As the motto phrase on cellos and basses opening No 4 rises out pianissimo against a pianissimo background of violas, bassoon and clarinet, you’ll know that a fine conductor is in charge. Howard Griffiths ensures that the same dynamic is graded appropriately. So no instrument is overshadowed; nor is the hush broken. In tandem is a two-note figure in thirds in ‘Scotch snap’ rhythm which, also modified as a bird-call, is played for a number of bars – from 3'59" – on a rare instrument, the tierce flute. Griffiths is as attentive to these elements as he is to the succeeding movement’s structural mix of lullaby, dance and serenade in separate time signatures. Tempo changes revolve in proportion to the specified single metronome marking of 152, the cello solo in the serenade enhanced by Griffiths’s keenly balanced support.

A different ambience ushers in the C major Andante start to No 5. Griffiths caresses the strings, phrases lyrically shaped until the stern face of C minor outlines the main Allegro. Neither conductor nor orchestra baulks at the varying moods of the exposition, while relishing a transformation of the introductory theme that forms an unusual development. And a beguiling spirit suffuses the Larghetto in A flat, the band responding readily to the long, affectingly expressive line that Griffiths asks for. It’s all of a quality that continues into the remaining movements and the overture to Karl Birnbaum’s play Der Matrose. Violins and winds are clearly recorded but massed low strings are often opaque and congested.