The differences between these two productions strike home forcibly right from the off, as early as the First Symphony’s opening Allegro di molto, which in Jan Willem de Vriend’s recording, the timpani (marked forte then sforzando) register with great presence, the trumpets too (similarly marked). On Edward Gardner’s disc, although the adrenalin count is high and the playing extremely deft, the accent is more on what we’d normally think of as ‘Mendelssohnian’ lightness. Another contrast registers at the start of the Andante, where de Vriend’s preference for a largely vibrato-free line will please some more than others. In this respect Gardner generates greater warmth, though he by no means overdoes things: his is the gentler statement, very much along the lines of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, though he keeps the music mobile. The Minuet third movement again summons parallel points of comparison, de Vriend offering a sabre-rattling Allegro molto, Gardner something rather more understated, though he gives de Vriend a run for his money in the finale, where his lighter textures and swift tempo pay high dividends.

At the start of the Scottish Symphony, de Vriend’s chaste wind lines approximate the sound of treble organ pipes, his strings cleansed of any romanticising tremor, the bass-line pulsating audibly as the introduction progresses, the timpani billowing as the shifting climate dictates. This time Gardner’s timps make more of an impact than before; his Introduction is admirably urgent, his Allegro agitato initially quieter and lighter on its feet than de Vriend’s, whose reading has more edge, though the start of his Allegro is more prosaic than Gardner’s. Then again, as soon as arguments gain heat, de Vriend and his Netherlands Symphony take off like a rocket, the timps re entering the fray as if this were the Eroica. Both performances observe the Third’s important first-movement repeat.

It’s interesting to compare the two versions of the work’s ‘add-on’ coda, de Vriend magisterial (those timps rumbling away in the background), Gardner much swifter. Depends whether you view the episode as a lively summation (Gardner) or a grand arrival (de Vriend). I tend towards the latter option, though I think the former possibly fits better. As to recent rivals for the Scottish, I still rate Heinz Holliger with the Musikkollegium Winterthur where, as I’ve written previously in these pages, the screws are tightened, and the bolts with them, so that what’s pictured within the frame seems extremely well focused. Gardner’s Mendelssohn is extremely satisfying but for me there’s too much Victorian gentility about it. I want to hear where Mendelssohn was leading (ie towards Wagner), not where he was at, which is why if choosing between these particular releases I’d opt for de Vriend, in spite of Gardner’s excellent bonus, a vigorous performance of the superb Ruy Blas overture.