Over a concentrated few days in May 2004, Valery Gergiev conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in an incendiary Prokofiev symphony cycle, later released on Philips. Since then Gergiev has come and gone as principal conductor and now Gianandrea Noseda, principal guest, is surveying a new cycle. Unlike Gergiev’s high-impact hit, it’s spread out over a number of seasons. And unlike Gergiev, the symphonies are being released one at a time by LSO Live, initially to stream or download, eventually to appear in a physical box-set once the cycle is complete.

Noseda makes an emphatic, rather heavy start with the Haydnesque Classical Symphony, recorded in early 2020 before the world shut down. The sound is bigger and meatier than in 2004, with solo instruments spotlit; the trumpets, especially, are more present, a hectoring quality that should be great in the other symphonies but is less so here, where a twinkle in the eye is required rather than a sharp poke. Noseda’s first movement is sluggish, but the Larghetto flows. The Gavotte is nicely clipped, light on its toes. His finale isn’t as helter-skelter as Gergiev’s but still comes in at a lively canter, cleanly articulated.