So many composers fade from view after their deaths whatever standing they enjoyed during their lifetimes. Such has been the fate of Hans Huber (1852­1921)‚ director of the Basel College of Music for many years‚ and the leading Swiss symphonist of his era. Hearing the generalised late 19th­century idiom of these works makes clear why they were written as surely as it explains their disappearance from even the domestic repertoire. If the First Symphony embodies a loose programme connected with the life and legacy of William Tell‚ it is evident neither in form or content. Unsurprisingly for a symphony written in 1881‚ Schumann is a major influence‚ with certain pervasive rhythmic figures almost lifted from his Second and Fourth Symphonies. Holländer­period Wagner makes an appearance too‚ enlivening the empty rhetoric of the Adagio and the charm of a typically mid­Romantic intermezzo. Outer movements fulfil their symphonic role adequately‚ the Finale squanders its heroism through over­emphatic bombast. Thirty­five years on‚ and the wartime Seventh Symphony‚ the Swiss‚ again abandons description for relative abstraction. The influence of Humperdinck underpins the opening movement’s lively mountainscape or the nocturnal Alpine evocation which follows on from Huber’s own ‘rustic wedding scene’ – by far the most memorable movement on the disc. Smetana emerges to galvanise the finale’s triumphal peroration‚ intended as an apotheosis of the Swiss character. It is difficult to dislike this music but equally hard to recommend it other than to Swiss music buffs and those susceptible to the byways of musical Romanticism. Performances by Jörg­Peter Weigle and the Stuttgart Philharmonic are never less than capable‚ and the Huber symphony cycle should be complete in time for the 150th anniversary of his death later this year.