In his 40-minute symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande (1902-03), the 29-year-old Arnold Schoenberg showed that he could match Richard Strauss for pictorial opulence while contributing degrees of polyphonic richness all his own. Ten years later, the 30-year-old Alban Berg showed that Mahlerian stylistic features could be transformed by levels of feverish expressionism (stemming from Strauss’s Elektra and Schoenberg’s Erwartung) that Mahler himself would never have contemplated.

These two scores by master and pupil make an absorbing programme, and there have been some memorable recordings (not usually on the same disc) by front-rank orchestras and star conductors. But Jac van Steen and his Dortmund Philharmonic are by no means also-rans, especially in the Berg, where Dabringhaus und Grimm’s finely balanced recording captures a wealth of textural subtleties while not for a moment damping down the music’s ferocity or skating over its moments of mysterious calm.

The Schoenberg is less successful, mainly because van Steen seems to see its aura of quite traditional musical Romanticism as something to be challenged, if not undermined. His strings don’t sing out as unaffectedly as is possible, and his manipulations of the tempo in the final stages, where the score is especially sparing in unambiguous instructions, interfere with the music’s inexorable descent into tragic despair. Similarly, the recorded sound here is rather unremittingly forward and closely focused: you’ll probably like this if you like the interpretation; if not, not. But full marks to all concerned for not simply sitting back and letting safe, bland solutions to the music’s challenges take over – and the Berg is excellent by any standards.