Though each is problematic in terms of the concert repertoire, these two products of Russia’s Silver Age go well together on disc. Both composers were friends of Tchaikovsky, both taught Rachmaninov and Scriabin, and both their reputations have suffered somewhat from their place in between those generations. Neither of these works is quite the best of them, though both make fine violinistic vehicles, as you might expect from their dedications to the Joachim pupil Leopold Auer.

Arensky’s Concerto is a continuous, four-inone, 20-minute movement, Mendelssohnian in style, elegantly turned at every stage, and with a relatively undemanding solo part that would be perfect for students looking for something other than Bruch to limber up on. Taneyev’s Suite is far more ambitious, not to say hybrid in form, encompassing a neo-Baroque Prelude and Gavotte, a Schumannesque “folktale”, a Theme with seven variations and coda (shades of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations), and a final Tarantella, all in a 40-minute structure that needs a soloist of outstanding technical command and expressive range.

Ilya Gringolts is fine advocate for both works, combining brilliance and idiomatic sensitivity, and enjoying fine support from Volkov and the BBC Scottish. Phrase-for-phrase in the Taneyev, Oistrakh’s 1956 recording makes me listen more intently and persuades me more fully that the work needs to be as long as it is. But then no violinist of our day could withstand comparison with that classic account. Gringolts and team are at least the equals of Kuusisto and his Finns, and their approach to the Arensky is more natural than that of Trostiansky and Co. In short, another superbly conceived and truthfully recorded addition to Hyperion’s “Romantic Violin Concerto” series.