Paavo Järvi’s Tchaikovsky is undoubtedly a painstaking labour of love. Every single detail has been thought through and is expressed with clarity. He enables us to hear familiar scores afresh, as at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, where a disciplined chorale is contrasted with the music of utter disorientation. In the first movement of the Pathétique, new life and character is added to the flute’s presentation of the main theme through the subtle lengthening of accented notes (2'17"). In the second movement, the famous 5/4 waltz, there is a lovely sweep and balance of phrases that avoids any hint of repetitiveness. And so on – there are many more of these carefully calculated surprises.

But at other times, this detailed approach can be disappointing. The famous ‘love themes’, of Romeo and the first movement of the Sixth, both sound a little artificial and mannered. There is a crescendo on every note, a common mannerism today to compensate for an absence of vibrato, but this works against the singing and sighing nature of Tchaikovsky’s lyrical melodies. These themes are not given space to breathe, so there are no heart-stopping moments. We start to wonder whether we really want such an ascetic rendering of Tchaikovsky, with all the patina of tradition scraped away, small forces, brisk tempos and a dry acoustic.

Even if all these little details appeal to some listeners, they still threaten to rob the music of its grandeur and drama. We expect these iconic pieces to be frightening, ecstatic or devastating, so it seems too great a loss to hear them domesticated. Granted, the general trend these days is to resist the sublime and to ‘subvert’ the greatness of composers and their masterpieces. Jurowski’s or Kirill Petrenko’s recent recordings share something of this approach, but they are not as extreme as Järvi. If Järvi’s Pathétique falls at one end of the spectrum, at the opposite end is the unruly and shamelessly manipulative Currentzis. Compared to that, Järvi’s music-making with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra undeniably possesses the virtues of intelligence and refinement.