Naxos follows its anthology ‘The Neoclassical Skalkottas’ (5/20) with one of widely divergent pieces from the mid-1930s. The 36 Greek Dances effectively refocused the composer after the debacle of repatriation from Berlin. His only work to secure widespread favour, its three series of 12 dances are a compendium of traditional Greek music real or imagined. The First Series was the only one not subject to reorchestration a decade later, its bracing astringency savoured by the Athens State Orchestra in the rhetorical theatrics of ‘Peloponnissiakos’, the alternate pathos and vigour of ‘Klephtikos’ or stealthy panache of the closing ‘Thessalikos’.

Stefanos Tsialis proves a sure guide in his combining the immediacy of Byron Fidetzis with the sophistication of Nikos Christodoulou, avoiding the former’s technical shortcomings or the latter’s emotional restraint. Three reductions drawn from the folk ballet The Sea, most ambitious of Skalkottas’s final works, its qualities underlined by the probing inwardness of the central Nocturne, provide a welcome taster for Fidetzis’s complete recording (BIS, 2006).

Most significant, however, is a belated initial outing for the First Symphonic Suite, planned around 1929 though not completed until six years afterwards. Marius Constant directed its first performance in Birmingham on April 28, 1972, but there can have been precious few revivals prior to this first recording. Tsialis undoubtedly has its measure – setting a swift yet flexible tempo for the Overture, whose ominous import carries over into the laconic Tema con variazioni then strident March. The highlights here are a Romance of smouldering intensity and Siciliano-Barcarole that confirms serialism is by no means incompatible with sensuality, before the Finale-Rondo rounds out the overall design with deft resourcefulness.

Recorded with due clarity and immediacy, this release is an ideal way into a defining period of Skalkottas’s musical evolution, and an ideal introduction to his orchestral work in general.