Although this is the third version of Coleridge-Taylor’s crowd-pleasing Violin Concerto to have appeared in as many years, it predates both comparative rivals by a decade – the original sessions having taken place in Watford Town Hall in January 1994. It’s also the most unapologetically large-scale and red-blooded realisation of the three, the LPO under Nicholas Braithwaite responding with laudable application and spirit (try the fiery orchestral tutti from 5'07" in the first movement). Lorraine McAslan plays with unfailing sensitivity and silky refinement throughout, nowhere more tellingly than in the sultry central Andante semplice (which brings the most melting tone from the LPO strings). Perhaps Marwood and Brabbins better disguise the finale’s tendency to sprawl; otherwise, undiluted pleasure is guaranteed.

The concerto is preceded by ideally pliable performances of Coleridge-Taylor’s Legend (whose February 1897 premiere was conducted by his composition teacher, Stanford) and the equally pretty 1899 Romance in G, and Lyrita’s programme concludes with Julius Harrison’s deeply affecting 1941 rhapsody for violin and orchestra Bredon Hill, which boasts inescapable points of contact with Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, VW’s The Lark Ascending and, more unexpectedly and further afield, the first of Reger’s Four Symphonic Poems after Böcklin entitled “Der geigende Eremit” (“The hermit playing the violin”). McAslan and Braithwaite are even more alive to the music’s songful rapture and simmering passion than Matthew Trusler and Barry Wordsworth (on a charming Dutton release containing five other works by this Worcestershire composer-conductor). Be in no doubt, this is a very good disc indeed, and I warmly recommend it.