Wilhelm Stenhammar established the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as one of the finest in the Nordic region as its first Chief Conductor (from 1907), while Neeme Järvi arguably turned it into one of the finest in Europe during his own reign, which ended in 2004. Not that this selection of works shows it off to the highest degree. All were born of Stenhammar’s tenure at the ensemble but none reaches the heights of the composer’s best works – his two piano concertos, Sixth String Quartet or Second Symphony, for example.

The main event is Sången, a two-part cantata that celebrates the birth of song and then erects a temple ‘legitimised solely by the power of music’ to it (Signe Rotter-Broman’s critical booklet note), in which a final orgy of poetry and music ensues. The score has passing, rousing brilliance but is generally more problematic, from the Arcadian nature of Part 1 to the congested triumphalism of Part 2. If it’s possible to be too inspired, Stenhammar is here. The performance less so. There is some slightly uneven, woolly choral singing and, on the whole, Herbert Blomstedt in Stockholm offers that bit more choral brightness and slow-burning atmosphere, particularly at the Intermezzo that launches Part 2.

At the other end of the compositional scale, Stenhammar’s music for Per Lindberg’s 1922 production of Romeo and Juliet has the distillation and one-mood-per-movement of Sibelius’s theatre scores. It is a slim but effective pastoral lined with tragedy. The influence of Sibelius (it’s worth remembering that both he and Carl Nielsen cleaved to Stenhammar’s Gothenburg orchestra while escaping criticism at home) is also felt in the cross-hatched textures, lingering brass chords and treatment of a small fragment as a fertile theme in the charming Reverenza, formerly the second half of the Serenade. The Two Sentimental Romances do what they say on the tin, with particularly sweet-toned playing from concertmaster Sara Trobäck.