Gounod’s symphonies, boomed the first edition of Grove magisterially, “are of no importance”; and this dismissive judgement has persisted until fairly recently. Well, it depends what emphasis you put on “importance”. They are certainly not browfurrowing and do not represent any advance in symphonic thought beyond Schumann and Mendelssohn (Berlioz might never have existed), but they reveal Gounod in the Gallic tradition of elegantly crafted works with a light touch rather than in his familiar sentimental, sanctimonious image. This is the Gounod of Philemon et Baucis and of the delightful Medecin malgre lui (of which we badly need a recording). The melodious, classically built and even witty First Symphony, in particular, with its delicate second-movement fugue and vivacious finale, is not to be peremptorily brushed aside (quite apart from its serving as a model for the scintillating Symphony in C major by Bizet, who in fact arranged his teacher’s work for piano duet). The longer Second Symphony (there were originally also others, but they haven’t survived), likewise first heard in 1855 (the year of his Messe solennelle), makes an attempt to sound more serious, especially in the first movement and the dramatic scherzo – the cantilena of the Larghetto is beautifully shaped here – but high spirits return in the finale.
As they have shown in their discs of Schubert and Mendelssohn, John Lubbock and his St John’s orchestra are adept at the crisply neat treatment that this music demands. At the moment they have only one rival in this programme, the excellent Toulouse Capitole Orchestra under Plasson, a reissue of a 1980 recording; but these springy, on-their-toes performances show that the French have no monopoly in stimulating delight in their own music. Lubbock’s wind section is outstanding, but in the finale of No. 1 the violins too show real virtuosity. A warm but clean recorded sound adds to our pleasure. A happy disc.'