This is Karen Geoghegan’s second disc for Chandos in a year (the third if you include her contribution to the recent Wolf-Ferrari release – 6/09). Good for her. Good for Chandos. Here is an exceptional young musician – technically highly accomplished and to whom lyrical, mellifluous playing seems to come as naturally as wit and charm – at long last raising the profile of the orchestra’s Cinderella. The instrument’s solo literature is comparatively sparse and one supposes that bassoonists are grateful for any morsel (or, in this case, morceau) that comes their way. The problem here is that although many of the works are digitally, respiratorially and musically challenging (several written as test pieces for the Paris Conservatoire), not all of them are terribly good. And there is only so much indistinguishable Gallic caprice one can take at a sitting, as the sequence of Boutry, Gallon, Dutilleux and Bitsch items makes plain.

But there are few enough discs on the market that demonstrate the bassoon’s expressive range in such an imaginative programme, the rather distant sound focus of the two instruments notwithstanding. Geoghegan is one of those naturally gifted artists who can make a persuasive case for pieces like Grovlez’s Sicilienne et Allegro giocoso, Tansman’s Sonatine and Pierné’s Solo de concert. The Jancourt and three Debussy titles (transcribed by Bronislav Prorvich) are first recordings, the latter proving surprisingly effective encores. But now let her loose on the Mozart Bassoon Concerto and some of the works favoured by the great Archie Camden such as Stamitz’s F major Concerto and even Dan Godfrey’s Lucy Long variations.