Farrenc’s multilingual Symphony No. 1 is hard to pin down. Then again, why should we feel the need to pigeonhole? It’s a fluent, feisty essay; a work shot through with bold strokes and a fertile orchestral imagination….[König] keeps everything tautly on course with a magisterial grip that nonetheless never wants for expressive empathy…Jean Muller’s fleet fingers make scintillatingly light work of the Variations’ splashy keyboard challenges.

You sense König’s commitment to this repertory throughout, in interpretations that delve into the dramas of this music with a combination of restless energy and refinement...The recording itself is admirably spacious and carefully balanced.

Berlioz was reportedly impressed by Farrenc’s imaginatively orchestrated Overture No. 2 from 1834, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether the French pianist-composer had his Symphonie fantastique in mind when she composed her First Symphony eight years later – there’s a distinct echo of the Rêveries in her opening movement, though the finale could almost be early Verdi. The effervescent Variations sur un thème de Comte Gallenberg are a treat.