Schubert's “Great C major” is a symphony which cannot be learnt; a conductor either feels it in his bones or he doesn't. Tennstedt was certainly at ease with it and knew it from within. Sadly, when he recorded it, he did so with the Berlin Philharmonic rather than his own London Philharmonic. Austro-Germany was never a happy hunting-ground for Tennstedt. Critics and audiences were inclined to look down their noses at this interloper from the East. Some musicians did so, too, though not Karajan or the more discriminating members of the Berlin Philharmonic. Yet, for whatever reason, the Berlin recording (5/84 - nla) did not entirely “work”, which is why this live 1984 LPO performance is so inspiring an addition to the catalogue.

Tennstedt had a profound feeling for German Romantic music, as is proved by the vividly wrought performances of the Weber and Brahms overtures also included here. His way with the “Great C major” is rooted in that culture and, in one or two places, the interpretative traditions which grew up in its wake. Yet the performance is very much his own. Nothing is overdone. This is a reading, flowing and unforced, during which the storm clouds gather, and occasionally threaten, but never overwhelm. In this respect, Tennstedt is closer to an echt Viennese interpreter such as Josef Krips than to Furtwängler or Böhm, whose Berlin readings have a more daemonic feel to them. The LPO play with warmth and assurance, relieved, no doubt, to be spared all but the most essential repeats.