Many thaks for these helpful and illuminating replies.

I wish to say something positive about Hartmann's String Quartets. I like them because they are unmistakable quartets from the twentieth century, but still I think that their sound has more to do with the nineteenth century string quartet. In the Elliott Carter thread, Richard said that he never found the "typical 20th-century atonal string quartet texture" attractive. I agree on this. It's true that we find this texture in Bartók, Schoenberg and Ferneyhough, but I don't think it's very dominant in Hartmann.

Sorry for my bad English.

Not forgetting the half-digested references to the opening of the Rite of Spring in its slow movement, although Stravinsky's opening bassoon solo seems to be a place that Hartmann couldn't help repeatedly returning to - I hear echoes of it at various points in the other symphonies too.

I'd like to hear a bit more about why you think that is, if you don't mind. It does seem to me that Metzmacher might make some of the music sound less characterised than it is, but I don't have the othr recording to compare it to.

I would choose the string quartets on CPO and the Gertler/Ancerl recording on SUPRAPHON of the Concerto Funebre.

The recording of the Concerto by Maile and Sander on KOCH SCHWANN is not so exciting but the other features on the disc are the Violin Concerto by B.A. Zimmermann and the Geigenmusik mit Orchester by Egk (see above for my view on this piece).

It's from 1950. It's not as exciting as the Symphony in One Movement, but still I think it's a decent violin concerto. It certainly deserves more attention. I like Zimmermann's concertos. I'm not a fan of his later works.

Shall I put a movement on Sendspace?

I'd appreciate that, pim. 

Ok, bearing in mind that I traded away most of the Metzmacher recordings a few years ago and my memory may not be as good as it is (also bearing in mind that I am not a professional musician nor do I have the scores at my fingertips right now):

Firstly, I think the recordings on the Wergo set (in particular Kubelik's) benefit from having the contrapuntal lines brought out more clearly--perhaps the drier acoustic has something to do with this--also they generally get more rhythmic punch into the music. Secondly, there's a sense in which Metzmacher doesn't drive the music as hard as he might: my personal view of Hartmann, particularly in the later symphonies, is that the Expressionist aspects have to be played up enough or the didactically contrapuntal dominates (this applies somewhat less to the earler symphonies, and my memory is that I found the recording of the 2nd the most successful of Metzmacher's).

I'd second those, with the proviso that the Zehetmair Quartet's ECM reading of the 1st quartet is superior (unfortunately they're yet to record the 2nd quartet). I also have some reservations about the Concerto Funebre: the structure doesn't seem to me to quite hold together properly, though it's an immensely powerful work live. One other work I'd add is the Gesangsszene, left incomplete at Hartmann's death, which inhabits a rather more stripped down musical world than the late symphonies and provides a tantalizing hint of what a late Hartmann style would be like: I think Metzmacher does a good job with this one (coupled with Miserae and Dallapiccola's Canti di liberazione).

I'm interested in a new recording on Capriccio of the Sinfonia Tragica and Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra: if anyone's heard it let me know.