You’d think this same team’s own classic DG recording (12/94) would prove a dauntingly tough act to follow, let alone supersede. And so it turns out, though there’s ample evidence here nonetheless to suggest that Tchaikovsky’s epic Manfred still means a very great deal to Mikhail Pletnev. This imposing SACD remake defiantly clocks in at just shy of one hour (nearly seven minutes longer than its predecessor), but Pletnev’s interpretation has such grit, control and understanding that I seldom found my attention wavering – how skilfully he holds this sprawling canvas together. Of the subtle inner workings of Tchaikovsky’s ambitious score Pletnev remains an unassailable master and his conviction is palpable. (I should also warn that his grunts and groans are often audible.) Nor is there any disputing the tireless application and superior (sometimes breathtaking) co-ordination displayed by the Russian National Orchestra; Pletnev’s antiphonally seated first and second fiddles are further boon, especially in the scherzo. I do, however, crave rather more of a cutting edge from the horns in particular, not to mention greater bloom and warmth than Pentatone’s favoured Moscow studio acoustic can muster. Early on in the finale, I don’t care for the way Pletnev slams on the brakes at 0'18" and again at 0'53" – nor, for that matter, the spurious muted trumpet from 2'46" – but, my goodness, what thrusting momentum and giddy excitement he generates in these bacchanalian pages (superbly crisp tambourine interjections, by the way), and how enviably hushed and concentrated is his handling of that tricky Lento episode that soon follows from 4'38" (a passage where so many performances have foundered).

Not a replacement for the DG version, then, but a powerfully integrated and genuinely absorbing supplement to it. A document, in sum, that any collector who has ever thrilled to this extraordinarily inventive and turbulent creation should try and hear.