Classical composers, symphonies

Sibelius, Dvorak, and of course Beethoven for sure. 

Nielsen, Schumann, Shostakovich

It sounds like you’re looking for composers from the Romantic period. Mendelssohnn, Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, and definitely Schubert’s symphony #s 8 and 9,

I recommend you go back in time to Mozart’s late symphonies specifically #s 39, 40, 41. Also try Haydn’s later works (he wrote 104 symphonies).

Arnold, Alwyn, Stenhammer, Raff, Respighi, Nielsen, Franck, Elgar, Gliere, and Bax just to name a few more romantic/late romantic symphonic masters. There's a bunch of these composers and they all do an audiophile's system proud.

I just discovered Etienne Mehul. He was around Mendelsohn's time. Very interesting composer. 
Spotify has a great catalog of Early Romantic composers on mostly Naxos Label.
Later Romantic composers:
Anton Rubenstein- Piano Cto #4 and numerous piano pieces that you will probably recognize.
Hector Berlioz- who is a class upon himself.
Earlier Romantic composers:
August Charles DeBeriot and Fredrich Von Flotow
B

 Lots of good suggestions above also Prokofiev 

Good company here- I dabble in Vivaldi and Paganini.Happy Listening!

Liszt - Tone Poems and A Faust Symphony
Richard Strauss - Tone Poems ( carrying on from Liszt )
Both composers explored where music was going from the 19th century onwards.
I also love the 7 Sibelius Symphonies.

It's been recommended already by jtuba but the Schumann symphonies
are very underplayed  for as good as they are !

Thanks for the suggestions.

Something about Sibelius turned me away earlier in life, I will have to revisit 
Will listen to Nielson, Schuman, and Paganini more

Looking forward to some that I have never heard of, in craig159 post

I still find it hard to beat rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky 

I am not a big fan of Piano concertos for some reason , except maybe Rachmaninoff 's. 

Thanks again,

Will be hitting you tube or Pandora now😊

Scriabin, Glazunov, even Borodin and Balakirev

You mentioned that your not a fan of piano concerti. But I recommend you sample the Beethoven concertos, they are unlike any other. They are written in sonata form like symphonies and the orchestra plays a greater role, they are not simply accompanying the soloist.

Re Sibelius, Symphony #2 is a favorite of most coming new to this music. It is more  'romantic' than most of his music and it is usually played 'big'. His first symphony is more like some of Tchaikovsky's symphonies in its style (however it is music unique to Sibelius). His later symphonies are more modern in style, albeit still very accessible. FWIW, IMHO, not withstanding these observations I think the best of Sibelius' symphonic music  is  found in Symphonies #4, 5, and 6. These works are leaning more towards the modern a bit but are still very tonal and accessible. Symphony #4 is probably best left for last but I found it my favorite once I had absorbed it. 

Speaking of Borodin (mentioned by Twoleftears), and given your predilection for Russian romantic composers, check out Telarc’s 1978 recording of excerpts from his opera "Prince Igor," Robert Shaw conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The following link allows you to either listen on your computer or download the recording as a 44.1 kHz/24 bit .wav file, which can be burned to a CD.

https://archive.org/details/StravinskyTheFirebirdborodinPrinceIgor-Telarc-Vinyl24-bit/Side2.wav

You may recognize a melody in the Polovtsian Dances section, btw, as having been adapted in the popular song "Stranger In Paradise," initially in the 1950s musical "Kismet."

BTW, the flip side of that recording, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, while not being from the Romantic period, is well worth downloading as well, IMO, and has perhaps the widest dynamic range of any recording I have ever heard (other than Telarc’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with the notorious cannon blasts).

Regards,
-- Al

No one has mentioned any American composers yet - be sure to check out Arron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson. Specifically don't miss Copland's Symphony #3 on the Reference Recording label (an audiophile's wet dream), Barbers Symphonies #1 & 2, but especially his Violin Concerto, and Hanson's Symphonies (on Delos or Naxos)  especially his #2. There are more, but their music may be a bit modern for your tastes.

Have fun - wish I were just starting out again. :-)

Some great discs with American symphonies:

https://www.amazon.com/American-Masters-Roy-Harris/dp/B000009CYH (Harris, Thompson and Diamond)

https://www.amazon.com/Ives-Places-England-Ruggles-Treader/dp/B000056TKF (Piston: Symphony No. 2)

https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Gallagher-Symphony-Ascendant-Reflections/dp/B00PO9AFSO (Jack Gallagher: Symphony No. 2)

I can agree with the OP's feelings toward Sibelius.
Besides the Violin concerto, and up to the 2nd symphony, I find him a bit dark- It must be those Finnish winters....
OP, if you like Schumann, then there are a number of Early Romantic composers.
Ferdinand Ries
Carl Maria Von Weber
Felix Mendelsohn
Ignaz Pleyel
Carl Czerney
Franz Schubert
Fredrick Chopin

Sorry if I have repeated some composers.
If you join Spotify, they have a nice catalog and you can search under a composer for a 'Related Artist'. I discovered many composers I never knew existed from that list.
Bob

As mentioned above, Shostakovich has a lot of big bold works.  His 5th Symphony is probably the most popular, and it's a doozy.  There's a great recording of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Mackerras that I love, it's a great recording, huge dynamic range, and a phenomenal performance.  I believe this is the one, but I've long lost the original CD box so I can't remember what the cover art looks like:

https://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-Festive-Overture/dp/B000003YOH

Others to consider, especially if you're willing to wade into a bit of polytonality:

Charles Ives Symphony No. 2 (it may take a few listens for it to 'click')

Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis 

How about Schoenberg's Gurre Lieder! An impressive work - and sadly neglected! I remember having the Ozawa BSO version on 2 LP's! The same can be said for his Verklarte Night!

If we are including Hindemith, we should mention his most popular work: Mathis der Maler.

And since you like Mahler, you should definitely check out Shostakovich and Britten.

Kodaly, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Ravel, Prokofiev, Chausson, Ibert

Or how about Elgar's Enigma Variations and In the South

Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade and Russian Easter Festival Overture are both pieces you'd likely enjoy.  They're program pieces and not symphonies, but still large orchestral works, and the Russians write for brass better than most anyone else.  

One thing is to have the impressing work for big orchestra from Bruckner, Vaughan Williams, Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky u.o. but then if you are an audiophile, it is most important that the performance is well recorded. Honestly, most recordings out there are very average sounding, but it needs good equipment to hear the difference. After extensive search I found the best records ever made of Bruckner, Mahler symphonies and Holst's The Planets. Check it out on my website www.ecliptic.ch/audiophile

Thu, cool website but I’d like to know your recommendations of best quality Bruckner, Mahler and other large orchestral recordings. I have my own, and it’s unfortunate that the industry moved so heavily into multi-miking and close mic techniques.

As you stated, the recording should present an accurate reproduction of the soundstage. Only a few labels and their engineers know how to do it.

@lowrider57 

I've had good luck with Exton label recordings.  I haven't listened to everything they've put out by any means, but all of the ones that I have have been impressive.  

tute, never heard of Exton. I just sampled some tracks and they sound great thru my computer. It seems like they have more albums available for download than for CD.

For mass produced classical I like Telarc, Teldec, Decca, Chesky (not so mass produced), harmonia mundi, cpo, BIS, Nimbus, Chandos, Newton Classics, EMI, Philips. I like the remastered Mercury Living Presence and RCA Red Label.
The early stereo engineers from labels such as Decca and Philips really knew how to record an orchestra.

I like Mahler symphonies 1 & 4

+1 for Holst's The Planets / Star Wars - Zubin Metha, L.A. Philharmonic

Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye, Pavane pour un infante, Le Trombeau de Couperin  - Charles Dutoit, Montreal Symphony 

Reinhold Gliere. His symphonies represent the high water mark of Russian romantic symphonies - huge orchestrations, long, ornate, with a little schmaltz. His Third Symphony "Ilya Murometz" is over one hour long unedited (which it often is). I own several versions on CD. My favorate is the only version that is completely unedited performed by Farberman/RPO (Unicorn Kanchana), 1988. At over 100 minutes (2 CDs) this represents a serious listening session. The acoustic is enormous.- rear row balcony. The CDs are recorded at a low level - I ripped them and reburned at higher level to CDR for listening - it improved the detail and ambience considerably. Also, this particular pressing plant CDs were prone to the rare disc rot disease. In fact I had to buy a second set for this very reason. But, this symphony is an extraordinary tour de force of late romanticism with brilliant orchestration and gorgeous melodies and harmonies - well worth the effort.

I wrote the first review on Amazon which details the CD improvement process and covers the other versions available. I always laugh when I read the 2nd scathing review, "for someone's extended sessions of morbid self-imposed sleep deprivation," LOL. There are a few grains of truth in his review.

Scriabin Symphony No.3 - bombastic, harmonically daring, forward looking, plenty of meat for the ears of the serious romantic symphony afficionado. The Jarvi/DNRSO performance on CHANDOS (with the excellent Arensky Silhouettes) is an absolute barn burner - it will test your system, and your wall paint.

@mamboni Pulled the Unicorn-Kanchana and Chandos off the shelf.  How many other Audiogoners have 2 recordings of Gliere #3, I wonder.  I checked the two Farberman CDs and visually they look OK.  Haven't listened in a while, so must remedy that.
 

twoleftears, I have more than two performances. :-)

But I must admit I rarely listen to them now. Farberman’s is, at this stage of my life, or it could be argued, any stage of my life, too long! :-)

Just for fun I put on Botstein’s (on Telarc) as it's the shortest of the bunch 70min +/-, I still fell asleep. Some nice music there, somewhere, if you stay awake. :-)