It’s the Shostakovich effect all over again. You might feel that what we need now are good modern recordings of Prokofiev’s lesser-known pieces – there are three rarely played concert overtures for a start. Instead we’ve another symphony cycle in what has become a very competitive field. Thirty-something American James Gaffigan, spotted as ‘one to watch’ by Gramophone in 2008 and currently Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, directs the Dutch orchestra of which he is Principal Guest in his most ambitious project to date. Those with a preference for realistically recessed surround sound will like the way this Northstar production for Challenge Classics leaves the musicians to their own devices rather than disrupting perspectives with overly analytical miking. With Valery Gergiev and the LSO we are up close and personal on the Barbican’s shallow stage. With Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra it’s anyone’s guess.

What of the interpretations? Gaffigan is no stranger to Prokofiev’s idiom, having often featured the composer in his extensive touring schedule. He has spoken of the Third as ‘pure evil’ but you’d have to go back to the likes of Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the intimidating blare of his Soviet brass to get the greatest sense of living on the edge. As might be expected, Gaffigan is nothing if not polished. He keeps a tight rein on the first movement, achieving translucent results even when Prokofiev throws up speculative tangles of sonic clutter that scarcely lend themselves to elucidation. Before we slip into its exquisitely scored coda, the movement’s final march-like restatement is taken at what may be an unprecedented lick. By accident or design the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic come up with an unusually lifelike bell with which to sound the alarm and bookend the argument as a whole – we’re reminded of the music’s origins in Prokofiev’s sinister pseudo-ecclesiastical opera The Fiery Angel. After this exploration of seedier depths, the Fourth Symphony sounds like a divertissement, which is perhaps as it should be. The score is given in its tauter original version and nicely turned, without too much forward drive. If neither work convinces as a conventional symphonic entity, perhaps that isn’t the point. A promising start has been made to this latest intégrale.