Vasily Petrenko directs an admirably trim, affectionate and cannily paced Enigma, free of fussy intervention and marked by superb orchestral playing. For proof positive of Petrenko’s selfless insights, listen to the penultimate variation and marvel at the ear-pricking mystery of the principal clarinet’s quotation from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Plaudits, too, for Petrenko’s gloriously punchy, unbuttoned way with ‘WMB’, ‘Troyte’ and ‘GRS’, and a finale which is as purposeful as it is nobly integrated. Elsewhere, ‘Nimrod’ comes close to the ideal in its flowing, deeply humane and unaffected progress, and I love the balletic point of the enchanting interplay between winds and strings in ‘Dorabella’ – one is reminded afresh of the influence of Delibes and Tchaikovsky (and the theme-and-variations finale from the latter’s irresistible Third Orchestral Suite in particular). Ian Tracey’s organ contribution towards the close has been most judiciously integrated into what is an agreeably ripe and detailed sound picture.

If anything, the performance of In the South is even finer, exhibiting an emotional clout, malleability and sweep that effortlessly activate the goosebumps. Not only does Petrenko revel in the opulence and giddy technical flair of Elgar’s orchestration (the passage marked con fuoco beginning at fig 26 or 10'05" has a thrilling physicality and swagger about it), he also draws out every ounce of songful glow from the achingly tender secondary material and wistful central reverie. Like Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion, 11/16) before him, Petrenko achieves a wondrously expectant hush at the tranquillo marking at fig 51 (20'24") to cap a deftly woven reading of abundant temperament, heart and charisma.

Only the Serenade underwhelms: for all the RLPO strings’ delectably articulate response, there’s too little sense of wide-eyed wonder, and the sublime Larghetto singularly fails to touch to the marrow the way it always does on, say, Sir John Barbirolli’s famous 1962 recording (Warner) or Norman Del Mar’s below-the radar 1968 Bournemouth SO version (available on a British Composers twofer coupled with both Elgar symphonies under Barbirolli and Constantin Silvestri’s combustible In the South). Still, the disc as a whole warrants investigation for the two main items alone.