These readings have the intentness of conviction, which the still underrated Symphony No. 1 in particular richly deserves…In approaching Tippett’s teaming textures, Brabbins and his producer Andrew Keener appear to have aimed for clarity. A relatively modest string body allows wind detail to come through; and a fairly dry studio acoustic is preferred.

[Symphony No. 1] remains a challenge to conductors as well as to recording technology, a challenge which this new version surmounts with polish and panache…By showing how the central movements [of the Second] complement and balance the outer ones, Brabbins gives the music maximum cogency…This is remarkable music-making, and recorded with all the appropriate richness of colour and clarity of textural detail.

This performance [of the First] is full of brilliant touches, whether it be the dancing oboes and bassoon in the third-movement Scherzo, lustrous strings in the Trio of the same movement, or the way that Brabbins manages to maintain clarity amongst the complex contrapuntal lines in the outer movements.

Tippett’s first two symphonies fill a CD comfortably, and here hugely inspiringly...the First (1945) dour, war-torn and contrapuntally severe, albeit energised in true Tippettian fashion; the Second an incandescent masterpiece of 1957, hectically inventive, rhythmically unstoppable and sounding freshly glorious.

Brabbins and the BBCSSO give buoyancy and a real sense of purpose to the sometimes congested textures of No 1, in which echoes of the English pastoral tradition collide with Hindemith-like neoclassicism. They also capture all the exuberance of No 2, with its springing, pounding rhythms and pools of delicate lyricism.

Notwithstanding Colin Davis’s excellence in the first three Symphonies, Martyn Brabbins gives us commanding accounts of the first two – for our time, which should dispel any Twenty-First Century Blues, both works complemented by top-notch production values, vivid and dynamic sound, and informed annotation. All in all, unmissable.

Brabbins shines in the exhilarating Second Symphony, showing particular perception in the fantasia- like finale, where he ties together the disparate threads with judicious skill. The magical slow movement, too, distils a most haunting beauty.