This is a disc whose raison d’être rather escapes me. What is the point of yet another Sibelius Second when neither the conductor nor the players have any strong interpretative point to make? Paavo Järvi takes fairly brisk tempi and plays down the Tchaikovskian rhetoric. That would be fine if he could match the tension of a Vänskä, the textural felicity of a Berglund or the sheer inspiration of a Barbirolli. As it is, his Cincinnati musicians sound willing enough and well rehearsed but not entirely convinced, and the upshot is a stilted, studio-bound impression.

At first glance the choice of coupling looks admirable. The Fifth is one of the strongest of Tubin’s symphonies, capturing as it does a tense, wartime atmosphere (the piece dates from 1946) in a wiry, neo-classical language that compares not unfavourably with Honegger and, in its timpani-dominated conclusion, with Khachaturian; the slow movement even looks ahead to Shostakovich’s ‘1905’ Symphony (No 11).

Järvi certainly seems to have convinced his players that Tubin is worth putting themselves out for. The trouble is that his father conducts a much tauter, more impassioned account on BIS, while the rather thinner-sounding Estonian performance on Alba carries a very special conviction. Both of these rival discs are also considerably better documented, at least so far as the Tubin is concerned, and Telarc’s recording sounds surprisingly congested.