Watch closely during the audience shots on this taping of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra’s Lucerne Festival debut in 2017 and you might spot DG’s Clemens Trautmann, who was sufficiently impressed with the performance to offer the SSO a recording contract on the strength of it. He was not alone in his appreciation. The well-heeled Lucerne festival audience is on its feet and cheering at the end, at which point Long Yu wishes them a wonderful night from the podium before slipping into Huang Yijun’s orchestral arrangement of Liu Tianhua’s erhu tune, A Wonderful Night.

Was the love-in well founded? On balance, yes. This is a fine orchestra, and seeing them on screen – I was lucky enough to hear them live in Shanghai earlier this year – you realise they are also an extremely young one (in some shots they could pass for a youth orchestra). Their playing is taut, disciplined, with a sophisticated sound and excellent individual players. They know their strengths and this musical menu played to them. Aaron Avshalomov’s Hutongs of Peking is a fascinating if problematic piece from 1931 written by a Russian composer who crossed the border to China and lived in Shanghai. It serves as an ear-tweaking prelude to the classic Russian repertoire the SSO has long counted as a speciality.

You can sense the orchestra’s feeling for Shostakovich’s Fifth from the firm, bass-hewn foundations of this performance. The interpretation isn’t overwhelmingly distinctive but is an atmospheric one nonetheless, in which the strength and sophistication of the orchestra’s string tone, the quality of its winds and percussion and the warmth and discipline of its brass pay dividends. The desolation is palpable in the Largo and the finale is well pointed and tense even if it doesn’t quite clarify the architectural tempo scheme like the best (a process which itself ratchets up the tension).

Filming is also better there than in the Tchaikovsky Concerto, thanks to the addition of a tracking camera to the side of the stage. As for the concerto, it doesn’t quite catch fire. Vengerov plays with his unmistakable tone and style, his touches of portamento suggesting a storyteller settling into his winged armchair. But I have heard more interesting performances from unknown competition contestants and there aren’t sufficient benefits in Vengerov’s poise and presence to counter the lack of passion, strangely coy cadenza and sometimes gruff, rushed pronunciation. There’s that, and there’s a slightly uneven and sometimes woolly sound picture. Otherwise, this is a touching record of a special evening.