Is it me or are Beethoven pianists getting younger? This month I’ve had the pleasure of encountering not only Igor Levit’s masterly late sonatas (see page 68) but also this strikingly assured Beethoven Emperor from the Korean pianist Sunwook Kim. He won the Leeds Competition in 2006 when he was just 18 and in the intervening seven years has developed from an artist of great promise to an assured performer. He and Chung seem very much on the same wavelength, interpretatively, from the opening flourish onwards, and they surmount this work’s tricky transitions with great naturalness. Their Adagio un poco moto is slower than some but Kim still manages to float Beethoven’s lines with ease, though not rivalling Uchida in terms of transparent beauty. And no one makes the orchestral backdrop quite as beautiful as Rattle with the BPO. The finale has an infectious energy to it, Kim making the trenchant rhythms sound lithe rather than obstreperous, though artistically it doesn’t reach the same heights as Brendel or Lewis.

There is less that makes the Fifth Symphony stand out. In terms of sheer sound, it’s relatively old-fashioned: with plush strings to the fore, it tends to have an air of comfortable familiarity rather than offering the iconoclastic world-views of such conductors as Gardiner (with his ORR on electrifying form at Carnegie Hall) or Brüggen, both of them caught live in 2011. Yes, of course these are both on period instruments so I’m comparing unlike with unlike; if it has to be modern instruments, Chailly’s approach is not a million miles away from Chung’s but the result is more distinctive. That said, Chung is clearly breathing new life into the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, which is exciting indeed.