Herwig Zack is a highly capable, forceful player; sometimes, indeed, a little too forceful, as in the Bartók first movement, at places in the Ysaÿe, and in the recitative section of the Kreisler where there are, for my taste, rather too many powerful accents at the heel of the bow. The Giga in the Bach is played with admirable verve and clarity but I wished Zack had relaxed the tempo slightly to allow time for a merrier, more poised character to take hold. And, especially in the Bartók, I feel other violinists have gone much further in exposing the music’s full expressive range. At the start of the finale Zack doesn’t really observe the pianissimos, and if he’s using a mute, it barely changes his tone colour. Christian Tetzlaff creates a wonderful sense of mystery at this point, and in the fugal second movement makes the crucial distinction between detached and legato passages more clearly than Zack does.

None the less, there’s plenty to enjoy in this admirably varied programme, including a fine performance of the Bach Chaconne, notable for its drive and sense of continuity. The Ysaÿe sounds unusually authentic, as Zack follows the composer’s own printed fingerings. And the most unfamiliar item on the disc, the Skalkottas, proves to be one of the most rewarding. Written when he was just 21, before his studies with Schoenberg, this short sonata, featuring sharp contours and dissonant counterpoint, already reveals a most distinctive, imaginative talent. Zack plays it splendidly, revelling in its idiomatic brilliance and unpredictability.