Just breaking the rules a little, I would like mention some early works
which are not exactly Op. 1, but close enough.

Delius' "Florida Suite." Delightful.  You will not hear Delius'
characteristic voice here, but the (relatively) conventional melodies and
harmonies are as gratifying as one could wish for.  It's pictorial in a
breezy way, much in the manner of, say, Grieg.  It is Delius' earliest
surviving score and the composer only got to hear it in an informal
run-through in a Leipzig restaurant.

Debussy's "La Damoiselle Elue." (I have the out of print copy with
Ameling and the SFO/de Waart!) A touchingly beautiful piece, with an
extended orchestral introduction with the most beautiful flute solo.
Completed in 1889, you can hear echoes of Parsifal, but it's mostly the
young Debussy--it glows like the opening of the 3rd mov't to VW's 5th
Symphony.  Don't forget Debussy's early piano pieces like the "Ballade"
and the "Nocturne."

Ginastera's "Panambi." I've discussed this piece at length in a previous
posting, but I must repeat again that it's astonishingly vivid and
evocative music for a 22 year old), a cross between Bartok's "Wooden
Prince," and Stravinsky's "Rite." The primitivism is much more "Euro-urbane
" than the music of Revueltas.  Ginastera's Opus 1.

Schoenberg's "Gurrelieder?"  (I know Verklarte Nacht came first, but you
know my penchant for big orchestras.)  No need to comment on this one, but
this piece was characterized by Alex Ross as a "youthful indiscretion" in a
recent New Yorker magazine--a passionate critic?  Or an emptily-provocative
line?

John Smyth