Listen as Niklas Willén teases the skittish polka (No. 6) from Alfvén's 'The Prodigal Son' ballet suite, or steers his players through the vehement fugue that rounds out his Symphony No. 2, and you'll appreciate why this release commands unreserved praise. Ireland's NSO gives superlative performances, worthy alternatives to Neeme Jarvi's coolly efficient Royal Stockholm Philharmonic accounts on BIS. These works come to life in Willén's hands. For example, he infuses the third section (a festive march) of the ballet music with the requisite proud swagger, while the national dances that follow are engagingly characterised.

Sir Arthur Sullivan called Edward German ‘the one man to follow me who has genius’. Notwithstanding German’s success in operetta, especially with Tom Jones (recorded on 8.660270–71) and Merrie England (the suite is on 8.555171), orchestral music was always central to his life. Stylistic affiliations with French and Russian music – not that common in British music of the time – are often evident. German, like Elgar, was a stylistic cosmopolitan whose music is, paradoxically, quintessentially English, and the ‘Norwich’ is indeed an outstanding late 19th-century British symphony. German gave us another superb symphony too, albeit in miniature, with his Welsh Rhapsody, a brilliant orchestral showpiece that remains his most performed extended orchestral work.

Stefan Sanderling, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland - Tchaikovsky: Suites for Orchestra Nos. 3 & 4.

The playing of the excellent National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland - another Naxos discovery - is polished and sympathetic to the Tchaikovskian ardour… A fine, super bargain.

If you have got this far, you will already have an idea of what awaits you in the music of Braga Santos. So I would just give a brief summary about the composer. He lived from 1924 to 1988 where he died as a result of a stroke. Although he was composing through the middle of the 20th century, for much of the time he avoided the musical trends of the period, obviously thinking there was still more that could be said within a tonal framework. Around 1960 he changed his style of composition, exploring the musical trends that had been occurring during his life. He wrote his first four symphonies in a short period between the ages of 22 and 27. These are all a product of his tonal period, and to any lover of the Romantic Symphony, all four are deserving of being in their collection.

Alexander Anissimov’s 1997 Naxos one with National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ Philharmonic Choir…Helen Field, singing for Anissimov, is a real delight in the slow movement, poignant, lyrical and clear in enunciation in a performance that has two fine Russians (tenor Ivan Choupenitch and baritone Oleg Melnikov) as the other soloists and an approach to the score that transmits a broad, well honed spectrum of emotion.