The 2009 release of the Second Symphony was a reminder of Leonard Slatkin’s sympathy for Rachmaninov’s music and its emotional ebb and flow. Here, again conducting his Detroit orchestra, he is wise enough to know that the Third Symphony and the Symphonic Dances are very different beasts. Nostalgia was a powerful stimulus for Rachmaninov in both works, nostalgia for his lost Russian homeland in the symphony, nostalgia for life past in the Symphonic Dances with their references back to the First Symphony and, in the finale, to an energised version of a passage from the All-Night Vigil. Without exaggerating the point, Slatkin captures this sense of sadness and world-weariness but, crucially, also recognises the new piquancy of harmony, clarity of texture and rhythmic incisiveness that mark the works of Rachmaninov’s later years. The Detroit players have a sure instinct for the poignancy and sighs of the music, for its intricate but lucidly woven fabric and also for its passion and drive. Details of the scoring, so critical in any Rachmaninov interpretation, are tellingly etched in here in the context of a perceptively chosen spectrum of dynamics.

Structurally and from the point of view of identifying shifting moods, Slatkin has a secure grasp in both pieces, finding sublime, yearning wistfulness at the centre of the finale of the Symphonic Dances but harnessing vigour and bite for a thrilling conclusion – and he lets the ominous crash of the tam-tam echo on after the final chord, just as it should.