This 2010 studio recording of Frank Martin’s ballet Cinderella is marketed by Claves as a period piece, with prominent photographs in the booklet of the 1942 Basle premiere, conducted by Paul Sacher. Perhaps this is because, as the notes point out, ‘despite its great initial success, this remarkably innovative score was then totally and unjustly forgotten’.

‘Remarkably innovative’ is something of an exaggeration; the piece’s neglect probably has more to do with its relative brevity, and with its use of a certain amount of singing and speaking in what is predominantly a dance score, than with any serious deficiencies or with the prominence of other musical Cinderellas. Martin might have had Stravinsky’s hybrid theatre pieces like Renard and The Soldier’s Tale in mind – and he suffers less in the comparison than you might expect. His well-crafted score doesn’t stint on the fairy-tale’s comic and vulgar aspects – there are plenty of sleazy trombone slithers – but the music is at its best in the very un-Stravinskian dances of the short second act. These mine the kind of muscular but deeply felt vein of neo-romanticism that links Martin with other prominent mid-century composers such as Roussel, Honegger and Martin≤.

The excellent student orchestra is recorded in rather excessive close-up and the printed text (in German and French only) is not entirely accurate. But with such well-judged singing, speaking and playing, this is a thoroughly enjoyable performance of an unusual and substantial work by a fine composer who is too little heard today.