As to the symphonies, Jean Martinon's complete cycle remains the benchmark by which all others must be judged. >From an interpretive point of view, he was something of a French Charles Mackerras: a conductor of wide interests whose interpretive stance combined a scrupulous attention to detail with a secure grasp of structure. He did not personalize his interpretations in the manner of, say, Bernstein or Furtwängler, but the excellent quality of the results that he usually obtained, even with second-rate orchestras, has withstood the test of time very well. Martinon recorded a massive quantity of French repertoire, principally for EMI and Erato, and his discography is one of the more impressive monuments to great conducting, even though it has received comparatively little critical attention over the years.

His "Organ" Symphony, for example, is one of the very best, and this EMI recording is superior to his Erato version. You also couldn't ask for a more forceful advocate for the four neglected remaining symphonies. No. 1 in particular, with its splashy finale including four harps, saxhorns, and other celebratory paraphernalia, is a gem that deserves much wider exposure. The recordings are mostly very good sonically (especially in the "Organ" Symphony), and even where they do show their age the musicianship remains undimmed.