Starry casting indeed, though in the main work, at least, I have reservations. The supple, restrained manner of the conductor’s latter-day Mahler might be thought to lend itself well to the Fourth. In fact what he gives us in this live relay is a variant of his previous, oddly restless interpretation. The sharpened contrasts of texture and colour work best in the Scherzo even if its ‘Freund Hein’ narrative of macabre fiddling is submerged.

The outer movements are provocatively re-imagined and often beautiful but need more emotional and structural continuity. Set against Chailly’s audacious opening, in which flutes and sleighbells are wholly independent of the clarinets’ and first violins’ ritardando, Abbado’s feline launch can seem curiously muted and matter-of-fact. The discourse, ever fluid and fantastical with a deliberate lack of presence in the way the sound is balanced, is not always rhythmically incisive.

The finale steals in with a smudged clarinet solo. A bigger problem is the choice of soloist. Renée Fleming is too self-conscious, too womanly an artist to give us a convincing child’s-eye view of heaven. The line is over-inflected and strewn with pseudo-operatic swellings; it doesn’t help when individual notes are approached from below.

The Seven Early Songs on the other hand suit her artful, rapturous style down to the ground, with Abbado and the Berliners tactfully radiant in support. Unless you’re allergic to ‘the beautiful voice’ and its idiosyncratic delivery this could be a must-have. Abbado’s previous recording featured Anne Sofie von Otter, a much more ‘natural’ singer but a cooler customer altogether. There are authoritative notes by Donald Mitchell and the essential full texts.