No beating about the bush: Vladimir Jurowski’s marvellously articulate, thrillingly combustible 2011 live recording of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth has nothing to fear from this comparatively dour newcomer. Dmitri Kitaenko secures a cultured response from the Cologne orchestra (and sound-wise the SACD layer yields impressive amplitude and warmth) but his big-boned, plushly upholstered account seldom sparks into inspirational life like that of his rival. Under Jurowski the symphony’s magnificent introduction immediately rivets the attention, while the younger maestro stokes up infinitely greater passion and drama during the storm-tossed development. In the central portion of the slow movement, the Cologne strings dig into the notes with exactly the right imploring quality but not everyone will approve of Kitaenko’s decision to pull back the tempo here. Granted, the Pizzicato ostinato comes off splendidly, but the finale falls well short of the giddy excitement and animal charge of Jurowski’s RFH performance – and the hair raising return of the work’s arresting opening fanfares lacks the massive inevitability that, say, Mravinsky (DG) or Monteux (RCA) always brought to it.

There’s a fill-up in the shape of an agreeably poised, zestful and pungently characterised Capriccio italien but it’s hardly sufficient to clinch an overall recommendation, save to those collectors irreconcilably committed to Kitaenko’s Tchaikovsky cycle.