This is the third of a projected series of four discs setting the symphonies of Schumann alongside those of Hans Gál. Though their dates are separated by the best part of a century, their differences in idiom are far less than that would suggest: Gál, born in Vienna in 1890, is not just an unashamed tonalist but his harmonic schemes take no account of the great developments instituted by Wagner, let alone Schoenberg or any other 20th-century composer.

Gál, like so many other Jews, lost all his posts in Austria when Hitler came to power in 1933. He escaped to Britain, and, after a period of imprisonment thanks to Churchill’s dotty policy of imprisoning all enemy aliens however anti-Nazi, settled in Edinburgh, where he was a much-loved teacher of many generations of music students. Gál wrote his Second Symphony at a period when he had suffered a whole series of family bereavements, last and most seriously the suicide of his 18-year-old son.

Though that experience set his creative gifts flowing, you would never know of his tragedy from the lyrical warmth of the writing in all four movements of this 45-minute symphony. The first movement is tenderly lyrical in an open, uncomplicated idiom typical of Gál, leading to a strongly rhythmic second movement which combines sonata form with the structure of a scherzo and trio, the central section becoming the development. Gál described the third movement as a combination of a dirge and an elegy, and when he thought no one would perform the complete work he suggested that it could stand on it own. The sequence of warmly attractive sections is consistently compelling, as is the equally extended fourth movement, which rounds up the arguments in all four movements with their recurring motifs, handled with Gál’s characteristic skill.

Enjoyable as Gál’s symphony is, the contrast when one turns to Schumann is very marked indeed, for where one is a fine, beautifully constructed work, the Schumann is an outright masterpiece with its striking themes and taut cyclic structure. Kenneth Woods draws crisply alert playing from the splendid Orchestra of the Swan, based in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is particularly good at controlling tempo changes precisely, so important in the finale with its ever-increasing speeds heightening the excitement. He is just as sympathetic in the Gál symphony, making this a highly recommendable offering in this Avie series, beautifully recorded to bring out the benefits of performances on a chamber scale.