The orchestra is balanced upwards, cast loose from a compact bass line that is too discreet for its own good at those many points...But if the symphony’s ‘heavenly lengths’ have left you cold in the past, Emelyanychev could be the man to banish your Schubertian blues. To the perennial debate over the accent or diminuendo on the last note he brings an ingenious solution, contriving both at once.

This first recording from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with their new music director augurs extremely well for their future together – he brings an almost Mendelssohnian fleetness and transparency to Schubert’s writing, but unlike his mentor Teodor Currentzis his approach never seems hard-driven or self-consciously controversial, and like Ticciati before him he has a knack of making the modern-instrument SCO sound like a period band in places.

This is Schubert’s Great C major, mighty heir to Beethoven’s Seventh, in its ferociously rhythmical glory — and with all movements III and IV’s repeats observed. A feast.

The playing, all burbling, characterful woodwinds and straight-toned yet silky strings, is impeccable. Emelyanychev takes this and shapes a performance of Schubert’s colossal ninth symphony that flies by...This recording has no self-consciousness, nothing to suggest a conductor craving our attention – just a performance that captures the joy, grandeur and extremes of feeling in this symphony, without seeming to try.

Emelyanychev never seems a manipulator; he’s always inside the music, flying with the notes, keeping textures light and airy while giving every fortissimo its due. It’s his instinctive grip of Schubert’s dynamics, I think, that may be his secret ingredient..I can’t remember when Schubert’s symphony sounded so life-enhancing and fresh.

As vibrantly dynamic and rhythmically sure-footed as you’d wish. There is some fine horn-playing here too, and stellar work by the oboes...I suspect we will hear earlier music from Emelyanychev and the SCO on Linn, but this “Classical” masterpiece already benefits from the sprightly lightness-of-touch of a musician at home in the Baroque, trombones and all.