The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has already set the bar high, with the first release on its own label – in partnership with LSO Live – featuring sublime accounts of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées and Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder, both with soprano Siobhan Stagg.

This second release, recorded live in Hamer Hall in July 2023, again finds Chief Conductor Jaime Martín at the helm of the MSO, this time for the first of five albums exploring all nine of Dvořák’s symphonies. And what better way to begin such a journey with the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, which despite being so often overshadowed by the “New World” reveal the composer at his most pastoral and lyrically nationalistic. Indeed, the powerful Seventh and Eighth Symphonies also showcase a darker, more dramatic side of Dvořák’s music, filled with intensity and a broader emotional palette; but these qualities only serve to make the pastoral charm of the Fifth and Sixth even more distinct.

Martín’s interpretation quite properly leans into the lyrical grace of Dvořák’s writing, favouring a spacious, unhurried approach that allows the aforementioned pastoral elements to flourish. The...