Zinman brings such a musicianly personality to everything he touches: phrasing and articulation are completely natural, without a trace of the overemphatic leanness of period instrument performance, but equally avoiding the lugubriousness of 20th century tradition...he captures the wit and lilt of the Third Symphony, in a way that makes it sound like a young cousin of Haydn’s ultra-civilised London symphonies.

Zinman and his expert band give predictably athletic, tightly disciplined performances of two contrasting early Schubert Symphonies...With sparing string vibrato, crisp, no-nonsense tempi and valveless trumpets and horns, the performances have a period feel.

Zinman presents these two very different symphonies engagingly. There’s sensitivity to their flowing lines, a welcome lack of affectation in Symphony 3 and an intelligent clarification of the ambivalence of Symphony 4. It’s just a pity he hasn’t quite managed Abbado’s capability of creating really thrilling finales.

Listening to these sprightly performances under Zinman — 76 years old, but hardly veteran-sounding — one has to concur with Dvorak’s astonishment that the young Schubert could express himself with such “deep pathos”.

There's certainly a lightness and litheness to the way that he and the orchestra launch into the opening movement of the D major Third, though the textures are still fairly dense, without any of the transparency that period instruments would bring to this music. The performance of the Fourth, in C minor, goes for broke and ratchets up the tragic intensity as much as it can.

The Fourth Symphony quickly sheds the gloom of its opening Adagio, and, though Zinman is too smooth an operator to capture its breakneck audacity, it’s a handsome, rewarding performance.