Cocktail-lounge Borodin has limited appeal. Smoky saxophones slink and shimmy through the Polovtsian Dances to open this unusual disc from the Alliage Quintet and Sabine Meyer. The various reworkings for clarinet, four saxophones and piano are entertaining and inventive (six different arrangers are credited) but are no substitute for the full orchestral garb for which they were composed. The performers set out to explore exotic, fairytale scores, hence Borodin, with its oriental shades of Kismet glamour, and Stravinsky’s Firebird. The Disney connection to Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice, baritone saxophone stepping in for bassoon, presumably lends the disc its ‘Fantasia’ title.

From Meyer’s clarinet riding thermals as the Firebird, down to Sebastian Pottmeier’s earthy baritone sax, an array of colours are on display. Performances are virtuoso: the 20-minute arrangement of The Firebird highlights includes opportunities for flutter-tonguing, while the Infernal Dance bumps and grinds like Michael Nyman’s score to The Draughtsman’s Contract. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice bounces along merrily, but too often the intervention of the piano signals the limitations in the ensemble’s palette in such a Technicolor score. The Overture to Candide works well, sassy and suave in the best Broadway manner.

The least familiar works are the five Shostakovich pieces that round off the disc. Scavenged from various film scores and ballets by the composer’s friend Levon Atovmian and arranged for two violins and piano, they transfer beguilingly to the reedy ensemble. There is a good deal of innocent charm here, with only the final Polka uncovering Shostakovich’s sardonic wit.