I don’t pretend to have heard more than a few of the reputed 100-plus recordings of the Warsaw Concerto; but none of the modern versions I have to hand seems to have the freshness, urgency and lack of self-indulgence of this very fine new version. That’s a pointer to the high level of playing and interpretation to be found throughout this ever fascinating and altogether quite delightful selection of Addinsell’s film music.

Though Rachmaninov comes so immediately and vividly to mind in the most celebrated of Addinsell’s creations, that was, of course, strictly for the purposes of its film context. Elsewhere you’re more likely to be reminded of Vaughan Williams, Ravel or Eric Coates. Pastiche was an inevitable part of a film composer’s armoury, but the very real inventive gifts displayed in the Warsaw Concerto are also evident throughout this collection.

About half the music has already been recorded in other Addinsell collections (on both Marco Polo and ASV), but not with the chorus that is especially effective here in the ‘School Song’ from Goodbye Mr Chips. Of the new items I especially like the sumptuously lyrical finale to the music for The Black Rose (expertly reconstructed, like much else here, by Philip Lane) and the dances from The Admirable Crichton, a 1957 film I remember well.

It’s by no means just nostalgia, of course, that makes Addinsell’s film music well worth exploring, and this generously filled CD is undoubtedly the best single-CD selection now available.