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Silly me, I do have this recording, I have the first 3 (or 4) volumes of Scharwenka with Seta Tanyel (I should get the 4th...), I listened to the sonata again last night, and I do love it. I think he's a great composer.

Which recording was it? I don't think I've heard this sonata.

The Raff sounds really interesting, sadly Sterling records seem like a complete pain to get here (in Canada), I guess I could get it shipped from the UK. Oh, and I think Beethoven's Choral Fantasy is absolute genius, a fantastic, wonderful piece of music. Sadly underrated because mainstream classical doesn't like pieces which don't fit into conventional genres ("symphony", "quartet", "concerto" etc) and the nearness of the main theme to that of the 9th has actually turned some people against it. I've won some new admirers to it after explaining it was composed nearly 15 years before the 9th and really served as a template.

I received the Conifer recording from Arkiv and I've listened to it twice. I enjoyed the symphony, particularly the opening adagio and the 3rd movement Elegy. I also really enjoyed the other pieces on the album, Mtzyri and Armenian Rhapsody.

I shall be staring at my post box in the morning - MDT has just mailed me telling me that the new Dohler & Dreyschock CD in the RPC series has been dispatched. Hope it is a cracker!

I am not sure if this new volume is available in Canada (where I am) yet, though I am looking forward to it for the Dreyschock "Morceau de concert", it apparently makes several references to pieces by Beethoven, particularly the appassionata, though sadly musical quotations are frowned upon by some corners of classical music, I tend to be very fond of pieces which make use of them.

I have been listening to the Alnaes, I don't think I've listened to it before, and yes, I agree it is a wonderful piece! I love how the orchestra just leaps out and continues in a full throated way with some gorgeous melodies along the way.

Hyperion are currently offering volumes 24 (Vianna da Motta) and 34 (Pierne) at a knock down price of £5.60 each in their Please Someone Buy Me section. The offer is changing every few days during August, so if they are missing from your collection, hurry!

Speaking of vol. 24, the Vianna da Motta was a very pleasant discovery for me, not so much his A major concerto, but the Fantasia Dramatica is worth the price of the disc, and the solo piano ballada included is a very welcome addition.

I can't recall the Alnaes specifically, I will give it a listen to tonight.

Well you are bad people 
I've ordered the Ippolitov-Ivanov with the Bamberg SO reissue by Arkivmusic, and since I was there, I went ahead and ordered the Beethoven VC with the Schnittke cadenza reissue, the 3rd volume of Ernst Levy on Marston Classics (very belated for me to do it, I think he is possibly the greatest pianist ever recorded, this just from vol. 1 I bought when I first heard about him over a decade ago, I've tried to get vol. 2 but it is out of print and I am not alone in my estimation of this pianist, seeing as it's become a collector's item, someone is trying to sell one on Amazon for over $400, and I did fail at an ebay auction once with the price going over $100, I pulled out at about 75  ). And lastly, a new release with a pianist Nicolas Horvath with a recital given to transcriptions of 8 movements from Liszt's magnificent Christus. 5 of them are Liszt's transcriptions, recorded by Leslie Howard of course, and they are exquisite, so I am interested in the other 3 and hearing a 2nd pianist perform this extremely rare Liszt for a change. 

An odd tangent, I was just browsing the Bamberg SO website today daydreaming about concerts in Germany, they have one program I'd like to see in March 2014, Strauss's Metamorphosen, Liszt's Totentanz, Bruckner's 7th. I've never heard the Bamberg SO before (I'll see once I get the disc), and they're not necessarily the Vienna or Berliner, but I imagine professional regional German orchestras are still better than my local fare.

Here's the link:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=5768&name_role1=1&comp_id=5645&bcorder=15&name_id=58528&name_role=3

Interesting, I notice that it says "This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic" (I also looked up another out-of-print album, Beethoven's VC with Gidon Kremer and the Schnittke cadenza, same thing). Has anyone gotten these reissued discs from ArkivMusic before? Is the production quality good? i.e. Not a flimsy CDR which wont play or will skip terribly on many cd players?

I've been looking online, it seems like the Conifer recording is no longer available?  That's a shame, maybe I will have some luck in the used-cd bins.

It is almost inconceivable to think of Mahler without Wagner, it is almost inconceivable to think of Wagner without Liszt (and all without Beethoven). The importance of Liszt on Wagner and everything Wagnerian was deliberately buried through Liszt's incredible humility and generosity coupled with Wagner's incredible arrogance with a dash of German chauvinism/nationalism thrown in.

In no way due I mean in a disrespectful way to Wagner or Mahler, I love them both. Great composers are influenced by other great composers. It's just the the standard musical "evolutionary" narrative which grew out of early musicology was very limited and very German and cast a long shadow on the mainstream perception of "the standard repertoire" to this day (of which the unfortunate effects all members of a forum named "Unsung Composers" should be familiar with!!  )

This limited, inaccurate narrative has been exploded in the past 50 years of musicology, but its effects linger on.

I am not here to say everyone must love Liszt's Dante symphony or any Liszt (I do love it, but I prefer the Faust as well as many other completely unsung Liszt compositions), but in 2013 the appreciation of Liszt should not require any caveats, nor any disclaimers, he was one of the greatest, most original, and most influential composers, musicians, and musical minds of the 19th century. If you have no time for Liszt, that's fine, but to deny Liszt's importance as a composer in the history of western music is just factually inaccurate. Note: this tirade was not directed to anyone specifically in this thread, but to the world at large. 

Ouch, maybe try a pop station? CD's and headphones? Some sort of white noise device? I admit I'd hate to have any music forced upon me.

Yes, I should temper the reference to conductors a bit, I am also very fond of Abbado and other contemporary conductors (Esa-Pekka Salonen and others), my complaint is more strongly directed towards pianists... I feel there truly was a golden age of pianos and it is not now.

there are plenty more days when I want to refresh and deepen my appreciation of true masterpieces.

You differ from me in this respect as I actively avoid true masterpieces from the popular repertoire.

Sorry I must comment, but in this day and age, I find this opinion a bit odd. Not because most concert repertoire are not still hideously limited in repertoire (they most certainly are!), but because of the staggeringly enormous range of recorded music which is available. I have very firm control over what I listen to. So this means I don't hear Chopin's Ballades or Beethoven's Appassionata anymore often than I want to. Beethoven's 9th and Bach's Mass in b minor are arguably my two favourite pieces of music, but I have only heard the 9th once in the past year and have not heard the Bach. Conversely I've been listening to the Medtner piano sonatas almost ad nauseum recently . So when I do listen to a standard warhorse, it is only because I choose to, and often I have not heard that warhorse anymore often than countless other rare and obscure pieces, so its impact and my enjoyment is still intense. 

Though I do share your views of boring contemporary technically perfect conservatory-factory vs. golden age romantic pianism (and other music making, give me Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, Furtwangler please)!

I will have to look for this Conifer recording, I have not heard this symphony, but I do have the Naxos disc of orchestral works with the 2 Caucasian Sketches and Turkish Fragments, I love them, I love the orientalism of many of these Russian composers (Balakirev's Tamara is a favourite).