This is the third and best release in the ongoing Prokofiev symphony cycle from the LSO and its principal guest conductor. Though forensic in their pursuit of buried lines, Gianandrea Noseda and his players never undersell the composer’s shock tactics. Theirs is not the only way to play a symphony repurposing what once seemed a doomed operatic project based on the faux 16th-century novel by Valery Bryusov (1873-1924). In either guise the music can’t quite decide whether it wants to be diatonic, expressionistic or machine-driven. Andrew Litton caresses the lyrical tune associated with The Fiery Angel’s ‘possessed’ heroine as if she were conventional love interest in his accommodating Bergen recording (BIS, 12/20). Noseda seems more interested in the instrumental kinks that undermine her sanity, horror-movie style. The demonic menace of woodwind and brass is only partly a reflection of the harsher acoustic of London’s Barbican Hall. This is an account big on creepy sepulchral interjections, close-miked or otherwise. One at the very end of the movement sometimes passed unnoticed in the days of vinyl, buried under rumble and surface noise.

Even shorn of applause, the present rendition sounds both contemporary and live in a good way, the excitement growing as the evening or evenings proceed (two source concerts are credited). The third movement, initially marked Allegro agitato and certainly that with its hyperactive divided strings, has tremendous heft. No matter that it tends to be louder than marked. The curt, bell-capped finale is noisy enough to scare the neighbours. Admirers of Claudio Abbado, in charge for the LSO’s rather subtler studio recording of 1969 (Decca, 10/70), may want to explore a subsequent unofficial Royal Festival Hall relay. That said, the implacable onslaught of today’s more disciplined band in its current home is impressively captured here. LSO Live will be launching each work digitally via the usual streaming and download services before the complete cycle appears in physical format.