Few things are more guaranteed to incur a critic's wrath than an outstanding musical performance virtually destroyed by a misguided audio production. This is a compelling, supercharged account of the symphony: the climaxes crackle with energy, themes sing with consummate shaping and speeds are judged to absolute perfection. But for some reason the production team have superimposed on to this exceptional music-making an organ fundamentally out of tune with itself (let alone the orchestra of which it is supposed to be an integral part) and seemingly made no attempt in the final mix to create anything remotely resembling a realistic balance. Wayne Marshall himself is no shrinking violet and, aided and abetted by a Rouen church acoustic out of proportion with the Oslo Konserthaus where the remainder of the orchestra was recorded, he ensures that whenever the organ plays it effectively obliterates everything else. Hi-fi buffs might relish the sonic drama, but I would refer other listeners to my ''Gramophone Collection'' in the February issue (page 36), where Yan Pascal Tortelier's recording with the Ulster Orchestra emerged as my first choice.
However, alongside this sits a recording of rare subtlety. These two works may both be by Saint-Saens and may share the number 3 in their title (the Violin Concerto is genuinely the third, although the symphony is actually his fifth), but beyond that there is little common ground between them: a fact underlined by a performance as discreet and understated as the symphony's is not. Jansons is an immensely sympathetic accompanist, discreet, infinitely responsive and with an unerring awareness of balance. Zimmermann's playing, if not actually subdued, concentrates on musical integrity at the expense of outright virtuosity although his mastery of Saint-Saens's technically forbidding writing is in its own way breathtaking. I doubt whether Sarasate, the concerto's dedicatee, would have given so delicate a performance back in 1880, but to 1990s ears, less easily enticed by sheer bravado pyrotechnics, such musical integrity has a truly endearing quality.'