This is a performance on period instruments by a chamber orchestra, but that is not to say that the sound lacks body: 44 string players are listed and the woodwind section is doubled. The OAE’s playing is lean and muscular but there’s plenty of espressivo and dolce lyricism too. Confirmation that this is indeed a live recording comes from a couple of rather endearing squeals from the oboes in the Scherzo and an early flute entry in the finale.

Sir Charles takes a brisk approach to the score, his timings being much the same as those of Osmo Vänskä and Paavo Järvi. In the outer movements, you feel that he is concerned at all costs to keep the music on the move. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. In the first movement, for instance, the mighty beginning of the recapitulation arrives almost unnoticed; whereas when, in the finale, Mackerras pretty well ignores the Maestoso of the chorus’s last phrase, the effect is thrilling.

The four soloists are excellent. In particular, the purity of Amanda Roocroft’s soprano makes Beethoven’s weird vocal writing much less of a trial than usual. The chorus is fine, though the sopranos don’t quite reach their top As in the variation before ‘Seid umschlungen’. The balance is satisfactory but some details are lost: the quiet timpani octave leap in the Scherzo, the bassoon doubling the violins in the finale. But for a modern live recording, if you don’t mind a Scherzo shorn of repeats, you might prefer Klaus Tennstedt.