Lutoslawski’s last two symphonies were written for first-rank American orchestras, and amid the flurry of recordings of the works made in the 1990s, the Chicago Symphony under Daniel Barenboim in No 3 and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen in No 4 established themselves as the best on offer. Since Salonen’s disc also included his perfectly adequate 1987 account of No 3 and added a fine performance of Les espaces du sommeil, collectors wanting the symphonies on a single CD could be well satisfied.

That remains the case today. The Silesian Philharmonic Symphony, on a Polish label, is not in the same league when it comes to weight and richness of string tone, or to a well blended ensemble of woodwind and horns. It could be awareness of these weaknesses that leads Mirosaw Jacek Blaszczyk to treat No 3’s notated dynamics, especially the soft ones, extremely casually, and although this ensures a sense of dramatic continuity in a score that in places risks collapsing into the episodic and the desultory, it rather overrides Lutoslawski’s carefully calculated preparations for the lyrical apotheosis.

The Fourth Symphony, less pretentious, more frankly romantic in style, fares better, though various details seem under-characterised, or simply under-rehearsed. The best performance on the disc is that of the Partita for violin and orchestra (with piano obbligato), Roman Lasocki taking advantage of the closely balanced sound to make the most of its expressive possibilities, especially in the substantial central movement. Nevertheless, as an alternative to Salonen, or to Anne-Sophie Mutter with the composer conducting in the Partita, this new release doesn’t supersede the Naxos recordings of these three works, as part of that label’s complete Lutoslawski series.