The Fifth and Sixth make almost as stimulating a pair as the Fourth and Fifth, developing as they do several of the same ideas in different ways, and Antonini is at least as good at what brings the two symphonies together as what sets them apart, such as instrumental theatre. We’re made aware with unusual force not just of the withholding of trombones until the Fifth’s finale and the breaking of the Pastoral’s storm, but also the entry and sporadic reappearance of the trumpets in the Peasants’ Dance. Antonini is very clear about when, in both symphonies, Beethoven’s impossible runs of semiquavers in the bass are to play an active, melodic role and when they should recede to a wash of brown watercolour. The first clarinet of the Basle Chamber Orchestra has the time of his life in the Sixth.

Especially impressive is Antonini’s sense of rhythm. These performances really swing. Beethoven’s play with pedal-points and motivic layers in the two slow movements is joyfully enacted, showing how counterpoint can take a back seat in classical discourse to patterning and variation, but the point when the game becomes serious is also acutely felt. In the Scene by the Brook, Bruno Weil (Analekta, 8/05) is gentler but soporifically jogs past the moment of greatest hush (at 6'30") that Antonini so prizes.

The finales of both symphonies exult with a greater ambition and reach than Paavo Järvi (RCA, 2/09, 1/10) and Thomas Dausgaard (Simax), to name two recent rivals of similar scale who sound respectively short-winded and pedantic by comparison. There is something of a pantheistic celebration about both these performances that offers and commands not just respect but a rather thrilling demand for your attention.