Sneaking back into contention on the budget Encore label, André Previn’s first, 1973 version of the Eighth would sit just as happily in “GROC” livery. More than a decade after the Mravinsky concert (preserved on BBC Legends, 12/98) that introduced what is now perhaps an over-familiar score to London audiences, EMI undertook this, the first commercial recording to be made in the West. It stands up remarkably well. The first and fourth movements are long-breathed, as deeply felt as any, while the reckless tempo of the second Scherzo is probably modelled on early US accounts by Koussevitzky and Rodzinski. Rhythmic flair is a hallmark of the LSO’s work in this period and the freshness, colour and spontaneity of the playing cannot be gainsaid. One curious oddity comes with the violin solo leading into the finale’s mysterious C?D?C coda. The aberrant ascending line there is also to be found in earlier studio sessions by Haitink et al.

In a chequered career, Previn’s reluctance to burden musical discourse with personal point-scoring has sometimes made for anonymity but his unforced approach works as well here as in his celebrated LSO Fifth. Gloomy and spiritless it may be at times, yet this is also young man’s music, something that rarely comes across in recent, apparently more idiomatic (and, dare I suggest, more boring?) performances. Shostakovich sceptics in particular should give it a listen. Less happily, Robert Layton’s notes, included on a 1995 CD issue, have been replaced by the usual farrago of disinformation.