There are two kinds of LSO Live release: those that preserve a performance which genuinely merits a place in the catalogue and those that might make an agreeable memento for those who were at the concert itself. The recent coupling of Brahms’s Double Concerto and Second Symphony (3/04) came into the former category, this disc almost certainly comes into the latter.

The performances are warm-toned and judiciously paced, with stable rhythms underpinning long-drawn lines and steady accruals of tension. They show off to advantage the mellow-sounding strings and brass (the woodwinds, as an ensemble, are less remarkable); yet they are performances which many collectors will find altogether too comfortable for Brahms in troubled Sturm und Drang mode. The Romantically minded Furtwängler has greater intensity, the classically inclined Boult has greater drive – and that is just the start of what is rather a long list of memorable Brahms Firsts on record.