In this latest issue in the LSO Live series Sir Colin Davis conducts a spacious account of the Enigma Variations that won ecstatic notices after the concert in January. What comes out strongly is that Davis’s readings of some variations – “Nimrod” among them – are exceptionally slow. What in the Barbican Hall must have sounded magnetic comes to sound rather laboured on disc. Leonard Bernstein’s Enigma with the BBC SO showed similar traits: a very slow “Nimrod” that impressed in the Festival Hall but seemed so stodgy on disc.

Davis also takes “BGN”, with its viola solo, and the penultimate variation, with its Mendelssohn quotation, exceptionally slowly. Some of the fast variations are highly dramatic in their contrasts, as for example the 12th, “GRS”, with its picture of Dan, the bulldog, paddling furiously in the river.

What also tells against the new issue is that even with a bargain disc a total timing of 48 minutes is exceptionally mean, when direct rivals regularly offer a major work such as Falstaff for coupling. The Introduction and Allegro is beautifully done, though there one notices the relative dryness of the Barbican acoustic, which takes some of the bloom off the strings. Nonetheless, those who enjoyed the live events will no doubt be among those eager to hear the disc.