Different C# Output Between Release and Debug

I've a little C# program here that produces different output between the Debug and Release versions. The empty output from the Release version is, I think, consistent with the C# Language Specification. This program should not produce output, yet the Debug version does.

I've run both the Release and Debug versions from the command line (outside the VS environment) and get the same inconsistent output. I've decompiled the Debug version (using ILDASM) and then re-compiled it with ILASM. When I do this, the newly compiled program behaves just like the Release version. I can only imagine that when I de-compile and then re-compile something is being left out but I've not been able to determine what's different.

Regarding the EXE file size: Both the Release and Debug versions produced by VS have the same file size: 5,120 bytes. When I de-compile and re-compile, both versions again have the same, but smaller file size: 3,072.

The program is quite small and I've looked at the IL in Reflector and I can't see anything that would cause a difference in output.

Does anyone have a (hopefully detailed) explanation of exactly why there is a difference?

Please note that I'm not trying to make the Debug and Release versions consistent, necessarily, I want to understand why they are not.

Recall what I said above -- both the Debug and Release versions produce different output even when run from the command line. If you tell me the runtime is doing some kind of optimization for the Release version but not for the Debug version then there must be something embedded in the Debug/Release version assemblies that tell the runtime to turn on/off optimizations. What is that embedded "something" and why does it not carry over when using ILDASM/ILASM?

Here's the code:

using System;

class Test {
    static int value = 0;
    static int a = Initialize("Assigning a");
    static int b = Initialize("Assigning b");
    static String name = "Fred";
    static int c = Initialize("Assigning c");

    static int Initialize(String mssg) {
        ++value;
        Console.WriteLine("In Initialize() :: {0}, name={1}, returning {2}", mssg, name, value);
        return value;
    } // Initialize()

    static void Main() {
    } // Main()
} // class Test

And here is the output from the Visual Studio generated Debug version:

In Initialize() :: Assigning a, name=, returning 1
In Initialize() :: Assigning b, name=, returning 2
In Initialize() :: Assigning c, name=Fred, returning 3

Running the release version generates no output.