If instruments have characters, the oboe, surely, is among the most candid. In a personal note appended to the booklet note to this disc, Alex Klein, the Brazilian-born former principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony, explains that he has ‘a certain nostalgia’ about some of the pieces here. Having rebuilt his technique and his orchestral career after suffering from focal dystonia, he comments that ‘I don’t know how long I have left to play the oboe’. Yet the musical impression here is life-affirming: a repertoire – and an artist – rich in playfulness, sincerity and wit.

It’s a generous programme too. Saint-Saëns was born in 1835 and Dutilleux died in 2013, and the styles covered by these six pieces (including, in the Dutilleux and the Poulenc, at least two masterpieces) range from York Bowen’s high Impressionism to the Messiaen-like overtones of Eugène Bozza’s fascinating Sonata; the only work here that goes beyond a concise three-movement layout. There are family resemblances between these works, but Klein’s eloquent articulation and rich, lucid tone can adapt to all manner of sound worlds, sometimes on the twist of a phrase, whether Dutilleux’s nocturnal mysteries, Petr Eben’s pert neoclassicism or – the emotional peak of the programme – Poulenc’s masterly late Sonata, in which cries of anguish mingle with playing of radiant lyricism and warmth.

Coming straight after such intensity, Saint-Saëns’s guileless mock-baroquery – another late work – provides a perfect emotional release, and the disc ends in sunny high spirits. Phillip Bush, on piano, is an alert and sympathetic partner throughout, bringing a lovely simplicity to the more inward moments and providing an invigorating (but never aggressive) rhythmic kick where required. A fine survey of some rewarding music.