The horn concertos by Malcolm Arnold (No 2, 1956) and Ruth Gipps (1969) have appeared on disc before, in scintillating performances by David Pyatt on Lyrita. Those recordings were made in the 1990s – but not released until early 2007 – so, although they still sound excellent, it is about time we had some new ones. Of course, Arnold’s concerto has a few other rival recordings still available, in reissued multi-disc collections, from Alan Civil (originally for BBC Radio Classics, now Warner) and Richard Watkins (Conifer, reissued on Sony).

Ben Goldscheider’s vivid performances certainly stand up to comparison with these predecessors. In the Arnold his account is nimble and mercurial in the outer movements, but he catches beautifully the lovely tune in the central Andante grazioso, with its foreshadowing of the big tune in the Fifth Symphony a few years later. Even more impressive is the performance of the Concerto by Ruth Gipps, the three movements of which constitute the most substantial and satisfying music in the programme. There is little to choose between Goldscheider and Pyatt in terms of tempo and the general quality of playing. Willowhayne’s recording is more recent but Lyrita’s holds its own.

Choices will depend mainly on the couplings. Civil’s and Watkins’s are part of larger all-Arnold sets that are self-recommending for fans of the composer. Pyatt scores highly with a varied, all-British programme featuring concertos by Gordon Jacob and York Bowen and a shorter item by Gilbert Vinter. Goldscheider offers a new work from 2019 by German-born, English-resident Christoph Schönberger. At a full half-hour in length, it is the largest work on this album – indeed, almost as long as the others put together. It is nicely written for the soloist and the orchestra, too, although the material and expressive profile do not really justify its length. There is a pleasant light concerto of half the duration here that never quite emerges in clear view. For my money, then, Pyatt’s is the first choice for a single-disc coupling of the Arnold and Gipps.