The Skalkottas discography is dominated by the important series issued by BIS, making alternative versions the more welcome – not least when they are as recommendable as this on the Ensemble Modern’s own label. At its centre is the Cycle-Concert, five pieces from 1943-44 which form a diverting sequence. This performance takes a slightly different though highly effective approach to its layout – the brief two-movement Quartets, highly infectious in their jazzy nonchalance, interspersed between rather than framing the three larger duo works. Christian Hommel renders the Oboe Concertino with just the right balance between elegance and incisiveness, while Sava Stoianov dispatches the Trumpet Concertino with coursing athleticism. The highlight, however, is Johannes Schwartz in the Sonata concertante – an almost half-hour work whose demands on the bassoonist’s technical and expressive range might be thought unfeasible had they not been met with such evident mastery.

As to the couplings, Wiget displays a keen sense of style if not always an ideal subtlety in the three jazz-inflected numbers from the 32 Piano Pieces, and while Jagdish Mistry has the measure of the rhythmic trenchancy and (in their slow movements) plangent emotion of the Little Suites, he yields to Georgios Demertzis in penetrating the soul of these elusive late works. Even so, with its immediate recording and succinctly informative booklet-note, this disc warrants nothing less than a strong recommendation overall.