More muscular, immediate Brahms here from Thomas Dausgaard’s Meiningen-sized Swedish Chamber Orchestra but, where the previous two instalments (the first two symphonies – 4/13, 2/18) have been blessed with invigorating momentum, this performance of the Third is more problematic. The sound of the two opening chords is arresting and fresh but ultimately the chords themselves don’t prove as energising as they could – first because the string entry that follows lacks follow-through impact in an orchestra of this size; second because we feel external forces too obviously manipulating the general energy flow, in place of the internal machinations of the music itself (born of those atomic chords).

Throughout the opening Allegro, the feeling persists that the source of the music’s momentum is not as organic as it could or should be – that sometimes it’s too obviously coming from the forcing hand of the conductor. The best movement is the last; not over-driven (unlike the Andante) and benefiting from the cut-through of the winds, especially in those pivotal moments when they control of the agenda. As before, the SCO are delectable when the textures become polyphonic but, in this emotionally heavier work, it can be frustrating when that polyphony isn’t paid off with real churning depth (especially from the strings).

None of that stops this series being ever illuminating and an added benefit here is in the generous fill-ups. Dausgaard’s own orchestrations of the Hungarian Dances Nos 11 16 are infectious, by turns rustic and syrupy (the conductor’s trademark push-and-pull is at its mesmerising best in No 16). There’s a slight lack of repose in the tight choral sound of the Alto Rhapsody, where a larger, more breathy, amateur chorus would offer more of a blanket embrace than the men of the Swedish Radio Choir. Anna Larsson is a little blustery in the rhapsody and can be approximate in her contribution to three of Schubert’s Six Songs in Brahms’s arrangement, but Johan Reuter’s three make a huge impact. His Beethovenian insistence and focus in ‘An Schwager Kronos’ is thrilling and the colour gradations in his ‘Griesengesang’ – over grainy low winds and strings – is remarkable. All of this is worth hearing; Reuter’s singing, totally united with the orchestra, is rather more.