These tonal symphonies range through three strains of 20th-century American music: Piston’s neat Neoclassicism, Samuel Jones’s post-Impressionist ‘Americana’ and Stephen Albert’s work, closer to post-war Expressionist symphonists like Peter Mennin. Generalisations aside, all three bring individual voices to their work.

Walter Piston (1894-1976) came from an Italian immigrant background. Beneath his clear textures and classic structures lurks an Italianate lyricism. Orchestration is assured; indeed, he wrote a textbook on the subject. Of his eight symphonies, No 6 is the most popular, composed for Munch and the Boston Symphony in 1955 and recorded by RCA. This is the fourth recording since then. The featherweight Scherzo is the most memorable...