The young Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang has made a speciality of playing and recording the spectacular violin works of the legendary virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. This is the third of her discs for Naxos covering the violin-and-piano pieces, most of them short, and she has also recorded for Naxos two discs of Sarasate’s rather longer pieces for violin and orchestra, most of them potpourris.

Her gifts are ideally suited to such a task with her flawless intonation, not least in the many passages involving high harmonics in the most extreme register. She is also brilliant in giving the many Spanish dance rhythms a winning lilt, so that this essentially trivial music is presented full of charm. One simply marvels and enjoys.

She begins with a delicious Boléro, with the main tune typically given a reprise on high harmonics. The Sérénade andalouse brings plentiful double-stopping and a waltz-like middle section, while Le sommeil (‘Sleep’) starts wth a hushed piano solo before the violin’s gentle melody begins. Rêverie is aria-like in construction with a waltz as the final section, while the Introduction and Fandango, in its sequence of contrasted sections, is longer than most items.

The Fantaisie-Caprice is just a sequence of effects, while the Airs écossais remind one of Bruch’s similar use of Scottish folksong (including one very similar) in his Scottish Fantasy. Yang has even managed to find a piece only recently published, Los pájaros de Chile (‘The Birds of Chile’), with the violin imitating birdsong. Such a disc can easily be dismissed but, as played by Yang, with well-sprung accompaniment from Markus Hadulla and clear, well-focused recording, it would be churlish to dismiss the delights of the disc.