I hope readers who only listen to CDs will not miss out on this fine, but digital-only, recording. Franz Welser-Möst and his orchestra have regularly confounded expectations in the Prokofiev symphonies and this is another rendition of stature, generally un rowdy yet by no means underpowered. With Covid 19 precautions still in place, it was given (twice) in the band’s iconic performance space, newly redesignated the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall of Severance Music Center, in October 2021. An audience was present for the first time in many months though it is rarely audible here; concluding applause has been excised. Contributing to her last concerts as principal keyboardist was Joela Jones, a George Szell appointee whose piano is uncommonly audible. The many fans of Herbert von Karajan’s classic studio account (DG, 6/69) will be aware of additional textural activity throughout, harp, percussion and even some Soviet-style brass permitted to break cover.

While Welser-Möst may prize the score’s timbral and harmonic edge, his first two movements bring few radical changes, by turns earnest and prickly as the argument dictates. In the second half of the work, tempos are more conspicuously ratcheted up. The slow movement acquires a new emphasis: the discourse is still carried forwards mainly by the strings but admits sharper contours and colours. Structural composure is prioritised over any attempt to evoke a deserted ballroom in the closing stages, perhaps the only point in the performance when things feel too businesslike. Nothing po-faced about the finale, however. Its headlong drive is certain to impress.

The sound is first-rate even if close miking renders the flute a little breathy. Be warned that the virtual packaging is somewhat less informative and extravagant than that complementing the team’s earlier own-label release of Prokofiev’s Second Symphony (12/21). Better news: the Fourth is expected before the end of the year.