Symphonies by teenagers generally get put away in a box and quietly forgotten. Not Glazunov’s First, however. Quite deservedly, the 15-year-old’s bold effort was premièred under the baton of Balakirev and hailed by him as the most auspicious composerly début since Mendelssohn. For all its squareness of phrasing, occasional structural redundancy and pervasive debt to Schumann, the piece has abundant melodic charm and makes some appealing harmonic sidesteps. It is also beautifully scored, as this new BBC NOW recording confirms. Like their account of the more unwieldy Third Symphony (7/03), it is ardent and affectionate, albeit with a certain shallowness to the string tone. Curiously it is Rozhdestvensky and his Russians who sound the more Westernised, as though using the piece to try out a temporary enthusiasm for Karajan-style sticky legato.

Emotionally and structurally, the Sixth Symphony is a much more ambitious affair, especially in the stormy first movement. I am more than ever convinced that Rachmaninov learned much from this score (his two-piano reduction of it is also available on BIS). Otaka pays it the compliment of meticulous preparation and total musical commitment, just one sign of that being the way he ensures that the trumpets burnish the main climaxes without poking through elsewhere. A splendid surge to the finishing line leaves you with the impression of a work fully deserving the musicians’ crusading efforts.

The only complication is that Nikolai Golovanov’s blisteringly dramatic 1952 recording is back in the catalogue, without which any overview of Glazunov as symphonist would be incomplete. All the same, given the abrasive sound-quality of that version I’m sure many collectors will want the new BIS issue as well, not just for its euphonious recording but for the warmth and dedication of the performances.