Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, the two great conductors who built the unique reputation of the Philadelphia Orchestra, were both dedicated interpreters of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, but the interpretation of Christoph Eschenbach, the orchestra’s latest music director, could hardly provide a stronger contrast. This is a live recording, yet until the finale, when the performance really takes off in a thrilling account, the result is curiously muted. Speeds are consistently slow, so that at over 51 minutes, this interpretation takes eight minutes longer than Jansons (Chandos, 3/85), who is by no means a speed merchant.

So at a very steady pulse, plain and metrical, the slow introduction to the first movement sounds too literal, and the following Allegro too, clean and precise, is rather lacking in forward movement, dull next to the electrifying readings of Jansons and Gergiev (Philips, 8/05, also recorded live). The slow movement also has a very measured basic tempo, steady and plain, though the resonance and expressive responsiveness of the legendary Philadelphia strings, ripely recorded, make it more persuasive than the first movement. The waltz rhythms of the Scherzo are light and lilting enough but Eschenbach fails to make the phrases link on one to the next, keeping them strangely separate. The grand slow introduction to the finale works well at a stately tempo, but when in contrast with everything that has gone before Eschenbach launches into the Allegro vivace at a challengingly fast tempo the whole performance is transformed. From then on he sustains tension in the way one expects of a live performance, rounding it off with weightily emphatic repeated chords. No wonder that brings an ovation.

What makes the reading of the Symphony the more puzzling is the playing of Eschenbach as pianist in the charming account he gives of the first six movements of Tchaikovsky’s piano suite The Seasons – from January to June. His touch is magical, with rippling passagework that tickles the ear, and a natural feel for the flexible phrasing that the music calls out for. These are performances that characterise each movement brilliantly, full of fantasy and charm, with contrasts strongly established. What a pity that Eschenbach evidently finds it hard to persuade orchestral players to follow similar patterns of interpretation.