Debussy believed that a composer's metronome marking was only valid for the first bar. Andrew Manze goes the other way. Although he eschews Beethoven's direction of crotchet=180 for the first movement, he doesn't begin at a basic figure either. The opening is broad; speed only rises from bar 29 onwards. Unorthodox - but it works. Manze creates expectations of an edifice that he unfolds at a wide range of tempi, if not always the requisite tension. The miking arrangement may be partly responsible for this. Rightly, Manze places the second violins (one fewer than the firsts) antiphonally; but they are not integrated with the rest of the band and are, at best, weakly localised in the right speaker, often leaving a hole in the string texture.

The Funeral March, however, does not entirely succumb to this lack of substance because Manze doesn't play down its gravity, sticking to a single inexorable pulse, even in the C major section. And precise drive in the Scherzo, with brazen horns in the Trio, presages a finale of real stature. Manze, who sees it as “both innovative and mindful of ancient practice”, cohesively binds the variations of this movement that are based on No 7 of the ensuing Contredanses. They are small pieces but, together with the finale from the ballet (dance-tune to the fore), form logical fillers that also benefit from practised playing; and the sound, despite the glitch in the violin balance, is more refined and analytical in SACD than CD.