Recording quality from Berlin and Vienna varies, but there are rewards, if not always comfortable ones: the finale of the Fifth is more desperate than triumphant, and the finale of the Ninth often sounds like the ride to the abyss. Rhythms are relentless in the outer movements of the Seventh, and the Thanksgiving is hard won in the ‘ Pastoral’.

Separating these performances from the circumstances in which they took place may be impossible – the booklet includes a photographs of Furtwängler conducting in Berlin, with Hitler and Goebbels sitting in the front row – but there is some remarkable music-making here, especially the surging, majestic Eroica, the exaggeratedly romantic Fourth and the furious, frantic Ninth