Why he is not better known is a mystery worthy of “The Great Detective” himself. Richard Arnell composed his Sherlock Holmes ballet for the Sadler’s Wells in 1953. We’ll hear the composer’s own recording, among our featured works, this Thursday morning on WPRB, as we anticipate the 100th anniversary of Arnell’s birth on September 15th.

We’ll also hear Sir Thomas Beecham’s classic recording of “Punch and the Child,” composed for Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan in 1948. (The Caravan also launched Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid” and Virgil Thomson’s “Filling Station.”)

I’ll be joined by conductor Warren Cohen in the 8:00 hour. Cohen has performed many of Arnell’s orchestral works with the MusicaNova Orchestra. The Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 have been issued commercially on the Con Brio Recordings label. We’ll hear the authorized release of the Symphony No. 4, and then enjoy a real treat in the form of a blazing live concert performance of the Symphony No. 5. Cohen will also conduct his own arrangement for string orchestra of the “Elegy,” from Arnell’s String Quartet No. 3.

On October 29th, MusicaNova will perform Arnell’s Symphony No. 6 in Phoenix, AZ, on the same program as Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Symphony No. 5 and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra. I’d say that’s just about worth a plane ticket. You can find out more at http://musicanovaaz.com/orchestra-concerts/2017-18-orchestra-concerts/.

Recordings set down by Martin Yates, one of Arnell’s composition students at Trinity College of Music, will also feature on the morning’s playlist, as he conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, on the Dutton Vocalion Records label.

Criminally, none of Arnell’s symphonies received studio recordings until 2005. Happily, the composer was still around to enjoy the belated recognition. He died in 2009, at the age of 91.

Even so, I suspect he remains unknown to many. I hope you’ll join me for this well-crafted and frequently inspired music by one of the most-neglected of England’s mid-century symphonists. As his friend, Patrick Jonathan, sums up in his liner notes to the Con Brio release, “ Wherever these works are listened to, I am sure they will speak directly to the heart.”

The game’s afoot, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. The music is far from elementary, my dear Watson, on Classic Ross Amico.