There are now two versions of Vaughan Williams’s big-boned Fantasia for piano and orchestra (1896-1904) to choose from. Never published and barely acknowledged during its composer’s lifetime, the work’s first recording, by Mark Bebbington (Somm, 12/11), pointed ahead, uncannily, to the piano-dominated choral-orchestral Fantasia on the Old 104th of 1950 and made me wonder if the unknown early Fantasia was still resonating in the composer’s memory nearly half a century later. This newcomer by French-American pianist Andrew Von Oeyen knocks a minute off Bebbington’s timing, and seems more spontaneous in impact and better integrated between soloist and orchestra.

The Steersman was sketched as a second slow movement for A Sea Symphony (1903 09), setting Whitman’s ‘Aboard at a ship’s helm’ for baritone with female voices. It would inevitably have made a long work too long and less symphonic, so RVW showed his usual and impeccable structural judgement in putting these pages aside – but in retrospect the music is both eloquent and moving of itself and can now stand as the fascinating footnote to a masterpiece. Miracle-worker Martin Yates has brought this beautiful movement back to life by the subtle act of realising its potential orchestration to perfection.

But his achievement in completing The Future is even more astonishing. This sketched setting of a poem by Matthew Arnold probably dates from 1903 05 and sings with the same voice and ardour as Toward the Unknown Region and Dirge for Two Veterans. Yates’s bravery lies, in part, in detecting the sheer quality of this unfinished music, but also in his dedication and mastery in making it entirely viable and convincing as a 30-minute-plus choral canvas with a resoundingly full organ-enriched orchestra and soaring solo soprano. These BBC performances are enthusiastic and committed, and both Lucy Crowe and Jacques Imbrailo are wonderful soloists. Self-recommending for RVW lovers.