This collection of popular favourites signals Nicola Benedetti’s return to recording after a break of nearly two years. Two items, however – the Vaughan Williams and Massenet – are reissues. The Lark Ascending is beautifully played, with pure, unforced tone, and in the unmeasured passages Benedetti imaginatively suggests the bird’s unfettered, unpredictable flight. By contrast, she produces an alluring, vibrant tone for the Méditation from Thaïs, and a similarly passionate approach animates several of the newly recorded tracks – the Rachmaninov and Fauré, particularly. Yet Benedetti doesn’t just rely on a glamorous, emotive sound; the Rachmaninov, for instance, shows how sensitively she can vary her tone to match the rise and fall of melodic intensity.

I have to confess I find little to enjoy in Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel. Benedetti’s talent for varied expression has no outlet here – all one can say is that her long notes sound lovely. However, the two gypsy-style pieces – Sarasate and Ravel – reveal a powerful sense of enjoyment in getting the idiom just right; in making quick alternations between emotional declamation and delicate ornamentation, and achieving rhythmic elation in the fast music. The bold colours of Ravel’s orchestration, splendidly realised on this recording, add much to Tzigane’s brilliant effect. The Saint-Saëns is finely played, though tending occasionally to sound rather too serious; the very best accounts – Szeryng’s 1970 Philips recording, for instance – are able to balance the capricious alternation of playful and tender motifs more perfectly.

“Fantasie” is clearly aimed at a wide circulation – and it certainly deserves it.