Another month, another Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. No sooner have the Orchestre National de Lyon and Leonard Slatkin released their version on Naxos than the Orchestre de la Francophonie and Jean-Philippe Tremblay produce theirs on Analekta. As the label might indicate, the orchestra is Canadian, based in Quebec, and it identifies itself as ‘an important stepping stone for young Canadian musicians embarking on a professional career’. The playing is polished, the recording likewise, and there are so many advantages over the ONL’s Naxos disc as to put it in another league altogether.

Whereas Slatkin’s interpretation was notable for its efficient direction rather than its dramatic lighting, Tremblay’s has a real sense of theatrical scenography as well as lucidity of texture and an impressive awareness of the spectrum of Berlioz’s instrumental timbres. If the second-movement waltz can at times seems a little measured, a touch cautious in the way it approaches the ritenutos and the music’s suppleness, there is nevertheless a good underlying pulse that gathers pace excitingly towards the end. The ‘Scène aux champs’ is hauntingly atmospheric, with an affecting air of loneliness, despondency and yearning. The playing explodes with radiant anguish when appropriate but, as in the performance as a whole, the music’s perspective is never distorted. Rather, there is a firm sense of emotional flux, with proper foreboding in the ‘Marche au supplice’ and a spine-tingling urgency and propulsion in the ‘Songe d’une nuit de sabbat’. Altogether this is a performance in which Berlioz’s challenges are well met.