Grandeur there is in plenty, but also light-heartedness…this honest, impassioned performances imbues [the Symphony] with a surprising power. Integrity also shines through the playing of the symphonic.

His tempos in the Franck Symphony are normal, about the same as Monteux’s famous Chicago version, but Monteux had a more explosive and less Wagnerian idea of the piece. Franck gives us an exciting, sweeping performance where everything glows within the texture and nothing sticks out of it. It’s rich, moves beautifully, and never conveys tizzy melodrama, the way Munch’s Boston Symphony performances used to.

The Symphony gets a fine performance here. Franck understands its logic and tensions, its balance between weight and elegance, its Wagnerian overtones and moments of sensuousness. The orchestral sound is dark yet clear...Franck balances immediacy with pace and proportion...the playing has great richness and fervour, with the woodwind and brass particularly fine in both works.

Mikko Franck’s surname makes you hope he’ll do a decent job with the piece, and indeed he does, helped by a well-drilled Orchestre Philharmonic de Radio France, unashamed to let rip in the more garish climaxes. Franck’s central movement is a structural delight, nicely played here, and we really get to hear the cornets in the symphony’s closing bars.