Lan Shui took up the post of music director to the Singapore SO back in 1997 and on this evidence has built them into an extremely useful outfit. Shui has a keen ear, can mould a phrase with elegance and imagination, and proves a tasteful guide in matters of text (he observes the big first-movement repeat). His account of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony is patently the product of meticulous preparation, and his players are not found wanting in terms of finish and coordination.

So why do I come away unstirred? It’s partly down to temperament: there’s little evidence here of that Slavic fire, communicative flair and emotional heat that you get by the spadeful from the likes of Svetlanov, Rozhdestvensky and Ashkenazy. Shui’s band is also curiously lacking in tonal heft and corporate personality – definitely not criticisms one could level at Iván Fischer’s remarkable Budapest Festival Orchestra. To be frank, the Hungarian maestro’s reading (Channel Classics, 8/04) operates at an entirely different level of understanding, experience and wisdom. Fischer’s strings are also far more agile and convincing exponents of portamento: when employed with such discernment and musicality, it really does add an extra frisson and candour of expression to Rachmaninov’s surging melodies, whereas in Singapore its application can sound merely awkward and even a little maudlin (the finale’s glorious second subject a case in point).

BIS’s immaculate SACD sound is as refined and (dare I say) comfortable as the actual performances, but, if it’s this particular coupling you’re after, then Fischer and his Budapest orchestra are infinitely more involving, and I’d stick with them.