How one sympathises with Boris Asafyev – the Mr Big of Soviet musicology from the 1920s to the 1940s – when faced with having to summarise the music of Glazunov and others working in the circle of the conservatively minded publisher and patron Mitrofan Belyayev. Asafyev diagnosed a case of ‘musical anaemia’, and though that assessment may seem patronising, it is hard to contradict. Glazunov’s balancing-act between Russian idiom and more international (German) procedures often sounds not unlike Tchaikovsky, but the safety-net of academic routine is never far away.

All the same, performance can make all the difference. Unfortunately, Valery Polyansky – better known (and, I feel, simply much better) as a choral conductor – seems mainly concerned with surface issues. He takes such an affectionate view of Glazunov’s lyricism that the flow stagnates as early as the Sixth Symphony’s intro- duction. And when the fiery main section of the first movement gets going, it only partially ignites; the strings sound particularly in need of some incandescence from the podium. Scrupulous musicianship of this kind is not enough. The rival BBC NOW disc is much to be preferred, though I still had to reach for the historic Golovanov to remind me how thrilling this symphony can sound.

David Nice’s booklet-note wisely and gently warns us not to expect too much, either of the symphony or of the teenage Glazunov’s Characteristic Suite, which tentatively essays character rather than actually possessing it. Recording quality is respectable, but still not up to Chandos’s in-house productions. Not one to put very high on the shopping-list.

Should the fourth volume in BIS’s survey of the symphonies be near the top? Certainly, if either the Fifth or the Seventh Symphony fills a gap in your collection. The Fifth was rated by his contemporaries one of Glazunov’s sunniest symphonies; and it definitely sounds like that when heard straight after the stormy Sixth, although the slow movement briefly introduces some fateful Tchaikovskian shadows. For me the delightful, pattering Scherzo is the highlight. The Fifth Symphony’s informal nickname,‘The Spring’, is echoed by that of the Seventh, ‘The Pastoral’, the latter earned mainly thanks to F major tonality and a Beethoven-emulating opening gesture.

The BBC NOW performances are spruce and sympathetic, avoiding special pleading but at the same time far more subtle than routine run-throughs. High standards of recording and booklet presentation continue to be a strong selling-point for this series.