Hackle-raising stuff from Michi Gaigg. She offers resourceful thinking about the Fifth Symphony – or distasteful re-thinking that destroys a traditional image evoked by descriptions such as ‘intimate character’ (Alfred Einstein) and ‘this very perfect little work’ (Donald Tovey). Intimate it may be in terms of orchestration (no clarinets, trumpets or timpani) but the 19-year-old Schubert’s use of horns isn’t lost on Gaigg. She doesn’t diminish their significance; brassy timbres are either piercing or rounded in this period-instrument band.

Suggestions of geniality in the first 40 softly played bars of the opening movement disappear in the forte tutti. Jabbing accents introduce a prickly edge, aided by a near-field recorded perspective. An extra viola and cello would have added body to the upper and lower midrange. But clarity speaks; and the force of the interpretation is unequivocal, surprisingly so in the Andante con moto. Selectively emphasised up-beats lift rhythms warmed by glowing horns, until bars 41-43 and 108-110 when their harsh sforzandos lacerate sensibilities. Gaigg probes many a disturbing cross-current in this symphony.

An unsettling interpretation, to be sure, but the rest of the programme, in more expansive sound too, ought to restore equanimity. Start with the Overture D591, one of Schubert’s humorous tributes to Rossini, conducted by Gaigg with a fine ear for pointed phraseology and the niceties of balance between wind and strings. For serious intent, try D648 in E minor, ambitiously orchestrated to include four horns and three trombones, and very imposingly performed.