Edward Gardner is fast proving himself able to persuade just about any orchestra to follow his lead with precision and commitment. Here he draws performances that pack a real punch while remaining attentive to significant detail lurking behind the top line: the Mandarin is full of such furtive phenomena. The organ and low brass in the opening onslaught, for example, or the way the two clarinets are individually defined, the acid bite of glissando trombones or the sensual fall of glissando strings. How often do you hear the jabbing bassoons from 2'54" into track 2? The delirious swirl into the final chase keeps the tension sky-high, with on-the-ball trombones pushing the tempo and fiercely cutting strings roughing things up once the actual chase begins. As seedy slum sites go, this one sounds pretty dangerous.

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is almost as good, especially the way Gardner and his players unravel the opening Andante tranquillo and the ethereally twinkling celesta at the movement’s close. Gardner isn’t afraid to apply the odd personal fingerprint (as he does at the very end of the work), while the second movement is bright, incisive and rhythmically alert. I loved the artfully accelerating xylophone at the start of the Adagio – sheer perfection – but the finale’s opening 30 or so seconds could have been tighter. Best perhaps are the dreamscapes that make up Bartók’s Op 12, a series of highly atmospheric Bluebeard’s Castle soundalikes with a savagely gesturing Scherzo (just get that warring bass drum at the close), imaginatively conducted and superbly balanced. For me, it’s the disc’s highlight – but The Miraculous Mandarin in particular is an instructive listen. Excellent sound too, with clearly defined string bands in Strings, Percussion and Celesta.