Some critics have condemned Robert Schumann’s symphonies as below par when compared with those of his friends Brahms or Mendelssohn, dismissing them as the work of a “miniaturist”. But these four works have always been popular with audiences and over the years top conductors have recorded them. The latest complete set features Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and the Münchner Philharmoniker, and it should go a long way towards persuading the sceptics to re-evaluate their position on Schumann the symphonist.

Heras-Casado is no stranger to the composer, having previously recorded a series of period performances of the three concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester featuring violinist Isabelle Faust, pianist Alexander Melnikov and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, coupled with the three piano trios (all for Harmonia Mundi).

The Munich band are regular collaborators with the Spaniard, and it shows in this set. You can almost feel the buds bursting to life in the opening of the Spring Symphony, Heras-Casado summoning a vernal dynamism from his players. The Symphony No 2, Op. 61 was conceived as a “return to life” after a period of terrible illness and...