Time and again during these performances things start well enough with stylish, well-focused playing and conducting, only for the irritants to begin to accumulate. Lan Shui’s conducting is generally logical and up-tempo but he is not averse to the occasional unmarked ‘interpretative’ touch. He must also be responsible, in part at least, for the adoption of a quasi ‘period’ style which the orchestra – the sonically weak first and second violins in particular – is not really equipped to handle. The modern fashion for quick tempi and starved note-values (the anti-sostenuto style) can be a great falsifier of rhythm and that too is a factor here, as are patches when first beats are over-emphasised to the extent that rhythm and phrase become bar-bound.

The Copenhagen Phil, or Tivoli [Gardens] Symphony Orchestra as it becomes in the summer, has some decent players. I can think of one or two better-known ‘Beethoven’ ensembles that could make use of the CP’s first flute and first oboe. But I have the feeling that the orchestra is not sufficiently well versed in these particular works to be able to make continuous sense of them. ‘Know every note you have to play but also know those notes you don’t have to play’ is a rule of thumb the CP players have yet to master, in Beethoven at least.

The recordings, which date from 2011 13, were made in the acoustically excellent concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. They are good. A bit too good, you might think, given the compromised quality of some of the music-making.