Two good Second Symphonies, very unalike, though their respective couplings are more problematic. Douglas Boyd appears to have taken a hint or two from Nikolaus Harnocourt, not unreasonably given that as lead oboe of the COE Boyd gave many a memorable performance under Harnoncourt’s direction.

His Beethoven is light, transparent and in the Second Symphony (from Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in February, 2004) coloured with numerous expressive dynamic curves. The slow opening is very well paced, with keen inflections, musical phrasing and a breathing (as opposed to a rigid) pulse. Start at around 2’00” and note how Boyd holds the tension, the slip into allegro taut and punchy. Masur’s big-band Champs-Elysées Second is heavier, less elegant than Boyd’s, the Adagio molto introduction impatient for the onset of the allegro chase, the allegro itself rugged and blustery (both performances play the first-movement repeat). Masur adds an extra shot of adrenalin to his last Leipzig Second and you can hear him urging his players on.

Put briefly, Boyd’s Second is a Haydn-inspired throwback, powdered but forceful (keenly projected sforzati in the Scherzo’s trio) and with a fine, well balanced recording. Masur’s live performance (from the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris in November 2002) is very much pre-Eroica, impatient and excitable, the recording fairly central but with poorly focused horns.

Masur’s backward horns are more of a problem in the Pastoral, a mellow reading that adds precious little to his conceptually similar Leipzig recording (the two first movements are identical in length). It’s a good, solid account with a likeable swell to the phrasing. But for me what puts it out of court as a serious contender are at least three instances in the second movement where for some reason the engineers have momentarily boosted the level – at 2’16”, 3’08” and (less so) 7’21”. Not something to bear repeatedly.

Boyd’s coupling is a springy, very PC and conspicuously un-monumental Fifth, where the last note of the opening four-note motto fades on a diminuendo. The first movement is fast and incisive but lacking in tension, the Andante con moto fluid and well shaped: the quietly running string figurations at 3’43” are particularly beautiful, but when wind and timps take the lead a little later, the strings lose their impact. Both the scherzo and finale include their repeats. But put on David Zinman’s Tonhalle CD (also with both repeats) and the difference is striking, especially the basses’ fugato in the Scherzo – Zinman’s players really go for it, Boyd’s are neat but too well-mannered – and the latter part of the finale. With Zinman’s Fifth you sense revolution in the air; with Boyd’s the high spirits are offset by a certain blandness though the finale’s second subject is cleanly articulated and I liked the imposing (if unexpected) ritardando at the end. A good calling card for the Manchester Camerata, though and, as with the Second, excellent sound.