When André Previn brought Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony back in from the cold during the 1970s others followed suit. Traditional cuts were opened up and nobody, it seemed, wanted to let go of the piece. It was long, but it was gorgeous. All – including Previn (and his EMI recording is still quite something) – took that as a licence to wallow. Schubert didn’t have the monopoly on ‘heavenly lengths’.

But a new century brings a fresh start – at least, that’s the feeling that Iván Fischer engenders here. He conducts the piece as Rachmaninov might have played it: with a free and malleable sense of spontaneity. It’s the romantic more than the epic that Fischer emphasises. Words like ardent, fleet, airborne appear in my listening notes. In short, a narrative imperative.

The first movement quickly shakes off the lugubriousness of its introduction. It’s a low-cholesterol sound that Fischer produces as layer upon layer of string texture and finally flutes carry us towards the first subject. Channel Classics has complemented his reading with a lovely, open and natural production. The blend is all Fischer’s, though, and if I have a misgiving it concerns the horns whose effulgent descants are way too shy in the luscious second subject.

Nothing shy about the second subject of the scherzo, though. Rachmaninov’s written portamento can sound horribly contrived here – pasted dutifully between notes rather than evolving effortlessly from the rise and fall of the phrase. But then Fischer’s Budapest strings aren’t about imitating the Rachmaninov style; they inhabit it.

Fischer’s musical storytelling is exceptional. What do those sombre brass shadings tells us at the close of the scherzo? I don’t think I have ever heard them sound quite so unsettling. Nor have I felt quite so strongly that the opening of the slow movement – arriving as it does mid-sentence – is Rachmaninov abruptly changing the subject. Anything but confront the demons. The eternal clarinet solo (ravishingly played here) may be sad but it’s songful (in a way that the melancholic Vocalise, the filler here, is songful). You don’t need words to feel the regret.

Fresh and engaging, then. I shall still return to Previn for the opulence and the thrills – nowhere more so than the coda of the finale where the return of the big tune finds André back in Hollywood for one last hurrah; Fischer is studio-bound by comparison. His Prom performance from a month or so prior to this recording was altogether more uplifting. Even so, well worth your attention and guaranteed to clear your head of preconceptions.