This latest instalment of Pentatone’s multi-maestro Shostakovich cycle has many fine qualities but, interpretatively speaking, it’s something of a curate’s egg. The band’s trademark divided violins frame a sound stage of real breadth and depth, though the resonance can disappear a little abruptly at the end of movements.

Notwithstanding the occasional lapse – horns are sometimes out of sorts – the Fifth is graced with playing that is generally expert while reluctant to call undue attention to itself. This may be another way of saying that Kreizberg’s conception is somewhat dour, closer to Sanderling than Mravinsky and hence possibly not for the uninitiated. The first movement is rhythmically crisp with some audible exhortations from the podium and a poetic, benumbed coda. The Allegretto is spaciously Mahlerian and the Largo must be one of the slowest since André Previn’s famous mid-Sixties account. The finale, following without much of a break, lays on the anti-Stalinist, anti-celebratory message with a trowel. The closing stages are trudgingly deliberate in a way that may well be in line with fashionable prejudice but lacks musical rationale.

The sweet-and-sour Ninth seems better balanced, at times right up there with Kondrashin himself. Despite the whirlwind tempo, the central Presto is finely poised, with some terrific woodwind-playing. It is worth acquiring the disc for this alone. The finale’s climactic grimaces are convincing too, if more subjectively paced. A pity that the booklet-note, as so often with this label, is awkwardly rendered into English. Don’t hesitate if you’re collecting the series.