Lesson No 1: always read the small print. Beyond Marcus Bosch’s nicely proportioned account of the Seventh Symphony’s Allegro maestoso first movement, the Adagio clocks up what at first glance seems to be a very generous 12'47" (nine to 11 minutes seems to be an approximate average). The tempo isn’t especially slow; but hold on, what’s happening from around 4'17"? Are we preparing for a rare internal repeat? Yes and no. Scroll forwards to 5'39" and it becomes obvious that what we’re listening to is musically quite different to what we were hitherto familiar with. It is in fact the original version of the movement, some 50 bars longer than the revision which Dvořák prepared after the English premiere, where Andante sostenuto becomes a rather more tranquil Poco adagio. Listening through a couple of times confirms, at least to these ears, that in shortening and tweaking the movement Dvořák knew exactly what he was doing, but it’s fascinating to hear this more expansive and in some respects more dramatic first shot (which has been skilfully edited by Jonathan Del Mar). The remainder of the performance is good rather than exceptional, with spirited readings of the last two movements.

Lesson No 2: when it comes to tempo indications, don’t always assume that the composer knows best. In the more graceful (but musically less imposing) Third Symphony, the middle movement is marked Adagio molto, tempo di marcia, which leaves options wide open. By taking the tempo di marcia at face value, as Neeme Järvi, Vladimír Válek and Marcus Bosch do, you hear more in the way of thematic relationships with other parts of the symphony. Turn to Václav Smetáček or Václav Neumann, both of whom take Adagio molto as their lead (with a correspondingly broader tempo), and those connections are more difficult to follow. Also, this being relatively early Dvořák, the movement can seem to rather outstay its welcome, which at the faster tempo it doesn’t. Still, Smetáček’s recording has a unique airiness about it though Bosch and Válek (in particular) offer a satisfying option overall, with Bosch’s disc being fairly indispensable for all committed Dvořákians given the musical value of that Seventh Symphony ‘original’ slow movement.