Gerard Schurmann throws down the gauntlet at the beginning of his Piano Concerto from 1972 73 with an opening cadenza of formidable difficulty. The concerto was written for John Ogdon, the most talented British pianist of his generation, for whom no challenge was too daunting. He gave the first performance and a few in its wake with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Berglund, after which it appears to have disappeared from view. It now has a new advocate in Xiayin Wang, a young player with a formidable technique and grasp of detail vital in this circumstance. She keeps a cool head from the opening cadenza that introduces the seeds from which many motifs will expand through the challenging terrain ahead. The New York Times noted her ‘ability to maintain and illuminate a strand of melody within the thickest of textures’, which keeps this tautly written concerto afloat, seeing it into safe harbour. Her partners, the BBC Philharmonic, respond in kind under Ben Gernon’s enthusiastic direction. No detail passes his ear, the precision and accuracy of the ensemble confirming once again their prowess in music off the mainstream.

After the febrile mood of the first movement (save for a brief interlude shared between piano, bassoon and horn), the second, marked Molto adagio, carries a whiff of Magyar folk tradition, the music casting a nocturnal spell, the piano in meditation with strings. A light-fingered Presto settles into an introspective cadenza before both parties are reconciled in a breathtaking conclusion. This performance is an outstanding addition to the composer’s catalogue.

Schurmann dedicated the attractively entitled Romancing the Strings to his wife, Carolyn. The theme was born in his music for the 1963 Disney film Dr Syn, alias The Scarecrow, a suite from which was included on Rumon Gamba’s ‘The Film Music of Gerard Schurmann’ (9/19). Romancing the Strings followed in 2015. The six variations conclude with an Adagio, led by solo cello, a heartfelt outpouring of affection towards the dedicatee, the players clearly in love with the matter in hand.

Gaudiana, which, like the Piano Concerto, is written for a large orchestra, was inspired by the work of the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí. Subtitled Symphonic Studies, it opens and closes with a Chorale (‘Pietà’) scored for strings alone, a reflection of the composer’s devotion to the Catholic Marian rite, with Our Lady’s tears depicted in the falling third heard on the cellos echoed in the final bars of the work on trumpet. However, Gaudiana is no pious act to a creative genius, more a celebration of his work – the CD booklet has a photograph of Sagrada Familia, his unfinished church in Barcelona. Snatches of a folk-like tune on piccolo accompanied by tom-tom and Catalan folk dance fill the air in the second movement, introduced by gentle xylophone taps, a magical moment of transition. The variations that follow, from the brilliant to the sublime, give a sense of the composer’s experience ‘of intense sadness and prescient drama’ on entering the building, embodied in the exquisitely scored fifth movement.

The concert overture that opens this highly desirable collection is a revision of the main title to Man in the Sky, an Ealing film from 1957. Like Jack Hawkins’s test pilot in the screenplay, Schurmann served in the RAF during the Second World War. His brief but exhilarating piece opens with a noble string theme juxtaposed with a punchy brass figure. An autobiographical moment is surely evident in the music at 2'06", where the scoring suggests the view from the cockpit opening out on the vista below.

All the customary Chandos hallmarks – excellent notes by Paul Conway and a spectacular, well-balanced sound picture from Mike George and Stephen Rinker – are manifest in this fine centenary tribute to a composer yet to have his due.