What are you listening to right now?

Thanks, I'll to try to get my hands on the Hickox. By the way, I've been reading over some older contributions, and I saw you mention a work I know nothing about, Robert Still's Third Symphony. I'm always intigued by English symphonists (I'm presuming he's English), is this work available?

Robert Still was indeed English, descended from the 16th century Bishop Still, master of both Trinity and John's, Cambridge.

I originally had symphony 3 on Saga in a performance by the LSO under Goossens. Saga records, as you'll see from other comments I've posted, were a listening trial, so I immediately snapped up a re-issue of #3, along with symphony 4, on Lyrita. That was on vinyl. Since Lyrita seem to be re-releasing their catalogue on cd it may become available again, if it hasn't already done so.

It isn't the greatest work you've ever heard but there's an original voice and I do find it lodges in the memory.

The whole topic of minor composers is a fascinating one and worthy of a separate thread. Perhaps the word 'minor' is relative - many would say Rubbra fits into that category but, like you, I find his work very rewarding and totally under-rated. I've spent much time, and money, exploring musical (British in particular) byways and long ago came to the conclusion that most neglected composers are neglected for a good reason. But the exception proves the rule and one hidden gem makes it all worthwhile.

I completey agree with you, but I don't like the word minor as so much of what we talk about is subjecive. Harold C. Schonberg described Sibelius (ludicrous as it sems) as a minor composer, which is reason enough to hate the word. 

There's already a page here called Composers who deserve to be heard more in Concert, which surprisingly for me hasn't really taken off, not that I believe any composer deserves anything by rights, it just would be nice to hear different things. When I use the word marginal, I only intend it to mean lesser known, and not what would be considered standard repertoire, but I do find a lot of this music incredibly rewarding I think it's because it feels more personal as if you are the only one who knows it, not this stops me for one moment wanting to share it with others.  

Last three recordings I've sat and listened to:

Mahler 8 - BRSO/Kubelik - Audite. SACD of a live performance from 1970; the ending of the first part sent shivers running up and down my spine!  The sound is quite good and the performance seems to be unedited so it combines the thrills and spills you'd expect.  (Minor digression: I read an article in Punch many decades ago by a singer in a London choir who'd been rehearsing for this piece and described it, in comparison to Mozart's Requiem, which she described as a perfectly formed cathedral, as being like a boiler factory with steam hissing out of pipes and buckets and ladders falling over all over the place... that seems so apt!)

Sibelius 1 - Lahti SO/Vanska - BIS.  Thrilling and reminds me why I fell in love with this piece (originally, from a crude cassette recording off-air of Colin Davis conducting a London orchestra with it... despite, or because of, that format, it was a performance of thrilling immediacy).  Hey, I used thrilling twice here!

Prokofiev 2 - LSO/Gergiev - Philips.  I have all the Järvi recordings and am not convinced yet that I like the Gerviev ones as much - but too early to say perhaps. I love this piece for all its enfant terrible audaciousness... and he still manages to make it sound like a fairy tale at times!

Poul Ruders second Piano Sonata played by Thomas Ades on Bridge, simply mesmerising.

Have you by any chance also heard the version on "Poul Ruders: Piano Works" by Rolf Hind, on DaCapo?  If so, how does it compare?

I ask, as that's the version eMusic has, rather than the Ades/Bridge.

Sibelius, Symphony No.4, Lahti SO, Osmo Vänskä (on BIS).

"Sibelius' Fourth Symphony is like the Bible. We approach it with great respect and devotion. In this work Sibelius had seen the unfathomable tragedy of life's inconsistency, and given it expression boldly, by new means and in a new musical language."

- Jussi Jala, Sibelius's  son-in-law.