For many years when it came to recordings, Jordi Savall was a byword for lavish, eclectic musical projects criss-crossing the east and west, blending musical cultures and histories.

In more recent years he’s turned more solidly to the Classical and Romantic orchestral repertoire, even if in this latest album he doesn’t exactly stick to the centre of the mainstream.

Instead, we get two ‘forgotten symphonies’, as the title puts it, which means early, incomplete Schumann and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 0 – also known as the Symphony in D minor.

The results are exhilarating and ear-opening, making this an unmissable album. That’s of course also thanks to the lithe, alert playing of Les Concerts des Nations, the period-instrument ensemble Savall founded in the late 1980s, and their hand-in-glove rapport. Not only does the album prove the point that there’s always more to discover about composers who seem familiar, but that it’s not only conductors like Roger Norrington who have the monopoly on historically informed performances of Romantic repertoire.

Schumann was planning his arrival on the symphonic stage with his G minor Symphony in the 1830s, not only taking on the challenge posed by Beethoven but one, more recently, by Wagner. “Listen! Herr Wagner has outdone you,” wrote the teenage Clara Wieck to him in 1832 (although Wagner’s symphony also remains something a rarity nowadays). Schumann only ever heard the first movement of his G minor Symphony performed in concert, firstly in 1832 in Zwickau, which gives the piece its nickname.

The last two movements remain unfinished, so here we have the first two, including a grand Adagio introduction that anchors the restless Allegro molto. Savall makes it near impossible not to be swept along and convinced by this music, which brims with invention and originality – and surely deserves to be heard alongside the four complete symphonies more often.

Bruckner completed his second symphony in 1869, but after it was criticised by the Vienna Philharmonic’s conductor, Otto Dessoff, who asked “where is the theme?”, he pulled it from the official numbered sequence – but despite that he didn’t destroy it. It’s now sometimes known as the Symphony No. 0. Just over a hundred years since its belated premiere in 1924, how do we hear this piece today?

There are many recordings to choose from, but few on period instruments, and the textured, colourful sounds they offer refreshing. In the expansive opening Allegro, it’s the string playing that catches the ear, unsettled feeling transforming into introspective searching. (Dessoff may both have had a point about the lack of a theme, while missing the emotional point of the music.)

The Andante, poised between Beethoven and Wagner, is consoling without being sentimental. The strings at times tap into a luminous fragility, and the woodwind playing is wonderfully fluid. The Scherzo is a fireball of energy, and Le Concerts des Nations is taut and explosive, while the lyrical contrast of the Trio is beautifully judged. And the finale finds Bruckner flexing the contrapuntal muscles he’d spent years perfecting (he only completed his first symphony in his 40s). Savall approaches the finale with purpose and drive but also lets its spiritual and emotional power sing through. Altogether invigorating.

Listen on Apple Music

Composers: Schumann, Bruckner
Works: Forgotten Symphonies
Performers: Le Concert des Nations/Jordi Savall
Label: Alia Vox AVSA9963