The LSO play Bloch’s Symphony in C sharp minor marvellously and Dalia Atlas conducts it with understanding and conviction. She is of the opinion ‘that this is Bloch’s greatest and best work’; I shall further quote her in describing it as ‘a large-scale neo-romantic symphony, written when the composer was only 20 and scored for a Mahlerian-sized orchestra in the perfect neo-romantic form customary at the time. Like the symphonies of Mahler, Bruckner, Richard Strauss and others the work reveals exceptional depth and maturity. Without searching for external influences, Bloch attempted solely to express his innermost self.’

The richness and colour of the orchestration are very striking indeed. The first movement is too long but well structured; the slow movement is agreeably lyrical; the scherzo, opening tellingly with trumpet fanfares, is ‘virtuosic’. The finale includes a fugue and closes with a triumphant march, taken from the second movement, but then concludes quietly and tranquilly.

All in all it is undoubtedly impressive, when played with such conviction and so well recorded too. But in the end, I ask, is it really a masterpiece as Dalia Atlas seems to suggest? I fear not. Although it is in many ways rewarding to listen to and interesting to study, it is, for me, not a memorably great work.

Listening to the atmospheric music of the Poems of the Sea, inspired by Walt Whitman, which acts as a coupling, one discovers an evocative magic, a feeling of inspiration, missing in the symphony. This too is played very well indeed.