Why do Saint-Saëns’s youthful symphonies get such a bad rap? Even Roger Nichols apologises more than is necessary for Urbs Roma in his otherwise enlightening booklet note. Yes, the level of invention in the first movement is not consistently sustained, but what it lacks in inevitability it makes up for in structural soundness and clarity. The slow movement could benefit from some pruning, sure, but how marvellously atmospheric it is. Indeed, I find the marriage of colourful, Berliozian language with the stark, spiritual sobriety of the ‘Marcia funebre’ from Beethoven’s Eroica utterly endearing. And the theme-and-variations finale needs no apology whatsoever. I’m certain Elgar would have smiled at the first variation, and the third sounds downright Brahmsian, although it predates the Haydn Variations by nearly two decades.

If Urbs Roma has its longeurs, the A minor Symphony is concise almost to a fault. The slowly lilting Adagio is so lovely I wish it were at least three times longer than its three-and-a-half minutes, while the Scherzo takes us on a memorably wild and thrilling ride.

As in their superb account of the Organ Symphony (1/19), Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s performances here are polished and graciously articulate. Fischer doesn’t drive nearly as hard as Jean-Jacques Kantorow (BIS) in either symphony, favouring poise and charm over heat and bite. There’s exhilaration, too, mind you – in the quicksilver finale of the A minor Symphony, for example, Fischer and the orchestra show they can turn on a dime.

The Danse macabre moves with an elegant yet persistent impetus; listening, one feels impelled to keep moving. Madeline Adkins plays the solo violin part alluringly yet with a slightly devilish edge to her tone. The entire programme is recorded with crystalline clarity in a natural, airy concert-hall perspective. I’m already craving the next instalment.