Karol Szymanowski didn’t like his First Symphony (190607), though as so often with great composers and their fledgling offspring, his reservations weren’t entirely justified. Adrian Thomas’s excellent note quotes the composer’s prediction of ‘some sort of contrapuntal-harmonic-orchestral monster’, though the evidence – in effect the busily orchestrated first and last movements of what would possibly have been a four-movement structure – suggests a gifted young original with something to say and a good deal of potential beyond that.

The extent of those riches ‘beyond’ emerges with the Second Symphony, which was completed in 1910 and revised between 1927 and 1936. If the spectre of Max Reger loomed large in the embryonic First Symphony, it loomed larger still in the Second, especially in the Theme and Variations, which ends with a six-minute fugue – admittedly not quite of Regerian proportions but certainly getting there. More important by far are palpable hints of mature Szymanowski, especially the First Violin Concerto, though without being able to compare the original Second with the revision it’s difficult to tell whether those similarities are prophetic or retrospective. Much of the Second is delicate and sweetly voiced; and while the full-on aromatic world of the Third Symphony is still some way off, anyone with sensitive antennae will be able to spot whose voice they’re listening to.

Being a natural inheritor of Scriabinesque exoticism, Szymanowski is bound to bring out the best in Scriabin’s most imaginative interpreters, which is why Valery Gergiev proves such a convincing interpreter of both works. He draws excellent playing from the London Symphony Orchestra, balances some complex textures with an expert ear and the clear, close-set recording has an impressive dynamic range. Very useful, too, to have the first two symphonies coupled on a single CD.