As in his earlier recording of the First and Sixth symphonies, Hugh Wolff finds the music's American essence in its playfulness, jazz rhythms, and, in the poignant slow movement, in a personal and modern unsettledness peculiar to the American psyche. It's harder to defend against the Shostakovich aping charge in the Fifth symphony (1948), with all its Age of Gold dancing and twirling. That is, except for the Finale, who's main motif seems to have sauntered in from the scherzo of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5.

None of this is a concern in Decatur at Algiers (1943), a sort of mini-travelogue describing the composer's adventures that is notable for its shifting moods and use of local color. It's amazing how flexible and un-German the Frankfurt Radio Symphony sounds under Wolff's baton, and how faithfully CPO's recording recreates the hall in your listening room. In sum, Volume 2 is also a hit.