This collection opens splendidly with a spankingly good performance of the Overture to Leroi d'Ys, with its melodrama, brassy splashes and a rather memorable swooning cello solo. It has all the gusto and panache of a Beecham performance and is certainly the finest account on disc since Paray's old Mercury version. Then come the two concertante violin works, both written with Sarasate in mind (separated by the comparatively familiar Scherzo, given here with rumbustious zest). Why are they not better known? The Violin Concerto has plenty going for it, a nicely coloured palette, a disarmingly nostalgic lyrical melody to haunt the first movement, followed by a delightful, songful Andante, which Olivier Charlier plays with engaging delicacy.
But the real surprise is the Concerto russe, virtually another Symphonie espagnole, but with Slavic rather than Spanish ideas, and very good ones too. Its lovely slow movement, the 'Chant russe', opens with a chorale and the violin steals in with a genuine Russian folk tune, which (with its rhythmic snaps) is astonishingly reminiscent of the Bruch Scottish Fantasy. Charlier plays it most tenderly and the result is gently ravishing.
The 'Intermezzo', with its off-beat timpani interjections and catchy main theme, is delicious, rhythmically sparkling in Charlier's hands, and there's another luscious secondary theme to come in the middle. The finale opens with a burst of sombre Slavonic passion from the strings, and another folk melody arrives. Soon the music quickens, culminating in a vivacious conclusion, with Charlier's contribution always lightly sparkling. Highly recommended.