László Lajtha’s passionate Third Symphony emerged from a fruitful period when the composer was based in London. Its origin was a film score for T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, the author grateful for a soundtrack to “elevate [his] words and thoughts”. Lajtha’s Fourth Symphony uses Hungarian musical idioms with wit and charm to bewitch the listener from the outset, its escapist joie de vivre belying the dark circumstances that surrounded its creation, while the Second Suite is based on a satirical ballet that uses Classical mythology to poke fun at fascist dictators.