For readers of a certain age, The Lark Ascending may be the biggest draw here. Pinchas Zukerman, long the starriest exponent of the work, first taped it with the English Chamber Orchestra as a favour to his friend Daniel Barenboim in 1973. More than 40 years later the stopwatch leads you to expect a more relaxed approach. In fact what’s remarkable is just how little has changed. Readers who see the piece in terms of sunlit rapture rather than otherworldly transcendence will be well satisfied, not least because Zukerman’s fabulous timbre remains a marvel, captured of course in more modern sound. As Edward Greenfield put it in his review of the earlier version, ‘This is the lark singing in the heat of day’.

Despite his continuing prowess as an instrumentalist, Zukerman is more often to be seen on the podium these days. Currently the Royal Philharmonic’s Principal Guest Conductor, he has been directing the orchestra since 2006 when his very first concert at Cadogan Hall, the band’s London base and the recording venue here, included Elgar’s Serenade for Strings. Tully Potter’s booklet-note for the present issue traces a long-standing involvement with English repertoire and there’s welcome warmth and naturalness in the music-making of a partnership previously undocumented on disc. The selection is generous too, with an interlude of old-school favourites plus a novelty in the form of In Moonlight, an arrangement for solo viola, strings and harp of the ‘Canto popolare’ from In the South, in which Zukerman takes the solo part. He doesn’t dawdle, which some will appreciate, though much is left unsaid.

The Tallis Fantasia may lack Barbirolli’s fire, freedom and ecclesiastical acoustic, but when the Introduction and Allegro’s resonant final cadence gives way to that throwaway pizzicato, Zukerman’s more sonically focused players are at least helpfully unanimous. Their easeful affability has an eloquence of its own.