Few young conductors treading the current circuit tick as many boxes as does Gustavo Dudamel, what with his obvious charm, natural charisma and abundant talent (the last quality obviously being the most important). What I’ve heard of his records shows a wealth of promise and a propensity for original thinking. This 2012 Berlin recording of Beethoven’s Fifth resembles Dudamel’s 2006 version with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (11/06) in that the coda of the first movement broadens perceptibly, perhaps even more perceptibly than before. The Berliners’ orchestral profile is warmer-textured than their Venezuelan counterparts and although the BPO performance courts drama on a generous scale (you could easily imagine clouds of rosin flying from the double basses in the Scherzo’s Trio), it’s more joyful than intense. The camerawork predictably hones in on soloists and occasionally scans Vienna’s very spacious and handsome Spanish Riding School. Excellent sound, too, though I would have welcomed a little more presence from the horns.

Good as the Beethoven is, the DVD’s undoubted highlight is its Haydn centrepiece, with Gautier Capuçon offering a witty, refined and overtly virtuoso account of the C major Concerto, very alertly accompanied. Capuçon is generally sparing with vibrato (though he doesn’t abandon it altogether) and draws some elegantly tailored lines from his instrument, especially in the central Adagio. Suave and good-looking, and playing mostly with his eyes closed, he cuts a stylish profile and inspires a welter of enthusiastic applause from the audience. The concert opens with a sensibly paced, considerately phrased reading of Brahms’s Haydn Variations, lively and lyrical, and with a suitably grand peroration. All told, a most enjoyable programme.