Joseph Achron’s identity as a pioneering Jewish composer was more extensive and ran deeper than his Hebrew Melody and Hebrew Lullaby, encore pieces popularised by Heifetz, would suggest. Indeed, the best of the Russian violinist-composer’s work, as with the Violin Concerto No 1, looks both back and forward, utilising ancient liturgical elements even as his style moves toward polytonality and even the atonal. The concerto is cast in two movements with a sprawling Allegro moderato followed by a 10-minute finale. That long opening movement is ingeniously constructed from 15 skilfully interwoven Biblical cantillation motifs, or tropes, indicating the accents and intonations in which the sacred Hebrew texts are to be declaimed.

Though this concerto dates from before Achron’s Hollywood years, one could almost mistake the bold gestures and ripely Romantic writing for Korngold, albeit with less indelible tunes. The second movement is based upon two Yemenite Jewish folksongs, the first jauntily rhythmic and very violinistic, the second more subdued. There are bursts of high-flying fireworks in the improvisatory solo writing.

Achron’s Hebraic melodic style falls easily on the ear, yet, even though he deftly keeps the Biblical plates spinning, the 25-minute first movement meanders. If not an undiscovered masterpiece, the concerto still deserves better than its current neglect. Elmar Oliviera’s edgy virtuosity and sweet throbbing timbre suit the music very well and Joseph Silverstein draws superbly rich playing from the Berlin orchestra.

Achron refitted his suite The Golem from his incidental music for the Yiddish Art Theatre staging of H Leivick’s play. Scored for an oddly comported chamber orchestra (cor anglais, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, six cellos and double-basses each with no violins or violas), the dark timbres and winding, shadowy music depict the eerie tale of the clay-made saviour-turned-monster most effectively. The two tableaux from Belshazzar sound at times like an Alfred Newman screen epic but are scored with real flair and sound suitably rousing under Gerard Schwarz’s direction.

Exhaustive and somewhat exhausting notes are provided – the text is so small it’s virtually unreadable.