often in a rather stark way, but I think his symphony is one of the real unsung masterpieces of the 20th century.

Thank you for the Kalliwoda symphonies - I enjoy his music immensely.  One question, though - does the 2nd symphony only have three movements?  The movement that would be 4 out of 4 seems to be missing.

Many, many thanks, Latvian, for uploading music by Shalva Mshvelidze.  Here again is another composer of whose name, let alone his music, I was completely ignorant.  The two symphonic poems are really first-rate, beautifully orchestrated and with a very strong profile. 

Did you upload the Nicode works?  I don't see them on the "Downloads" area.

"Beggars can't be choosers" seems the most appropriate response.  A first-rate orchestra is an extremely expensive proposition, and that makes it extremely conservative.  Most first-rate conductors don't even know the names, let alone the works, of most unsung composers, and they're not going to "waste" precious time learning them as long as audiences and critics still want to hear what they do with the standard repertoire.  There are thousands of contemporary composers demanding that contemporary orchestras play more contemporary works (which they do - once - for the sake of performing a "premiere").   And let's face it:  the unsung composer of the past is a minority interest in what, culturally speaking, has become a minority interest itself (i.e. classical music). 

So, on a practical level, I suppose we should be thankful that there are ANY decent conductors and orchestras (and radio networks and record companies) who are even willing to perform the kind of stuff that we love, and that the results are so often as good as they are. 

Many thanks for the Stephanescu symphony!  I know nothing about this work or this composer.  It sounds quite a lot like Spohr, but with sparks of its own personality.

Charles Villiers Stanford wrote a song, very famous in its time, called "Drake's Drum."

Sadly, I think the vast majority of concertgoers prefer musical comfort food.  Those of us who subscribe to this site are definitely in the minority - but a vocal one.