With this disc Max Barros and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Conlin complete their cycle of the piano concertos of Mozart Camargo Guarnieri. And as on their previous album (5/05), their dazzling presentation takes us on a tirelessly energetic journey into exotica, though with a marked difference. Here more approachable nationalist elements (of the sort that can be heard in Guarnieri’s endearing 50 Ponteios for solo piano) give way to an altogether more sophisticated modernism. Travelling through South America in 1941 Copland paused to admire Guarnieri’s gifts, noting a higher organisational capacity than that shown by his more famous compatriot Villa-Lobos and “a healthy emotional expression”. He might have added that for all their Brazilian and personal flavour the concertos can be relentlessly percussive with gestures assimilated from Bartók at his least compromising. Yet if the aggressive, war-like opening to No 4 is wholly typical, so is the second movement of No 5 subtitled “Sideral” (Astral) which, according to James Melo’s detailed endorsement, depicts “a state of cosmic and metaphysical contemplation”. Certainly the piano’s aria-like progression above a shimmering accompaniment is striking and so, too, is the edgy Jocoso toccata finale of No 5 (cautious listeners might like to try this first). The Sixth Concerto, here receiving a world-premiere recording, is shorter and more facile, and if all these works sometimes give the impression of someone who talks incessantly when they have too little to say, they are rarely less than fascinating. Barros delivers shoals of notes with unfaltering brio and a complete command of the idiom, and he is brilliantly partnered and recorded.