The obvious point of comparative reference for this excellent 2011 recording of Liszt’s Dante Symphony is the equally excellent Martin Haselböck version from the previous year. Both feature period instruments, though listening to them side by side scotches any notion that the instruments themselves dictate anything beyond similar sound worlds. The opening pages are telling. Both performances are identical, tempo-wise, but it’s Haselböck whose crescendo-ing timpani and tam-tam achieve the more devastating climax. Come the gruelling march-like motive at around 1'23", it’s Roth who lets us hear the reptilian sting of a valveless horn and yet Haselböck more successfully stresses the loud jabbing horns a couple of minutes later. Haselböck is marginally more effective in the ethereal Quasi andante passage (7'18" on his disc but usefully tracked as a separate episode on Roth’s), though Roth pushes for more speed and momentum in the Allegro roughly five minutes before the movement’s close (15'20" on Haselböck’s disc, tr 5 on Roth’s). At the beginning of Purgatorio, Roth’s gently lapping strings are marginally better focused and I like the rise and fall of his orchestra’s phrasing. Both start the Lamentoso section (so reminiscent of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette) at roughly the same tempo, with Haselböck’s horns ringing resplendent as the climax builds. In the Magnificat, at the halfway point (the word ‘Magnificat’), Roth uses a solo boy’s voice whereas Haselböck opts for the female chorus used throughout.

As to choices, Haselböck’s offers an autumnal-sounding, well-integrated performance, convincingly conducted, well played and revealingly recorded, while Roth’s Les Siècles option (recorded live, though you’d never guess) displays clearer contours and at times a more palpable sense of drama. Both do Liszt proud and both feature excellent fill-ups, Roth a warmly recorded and lyrically flowing account of the tone-poem Orpheus (which plays for 10'51", not 14'41" as stated on the box), Haselböck the far rarer A la Chapelle Sixtine, a melding of Allegri’s Miserere and the late Ave verum corpus by Mozart. Either CD will do nicely but the explorer in me would tend to choose Haselböck as the period recommendation; if modern instruments are an essential prerequisite and you want a single CD, then Noseda, Barenboim and, if you can find him, Lehel on Hungaroton.