Sleek, classy, immaculate – but what I wouldn’t give for a little more heart and a little more heat. In the Fourth Symphony Pletnev takes his lead from the Moderato con anima marking for the all-pervasive first subject, with clear emphasis on the con anima. And it’s that animation, that restlessness, which prevails throughout the first movement. That, and a cool, impassive classicism. The folksy second subject has rarely sounded more urbane, moving swiftly on with less emphasis on the folksy, more on a kind of cosmetic translucence.

It’s all a matter of taste, of course, but to my way of thinking Tchaikovsky is simply not Tchaikovsky without a strong sense of the personal governing its beating heart. Pletnev understands the text completely but he refuses to be drawn emotionally. It is a feeling more than it is a fact but even the momentous returns of that ubiquitous first subject – the moment of recapitulation at the climax of the development and the start of the coda – are characterised by an air of stern objectivity. In the latter instance, his huge expansion into the mighty tremolando restatement in violins would be that much more overwhelming if Tchaikovsky the impulsive Romantic was more in evidence.

And so it goes on: the lovely oboe melody of the Andantino second movement offers not so much as a whiff of lingering enticement – and oh, for a little more caress in that gorgeous passage for cellos towards the close of the movement. The rest goes with a swing – thoroughly slick and engaged playing from the Russian National Orchestra, with pristine woodwinds in the jolly shanty trio of the Scherzo and a brilliantly “vocal” articulation of the lickety-spit finale which, it almost goes without saying, stays just shy of blistering. No nonsense, but no strong identity, either.

The Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet behaves almost like a fourth ballet, with a dramatically established contrast between the religioso atmosphere of the opening paragraph and the rapier-sharp articulation of the fight music. Pletnev makes much of the oscillating rhythm which horns and harp develop in the love music and his sumptuous uncovering of harmony at the climax is richly satisfying. If only his heart ruled his head more.