During the decade leading up to the First World War, York Bowen (1884-1961) was one of the brightest and most prolific young talents in British music, producing no fewer than three piano concertos (he had been a formidable concert pianist since his teens), two symphonies, a concert overture, Symphonic Fantasia, Concertstücke for piano and orchestra and a tone-poem, The Lament of Tasso. His exquisitely polished and sure-footed Viola Concerto in C minor was written for Lionel Tertis (viola professor at Bowen’s alma mater, London’s Royal Academy of Music), who first performed it in March 1908 with Landon Ronald conducting. Lasting nearly 36 minutes, each of its three movements serves up a heady flow of intoxicating melody, all clothed in the deftest orchestral garb (there’s a definite Russian tang to proceedings – Bowen clearly knew and loved his Tchaikovsky, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov). This new performance is beyond criticism. Not only does Lawrence Power effortlessly surmount every technical challenge, he forms a scintillating partnership with Martyn Brabbins and an uncommonly well-prepared BBC Scottish SO.

A pupil of Stanford, Greenwich-born Cecil Forsyth (1870-1941) played the viola in Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra (as, indeed, did Bowen) and published two books (Music and Nationalism and Orchestration) before emigrating to the USA in 1914. His G minor Concerto (in all likelihood the first for viola by a British composer) was premiered in 1903 by the French virtuoso (and its dedicatee) Emile Férir. By the side of its bedfellow here it strikes a rather more conventional note, but it remains an appealingly lyrical and sturdily crafted achievement for all that. The performance is everything one could desire and the recording is wonderfully ripe and glowing to match. A fascinating coupling: hearty congratulations to all involved.