György Ligeti’s 1966 Cello Concerto is meant to grow from the brink of silence, with a sustained note that gradually crescendos the cello soloist into the arms of the ensemble. Ligeti even went to the trouble of marking his opening E natural with a pppppppp dynamic indication, which leaves a whole bunch of questions hanging about the philosophy of silence: piano to the power eight might be possible electronically, but the very act of placing a bow against a string means that a point of initial attack is inevitable. Soloists elsewhere – Siegfried Palm, Miklós Perényi and Pierre Strauch included – dance on the head of a dynamic hairpin as they deal thoughtfully with this practical oxymoron, and how unfortunate that Baldur Brönnimann and his Bergen-based BIT20 Ensemble’s disc begins with Christian Poltéra not quite pitching his note correctly. An audible realignment of intonation follows, which torpedoes any possibility of a seamless crescendo.

The finale of the Piano Concerto begins with a similarly questionable hiccup as a flurry of semiquavers on a bass drum, articulated usually with a crisp bark, instead has all the rhythmic bite of ice cream. Music like this ought to churn up the minutiae inside the minutiae, and this particular programme, or near variations upon it, has become such a staple on record that such careless slips cannot be cheerfully waved through.

Over the long haul, Ligeti’s stories are told successfully. The harmonic spectra that ripple outwards from the opening cascade of Melodien’s rising scalic patterns are sieved neatly enough into webs of sustainable melody, although Brönnimann’s performance lacks the shrewd pacing and structural intrigue of Reinbert de Leeuw (Teldec). Christian Poltéra (eventually) and Joonas Ahonen deliver faithful enough performances of the concertos, but the Chamber Concerto flags up another undermining problem. The basic ensemble sound is pinched and oddly sour, while Ligeti’s sudden structural disjoints and stabbing accents are lacking in that essential serrated edge experienced in Boulez, de Leeuw or Eötvös. Disappointing.