It was a characteristically bold step by the 21-year-old Ginastera to make his Op 1 an ambitiously scored orchestral ballet rather than a modest suite or chamber piece. Of course, he had written such works – mostly withdrawn and destroyed – but the one-act choreographic legend Panambí (1935-37) was several strides forward and as impressive a compositional debut as any.

Drawn from an Amerindian tribal legend, the plot concerns the love of Guirahu for the chief’s daughter, Panambí, and the machinations of the local sorcerer, who also desires her. A battle between good and evil plays out across a single night, opening with wonderful, impressionistic moonlight and ending with a radiant hymn to the dawn. In between, the expertly scored music is largely restrained, though with some electrifying episodes along the way.

Panambí betrays Ginastera’s formative influences clearly, The Rite of Spring and Ravel in particular. The vividly achieved, primitivist atmosphere (not unlike the music of Revueltas) necessary for the story is absent from his follow-up ballet, Estancia (1941). Some of the latter’s music is so well known, thanks to the popular Suite, that it may surprise that this recording of the whole was a premiere. Absent, too, is the self-consciousness of Panambí as a public statement; in Estancia one can hear Ginastera relax as he whips up a greater storm.

Gisèle Ben-Dor and the LSO are splendid throughout, sounding as impressive as they did to Lionel Salter eight years ago. In Panambí they are superior to the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra’s premiere version for Largo (nla; their version of the Estancia Suite was mediocre but they include the wordless choral parts in Panambí). Luis Gaeta makes a splendid soloist in Estancia. Recommended.