Joseph Horovitz has been a significant presence on the British musical scene for more than half a century. If he has never really achieved the recognition this CD suggests he deserves, it’s doubtless the price to pay for composing music that remains utterly unpretentious – using 20th-century harmonies but without ever seeking striking modernity or great profundity.

Instead all four concertos here, with jazz elements intermingled with classical, are immediately appealing, while containing sufficient substance to offer continuing interest on subsequent hearings. The Clarinet Concerto (1956) impresses for its appealingly reflective slow movement and bubbly finale. The Euphonium Concerto (1972) – perhaps the most overtly popular of the four – has diverting melodies and a finale that’s especial fun, offering exceptionally rewarding material for the soloist. The Violin Concerto (1950) was influenced by Horovitz’s studies with Nadia Boulanger and is perhaps the most searching of the four, while still offering endearingly jazz-tinted rhythms.

Above all, I love the Jazz Piano Concerto (1966). Composed originally for harpsichord and for George Malcolm, it strikingly combines aspects of Malcolm’s two specialisations – Baroque and jazz. In the outer movements Baroque elements are strong; but the slow movement offers clear echoes of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Everything is played with enthusiasm and finesse – definitely music to cheer a jaded palate – and is excellently recorded. It’s a successor to a 1999 Horovitz collection with the same orchestra (ASV), and I urge readers to investigate both.