C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)

As with their Dvorák series with the Czech PO, Faust/Melnikov/Queyras are coupling a chamber work with a concerto – this time with a period-instrument orchestra. For the Schumann Concerto, Melnikov has elected to play a robust 1837 Érard; then an 1847 Streicher in the Trio – with more body than the one heard in their Trio No 3 [HMC 902196]. Clear and open, this is an attractive recording, with some subtle detailing mostly from Faust. The Concerto is more unsettling.

Many young soloists have made their debut recordings in one or other of these works. Arabella Steinbacher – whom we associate more with 20th century concertos – says she’s never previously felt the need to record either until she began working with Charles Dutoit (there’s a 2009 Tchaikovsky video from Tokyo on YouTube). The problem is that she tends to slow the music to show off her beautifully cultivated sounds with the 1716 Stradivarius, although Dutoit could hardly be more accommodating. So I much prefer his 1983 Decca CD coupling with Kyung-Wha Chung, whose playing is utterly selfless (and the Mendelssohn finale has an elfin lightness).

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS BIS-2100 (supplied by www. eclassical. com) As a violinist on the Denon label, Jean-Jacques Kantorow’s CDs were invariably well received in HFN/RR. Then he took up conducting and has amassed a considerable discography with his Finnish orchestra.

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS-2124 (supplied by www. eclassical. com) The Fifth Symphony has fared well on records, right back to the 1946 Koussevitsky/RCA and particularly with American orchestras. Prokofiev’s 1915 Diaghilev ballet commission for Ala et Lolli, a mythological Scythian concoction, met with rejection: the composer ‘did not understand a thing about dance’, said Balanchine.