It’s been nearly a decade since the appearance of Douglas Bostock’s pioneering recording of Arthur Butterworth’s epic First Symphony (Classico, 10/99), a work whose craggy, Nordic landscape is consciously revisited by the Fourth Symphony of 1986. Thirty years may separate the two but the overriding influences remain the same – Vaughan Williams, Bax and, most notably, Sibelius (there’s even what sounds like a direct quotation from “The Oak Tree” from The Tempest at 6'50" in the second movement). Both symphonies culminate in a turbulent moto perpetuo finale to leave the listener in no doubt as to Butterworth’s confident and resourceful handling of the orchestra.

Composed between 1988 and 1992, the Viola Concerto enshrines another readily assimilable canvas, its full-throated lyrical fervour and big heart putting me in mind of Moeran. Not only is it singularly evocative of the solitary Northern uplands, it’s also most idiomatically conceived for the solo instrument (the viola was Butterworth’s second study at the RNCM). Sarah-Jane Bradley is the excellent soloist, and the veteran Mancunian composer secures very decent results from the RSNO (in which he served as a trumpeter after the war, before moving on to his home-town band). The sound is immensely vivid, if a little overbearing in the most brazen tuttis.

By way of two substantial bonuses, Dutton throw in (at no extra cost) an August 1958 Proms performance of the First Symphony from Barbirolli and the Hallé (a thrilling display, full of drive, atmosphere and purpose), as well as a 27-minute excerpt from a personable and thoughtful talk given by Butterworth to the British Music Society in April 2008. Dedicated Anglophiles will find this enterprising double-pack well worth checking out.