Joshua Bell, possessor of one of the loveliest violin timbres of our time, here follows up his “Romance of the Violin” album (1/04). It’s just as well his sound is so beautiful – he’s very forwardly recorded and at times the Orchestra of St Luke’s seem little more than an unobtrusive backing band (except for the harps which announce Rusalka’s “Song to the Moon”).

The playing is unfailingly exquisite; the arrangements are generally sensitive – Mozart’s Laudate Dominum being notably effective. But there are occasional lapses of taste: there should be a saccharine-warning for an over-the-top reworking of Schubert’s Ave Maria which dresses up its chaste beauty in baubles and beads, complete with a distant heavenly chorus. But there’s much beauty to be found. The final track introduces a real voice – Anna Netrebko’s, no less, in Strauss’s sublime Morgen. Bell swoons his way through the orchestral introduction, the violin again far more prominent than usual, portamenti aplenty. Violin and voice then entwine lovingly at a daringly slow tempo. If you prefer your Strauss more simply presented, go for Soile Isokoski and Marek Janowski (Ondine) or, supremely, Christine Schaefer and Claudio Abbado (DG). But nobody’s pretending you’d buy this disc for just one track. In a disc where the tempo rarely rises above andante, it’s probably best to treat it as a pick-and-mix – unless you’ve got a very sweet tooth.