When I interviewed Kancheli six years ago, he spoke of his ideal performers essaying a work ‘in one breath’, and said his wish was to create concentrated and organic silence in the concert hall. He also described his scores in architectural terms, with nexus points ‘breaking through asphalt’. Poise is of the essence in Kancheli performances – any hint of impatience can make the music seem hollow, cobbled together from gratuitous opposites of quiet and ultra-loud.

Polyansky’s renditions tend to lack this composure and cohesiveness. His climaxes are generally noisier and more garish than those of Dennis Russell Davies on ECM (4/93, 12/00), the intervening waltz in Simi a little saccharine. He presses the tempo just a bit at the biggest climax, starting about 14’50”. The recurring piano chord is taut and up-front, not delicately poised and subtly voiced as it is on ECM. Paradoxically, Polyansky’s point-making makes Simi and Mourned by the Wind seem longer, not more interesting: the score begins to sound like a series of glossy moments strung together. Polyansky brings a Schnittkean volatility to this music, yet I’d say any similarities are really only on the surface. The Chandos sound is also more demonstrative than the comparatively recessed ECM production.

In Simi Ivashkin doesn’t quite have Rostropovich’s centred and weighty tone, but then he is – in accord with his conductor – more sensitive to Kancheli’s moment-to-moment shifts in colour and impetus. In Mourned by the Wind there are fine discs from viola players Kim Kashkashian (ECM, 4/93) and Yuri Bashmet (Melodiya, 6/98). The cello and viola renditions aren’t strictly comparable but the Bashmet disc evokes an honest spirituality that the new Chandos partnership can’t quite match.