Because I enjoy his film music so much‚ his de­ lightful comic opera The Italian Straw Hat even more‚ I felt rather mean at disparaging Nino Rota’s two cello concertos (10/01). Here‚ however‚ in four concertante works only one of which has been recorded before (the Trombone Concerto – by both Claves and BIS)‚ is a sort of catalogue of all his virtues. Tunefulness first and foremost: the theme of the Bassoon Concerto’s variation finale is not only ideal for its purpose (how effortlessly it becomes a jolly waltz‚ a rather Jean Françaix­style polka and so on) but a real and memorable tune‚ graceful and amiable: if he’d used it in one of his film scores we’d all know it and sing along with it. Secondly a style that is basically neo­classical but always elegantly fresh: there is nothing in the least crabbed or dusty to the Harp Concerto‚ which could easily be described‚ but undervalued in the process‚ as a latter­day Brandenburg Concerto. And in its central slow movement there is another of Rota’s trademarks: the use of extraneous material (in this case fanfares‚ or rather bugle­calls‚ from trumpet and horn) to unexpectedly poetic effect. Rota’s melodic gift is again strikingly heard in Castel del Monte‚ which he calls a ‘ballad for horn and orchestra’: its opening idea is basically no more than a series of three­note figures‚ but they add up to a tune of some nobility. And I have not yet mentioned his geniality‚ heard in the way that he allows other instruments to become subsidiary soloists in all four pieces but also in the sheer good humour that has the last word even in the rather formidable Trombone Concerto‚ with itsdramatic central lento. All four soloists seemaffectionately grateful for Rota’s always idiomatic lines; orchestra and conductor are alert‚ light on their feet and very cleanly recorded. Light music‚ nearly all of it‚ but of the most superior andentertaining kind.