Like other new brooms, Andrew Litton sweeps as though to disturb the dust of ages and present the old work all shiny and bright for modern approval. Much depends on the tempo set for the motto theme at the very start. Maestoso con moto is the score’s marking, and in this version, while the con moto is given vigorous encouragement, the maestoso is rather left to look after itself. The first impression is a grateful sense of exhilaration, but the second is of a somewhat unseemly rush. In the second movement, the Allegretto un poco agitato, Litton’s touch brings a kind of magic, as when the brass enter with the chorale and the strings dance merrily, almost cheekily, in and out. The only question is whether it is the right kind of magic. Take for comparison the 1991 recording under Walter Weller (Chandos, 2/98): here the tempo is much slower, the mood less chirpy, the movement still lilting but now more reflective, even wistful. I have come to prefer it. Then when the choral section opens, the Lobesgesang itself, Litton charges it with an almost hectic urgency where Weller allows it the space and dignity which seem to be its natural elements. The recording was made at two concerts given last year in Bergen, which certainly has every right to be proud of its orchestra and chorus. The array of soloists is impressive, with Prégardien giving fervent utterance to his “Watchman” solo and the engagement of Jennifer Larmore to sing the second voice in “I waited for the Lord” being luxury casting indeed. Judith Howarth’s tone is now a little edgy and uneven: Weller’s Cynthia Haymon sounds better. And on the whole I’d choose his recording (or perhaps the 1979 Chailly on Philips) to live with. If, in the course of time, I felt the dust beginning to settle, the new broom might find a new welcome.