The continuation of CPO’s Hendrik Andriessen series shows the Dutchman to be nothing if not consistent. His music is always full of ideas and energy, never outstaying its welcome. There is a mimimum of padding or extraneous rhetoric, and comparisons with the likes of Roussel, Hartmann and Hindemith spring readily to mind. The fibrousness of Andriessen’s invention makes it feel somehow good for the digestion. Yet at the same time it is never quite savoury enough to delight the palate or substantial enough to nourish the soul. Apostle of order that he is, Andriessen lacks the top-flight symphonist’s imperative to take risks and to ensure that the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

The Fourth Symphony of 1954 is couched in his characteristically wiry, neo baroque vein, the severity in this case deriving not least from a 12 note melody deployed in various guises across the work. There is certainly a good deal of drive and communicative energy to the outer movements, trenchantly delivered as they are here by the well-recorded Netherlands Symphony Orchestra under David Porcelijn. For me, however, much of the central Andante sostenuto feels just on the wrong side of the divide between the intriguingly chewy and the unappetisingly gristly.

From the same year as the symphony, Libertas venit is a militant, angry piece – not surprisingly, since it commemorates the harshness of Nazi German occupation. Billed as a Rhapsody, its 16 minutes could almost qualify as one of Andriessen’s compressed symphonies. The Capriccio was actually composed during the occupation and is more gutsy and sinewy than the title would suggest. Like so much of Andriessen it only disappoints by ending before its natural energies are spent. Finally, the Canzone of 1971 is mainly festive and upbeat, with an all-too-brief moment of reflection at its heart.