There is no shame in reaching the age of 80 without ever having released a Schumann symphony on disc, but there is every reason to celebrate the fact that Claudio Abbado has found this new outlet as he embarks on his ninth decade. He has chosen the Second Symphony in C major, recorded last year in Vienna’s Musikverein along with the Manfred and Genoveva overtures. The combination of the hall’s acoustics and the Orchestra Mozart’s burnished timbre ensures that the sound quality is of a supreme order, but allied to that is the living perspective that Abbado brings to the music. One hesitates to call it alchemy, since that rather implies that Abbado is transmuting something base into something precious, whereas his guiding principle is obviously that the symphony is already of a stature and character that make it ripe for his transcendent art of interpretation.

And this one has everything you could wish for. He achieves impeccable clarity of texture, unanimity of attack and precision of articulation. Over and above that, the symphony’s dramatic trajectory is comprehensively and thrillingly described; there is a broad, over-arching sweep to the phrasing that carries the music forwards; and Abbado’s ear for detail and the individual colouristic effects of instrumental tonal qualities make the score glow with subtle light and shade. The underlying power of the symphony’s performance is carried over into the Manfred and Genoveva overtures, all three works manifesting Schumann’s creative originality that Abbado taps with such insight and dynamism.