No, not Gerald, but Aldo Finzi (1897-1945), a Milanese composer who had studied at Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatoire and enjoyed a promising career in his native land before falling foul of Mussolini’s anti-Semitic laws. During the Nazi occupation, Finzi was forced to go into hiding. Although he managed to avoid deportation, stress took its toll on his health and he died of a coronary in February 1945 just three days after his 48th birthday.

Finzi’s 1932 symphonic poem Inni alla notte (‘Hymns to the Night’) derives its inspiration from the eponymous collection by the German Romantic poet Novalis (1772-1801). Anyone with a penchant for Richard Strauss, Korngold, Respighi and Pizzetti will feel very much at home in what is a luxuriant, headily colourful landscape. Written in 1944-45, Il Salmo proved to be Finzi’s swansong, a four-movement setting for chorus and orchestra of psalm-like verses by the composer himself that packs a wealth of heartfelt and opulent inspiration into its 28-minute duration. Both works receive their world première recordings here. Nicola Giuliani draws an enthusiastic response from his combined Ukrainian forces and also secures a thoughtful, sensitively shaped but not always ideally refined performance of Stravinsky’s 1919 suite from The Firebird (memorably songful winds in the gorgeous ‘Round Dance’ especially). The sound is good rather than exceptional.

Recommended to inquisitive collectors, who may also be interested to learn that there seem to be at least three other releases from this label featuring Finzi’s music.