John-Henry Crawford won First Prize in the 2019 Carlos Prieto Competition, held in Morelia, Mexico – an experience that Crawford says sparked an intense love affair with the music, history and culture of Latin America. The centrepiece of this all-Latin American recital is Manuel Ponce’s Cello Sonata (1922), and Crawford and pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion are persuasive advocates for this strangely neglected work. Lionel Cottet and Jorge Viladoms recorded it not long ago on an album entitled ‘From Latin America to Paris’ (Sony, 10/17), and indeed there’s a distinctly Gallic accent in Ponce’s writing here – the slippery harmonies in the opening movement remind me of Fauré, for example, the textures and rhythmic play of the second movement might have taken their cue from the Scherzo of Debussy’s String Quartet, and while the finale has some vaguely folkloric melodies, these are juxtaposed with passages that, again, evoke France as much as Mexico. In any case, it’s all very beautiful, sometimes a bit weird, and I’m absolutely smitten with it. Crawford and Asuncion play with greater élan than their counterparts on Sony, and Orchid Classics’ engineers have balanced the two instruments more deftly.

The only other biggish work on the programme is Piazzolla’s by now oft-recorded Le Grand Tango. Crawford and Ascuncion are dogged about keeping the rhythms taut in the opening section, and both take the opportunity to dig in where appropriate. I love the improvisatory quality they bring to the central part (starting around 3'25"), where their playing seems to be caught on the fly. I’m also delighted by the hint of unexpected humour Crawford finds in those upward glissandos starting at 8'25". Everything else on this disc is a miniature – the kind of things one might expect as encores. Lovely as each and every one of them is, I’m not sure why Crawford decided to begin the recital with six in a row (I’d have preferred to have the Ponce be the opener). It was clever, however, to have three accompanied by guitar, for variety’s sake, and Jiji is as sensitive a partner as Asuncion. Highlights for me include the ‘Melodia’ from an early Suite by Villa-Lobos (whose impressionistic piano part also glances towards France), especially for the detailed way Crawford so expressively shades the melody, and Egberto Gismonti’s sweetly melancholic Água e vinho.

The booklet says nothing about the arrangement of Piazzolla’s Oblivion, the final track, which I believe is played by Crawford through the magic of overdubbing. It’s a gorgeously resonant arrangement (Crawford’s own – although again this isn’t made clear in the booklet). Very strongly recommended.