Nowadays Kabalevsky tends to be remembered more in his role as mildly disreputable apparatchik than as a composer. Which is a shame, because his uncomplicated, well-crafted music testifies to not dishonourable motives – to compose affirmatively, in the classical tradition, for mass consumption. That ideal deserves not to be forgotten or sneered at, and I for one certainly do not begrudge these two concertos their recording by high-class professional artists (making this a natural companion disc to the same soloists’ Khachaturian concertos for Chandos).

That said, and despite its having attracted the advocacy of Lydia Mordkovitch’s teacher Oistrakh, the Violin Concerto is flimsy stuff – more fodder for trainee violinists than a viable concert work. Although the Second Cello Concerto has higher aspirations, evident in its darker emotional tone, it would be a generous soul who would claim that it entirely lives up to them. Raphael Wallfisch, it should be said, plays the work with tremendous conviction.

Chandos’s sound quality is rich yet natural. But surely this recoupling should not be at full-price, especially given that the duration is even shorter than the original releases?