The Third Symphony’s germinal F-A-F motif is grandly stated at the outset, yet also sprung with a momentum to sweep us into the main argument, which itself is elucidated by strongly divided violins and underpinned by a bass line of marvellous weight and presence. In Fischer’s shaping we may feel as well as read the imprint of Schumann on the score, and the Rhenish in particular, at least until the development section moves on and Brahms comes to terms with the subject of his tribute.

Of conductors in the modern age, Abbado and Colin Davis used to give Thirds of unusual reach – Rattle continues to do so – which never quite survived the transfer from concert to record. Every now and again – the pause before the first movement’s second subject, the sudden access of feeling at the climax of the Andante, some silky portamento turns of phrase – there lingers the studio’s impress on Fischer’s reading, in gestures that might flow more freely from the impetus of a one-off event.

This is, all the same, a Third to savour and repeat, in touch with its fleeting, dusky nature like few others. Passages of the inner movements – and the central Andante of the Serenade, hauntingly done with its own distinctly Schumannesque qualities subtly underlined – take on the character of a veiled clarinet concerto, yet the orchestra bends and yields to the music’s expressive pulse with a unanimity of purpose that entirely belies the sophistication of Fischer’s rubato.

The surprise – for me at least – comes with the dancelike vitality of the finale’s opening, which hits upon a fully formed yet transitional vein of expression between the extroversion of the Second and the rigour of the Fourth at the same point. Perhaps Mariss Jansons (BR-Klassik, 6/11) built the movement’s conflict in more harmonious proportion to its resolution, whereas Fischer’s version more nearly resembles the blaze of tinder fanned by Gardiner (SDG, 11/09): this is not a sunset-home Third. Rather it leaves the sense of peaks yet to climb and demons yet to vanquish.