This is both a milestone recording and a disc of milestones. With the issue of the 26th (1966), all 32 of Brian’s numbered symphonies have been commercially issued, 45 years after the first recordings, made for Unicorn (available on Heritage). One of the two works from that groundbreaking release, Symphony No 21 (1963) receives here its first professional recording. And, opening proceedings, we have the second of No 8 (1949), the very first Brian symphony to be performed, way back in February 1954.

Alexander Walker’s track record in Brian – particularly late Brian – is almost second to none, as with this disc his tally runs to 10 symphonies plus the First English Suite; only Martyn Brabbins has recorded more orchestral Brian. Walker’s reading of the Eighth – one of Brian’s very finest – is confident and controlled. The players of the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra sound quite at home with Brian’s very individual idiom and respond to the dark, tragic atmosphere of this freewheeling single movement with its violent outbursts and pair of virtuoso passacaglias. This newcomer is a minute and a half quicker than Groves’s pioneering, slightly tentative account for EMI, now available only as part of a Warner Classics 24-disc set.

Walker is even stronger in No 21, surpassing the fine performance by the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, swifter in the opening pair of movements, slower in the final pair. Although marked Adagio cantabile e sostenuto, the pacing for the second movement strikes me as about right (pace Deryck Cooke’s review of the original recording). And last but not least, No 26, a typical example of Brian’s late, armour-plated jocularity, revealed here as a gripping and convincing symphony. Highly recommended; I must find time now to listen to all 32 in sequence.