Though chiefly thought of as a virtuoso pianist whose compositions mirrored his glittering talent (the Fourth Piano Concerto is notoriously demanding), Scharwenka, who was much admired by Liszt, wrote a sizeable amount of chamber music, a single opera (Mataswintha) and the three orchestral works so admirably brought together on this disc for the first time.

After a false start (Scharwenka considered an early attempt at a Symphony unworthy of publication), the C minor Symphony, a four-movement composition of majestic proportions, received its first performance in 1883. Though outwardly conventional, it is alive with piquant as well as weighty surprises, with, as Christopher Fifield puts it in his excellent accompanying note, a unifying, even Lisztian factor beneath many outwardly diverse ideas. The initially elfin second movement scherzo evolves into something darker and more substantial, and a Wagnerian Adagio is followed by a finale whose triumphant apotheosis was (according to Scharwenka) much admired by the public. The Overture, a student work, is less distinctive in idiom and style but the Andante religioso in the composer’s orchestration from his Op 36 cello sonata is melodically grateful and set for the unusual combination of strings, organ and harp.

Fifield has clearly embarked on a labour of love and his performances with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra from Sweden is as eloquent and committed as the most ardent romantic could wish. Finely recorded, this is an admirable addition to the slender recorded catalogue of Scharwenka’s music.