Sadly, though, I don’t think these are the right hands. It begins promisingly enough with Brigitte Engerer giving thoughtful phrasing to the declamatory opening and the first subject, a theme borrowed by Saint-Saëns from a setting of the Tantum ergo by his erstwhile pupil Fauré. Soon one notices occasional irritating tiny backward tugs from the orchestra as it fails to meet the soloist spot on the downbeat, typical of which are the two final ff semiquaver chords of the movement marked with “attack” and “staccato” dynamics: neither is anything like precise enough. The famous Scherzo, marked allegro scherzando and leggieramente e staccato, is a leaden affair draining it of all its thistle-down joie de vivre. The final tarantella is respectable but not scintillating.

With this lack of true engagement between conductor and soloist, and a nondescript orchestral contribution, the magically inventive Fifth Concerto is predictably disappointing. The first movement, hardly allegro animato, tips the scales at 11'45", compared with my two yardsticks, Stephen Hough on Hyperion (10'03") and Jeanne-Marie Darré on EMI (10'25"). Both of them have everything that the new disc does not – wit, vitality, sensuousness, élan and an essential lightness of touch from the soloist, with conductors (Sakari Oramo and Louis Forestier respectively) who can make the orchestra play the musical table tennis that these two entertaining scores require.