Fifteen popular violin encores composed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which, as Dennis D Rooney reminds us in his genial booklet, were “intended primarily to display the personality and virtuosity of the performer…often inextricably associated with particular performers who sometimes were also the composers”.

Unfortunately, therein lies the problem with this disc. Once you have heard Kreisler playing his own Liebesfreud, Liebesleid or any of the four other works connected with him in this programme, you immediately invite comparisons. Very few have come anywhere near matching the supreme charmer of the violin (James Ehnes’s Kreisler disc a few years ago being a notable exception – Analekta, 2/04). Australian Ben Breen, though a perfectly good violinist, lacks that quintessential charm. I think, too, that his partner, Milton Kaye, though remarkable for the age of 97 when he made this (it was his last recording before his death in 2006), provides merely routine accompaniment. There are technical issues as well. Heifetz’s Zapateado, for instance (in 1926 and 1946 – RCA, 11/94), inhabits a different world to Breen’s, skipping with nonchalant and breathtaking ease between pizzicato, arco and harmonics in the central section, every note clearly and rhythmically articulated. Breen has to put the brakes on halfway through.

For a similar selection and proof that the art of the ear-tickling encore is not dead, turn to Tasmin Little and John Lenehan’s “Tchaikovskiana” (CfP), where you will also hear Salut d’amour played with a mellifluous tone and more graceful phrasing than here.