I’ve never really ‘got’ Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony, preferring Eric Coates’ more literal representations to RVW’s impressionistic, vaseline-coated lens. That said, this performance is impressive from beginning to end.

The depiction of a stirring organism followed by the mighty crash is just one of many choice moments. Manze (such an unlikely candidate as a fine RVW conductor) handles the aquatints and orchestral contours with finesse and imagination. In the slow movement (Bloomsbury Square on a November Afternoon) the sounds of hansom cab and lavender seller are beautifully captured by the engineers, but there’s also a secretive feel. (Is that also the sound of a member of the Bloomsbury set en route to have a liaison with a close relative?) The Scherzo movement, although termed a nocturne, is more extrovert, with the festivities of the rich in the great hotels of the Strand in full swing against sounds of raucous poverty on the opposite bank, again perfectly conveyed.

The finale is vintage Vaughan Williams with the threefold march-allegro-march describing the sort of dignified noble pageantry one rarely associates with this composer. The Eighth Symphony is a product of the composer’s Indian summer. Partly an exercise in sonorities (a...