An ardent Wagnerian, Peterson-Berger aspired to larger forms but had a gift for the miniature, as the early Oriental Dance (1890) and the various suites in this collection confirm. His five completed symphonies (a Sixth was left in sketch at his death in 1942) are spread throughout his career as indeed was the idealistic First, conceived in 1889, written out 1901-03 and revised in 1932-33 while creating his Fifth; both are as dull as ditchwater. The Second (1911) is much finer, a pastoral vision of Mediterranean Europe and its cultural heritage in three large, Atterbergian spans – though many of his critical victims savaged it at its premiere. Jurowski’s tempi linger more than Westerberg’s but he has the benefit of more opulent sound. In the Violin Concerto (1912-28) Wallin has the edge in tone – and 35 years – on Nilla Pierrou, though her account is still fine.

The warmth of CPO’s sound is a bonus throughout, suiting Jurowski’s highlighting of the composer’s sumptuous orchestration and melodic flair. Sometimes this becomes over-ripe, as in the Prelude to the cantata Sveagaldrar, but mostly these accounts cast the best possible light on the music. The best of it – the Violin Concerto, Symphonies Nos 2 and 3 (the last written in 1913-15, using Sámi yoiks, the distinctive music from Lapland), is fine. Indeed, lovers of Bax and Vaughan Williams might be enamoured – especially where the Wagnerian gives way to French refinement. The Fourth Symphony (1929), however, is less than compelling, loose and rhapsodic, closer to Coates’s London Suites than A London Symphony.

The couplings provide largely forgettable counterpoints, with the exception of the Concerto, which completely eclipses the Fifth. The pallid suite Last Summer is contemporary with the First and equally lacking in character, unlike the pretty Romance (1915) or Earina Suite (1917) which followed No 3. Earina and Flowers from Frösö (1934) are orchestrations of earlier piano pieces, pleasant light music but very generic, as is that from Törnrossagan (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty), also made in 1934 from incidental music.