Rózsa’s list of concert works (those bearing opus numbers) amounts to under half his 95 film scores. Although Rózsa maintained a divide between his two compositional careers, Andrew Knowles’s assertion in the booklet that the composer “never incorporated music from his film scores into his concert works” needs qualification in light of the Spellbound Concerto’s popularity, even if this was never dignified with an opus number. And, of course, he reworked his Violin Concerto as the music to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Tadlow, 7/07).

None of the four works here has connections with the cinema although Rózsa’s Kodály-esque concert platform and silver-screen styles did not differ much. The earliest item is the Three Hungarian Sketches, a vibrant Capriccio, Pastorale and Danza which constituted the official Hungarian entry for the 1938 ISCM Festival. A major offering, it is more substantial than the slightly longer Hungarian Serenade, a post-war reworking of the Op 10 Serenade and some early piano pieces, which is essentially superior light music.

Rózsa’s Hungarian roots, which never dimmed during his long exile, were rarely expressed with as much pathos as in the Overture to a Symphony Concert, conceived during the hopeful days of the abortive 1956 Hungarian revolution. Revised in 1963, this is a bright and positive score which would grace any concert programme. Most impressive of all is the Tripartita (1971, rev 1972), its constituent Intrada, Intermezzo and rather Waltonian Finale showing Rózsa developing in a new direction late in his career. Excellent performances and superlative sound make this a most enjoyable overture to what should prove a most worthwhile enterprise.