At just over 44 minutes, this new album from Les Siècles could be considered short measure, but the performance of La valse is very nearly worth the price of the disc by itself. Programmed as the makeweight to Ravel’s orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, the poème chorégraphique steals the show in a dazzling performance of outstanding virtuosity. Those slithering clarinets and queasy double basses are immediately unsettling, setting a bilious tone. François-Xavier Roth leads a stylish waltz – a reminder that Ravel was originally going to call it Wien, as a homage to Johann Strauss – ratcheting up the tension which releases in the great implosion at the end.

As in their Gramophone Award-winning recording of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (6/17), the ‘period instrument’ aspect is less important here. La valse was premiered in 1920, Pictures, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky, in 1922, so we’re moving towards modern orchestral sound. String textures are only marginally leaner than a traditional symphony orchestra. It is, perhaps, in the brass that the benefits are best observed, less inclined to obliterate in numbers such as ‘Gnomus’ or ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’. Koussevitzky held exclusive rights to Ravel’s orchestration for six years and made the first recording with his Boston Symphony in 1930. It’s difficult to discern too much tone colour from such a vintage recording (now on Naxos), but there are some interesting tempos to compare, not least ‘Bydo’, which Koussevitzky drives very purposefully (2'16"), not the heavy trudge Roth takes, which is very nearly a minute longer.

The playing of Les Siècles is impeccable, very precise in ‘The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’, if missing some of the knockabout comedy that Theodore Kuchar and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine find in their terrific reading. The saxophone blends well into the orchestral palette in ‘The Old Castle’ and there’s a lovely clattery, crotchety bassoon in ‘Baba-Yaga’. And I enjoyed the theatrical quality to the bell in the ‘Great Gate’, conjuring up images of the Coronation scene from Boris Godunov, an opera Ravel saw twice at the Palais Garnier before he wove his orchestral magic on Mussorgsky’s piano work. Harmonia Mundi’s sound captures lots of detail despite the resonant acoustic.

As Pictures go, this is a very enjoyable tour around the gallery … but it’s that La valse which keeps haunting me (in the best possible way).