When Malcolm Williamson was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music(k), William Walton quipped “They’ve appointed the wrong Malcolm!”, presciently as it transpired, as Williamson’s tenure was anything but fruitful, let alone memorable. The “right” Malcolm was Malcolm Arnold, coincidentally a friend of Walton’s.

Most composers possess a “Janus” gene which empowers their creativity to compose not only in widely contrasting genres but also embrace a range of moods. Malcolm Arnold’s Janus gene was rather dominant: He’s normally instinctively associated with either refulgently heraldic scores, as in his coronation ballet Homage to the Queen, or exuberantly cheerful, even riotous, Ealing Comedy film scores, or some composed for epics such as Bridge on the River Kwai. I was discussing his oeuvre with a friend once and he drew my attention to the darkness and anguish in his nine symphonies, much of it the result of his intermittent struggles with alcohol and mental illness.

The latest volume of Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic’s traversal of his music opens with the Commonwealth Christmas Overture, composed for the 25th anniversary of the sovereign’s Christmas broadcast in 1957, the first time the occasion was televised. After an introduction, the...