After putting his Hollywood years behind him, Korngold returned to his native Austria in 1949 in the hope of re‑establishing his musical credentials. Unfortunately, times had changed: serialism was running rife and there was no longer any call for his kind of music. Out of his disappointment arose this compact and compelling Symphony in F sharp, scored for large orchestra.

Korngold challenges expectations from the start by basing much of the first movement on the tritone, which lends it an ambiguity and tension that run throughout the movement, a point seized on by the Strasbourg Philharmonic in a performance of unflagging energy and pinpoint precision that never lets up throughout this technically demanding work (is that why we never hear it live?). Each section and its solo player, like characters in a drama, give their all. The clarinet holds its head above water as it tries to make headway against punctuated chords, then horns cry out in alarm over the same figure. The calmer waters of C major bring luminous playing from divided strings, as is so often the case in this symphony, decorated with solo violin and a wash of flute, a quintessential Korngold moment. The drama continues in the martial development before the movement ends with an eerie coda where the strings play col legno. The fabulous kaleidoscope of instrumental colour and shifting perspectives in the ebullient Scherzo is followed by the heartfelt Adagio, with Marc Albrecht audibly urging on his orchestra through three rapturous climaxes. Here there is a sense of the composer’s yearning to reconnect with his European audience, an opportunity that was never realised in his lifetime. The playful finale, brimful of the prevailing optimism of his adopted country in those post-war years, points up Korngold’s touching dedication of his symphony to President Roosevelt. The three-note theme in the Adagio, now in the colours of Uncle Sam, seems consciously to echo “Over There!”, the celebrated American marching song of the First World War.

As a coupling, Albrecht and the orchestra offer the delightful incidental music to Much Ado About Nothing, as did Previn and the LSO on a thought-provoking DG issue. Nobody knows more about the style of this music than Previn – but make no mistake: the Strasbourg Philharmonic and their conductor can hold their heads up high in such company.