Luxuriously orchestrated and sensuously intoxicating, the extended orchestral interludes found in Schreker’s operas are as fine an introduction as any to the music of this historically important but still under-performed Austrian composer. Premiered in Vienna in 1909, the Nachtstück from Schreker’s second opera, Der ferne Klang, is probably the best-known piece here. Its quixotic, surging nature is typical of the composer’s mature style, the music frequently building to ecstatic climaxes which alternate with softer episodes populated by sinuous instrumental solos and gentle percussive splashes from the likes of tambourine, celesta and harp. The preludes from Das Spielwerk and Die Gezeichneten as well as the Symphonisches Zwischenspiel from Der Schatzgräber, the latter opera representing the peak of Schreker’s box-office success, follow a similar formula. By contrast, the Vorspiel zu einer grossen Oper, composed in 1933 and his last completed work, finds Schreker’s music taking a different direction. Based on sketches from his unfinished opera Memnon, this piece reflects the leaner scoring of Schreker’s later operas Christophorus and Der Schmied von Gent as well as featuring an attractive air of orientalism.

Lawrence Renes directs idiomatic and vivid performances of all the pieces on this disc and enjoys superbly detailed and committed playing from the Royal Swedish Orchestra (the orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera). Until now, the highly charged and superbly engineered recordings by Vassily Sinaisky and the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos have been my preferred versions of these works. However, Renes’s performances are equally desirable and the BIS recording even more luminous and transparent. Recommended with enthusiasm.