Maybe the forces required to pull it off are a tad awkward, but performances of Britten’s invigorating Spring Symphony are surprisingly scarce. The addition of boys – most likely children’s voices nowadays – to the adult chorus makes it a challenging sing, especially as they have to belt out the final Sumer is icumen in over full choir and orchestra. If you want to hear how to pull it off, however, look no further than Simon Rattle’s London Symphony Orchestra recording on LSO Live.

Britten took several years to bring the idea to fruition, his ideas chopping and changing as he shifted from a Latin-based choral symphony to a compilation of Elizabethan poetry that transitions from the icy clutches of winter to revitalizing spring. The result is a four-part symphonic structure: a slow introduction leads into a lively opening movement; a thoughtful slow movement follows with a perhaps unexpected reference to war in the east; next a jaunty scherzo; and finally a rumbustious finale. It was eventually premiered by the Concertgebouw under Eduard van Beinum in 1949 (a rough-and-ready recording...