Symphony No. 1:
A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection.

Swedish composer Franz Berwald [1796-1868] composed 4 symphonies, and Symphony No. 1 Sinfonie serieuse is a pleasant romantic era work, and a good introduction to this composer. The Naxos release is coupled with Symphony No. 2. There are also some CD Set releases of all 4 symphonies that you may want to check out: the BIS release by Ehrling is older but excellent: the EMI 3CD set by Bjorlin adds Concertos and Overtures and is a good bargain, plus you get all of Berwald’s major symphonic works. Both are currently available as downloads only, although you can usually get the CDs used at Amazon.