Moses Pergament (1893-1977) has been described as ‘one of the best-kept secrets of Swedish music’, although he was born in Finland into a Swedish-speaking Jewish family the origins of which lay in Lithuania. Always something of an outsider in Sweden’s conservative musical environment, he was a fine composer who made his name first as a trenchant critic and supporter of new music, including jazz.

The choral symphony The Jewish Song (1944) is perhaps his most special work, standing in his output much as Tippett’s A Child of Our Time or Hilding Rosenberg’s The Revelation of St John the Divine does in theirs. Pergament’s topical subject was the oppression of the Jews (‘Deutschland über alles’ is used, most tellingly in the ‘Intermezzo drammatico’), the music setting powerful poems of Ragnar Josephson. The whole is a work of searing intensity that manages with remarkable skill – and no little humanity – to achieve serenity in the final pair of its 13 movements.

Pergament’s use of the term ‘choral symphony’ to describe the structure should not be pursued too far: this is an oratorio in the grand manner, urgently communicative even in the few passages where musical development marks time. This performance is from 1974 (the work has seemingly lain unperformed since) and scrubs up quite well, although the sound is studio-bound and harsh by modern standards. I cannot say I warmed to Birgit Nordin’s at times shrill singing but have no reservations about the other performers. James DePreist directs a taut and involving account which deserves wide exposure – as indeed does The Jewish Song itself.