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It was the almost-funereal second movement that gripped me first. The other three took longer. Once I got used to the third movement,I have really appreciated,not just the craftsmanship,but  also the melodies.

Probably,the reason I made such an effort to understand and appreciate all aspects of this symphony is the number of hurdles needed to obtain the piece in the first place. But my perseverance has been richly rewarded.

I reckon this has crossed over to being "sung".  Or, at least on its way.

It's the Fritz Kaufmann, I was referring to. Wonderful work.

Aha!  I thought the Rudorff was  composed and first performed in 1879.......

I am very fond of his Third, anachronistic as it might have felt at the time of composition. But his (to my ears,tentative) First left me unshaken and unstirred. I abandoned it after the first two movements and returned to a German symphony seven years its junior,fresher,and more invigorating.  Martin  of all people will well know to which work I am referring!

Let me nail my colours to the mast.

Reicha (a bit like Danzi ,Weyse and,perhaps,Witt) acts as a bridge into Romanticism. Far more so than,say, the Wranitzkys, to my ears. I think his music falls within our remit.

And  Eric is spot-on. Reicha is never boring. I personally believe he surpasses the masters mentioned above, from the knowledge of the three symphonies of his already in my possession. The brief excerpts of this symphony are very attractive and this is a CD and series that I will be buying.

Not the "intention", I agree, but, I reckon, the effect.
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Scharwenka gives you the Prussian take on gossamer.  Heavy-handed to the point of banality.  A real shocker.

"Hat's off,gentlemen!  A moustache on the Mona Lisa!"

Agreed,Mark.  I have resorted to the Kaufmann Symphony (which would stand up well in the concert-hall - and may get played there when Ilja does his Zola book).

I think I said in my first post how conservative this symphony is.  And I don't know the exact date of its composition.  What I do know is that I have just woken up with the memories of the melodies in its opening movement!

It is a must-buy for me as well, although I confess I am a bit more tepid about Hiller's compositions than Ilja and Mark.  He is listenable and even charming,but ultimately lacking "bite". The symphonies of Loewe and (dare I say) Pfyffer resonate more when I listen. The piano concertos  are all pleasant but not such as to excite me to repeat the hearing all that often,not as individual as,say,those of Eduard Franck. Perhaps it's the pianist on the Hyperion that makes the composer come across as feline,almost twee. I shall await the brickbats.....

Just my opinion,of course. It's still a must-buy, but maybe I will wait until the next volume of the Potter symphonies (also conducted by Griffiths) is released before doing so. And I have a feeling that I will probably play that Potter more often than this Hiller

The Rietz was the next one on my short list ,and for all the reasons Mark gives.

(Isn't this the same LP that Ilja characterised Mester as having "left something on the stove" in the finale to the Bruch?)

It's a great pity that Woyrsch didn't have the faintest idea of how to compose the finale. If he had studied how Gernsheim.say.went about it in his glorious Second Symphony, he might have learnt something. It manages to be both meandering and bloated ,and in urgent need of a "great tune" - or any decent tune, for that matter. I fear it reminds me of Hans Rott - trying too hard and failing so conspicuously as to ruin what had gone before.

I am tremendously impressed by promusician's tweaks to this strongly-argued composition of Kauffmann. I now suspect that cpo might,one day,  now issue a commercial recording,if anyone there listens to this powerful piece of advocacy.

It is definitely a "borderline" case for me.

Am I "leaning towards recommending that {approbation} be denied"?

I am still having aesthetic problems with the final movement.  So,it's going to have to be a number of playthroughs for me, before I can accept the "reputational risks" involved with this composer's close association with the too-late Romantics such as Mahler. 
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