I enjoyed this release for the quality of the playing by a supposedly “provincial” US orchestra which, like many others there, is anything but. Pictures at an Exhibition is a real warhorse, usually heard in Ravel’s glamorous orchestration, which, in a sense, traduces the expressionist starkness of Mussorgsky’s piano original. Sergei Gorchakov’s 1955 version rejects Ravel’s conception of Pictures as a concerto for orchestra. Instead he accentuates the strings, particularly the cellos, and the result is, well, more Russian.

Catacombs seems more sinister, almost Dostoyevskian, and The Old Castle emits a chill reminiscent of Sibelius. Miguel Harth-Bedoya claims to have retained all the ‘wrong’ notes, which has imbued the score with a raw earthiness and...