Bernstein the conductor may be best remembered for his championing of Mahler and the American composers of his own time but he maintained a special affection for Haydn. Sony boxed up his audio recordings of the composer, which include not only sets of ‘London’ and ‘Paris’ Symphonies but also The Creation and four of the late Masses. Now C Major offers the dapper director in three symphonies and the Sinfonia concertante on film from Vienna in the mid-1980s. Lenny, naturally, oozes charisma (and sweat).

We hear Haydn differently now: the period-practice boom has given rise to new ways of playing and interpreting his music. Bernstein’s tempos are not fast by any means and some may be heard as faintly sluggish. Minuets that might seem stolid are nevertheless taken at a danceable speed and finales zip along nicely enough. Slow movements might feel rather ‘milked’ but, then again, it’s a pleasure to hear the creamy tone of the Viennese oboe and cello spooned generously over the Largo of Symphony No 88, for example, or the four Vienna soloists in the Concertante. Be warned that even in 1986, a quarter of a century after Robbins Landon’s Urtext was published, the edition of the Oxford is horrendously corrupt (as outlined in my Gramophone Collection on the work, 9/12), neutralising Haydn’s sparkling conception.

The filming (Humphrey Burton) employs limited camera angles that nevertheless make a star of the Musikverein itself. Picture is slightly grainy and sound somewhat dry, making this a package very much of its time (the hair! the glasses!). But Haydn is eternal; and to hear his music played like this with such palpable love is always a treat. There’s even room on the disc for the famous reprise of No 88’s finale, which the maestro, deliciously, conducts entirely with only his eyebrows.