This is historically fascinating, perhaps more so for US readers. Munch was the great Berlioz interpreter in an era when the composer was still undervalued, but among ‘pre-authentic’ recordings, Brits tend to identify with Sir Colin Davis’s more impassioned style.

Munch here displays very much the virtues and vices of his earlier sound recording, in particular his warmly affectionate reading, well paced if occasionally inclined to languish. This was his last guest appearance with the orchestra he directed for 13 years, and they play superbly. The effect, though, is altogether too smooth and inflexible, in the brass especially. Drama and tension rarely break the surface, to anextent aficionados of Gardiner or Herreweghe may find dull.

The voices also reflect this. The chorus, centred on Harvard’s famous Glee Club, sing with splendid precision and control (a poetic ‘Shepherd’s Farewell’) but not much expression and rather stilted French, which also afflicts John McCollum’s otherwise pleasantly plangent Narrator. Florence Kopleff’s Mary, the only soloist in common with the sound recording, is pure-toned but indistinct. Theodor Uppman is rather better as Joseph, thanks to excellent diction, if less natural than the audio version’s Gérard Souzay. Most distinguished of all is Donald Gramm, elegant, eloquent and mellow-toned – just too poised and uncompelling a Herod. Why chorister Donald Meades took Polydorus’s final line is inexplicable.

As a recording this is unexpectedly good, the video direction a model of unobtrusive clarity – and immortalising the inevitable latecomers! – the black-and-white picture reasonably crisp, the sound, though mono, very decent. If Munch appeals, it’s well worth having; and other recordings promised from the Boston archives will be eagerly awaited.