Barbara Harbach has nurtured a career as a harpsichordist, organist and teacher, but she’s also a prolific composer whose large canon includes, as of 2016, 10 symphonies. In this third volume of her orchestral music, subtitled ‘Portraits in Sound’, Symphonies Nos 7-10 are performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under David Angus.

Each of the symphonies has a moniker that evokes the descriptive nature of Harbach’s concise, three-movement essays. No 7 is called O Pioneers! after the Harbach opera from which the music is drawn. The central characters of Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter are depicted in Symphony No 8, while Symphony No 9 (Celestial Symphony) is derived from a Harbach silent-movie score and Symphony No 10 (Symphony for Ferguson) commemorates the 2014 killing and riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

Harbach’s writing hearkens back to Romanticism, with sweeping lyricism, richly layered lines and harmonies unfolding in a confident tonal style. These symphonies are akin to mini-tone poems, full of thematic material that provides dramatic focus and summons an array of atmospheres and emotional states. In Symphony No 10 Harbach is especially effective employing beloved spirituals and popular tunes (including WC Handy’s ‘St Louis Blues’) to drive home messages of courage and tolerance.

The cinematic nature of the symphonies receives lavish treatment by Angus and the London Philharmonic, who illuminate every detail in these skilfully crafted scores. Harbach’s music could hardly be better served.