This is a particularly happy contribution to the Verdi bicentenary. The orchestra has been breastfed on the music and the conductor brings that little extra bit of telling exuberance to proceedings, a notch above the likes of the polished Karajan (DG) and less exalted Ondrej Lenárd (Naxos). Especially in the earlier overtures (Giovanna d’Arco, Alzira from 1845 and Il corsaro from 1848), I was constantly reminded of Fritz Reiner’s classic disc of Rossini overtures, not just because of Verdi’s obvious debt to their model but in their execution: the playing simply fizzes. What a shame that so few are programmed in the concert hall and are so rarely heard.

Among the less familiar items are the Introduction and (four) Airs de ballet from Jérusalem (1847), the revised and expanded French adaptation of I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843), which Verdi added for the Paris premiere and that form the 23-minute centrepiece of the disc. The programme is bookended by I vespri siciliani and La forza del destino (the familiar Scala version of 1869, not the shorter original from St Petersburg from 1862) in which the brass and percussion underpin crunching tuttis to thrilling effect. Despite a few duplications, Chailly’s selection makes a handy companion to Riccardo Muti’s with the same orchestra (Sony, 2001), though even here Chailly has the edge on verve and panache.