I suspect this issue, decorated with a red rose motif, is designed more as romantic background music than as something to be listened to with rapt attention. It’s ironic that the item that most disrupts the general mood of sensuous lyricism is the one actually marked Appassionato – No 2 of the Suk Four Pieces. Lydia Mordkovitch and James Kirby play this with tremendous verve and vitality, the central section flowing and tranquil. Otherwise, there’s an enervating lack of contrast, with an overwhelming concentration on cantabile music in a tempo range from andante to lento.

The programme does, however, achieve a pleasing balance between familiar items like the Massenet and the Kreisler and attractive rarities (Ernst, Vieuxtemps, Porumbescu). And there are some really beautiful performances: the Svendsen, played with considerable intensity and a strong sense of the overall design; the Vieuxtemps, whose Schumannesque main theme has a moving, inward quality; and a delicate, sensitive account of the Rachmaninov. In every piece, Mordkovitch’s creamy, expressive tone is a big attraction. But there are places where the playing is just too indulgent. The Ernst Elégie (a marvellous work, strongly Italianate but with a Beethovenian harmonic richness) and the Paganini both suffer from frequent hold-ups as the music passes the bar line, and the Sarasate lacks a necessary lightness of touch (a misprint in early copies of the booklet-notes gives this work as the Sérénade Andalouse). So, despite gorgeous-sounding, wonderfully accomplished violin playing, it’s not, I fear, a disc to show Mordkovitch to best advantage.