Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) composed his Second Symphony between 1908 and 1910 in Paris, where, as a 13-year-old, he had enrolled at the Conservatoire (his classmates included Enescu, to whom the work bears a dedication). With a duration in excess of 50 minutes, it’s a turbulent, lusciously opulent outpouring in four movements, the last of which culminates in a grandiloquent epilogue. Stylistic nods come thick and fast – Wagner, Strauss, Mahler, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, Respighi and Pizzetti – and its sprawling design unquestionably cries out for a firm hand on the structural tiller. Vividly captured on the wing at live concerts from October 2016, Fabrizio Ventura and his hard-working Münster band shine in the first two movements; but from the central Adagio onwards it’s Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos, 8/10) who prove more successful at keeping tensions on the boil. Chandos’s splendiferously realistic sound is the icing on a very rich cake.

Noseda’s coupling – a sparkling account of the 1926 divertimento for piano and small orchestra, Scarlattiana, with Martin Roscoe on conspicuously deft form – is rather more generous than Ventura’s, namely a miniature orchestral suite from Casella’s opera La donna serpente (premiered in March 1932 and based on the fable by Carlo Gozzi). There’s a third option featuring Francesco La Vecchia and the Rome SO (Naxos, A/10), who pair the symphony with the remarkable and challenging A notte alta from 1917‑21 (one of Casella’s most personal utterances). Sun Hee You gives a commendable reading of the piano part but I would not turn to La Vecchia’s performance of the main work in preference to either Noseda’s or Ventura’s.

Inquisitive souls and SACD aficionados alike who enjoy strolling off the beaten track may care to hunt down this enterprising newcomer for themselves.