Seeking to identify the author of Traumgesicht (‘Dream Visage’), the innocent ear might guess early Delius or someone else under the spell of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll – Humperdinck or Pierné, perhaps. Like Korngold, Erkki Melartin (1875–1937)trained under Robert Fuchs in Vienna. His style may not be quite as lush but it certainly favours a similar kind of instant gratification, and it’s not hard to understand why its euphonious, if also derivative and anonymous idiom should have been well received at the 1910 premiere under Ziloti in St Petersburg.

The slightly later vocal-orchestral tone-poem Marjatta was dedicated to Aino Ackté, for whom Sibelius had recently composed Luonnotar. The comparison brings home the comparative naivety of Melartin’s mindset (though the literalist cuckoo calls would, admittedly, have been hard to avoid, given the particular extract from the Kalevala he had chosen to set). Occasional, perhaps coincidental nods to Janáček in the grittier second half add to the attractions of a piece that should give lovers of latter-day national Romanticism exactly what they crave – as will, surely, Soile Isokoski’s honeyed soprano.

Cuckoo calls also begin the first of eight extracts from The Blue Pearl, which has a clear claim to the collector’s attention as the first ballet composed in Finland. The work retained some popularity there, too, thanks no doubt to its easily assimilable characterisation and predictable phrasing.

Recorded in the Helsinki Music Centre, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra may not be ideally opulent for such music. Still, under Hannu Lintu’s firm guidance they present each piece in a favourable light. The disc also comes with an informative booklet, though the description of Traumgesicht as ‘progressive’ or The Blue Pearl as ‘fresh’ is surely somewhat optimistic.