La Chambre Philharmonique, founded by Emmanuel Krivine, prides itself on being less like a regular orchestra than a chamber group, and the results on this first-rate coupling of popular Dvorák and rare Schumann certainly bear that out. Krivine secures biting attack in both works using a reduced body of strings, 8.8.7.6.5, which undoubtedly helps in securing great clarity, with timpani standing out cleanly – particularly important in the Dvorák, and encouraging Krivine to opt for fast allegros.

In the slow movement of the New World he comparably favours a flowing tempo, with the cor anglais solo straightforwardly played in tempo, and the later woodwind solos more distinctive, not least in the lolloping episodes in the Scherzo. The reduced string band also encourages pianissimos of breathtaking intensity, dramatically contrasted against the sharp impact of the extreme fortissimos. The finale is bitingly energetic at a fast tempo, with the important clarinet solo early in the movement and the horn solos later on most beautifully played.

The Schumann Konzertstück, written soon after the invention of the three-valve chromatic horn, features four of the orchestra’s horn soloists, each producing a ripe, fruity tone, with some brilliant tonguing in the triplets of the first movement and in the scales and arpeggios of the finale. The central slow movement is less distinctive but makes an agreeable interlude, and one can understand from this performance why Schumann thought of this late work, written in one of his periods of lucidity, as being among his best. First-rate sound, recorded in Grenoble, brings out the quality of the playing.