Word is beginning to get around that Weinberg’s Sixth should be on the shortlist for anyone wondering where to make a start with his massive symphonic output. It was composed a matter of months after Shostakovich’s Thirteenth; and, though it may not quite match the lacerating quality of that masterpiece, there are all sorts of ways in which it makes a fine complement. Shostakovich recommended the piece to his pupils and together the two works spearheaded a revival of the cantata-symphony that found the Soviet Union in the lead.

Weinberg entrusted three of his five movements to boys’ voices (he may well have heard from Shostakovich about their symbolism of damaged innocence in the works of Britten). The boys of Glinka Choral College carry the responsibility well here, showing up the limitations of the brave but non-native Russian singing on Fedoseyev’s Neos disc and of the adult female voices for Ahronovich (singing in Yiddish in an excellently played but artificially recorded account). Lande conducts with an understanding and fervour that is greatly superior to both Fedoseyev versions (especially that on Relief, which is brutally cut and to be avoided). There is no getting away from the superiority of Kondrashin’s interpretation or the playing of his top-notch Moscow orchestra, who give Weinberg the kind of cutting edge evident in the composer’s own recordings as pianist. But this is not easy to find, so Naxos should be thanked for giving us this worthwhile stop-gap. If it heralds recordings of Weinberg’s later, as yet unrecorded, vocal symphonies, that will certainly be cause for hats in the air.

Similarly, the Moldavian Rhapsody, which shows Weinberg at his most tuneful and engaging, cannot compare to the rival Chandos account but it does enhance the attractiveness of the disc for newcomers seeking inexpensive access to his orchestral music.