The competition is fierce for these most frequently recorded of all violin concertos, both individually and together. Most of us will have our personal favourites (Heifetz/Reiner for me in the Tchaikovsky – RCA, 12/57; Menuhin/Kurtz in the Mendelssohn – EMI, 3/59). Rival single-disc couplings are no less distinguished, not least Dutoit’s own classic recording with Kyung Wha Chung (Decca, 12/82) as well as Stern/Ormandy (Sony Classical, 1/60) and Milstein/Abbado (DG, 12/73).

Arabella Steinbacher and Charles Dutoit make an empathetic partnership but don’t reveal anything in either work that we don’t know already. Steinbacher’s sweet tone and collegial manner are positives but leave one wishing she could be more assertive at times, for example in the first movement of the Mendelssohn when the neatly drilled, chattering Suisse Romande woodwind occasionally obscure the focus of her solo line. Dutoit, a master accompanist, provides exceptional, alert support throughout. The recorded sound too is first class.

Yet if Steinbacher lacks the power and intensity of those cited above, one could hardly wish for a more expressive account of both concertos: catch, for instance, the little tenutos she inserts just before the coda in the finale of the Mendelssohn – highly affecting. Her approach to the Tchaikovsky is far from electrifying (Heifetz’s first movement is over four minutes faster) – and it’s fine to take a more relaxed view – but what does not work is to play the cadenza so ponderously, disembodied from what is, after all, an allegro moderato movement. Here, energy and tension falter.

If you already have fine recordings of these two indispensible works, then it is unlikely you will need this new one, for all its virtues. If you have neither, then for all its shortcomings I doubt you will be disappointed. The booklet-notes are informative but, by the end of the first paragraph, you know you are reading a literal translation by a non-musician.