By no stretch of the imagination could Karlowicz's Violin Concerto, composed in 1902 at the age of 26, be called a masterpiece. What its sub-Tchaikovskian routines do show up, rather, is why the roughly contemporary concertos of Elgar, Sibelius and Nielsen are by contrast so individual and so durable, and also how rapid was the evolution in Karlowicz's own talent through the subsequent series of tone-poems before his early death in 1909. If those are good enough reasons to acquire a recording, then I fear it would still be best to avoid the new disc, because the solo playing is no better than workaday and the orchestral contribution falls short of even that. Fortunately, Tasmin Little (Hyperion) makes a livelier and more colourful case for the music, though there, too, her orchestral support is somewhat lame.

The story of incestuous love behind Stanislaw and Anna Oswiecimowie, set to highly charged post-Straussian music, also craves a more vivid response, of the kind it receives from the BBC Philharmonic and Tortelier (Chandos, 10/02). Recording quality is barely satisfactory, and the short overall duration might seem like a further drawback (though on this occasion I confess it was a blessing). Frankly, it is hard to see why anyone thought this a disc worth making or issuing.