Although it is titled Volume 3, this is actually the fourth in a series of Stravinsky recordings featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra on their own label. All are conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, the orchestra’s principal conductor from 2006-2021, and now chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Stravinsky series has covered the main ballets and other major works, including a sensational Petrushka, while Jurowski has also shown his prowess through live LPO recordings of music by Rachmaninov, Honegger, Vaughan Williams, and others.

This two-disc set represents another feather in his cap. This is the tautest performance around of the neoclassical Symphony in C, composed between 1938 and 1940 (and between Europe and the US, as Stravinsky emigrated to escape the war). It is an abstract work, fascinating on an artistic level, ideal for Jurowski’s disciplined, exciting direction. 

Stravinsky’s first foray into neoclassicism was the ballet Pulcinella, written for the Ballets Russes in 1920. He arranged pre-existing 18th-century songs and dances by Pergolesi and others through the prism of his own abstract style. An orchestral suite is most...