Based on his skills, his career ­station, and his evident rapport with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the French conductor Stéphane Denève is rumored to be one of the candidates under consideration for the music ­director post. That said, with the details of these searches guarded like Kremlin secrets, it’s hard to know ­exactly where any one conductor stands.

Denève has certainly been around a lot recently, leading the orchestra in Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Tanglewood. He is back on the BSO ­podium this week, and has brought with him a clutch of French rarities he admires, beginning with Berlioz’s Overture to “Les Francs-Juges,” last played in Symphony Hall four decades ago. With a boldly drawn performance, Denève made an eloquent case for hearing this very early work — the composer’s Opus 3 — as a kind of ­capsule summary of future genius.