“The Cologne Broadcasts” says Profil’s sleeve, but in the first two movements of the Symphonic Dances there’s little spark or tension one would associate with a live event. Granted, the orchestral playing per se is first-rate, crisply disciplined and rhythmically adroit, but the homesick heart of the music eludes Bychkov.

That unforgettably touching recollection of the First Symphony’s fateful motto theme in the first dance’s coda goes for disappointingly little and there are some fussy gear changes in the haunted ballroom of the second. It’s only in the finale that this partnership at last show what they’re capable of: outer portions have genuine abandon without any loss of composure, while the slower central section (with its hugely poignant echoes of The Isle of the Dead) ideally combines ardour and compassion. Impressive in parts, then, but in the digital stakes neither Ashkenazy (Decca, 4/84R) nor Jansons (EMI, 12/93R) are seriously challenged.

No, the real reason for investigating this release is Bychkov’s compelling account of the still all-too-rarely heard 1913 cantata The Bells. Not only does the Russian maestro marshal his sizeable, immaculately prepared forces with conspicuous skill, his three home-grown soloists respond with great fervour and sensitivity. Certainly, I found it a more involving experience than Pletnev’s admittedly exquisitely luminous reading (DG, 8/01) – and, unlike his bigger-name rival, Bychkov wisely shuns the simplified choral parts in the Scherzo that the composer fashioned for a 1936 Sheffield Festival performance under Sir Henry Wood.

Reacquaintance with the great Kyrill Kondrashin’s incandescent Moscow PO coupling of these two masterworks (Melodiya, 9/06) has merely confirmed its unassailable artistic credentials, but the crude 1963 sound can’t hold a candle to this handsomely masterminded WDR production (the SACD layer in particular handles the occasionally seismic choral interjections with aplomb).